A few bass before the ban....

The pre-ban bass season was shaping up to be a good one. With such a mild winter water temperatures held up well and rarely fell below the 10 degree mark. Good numbers of fish were showing up all winter on the outer harbour beach marks to bait. Some of the die hard bass anglers, such as Cobh SAC Treasurer, Pat O' Shea, were sticking to the lures and this was paying off as the first fish started to showing to lures in late January.

This continued right through into March but then in April it all went pear shaped. With winds constantly coming from the Northern quarter, particularly north easterly winds, the water temperatures actually dropped at a time when they would normally be rising gradually. This weather pattern was constant right upto the ban with water temps staying around the 10 degree mark. This impacted on the fishing which was proving difficult. Despite this some anglers were in amongst the fish. Pat O'Shea reported plenty of blanks interspersed with cracking sessions of 6, 7, 8, 9 and even 10 fish!!!

These sessions were really turning accepted logic on its head. Normally pre-ban you'd expect a good session to produce 2 or maybe 3 fish. In truth the fishing pre-ban can be a bit hit and miss. Pat assures us that they were plenty of misses and he had to work hard. Who minds the misses and hard work if you can have sessions like that every so often. It augurs well for the season ahead and let's hope its a good one for all you bass anglers out there. It certainly looks promising for the Cork Harbour area. Roll on the 16th!!!