Clonakilty Bass Angling Guide

05/11/2025

Hoping that the year was good for you all with plenty of action. Clonakilty bay fished well again this year however, the anglers with the best results did things a little bit different. Haven’t posted on FB for a while but plan to get back into it soon.

08/09/2018

The fishing is hard going at the moment but there are still good bass to be caught. Hoping for more action on Sunday.

30/08/2018

Happy now Hardcore Hockley!

30/08/2018

Two cracking fish in two consecutive drifts with fishing with Patrick (Hardcore) Hockley. Great fun and plenty more action on the lures along the coast.

26/08/2018

Great day out yesterday with Batt O Donavan. One of the fish caught from the channel on the sandeel.

12/08/2018

A couple of the fish caught by Mark Canning on Friday.

24/02/2018

THE QUANDRY OF THE HEALTH OF IRISH BASS STOCKS.

A tricky subject I know. This is only my opinion and I know some people will disagree but here goes.
First and foremost I am like a “pig in s # ” with the reformed bass laws brought in last year. About time too! Ireland had the good sense to protect the species a quarter of a century ago and the genius’s in Brussels have finally done something about it. Don’t you just love them! What I would love to know is…. how do they know?


How would you go about surveying bass stocks? I’ve owned a boat for the last seventeen years and I know the habitat they occupy. You can’t see them most of the time! They love the cover of the kelp beds and when you catch them from there the colouration of them is starkly different to a bass caught from the sandy areas near the shore. They are nearly black. So I’d love to know how they survey that. Also, bass spawn on the edge of the continental shelf and the offspring end up wherever the tides and wind takes them. My point being? A survey on one particular area has no bearing on overall bass stocks. So how do they get their figures?
My guess is feedback from commercial “line caught” fisherman and anglers. “Line caught” bass in the UK are big bucks and restaurants will pay high end money for them. Every year I am guessing their catches diminish and they put it down to lack of fish. Anglers too are finding it harder and harder to catch bass as the seasons pass by. But why?
OK. Here’s my theory. I firmly believe European Bass have been around even longer than Cliff Richard. An awful long time. They are supreme predators and most predators are smart. They have to be. On land a rabbit hasn’t got to wrack its brains as to where its next meal from but the wily fox does. The rabbit happily eats away at the grass in front of it (acres of the stuff) whilst the fox works out how he’s going to eat the rabbit. I hope you see where I’m coming from.


So, back to our beloved bass. Anglers have been fishing the surf beaches for many decades now with reasonable success. And then came the Lure Revolution. I know of a couple of people at the forefront of this era, John Hall was one (if you’re out of pocket don’t come crying to me. He owes me too!) and Patrick Gallagher. I wasn’t at the coal front then but pretty close and the fishing was unbelievably good. Patrick was telling me last year of his pioneering days of lure fishing and his results were nothing short of spectacular. It was like giving an eighty year old man Vi**ra for the first time! Think about it. Anglers were fishing virgin ground containing one of the most predatory fish Cliff has ever seen! I am talking about the “Rough ground” that covers the majority of our coastline. Now Cliff has reliably informed me that these fish felt very safe and secure in their environment. It is likely that some marks were fished on occasions by bait anglers losing six rigs in as many casts and walking away saying “F # this for a game of marbles” but that in all likelihood, was all the pressure they got. All the bass in these areas were supremely confident and would attack anything that moved if they thought it would fit in their gobs.


I could give you loads of analogies to back this up but I’ll pick two. A very good friend, Bat O’Donavan went fishing to one of our local rough ground marks, probably in 1999. Armed with a sh*tty eleven foot rod, fifteen pound BS monofilament and about ten percent of the finesse he has today (On the lures, Bat is a legend angler) he embarked on his maiden lure fishing expedition. He nailed eight bass to eight pound in just over a couple of hours. On a J13 Rapala. I have never heard of anyone doing better than that from that particular mark and doubt if I ever will.
My other one goes back to my childhood, not bass this time but Pike fishing. We used to fish a small tributary to the River Ouse called Cook’s Backwater. We would buy a pound of Spratt from the fishmongers on the Friday and share it between three of us. We pushed the boundaries one day and fell on a bonanza of Pike (probably fishing places that hadn’t been fished for years) and used all the bait up in two hours. One of the fish we caught was blind in one eye and we aptly named it “One eyed Jack”. C’mon, a jack pike with one eye. What else are you going to call it? So being young, stupid and craving more Pike action (I’m sure we had a dozen fish in two hours) we bought a pound of Spratt each the following week end. Guess how we got on? We caught one. “One eyed Jack”. That was it. We went a few more times that winter to that particular spot and old Jack would take our Spratt once more to say “hello”. We never had that bonanza again and I’m sure Jack didn’t want to be surrounded by three spotty t***s smoking Picadilly No7 (cheapest f**s going then) stinking of Bovril crisps and Irn Bru but the poor bu**er only had one eye and was hungry. The rest of the fish with two eyes didn’t have to suffer that humiliation.


