Airflo Beach lines have a condensed head length and aggressive tip diameter in order to handle longer leaders and heavy flies, they are also designed to cast well both single-hand and two-hand rods. They are recommended to fit ideally on the new ECHO TH Boost Beach Rods – but the ECHO TH will of course take all your suitably weighted current SH lines too – I’ll have more details of both in about ten days time regarding set-up weights and accessibility
Its running towards the end of 2016 and to be honest this week has been a strange watershed for me, I’ve gotten past an invisible hurdle that probably didn’t exist except somewhere in the superstitious mind of a crazy bass fisherman. I was fishing along the south Wexford coast this time last year, the last days of October, and whilst I had some wonderful fish and experiences up to Halloween it was also during this time that I first became strangely ill.
Today nearly one year later I’m considerably better, after several long stays in hospital, lots of missed work, we are near a diagnosis that is imminently treatable. From a fishing perspective it has at times, actually a lot of the time, been very difficult or nearly impossible. Normal life for the past twelve months for my family and I has been very unpredictable but ‘ordinariness’ is returning at last.
For your encouragement, support, help, visits, photos and words of your fishing experiences too a big thank you. I still have mails and things to answer but will get there, thanks too for supporting the profile of bass fishing in the wider recreational interest from an Irish perspective. I have had lots of time to tweet etc..
A mild SW is blowing wind against a rising tide and waves are breaking white over the distant bar of 2017…i’ll see you out there next year!
Regards – Jim
‘The strings were commonly sinew, which when dry shot arrows the fastest but could not be depended upon when wet. Some preferred horsehair, which shot slower but was reliable in all conditions, and still others preferred bear gut.
The best feathers for fletching were turkey feathers, but owl or buzzard feathers were also fine. Hawk or eagle feathers were never used as they were damaged by blood. The best shafts were grooved along their length. We used two grooves and the Lipan used four. This prevented the arrow from staunching the wound it had just cut, but it also kept the shaft from warping.
The blades of hunting arrows were fixed vertically, as the ribs of game animals are vertical to the earth. The blades of war arrows were fixed parallel to the earth, the same as human ribs. Hunting points were made without barbs and tied tightly to the shaft so they could be pulled from the animal and reused. War arrows had barbs and the blades were tied loosely, so that if the arrow was pulled, the head would remain lodged in the enemy’s body. If you were shot with a war arrow, it had to be pushed through the other side to be removed. By then all the white people knew that, though they did not know that we used different arrows for hunting.’
Philip Meyer – The Son
The fish of course have led me here, not so much to a location but rather to a method and a technique. Its nothing new mind, the Americans have done it for many years for different species, but if I was to fish in no other way for bass then using the double handed fly rod would be my chosen method. In fact after several seasons using single handed fly rods the move to the double hander three seasons ago has seen me fish for bass with little else. The reasons are multiple, some pretty straightforward others are caught up in the vanity of doing something ‘different‘, its mostly to do with a large sense of personal satisfaction through challenge, extending the range of knowledge already gained from years of single handed bass fishing and a sense that the fish stand a chance here too!
Having fished for bass for many years with lures and flies along the Irish coast I’m a long ways off yet from realising the full potential of DH rods, lines and casting styles but I am happy to have learned a hell of a lot so far, I had a fantastic close of season last year here. One thing I know I didn’t want to do was use gear beyond the the ‘physical’ match of the fish in other words fifteen footers casting 700 grains wasn’t going to do it for me for Irish bass on the coast. What I currently use are DH’s of under 12′-0″ casting up to max of 450 grains or so – in fact they ‘switch’ to single handed casting if needed but essentially are used for overhead casting styles with OH lines or quick direction changing anchor casts and OH casting using skagit heads and various tips. I digress……
Let me put a few pieces together in relation to what I’ve experienced so far for bass fishing on the coast with the DH rod – who knows it might help
- Season one – learning to cast OH, turnover, line speed, line management, rod choices, first fish
- Season two– improved casting, the benefits of TH, the fishing, the moment, coming together – better fishing
- Season three – skagit heads, leaders, drifting, angles, fishing the surf shore
POSTSCRIPT
And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
So that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter, and inland among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit
By the earthed lightening of flock of swans,
Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,
Their fully-grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
Useless to think you’ll park or capture it
More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open
Seamus Heaney
Days are valuable in people’s lives, days free from the routine and rigour of work are even more sought after especially when they are linked to something that we enjoy doing. The freedom. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed when I was forced to make a decision early last week with a view to cancelling our workshops. The impacts were wide across tutors, accommodation, restaurants, and of course people who had committed holidays.
Today I look back over the week and imagine what would have ensued because of circumstances. Stiff south easterly breezes, have blown all week moderate to fresh, combined with a drop in temperature. Two thirds of our workshops would have left questions in many people’s minds as both casting tuition would have been difficult and fishing nigh on impossible except in secondary locations – not an environment for learning an already difficult discipline.
The mystery of the negativity of easterly breezes that extend over time and the impact on bass fishing on the east coast left me in no doubt as the models began their predictions. Much time spent on the water had me in no mood for dredging flies in the hope of hitting a lonely lost fish in a very ‘off’ fishery, time better spent painting the dog! There’s too much positive learning at stake especially if you are in the early days and not wishing to be arrogant I know the coast too well here.
So thank you for your patience and kind words too – both Andy & Paula and Gary hold the customer experience priority. So it is with your positivity that we will combine again to provide you with the experiences the tuition the challenges and the fun that all make up what is bass fishing on the fly in saltwater Ireland.
Jim
THIRTYARDS 
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