Lure , bait , lure , bait ??

 With the weather conditions very changeable the last month or so, it's been good practice to keep tactics changeable aswell .
    Once the gales have passed and the water given enough time to clear up some great lure fishing has been found. Marauding groups of fish in the 5-8lb bracket have been roaming the shoreline in some pretty big surf. Catches of 4 or 5 fish in an hours fishing have been made by us with hard plastics taking their fancy.

This one took a liking to Julians' large maria chase , a firm favourite of his in big surf conditions.

This one caught over rough ground was part of a lovely haul of fish that all took the Komomo. The feed shallow has been doing the business aswell........no suprises there!

Ofcourse the water hasn't always been suitable for lure fishing so we've also been dusting down the bait rods.

"Bait fishing after a big blow can be good" .
                             That is the common accepted theory and in fairness it quite often is . I think though ,a lot of the time "after the blow" is too late and the bigger fish have already come inshore with the weather ,had a feed and gone again.
             There are usually plenty of smaller (sub 5lb) bass about after the main event and they can often be fussy over bait type ,with slow gentle bites and lots of dropped hooks, they may have a lot of food to choose from ?
      If you can find the right spots to fish safely and have suitable tackle to use, some exciting fishing can be found "during" the main blow. This is especially so if the weather has been relatively calm beforehand.
  It's not comfortable , there is no finesse about it and its not easy to drag a mate along with you ,F-that being the common answer, but a big bait on a pennel rig can find you some big fish this time of year.
     I'm talking about the type of weather when any thoughts of going lure fishing are just ludicrous, unless LRF in the harbours floats your boat , which it does for many and is probably a good bit of fun.

I prefer to take 2 or 3 clams and a few lugworms hooked and bound onto a pair of 4/0 to 6/0 hooks , or squid , mackeral , crabs , whatever takes my fancy aslong as it's big. Lob it out into the seething mass and remind myself of the virtues of patience ,2 rods helps with the patience bit as it keeps you busy but can also be a pain at times. Takes I find are very positive in these conditions , they just pick it up and run . I've had from schoolies up to fish around the 8lb mark already this year so that size of bait isn't too selective. Generally the average size of fish is good though and for me it beats watching the forecast and moaning .

   Neither Julian or I have "landed" a double yet this year and with only a matter of weeks to go its not looking too promising , tis always one of the season's targets . Quantity this year has been better than last year, and thats pleasantly suprising given 2010 was an excellent season, but we've had to work a lot harder for our fish this year. I'll wait till newyear before making the full report on 2011.

Thanks must go to Minister Simon Coveney for making the good decision to keep protecting our favourite fish .
 Marine morgages and diesel bills, thats where the money would have gone from the sale of a decimated bass stock , the crew man would have seen little money to spend in his community , bankers and oil companies missed out there, thank god............. well actually no , thank John Quinlan and his associates.
   Also well done to everyone else who helped in the fight, you know who you are, our unity,strength and efforts have won through for now , and we can sleep a little easier until the commercial sector mounts the next challenge........................ Now back to fishing ,whats the weather forecast saying? :-)