So why is it that with our super sophisticated rods, reels, braids and lures we can’t come even close to the action of those early days of lure fishing for bass? I believe that the bass learned quickly that everything that swims in front of them is not necessarily food and comes with its inherent dangers. They got smart. Of course we can still catch them and have “Red letter days” thrown in there too. I think we use those early days as a benchmark of how bass fishing should be and we are wrong to do so. I was told once “The secret to happiness is to want less.” It’s great advice in all aspects of life, including fishing. I personally believe our Irish Bass stocks are very healthy and hopefully they will remain that way. During the last few years whilst fishing from the boat the band of water 200 to 400 metres off the shoreline has been the most productive of all. It just happens to be out of casting range from the shore. Coincidence maybe? I don’t think so.
I would like to dedicate this article to “One eyed Jack.” Without his help I’m sure we would have blanked three or four times through the long, cold winter of 1975.

18/02/2018

WHAT HAPPENED TO TARQUIN?

In the last gripping episode, Tarquin had foolishly attacked the Abu Hi-Lo that had swam within striking distance from his and Randolph’s gulley and had indeed been hooked by a “Catch and decease” rotter! (At this moment I feel like Eric Van Lustbader deciding the fate of Jason Bourne!) Randolph and himself had often discussed escape and evade tactics when there were no lures coming across them to “Play the game” and Tarquin put them into action. He swam towards the kn****ad as fast as he could and dived into a depression behind a jagged reef. The cheap mono bought from one of the German run supermarkets chaffed against the reef and parted company. Another stroke of luck for Tarquin was that the hooks on the lure was rustier than my Transit van and hadn’t penetrated his top lip. A couple of shakes of his head and the lure was dislodged. Lucky bu**er!
So what information can you glean from the opening paragraph apart from the fact I’m as mad as a box of frogs! There is a subtle point in there, do not skimp on the business end of your gear. It’s all well and good having a megabuck Tenryu rod and a matching mag sealed reel costing a king’s ransom but close attention should be paid to your braid, fluorocarbon, links and hooks.
We will start with the braid. If you don’t fish with braid and use mono instead I cannot emphasise enough…… “Try it!” you’ll never look back. The diameter to breaking strain ratio is about half of that to mono which will extend your cast by half again. However, this is not the main reason for using it. Braids Uber quality is that there is zero stretch in it. A fish can hit the lure at sixty metres and the result would be the same as the fish hitting at six metres away. Direct contact. The hook up ratio of braid compared to mono is phenomenal. What braid do you buy? As with everything nowadays the choice is bewildering. Personally, I use Berkley braid. Whiplash, to be precise. Is it the best? Probably not but it has never let me down yet and I’m a great believer in the term “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” A three hundred metre spool of twenty pound BS will set you back about forty bucks which is a bargain compared to the braids in the upper price range. Most reels come with a spare spool so load the lot on (if your reel is 2000 to 3000 class a 300 metre spool of braid will fill it) and then top it up with mono until it’s perfectly loaded. Put the spare spool on the reel and transfer the first spool onto the second. The following season, add extra mono to the top of the spool to compensate for braid lost and find a big field. Pull the lot out and tie the new mono to the existing backing and reverse the braid giving you unused braid. Two seasons. Forty euros. Cheap as chips!


Once the braid is loaded onto the reel you will need to attach a length of mono or fluorocarbon. This is done for two reasons. Fluorocarbon is less visible in water than braid and it will also give you a bit of stretch when playing the fish. I know some anglers use a swivel for the junction but I prefer to use a standard Albright knot with the braid doubled up. The top ring of your rod will love you for it! This is tied at home and tested. If I am happy with the knot I apply a dob of superglue to it and tie on the quick link. The quick link is tied on with a grinner knot and nine times out of ten this is the point of breakage when snagged up. Simply tie on a new link and away you go. With 20lb BS braid I opt for 15lb fluorocarbon. Berkley again. It works and haven’t broke on a bass yet. I do carry a spool of the Seagaur fluorocarbon (11.6lb BS) for the super calm days when the water clarity is unreal. It is the best leader material I have come across and use it for my salmon fishing. It wants to be at twenty euros for a fifty metre spool!


