By Simon Everett
KAYAK BASSING
The author bent into another bass.
A
visit to Ireland is one of my fishing rituals. The reason I make the effort to go is because the bass fishing over there is quite simply the finest in Europe. This is down to the brilliant fishery management they have in Ireland, for twenty years there has been no commercial landing of bass in Ireland, they have a closed season to protect the fish during their spawning period and anglers are restricted to two fish per day. The result is a staggeringly brilliant sport fishery that makes it worth the cost of going. In one day you can catch more big bass than you would in a month of bass fishing at home. Add to that the mild climate, the genuine hospitality and the craic that emanates from every pub doorway and you have a mouth-watering recipe for angling tourism. I drove over with the kayak on the roof, opting for the Holyhead – Dublin 36
ferry with Stenaline. Their ferry times are very civilised, leaving at 08.20 and returning at 21.30 these crossings effectively give me an extra day of fishing in my timetable. The road from Dublin west is very easy now and Cork is only three and half hours, even going steady with the kayak on the roof. I set the alarm for an early start, I wanted to be on the water for 05.30, just about as it was coming light. As I drove down the narrow, bumpy lane to the slipway and small beach on the coast of County Cork the sea was flat calm. There was barely a ripple and there were no waves hitting the shore. These are not good conditions to go in search of bass. I like a bit of movement on, or in, the water and some white water from breaking waves on the shoreline helps too. The one thing in my favour was the fact that it was a spring tide and hopefully the tidal push would bring the bass on the feed.
Winter 2020 Irish Country Sports and Country Life
In these clear, calm conditions I was putting my faith in the fly. For some reason a fly seems to work better when things are not quite right. Whether it is the subtlety of movement that gives the bass the confidence to take I am not sure, but I have been in conditions like these before where lure men have failed to interest a single fish but fishing a fly has accounted for several fish. I have also fished alongside commercial guys using both live eels and live prawns and they didn’t touch a fish, but I was doing well just 30 yards from them fishing one of my special bass flies, much to their annoyance. So it was with confidence that I rigged my fly rod, a 9-foot Orvis Helios rated for a #8, with a Rio Aqualux striper clear intermediate line. On the end of that I had a Mirage saltwater leader, it is pure fluorocarbon and I tie an additional length of 20lb Mirage to the end, to give me a working length
