My Season of 2020

 Early Season - No one needs me to point out at this stage that 2020 was a year like no other we've experienced with the arrival of COVID-19 to our shores and although way down the list of human priorities it did affect my fishing season, but not as much as for many others... Living just 10 mins from the coast and the multi species inshore lure and fly fishing I'm blessed to have on my doorstep, I was able to start fishing as soon as we went to the 5km allowance at the start of May. I did miss out on on the early Mullet run but was more than happy to target Bass when the all important weather conditions and tides lined up! Early season was slow but steadily picked up producing reasonable sized Bass pretty much when and were I would expect to find them 😉

Kayak - After the successes of the two previous full seasons spent afloat I invested in a second Kayak plus a trailer which allowed me to try out ideas for Guided Kayak Fishing. I first attended a day of one-to-one Sea Safety training with West Cork based atlanticseakayaking.com which was most useful and confirmed I was on the right track in terms of Safety afloat. I also tested myself in rougher seas proving that stability is not a problem and that fish can still be caught in tougher conditions. From then on it was a case of making it work whenever the conditions allowed and it proved to be a great addition to the shore guiding as expected

One of a number  nice top water lure caught Bass on a  on a day when the sea was teeming with all forms of marine life

Guided shore fishing was both busy and successful in 2020 with 80% + of novice lure anglers catching their first lure caught Bass. We were plagued with dead flat conditions at times but everybody stepped up and the rewards followed. It was great to be out on the Coast with old and new faces alike sharing my passion on warm summer evenings under starry skies 

Bait fish - At times there were enormous quantities of sprat chased in by the ever agressive Mackerel shoals this Summer, more so than I've ever seen before on this coastline...

I was delighted to discover that the Surf Fishing had kicked back in again after an unexplained drought for the last few years. It seems to be either feast of famine with this style of fishing but great when its on!

Tuna - Something entirely new to me was a close up and personal encounter with multiple giant Blue Fin Tuna as witnessed from local skipper David Edward's "Silver Dawn" vessel based in Courtmacsherry that was selected to take part in the Marine Institute BFT tagging program. David kindly invited me out to see what it was all about and assist in September on a day that saw 4 Tuna in the 300 -400lb class successfully tagged and released with 5th larger fish lost as we were forced to bully it in the fast fading light. We also went out in December in search of Sharks and recorded an historic first December caught Irish Blue!

Autumn Bass fishing was generally good and solo Night Fishing during late season threw up some surprise Bass under a full moon conditions on a couple of occasions. 

A calm late Autumn between the storms allowed me to get afloat  and target hard fighting deep water Pollock on Fly & Lure through until the end of November. I also picked up Coalfish, Wrasse and Cod on the fly which more than kept things interesting 

So all in all, fishing wise and considering all of the travel restrictions, the 2020 Season turned out to to be a really good one for us and I can't wait to do it all again in 2021. Hope you can join me. 

Drop me an email to arrange your 2021 fishing adventure while there are still some prime tides available! westcorkbass@gmail.com

And finally, something new from me for 2021. Excited to announce that to support and enhance the Guided Fishing Service I will be offering personalised original drawings of your fine captures, more details to follow... 

Thanks as always to Louvine – Lure Fishing for Bass – Pirate Lures who supported us in 2020