Driving this road down to paradise
Letting the sun light into my eyes
Our only plan is to improvise
And it’s crystal clear
That I don’t ever want it to end
If I had it my way I would never leave
Keep building these random memories
Turn in all our days into melodies
But since I can’t stay……
I’ll just keep playing back
These fragments of time
And everywhere I go
These moments still shine
Daft Punk – Fragments of time
Taken from an earlier post HERE spring 2013.
The nuances of late September light the stark hardness of a cool April north westerly blowing grey curtains of showers across lilac skies whilst spring geese V their way home, the sight of the first swallow when fishing for sea 
trout, the silence after the last tern has gone, the smell of summer rain on dry rocks and sea pinks refreshed like some bejewelled Italian ice-cream nodding their heads in a summer breeze.
The skylark high in the sky or a curlews startled cry as you walk back a late October estuary when already the sky is darkening.
All these things bred into your skin into your person over years, into your heart,into what you are – north winds, south winds, east winds, sunshine, frost, blue skies, rain, salt and sand. The shape, the colour and the sounds of the sea the waves that break on the shore into white bass water where you know it will happen, you can smell it.
This is where you have spent and invested time and work – this is your home.
Irish Angler – August Edition 2013
Some tactics to use for the next few days as the tidal sequence increases and decreases – July 18th to July 31st.
I’m getting ready for my third guided week beginning
on Saturday evening. Mark and Robin are returning lure fishermen who are just beginning to grasp the potential of lure fishing for bass.
We are on ‘safari’ over the next nine days spending time in three counties – Cork Waterford and Wexford. This is reasonably complex in relation to timings tides and locations but coupled to this is the new dynamic and challenge of a very very settled weather pattern with sun and high pressure. Fishing will need to be adjusted and our plans need to include the added dimension of high air temperatures and lots of sun – we need to be practical economical and tactical in our efforts over such a long time.
I’m equipping the guys with rods, reels, and lines plus lure choice – so its the usual that you are familiar with from here Illex and Smith Rods, Sunline braid, Rio fluorocarbon and Shimano Stradics Ci4’s, nothing revolutionary there just practical.
But what of lure choice, what’s in the box? What am I thinking to try and do the best I can?
So its the end of the second guided week for me– one where we have all experienced remarkable summer weather. Weather we haven’t experienced for perhaps five years or more. It was also a week spent in the company of two great people – John and Paul. John is an avid saltwater fly fisherman who travels to Florida regularly and Paul is much more relaxed about his fishing not having fished since his visit last year.
At this time the Wexford bass fishery remains very much below what it is capable of under these positive circumstances. I am speaking here only of what I know. The fishing is difficult and a little more challenging in the current conditions yes, but this is not the reason for the much lower returns. I have had too many experiences and years spent on the water, where it was a chore to climb into your waders not matter how breathable they were, in the middle of bright days hands shredded from unhooking and returning fish. John and Paul caught fish of course they did as can be seen below and they caught them by working and fishing hard, time spent on the water tactically, listening and doing. And boy have they worked hard, they got their results through perseverance and skill.
Now you can say many things at this time in relation to this particular weeks fishing, you chat to a few people (many of whom seem concerned about their fishing) and then we have a tendency to experience a ‘lets wait and see what happens on the next tidal phase’, ‘lets wait till it goes south Wes
terly’, ‘lets wait till the clouds come home’, ‘lets wait till October’. The fact is any improvement in comparison to current fishing is going to be a massive jump. Hence we hear ‘The bass fishing is back on…’ but that level of improvement is only measurable in terms of your own actual experiences over considerable time compared to the scale of your knowledge of how well it can actually operate. And so the myth is perpetuated whilst in fact the fishing deteriorates.
There’s nothing wrong with standing up and waving a flag when you feel something is wrong. In fact it might help to alleviate the problem. At the very worst you have made a mistake and the very best is that things can change, get better and improve! Having a mature conversation based on valid experiences with real data and expertise is what people do to resolve or determine a cause and/or possible solution.
Its been a great week for me, I’m tired, sore and whilst I avoided sunburn I feel very lucky a little sad the guys have gone and excited too, also I’m already challenged by the next guided fishing week during late July. After all its always about you!
