David Norman from West Cork Bass sent us in the cracking report from his few days’ fishing with nephew Conor Fitzmaurice who was visiting from Galway.
David tells the story:
I had a visit from my nephew Conor Fitzmaurice from Co Galway for some coastal lure fishing and it turned out very well for him indeed.
Covid has been particularly hard on teenagers as we all know so we were keen to give him a break and introduce him to some new ways of fishing that differ from those he’s used to at home.
Day 1 we fished off the rocks in a strong Northerly wind which was tough but got him back into the swing of fishing, we witnessed Gannets diving on Mackerel just offshore and a Minke Whale in the mix surfacing multiple times in front of us.
By chance I got a message from Richie Ryan aka @eirebass to say that the Cork Harbour Pollock Fly trip we’d been planning was on. Richie kindly agreed for me to bring Conor along and expertly took him from beginner to winner on Day 2 in glorious weather.
Day 3 was always planned as a Kayak fishing trip. We only had a day left to get Conor comfortable enough with the Kayak and coach him on surface fishing techniques, which is a lot to take in for any Angler, but having done so, and in near perfect conditions
many Bass from small to mid size were taken on surface lures and released with a bigger fish lost at the boat early on! It was great to see this range of sizes and hopefully a good sign for the future…
Conor witnessed action that I’ve only been dreaming of since last Summer, including a Bass that threw spray over us as it attacked the lure inches from our Kayaks as we sat side by side on the calm sea making us both jump!
So all in all a trip of a lifetime for young Conor who took it all in his stride remarkably well and learnt a lot more about what coastal angling in Ireland has to offer.