Quick change links have come on leaps and bounds over the last decade and it’s well worth spending the extra dosh on these, especially when you have a megabuck, megabass lure on the end that cost thirty euro. Grauvell do a stainless “twist on, twist off” one which are superb. There are plenty of others too but avoid the old style “American snap swivels” as they’re crap! Unless you’re using spinners, swivels are unnecessary so go for the links that do not incorporate one. Another potential “weak link” removed.


The trebles on my lures get replaced each season with new ones. I crush the barbs down for my own sake as much as the fish. It’s a lot easier to remove a barbless hook from your hand or finger compared to a barbed one. The Owner range of trebles are ridiculously sharp and reasonably priced. Another good one is a Dremel tool with a wire brush attachment in it. In a couple of minutes it will remove any nasty rust stains off your lures and clean up the split rings. The split rings rarely need replacing as they are normally made of a higher quality metal than the hooks and the hooks act like a sacrificial anode on a boat engine, rusting the hooks before the split rings. A couple of hours at the end of the season spent cleaning your lures with warm, soapy water will massively increase the longevity of them. Let them air dry and a light spray with WD40 is all they need before you put them away for the winter.


Let’s face it lads, we are all tackle tarts! The bling and accessories that is available to anglers would be enough to make an Essex girl jealous. Keeping your braid and leader material in order, along with sharp hooks and good quality quick links will catch you more bass. Boga grips and super duper pliers made out of aircraft grade aluminium with titanium jaws will not catch you fish. Buy the bling by all means if you feel you need it but make sure the “Business end” is in perfect order before you splash the cash!

04/02/2018

GRANADA OR CONSUL?

When we were kids we would occasionally sit on a wall by the road and try to identify the make and model of the car coming towards us before each other could.

“Ford Cortina MK 2.” Steven would call. “Vauxhall Viva!” “Triumph Spitfire.” And so on. A good one was the Ford Granada and the Ford Consul. The Consul was essentially the poor man’s Granada. The bodywork on the two was identical but the engines and the interior of the Granada were superior to that of a Consul. Our next door neighbour Mr Foren drove a Consul and I knew his routine. So when I saw a white car coming towards us at ten minutes to five I was pretty sure it was him but said nothing. Steven would shout out “Ford Granada. Ha!” “It’s not.” I would say. “It’s a Consul.” As it drove past the Consul badge was there for all of us to see. “How did you know that?” My mates would ask. “Ah, just a lucky guess.” I would say. I never told them it was my next door neighbour’s car and I used to clean it every Sunday for thirty pence! It’s good to have an edge sometimes.
When fishing the gullies and reefs with the hard plastics I often imagine two bass laying up in a gully playing a similar game. “My word Tarquin, I do believe that’s a Megabass Zonk!” “You’re on the ball Randolph. Yes it is!” “Ah Randolph, I have you this time. That my friend is an Ali Magnet.” “Poor old Uncle Hector fell for one of those years ago and we never saw him again. Must have been one of those “Catch and decease” rotter’s!” And the game goes on.

When I first started fishing the lures and flies back in 2002 it was unbelievably good. You didn’t really get many follows then, the bass would “slam” into it as soon as they saw it and that was that. The subsequent years brought less slams and more follows and now I find follows something of a rarity. Has anyone else noticed this? Also, the last three bass I have seen caught on subsurface “Hard Plastics” from our local channel in Clonakilty have all been foul hooked in the side of the head. I believe the fish aborted the attack at the last second but the trebles got a hook hold as they brushed past the lure. In all of the cases no trebles were anywhere near the mouth.
So the big question is “Has the subsurface HP had its day?” They still work well under the cover of darkness but I think they are not as effective in the daytime as they used to be. My preference during the day is to surface lures and soft plastics and has been for a while. But why so? The surface lures are deadly when bass are feeding close to the surface and I think they see the commotion made by the lure more than the lure itself. They don’t see the entire lure like they would a subsurface HP and I’m sure it’s like a curry to a pisshead on a Saturday night after the pubs have shut. Irresistible!! I know a lot of anglers have little faith in surface lures and probably try them when nothing else has worked. If nothing else has worked it’s unlikely that the surface lure will work too and it’s probably one of those days when nothing is happening. Go out on a good day with only surface lures to avoid the temptation of putting a subsurface one on and stick at it. You will get them.