This week is about me as i take myself working (fishing on the fly along the Co.Cork coast)
Another acid test…
Of all the fish we have caught on lure techniques in the past few weeks perhaps as much as 90% of those fish landed have been taken using surface lure fishing, my
favourite type of bass lure fishing.
Current conditions contribute greatly to bass fishing as warmer temperatures increase their metabolic rates and hence their need to feed more frequently, its almost like a vicious spiral more frequent feeding requires more energy which is available through increased digestive time and then more feeding…..of course not all fish feed at the same time.
Where there is warm 
clear moving water with energy through either wave or current then expect to find hungry and aggressive fish. And boy are they aggressive, their often hidden ‘tropical personality’ emerges in the sun and they become the fierce fish they can be.
To tap into that aggression when fish are fast moving, hot and competing, small bright and noisy lures are often the key. Remember the fish are active and hunting throughout the water column. Is colour that important? For aggressively competing fish its lower down the list of my priorities and I tend to choose simple SOLIDS solid white, fluo yellow or orange and if its not working then I move to a more translucent type and clear or clear and a slight chartreuse is often perfect. 
Fly fishing with lavender and grey and hot pink flies are often keys for me and have proved successful recently on the Cork coast. Its the blend that’s the key here and I’m afraid that’s just too much information for this post.
One of my favourite bright fly combos for Wexford is chartreuse and grey ‘hollow fleye’ from Bob Popovics as featured in these photos from an article I made for a Dutch fly magazine in 2008. Tied sparse almost to transparency its often very very effective. especially when its hot and bright.
Yes its often a little more challenging if you can see clearly then so can the fish so it pays to be more stealthy when making your casts especially of you are situated higher than the water. 
Some HOT lure recommendations that have worked consistently for me in bright conditions and have now at last found their way back into action for provocation purposes are
- Rapala skitter walk white
- Illex bonnie 95 bone or ayu
- Smith zipsea pop clear
- Lucky craft G-Splash
- Jackson Ra-pop
- Lucky craft sammy 95
At which point in time did catching bass in summer sunshine become a problem? I very quickly raided raided a few photos above from prior 2007 and could demonstrate at least hundreds more of fish caught during mid afternoon sunshine crystal clear water and high temperatures. Its a question of adjusting your fishing.
Summer conditions are not an impairment to bass fishing. In fact if you want verification of that just look at the recent posts made here Summer Silver. The current challenging fishing is not weather related, for a change!
The sea bass is a sub-tropical species at the northern limits of
its range in the British Isles. It is more common along the southern coasts of these islands and forms winter aggregations in the Celtic sea from which it disperses around the coast of Britain and Ireland as the water warms in spring and summer. Bass stocks are maintained by variable recruitments which also appear to be temperature related and probably regulated; a succession of good recruitments and improved growth contributing to a build-up of stocks to bring about a cyclical abundance.
(Fahy, 2000)
Jim,
All I can say is thank you. Your emails have given me the impetus to keep going. After 10 blanks this year already, and 8 bla
nks in total last year I was sure I had lost my mojo. I fish xxxxx, just up from the xxxxxx school at the xxxxx. Your fabulous photos have kept me going. Anyway, tonight I got down a little later than usual – 2130 (kids would not go to sleep in the heat!) I met up with a couple of kayakers and a pair of elder,serious bassers whom I meet quite often.
Encouraging words were meted out, but the story was still the same – No bass at all, at all. At this stage my confidence is quite low – (I even resorted to youtube Henry Gilbey to see if I was doing the basics of lure fishing correctly.) I set off and kept my mind clear. Everything tonight screamed bass, Full moon, spring tide an the way in, unbelievable heat (25C) and a gentle offshore breeze.
After 15 mins and about 150m covered retrieving my S-Four Mark 2 128, bang! a beauty of a take. I landed the beautiful bar of silver, with dark as you like topsides. A quick photo and a careful release back to fight another day. I kept going for another hour into near total darkness but to no avail – just satisfaction!
He measured 56cm – any idea what weight that may be?
I couldn’t have done it without your words of encouragement.
Best of luck & thanks
John
THIRTYARDS 
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