I’m getting ready for some early season bass fishing on the fly. It’s still very early for the Wexford coast but it’s always the same at this time of year, you just want to get out there and the seatrout mullet and bass are all running the estuaries more and more regularly now as the days lengthen towards early Spring.

Last weekend William and I saw lots of moving fish and the inevitable follows from trout with no hook ups prompted us to get our licences. We both frequently saw small shoals of mullet and bass just as the tide topped in the pleasant morning/early afternoon  sun. Then as is often the case all activity abruptly ceased just as the breeze switched out of the west and into the east.

The Software

The flies are crossover bass and seatrout flies and at other times bugs and nymphs under indicators drifted for early tide mullet.

The hardware

• Echo S3 9’-0” # 7 and #8
• Danielsson L5W 6nine
• Guideline coastal #7’s and #8’s
• Airflo polyleaders intermediates and slow sinking
• Rio fluorflex plus carbon tippet –

 The backup

• 20lbs Dacron on both reels bimini twisted to the running line
• Coastal line tray
• Orvis guide sling
  • The danielsson reels are without doubt the best I’ve used for SWFF in Ireland – time after time, year after year extremely resistant to sand,
    

    Casting for early season fish

    salt and grit, both tough and long lasting, a lifetime investment.

Coastal Notes

The water is probably at its coldest and the temperature is only slowly moving up at this time of year. When sea trout fishing look for wide shallow areas often at the mouths of estuaries interspersed with weed and sand. But look too along the open shore and not necessarily where a river enters the sea. It may take a lot of looking and a lot of fishing. The coastal fly line that I use has a DC core and can be a bit ‘coily’ when its a little cold like this. I find a good stretch every now and again whilst fishing will quickly get it going as normal. I like this line and the way it casts and I won’t be throwing huge flies nor will I be out on the open windy coast in tough conditions but fishing more towards estuary mouths once the rain stays away! You can easily detect the nips and tugs of shy following trout too !

I like the Airflo polyleaders (steelhead) in intermediate 10′-0″ with perhaps 12″-18″ of tippet tied loop to loop for bass fishing. These poly leaders allows me to fish with a floating line and if I feel I need to change down a simple switch to a slow sinking poly is the solution.. Airflo offer a range of leaders both for fresh and saltwater and Rio provide the versitip solution which i use for seatrout and light bass fishing. This gear is really versatile and provides many solutions not least great turnover and good presentations too!

Use tippet via a loop to loop connection at the end of the poly to preserve its length over a season, get a mesh holder too for a range of solutions and cut down on the gear you need to carry.

All Flies are tied with the non slip loop knot and the decreased diameter for increased BS is a great benefit of the Rio Carbon

Stay warm out there!