Jasper Mathews reports on the lure fishing along the West Connemara coastline…
Relatively calm weather and swell has made for some great lure fishing recently in West Connemara, with some substantial coalie and pollock being caught from the shore and even a bass schoolie surprising us.
I had introduced my long time fishing buddy Louis Maloney to this mark before the new year and we had had 2 chunky pollock and a coalie in 45 minutes with a few more knocks and fish lost. He was clearly impressed with the spot, on Sunday 16th I woke up to a text saying he was heading west and asking if I was around, we agreed to meet at the mark. I arrived with my girlfriend Stephanie to Louis shouting you won’t believe what I have caught, prompting me to abandon Steph on the rocks and run down to him (sorry about that). I walked up saying, “so which is it, a bass or a sea trout?” and he showed me the schoolie, which was safely handled and released.
I have tried the local area a lot over the past two years for bass and I am yet to have a Connemara one myself, so as delighted as I was for Louis to get one on his 2nd visit to this mark, I didn’t let him hear the end of it for the rest of the session, which is customary when he outfishes me, all said with a smile of course.
We spent an hour and a half there resulting in the schoolie, 4 big pollock and a coalie between us. There seems to be a great quality of fish to be had from the shore at the moment, long may it last.
Go fishing…
