Bass fishing In March

Hi, welcome to my new blog.
Bass fishing in the second half of March along the coast of Co. Cork was very good compared to the same period last year. I caught a total of 24 bass, including one exeptional session where I landed 17 bass!!!! bringing my total for 2011 to 44 so far, a vast improvement on the first quarter of last year when the fish were just not around.

The month got off to a slow start and I didn't get the chance to do much fishing for the first three weeks but made up for it towards the end of the month.

20th March -  I headed to a local beach that I had not fished for a long time. I fished the last three hours of the ebb and first two hours of the rising tide with two rods, one with lug on a 4/0 pennel pulley and the other with razor or razor/lug cocktail on a 6/0 pennel pulley. There was a nice surf so it looked promising. There wasn't much happening at all on the dropping tide, but over low tide I had a strong tug on the rod baited with lug, I struck and connected with a good fighting fish. It had to be a Bass. After a few minutes I hauled a 45 cm out of the surf.
As the tide began to push in I spotted a tug on the same rod. The line went slack, I grabbed the rod, rapidly reeled in the slack and connected with the fish. This one was putting up a stronger fight, ran another slackliner as I was getting it close, I caught up with it and after a brief struggle in the shallow surf I landed it - this was a better plump Bass at 54 cm.
I had a very scrawny 42 cm flounder a little latter. The bites died down after that so I started to pack up. I brought in the rod baited with razor first, I didn't have a bite on it all night - the fish were in the mood for lug. I started to reel in the other rod, at first there was little resistance, then I felt a sudden pull on the line and had a fish fighting on the end. It was a 42 cm Bass. I reckon it must have chased after the bait as I was retrieving it as there was definitely nothing there initially.

More to follow ........