Shore anglers on the East coast have been getting some decent bass fishing in the South Wicklow, north Wexford area recently. Good catches of smoothhounds are also reported with many specimens amongst the catches.
One angler, Dean Quigley had more than a specimen with a fish that has potentially smashed the record. Fishing a night session over the weekend Dean had a smoothhound of 24.85lb which would obliterate the current record of 8.62kg which was only set at the end of May last year. Dean’s fish was 127cm long with a girth of 21 inches. A claim is being sent to the Irish Specimen Fish Committee for ratification.
Dean tells us that conditions were reasonably calm with high pressure. High Water was around 10:45pm so they started fishing at 8:30 and fished until after midnight. The big smoothhound was hooked at about 10:15 on fresh peeler crab on one of the south Wexford venues. Dean had a few hounds that night but the others were all reasonably small. He also had a few dogs and a surprise codling. There was a tope taken by one of the other anglers and a few other hounds including one just over 10lb.
