Sport in the salt

Nice to get away from the river now and again and in the last couple of years, although I haven't done it too often, going out lure fishing for bass is great fun. Some of my experience from fishing the river has helped, and some of what I have learnt whilst fishing in the sea has also helped my river fishing. Last weekend, after a catch up with the lads on Friday night having not seen them since I've been away, we wearily made our way to an east Cork mark in search of the elusive bass. Our aim was to fish hard and soft plastics on a dropping tide. Conditions looked great and although it has been a topsy turvy summer for bass fishing due to so much rain, we were confident of some sport.
With 4 of us fishing we spread out and concentrated our efforts on likely looking channels and, casting an xlayer there, an IMA komomo there, we we're happy we were covering plenty of water with varying techniques.
About an hour into the session and a fair walk down the coastline Paddy was the first to get in the action.

 

 

A little lift for all of us we were waiting for our lure to be smashed any second but the next few fish came to Paddy, including one that shook the lure close to shore estimated to be the size of, not 1, no not 1, but 2 bulls!!... I had one follow on a Patchinko and James had some interest to but it was Paddy's IMA Komomo SF 125 that did the business on the day.

After a small break we headed for another spot as dusk was approaching. Here the beach was stuffed with fisherman after the late summer bounty, mackeral. The place was HEAVING as 4-5 were hauled in at a time by each rod. We took a few to keep the gang back home happy. Bass was the focus of the evening but unfortunately the mackeral were to provide the only sniff of action we were to get that evening.

The next day I went out again to a more local mark sussing out the bass potential on offer. The jaw dropped as I watched the tide pushing out revealing gullies, eddies and drop-offs galore but with a strong southerly blowing right into our faces we made way for a more sheltered spot.
Chucking all manner of lures left, right and centre, pollock offered some excitement, with Usna catching a decent fish around the 2-2 and a half pound mark.