On to the soft plastics. Why do they work so well? For me there are two key reasons. One is they don’t have half the cutlery drawer hanging off it! They have one discreet hook that is often concealed within the bait as opposed to three trebles (nine hooks in total) dangling off a subsurface HP. It’s got to help. The second and most important one is how you fish them. Subsurface HP are normally fished quite quickly. This worked well in the early days when the fish would bang anything but think what creatures do in the wild if they are being preyed upon. They have two choices, run like F # or remain motionless. Predators also spot movement before they spot the prey itself so it makes sense to fish a lure bearing these things in mind. A baitfish detached from its shoal is vulnerable. Very vulnerable. Safety in numbers no longer applies and if it tries to outswim a voracious bass there is only going to be one winner. It makes sense to me that it will opt for “The stay as still as I possibly can” tactic and hope to f # nothing spots me approach. A lot of anglers make the mistake of moving soft plastics too quickly. I have had good success using the 200mm Koneels from the boat the last couple of seasons and I barely move them. I cast out of the front of the boat and pick up the slack line as the boat drifts towards the lure. That’s it. If the lure moves more than one or two metres on a fifty metre cast I would be surprised. The takes are ferocious because the lure and the manner it is fished in are very realistic.

More food for thought lads! These are only my opinions on how bass fishing is evolving and I’m not saying I’m right. You will get those days when the bass are really having it and the subsurface HP will outfish everything. However, most days realistically you are looking for one or two fish and Tarquin, alongside his buddy Randolph have seen most of them. “My god Tarquin, that’s a bloody Abu Hi-Lo! Is this boy for real! That’s a bloody Pike fishing lure. What self respecting bass would even consider taking that? Tarquin…… Come back here…. Don’t be a bloody fool. Oh I do hope he’s one of those “catch and release boys.”

29/01/2018

Here's another one if anyone is interested.

IFD: Peter Aspinwall is one of Ireland’s top bass angling guides. He specialises in fly and lure fishing and over the years has built up an intimate picture of their movements and behaviours.…

28/01/2018

When I first came to Ireland my car was loaded to the roof with fishing tackle and carpentry tools. I reckon it was an equal split. At that time of my life I obviously took fishing as seriously I did living! It was a good choice. I had packed all my fly gear and carp rods and reels thinking more of Pike fishing than the sea. This also was a good decision, the 12 foot, two and a half pound carp rods were ideal for casting a bait into the surf and the big Shimano bait runners loaded with 12lb “Big Game line” were the perfect reel. I made friends quickly with a lot of the local anglers and they shared their local knowledge with me which, to this day I’m eternally grateful. The fishing was good and I managed a few bass in the last three months of 1996, even though I had missed September. I would be prepared the following season.
Sandeels was the choice bait and Doni Collins had shown me how to harvest them. It was back breaking work raking through the dry beds with a blunt scythe but we could get forty or fifty quality baits each in an hour on a good day of which, most would be frozen down in bags of sixes for use the following week. That September of ‘97 and the first two weeks of October I fished like a man possessed, going most evenings after work, plus the weekends. I kept a count and managed to land 76 bass in that six week period up to eight pounds. All on frozen sandeels!
Twenty years have now elapsed and sandeels are (in my mind) still the number one bait, although my approach is somewhat different. Back in the early days it was a four ounce grip lead pinged out into the surf with a frozen sandeel mounted on a 2/0 hook attached to a patanoster rig. Most of my sandeel fishing now is done from the boat with live sandeels suspended under a float. The trusty carp rod has been, for the most part decommissioned in favour of seven foot lure rods and small 3000 class reels. It is a highly successful and entertaining way to catch fish. This is my approach.
This method is effective from either boat or shore. I have caught bass fishing open sea with this method but you really need a fast running channel for it to be truly effective. Rods need to be longer fishing from the shore to mend and manage your braid. Eleven to twelve foot barbel style rods are ideal. From the boat, seven to eight foot lure rods are perfect. Reels need to hold a minimum of 250 metres of fifteen to twenty pound braid. I have been in the situation a few times where I have hooked a fish at 100m range and it’s ran down tide a further 100m leaving the spool virtually empty. In these situations I normally S # myself, try to regain a bit of composure and either up anchor or run down the beach after it, trying to put line back on the reel. Don’t skimp!


The setup is simple enough. I use the Drennan Piker floats with the cigar shaped profile that come in four sizes. Number 2 and 3 are ideal. This is threaded up the braid after putting on a bead followed by a drilled bullet sufficient to c**k the float, another bead and a small swivel tied off with a Palamor knot. A short length of fluorocarbon goes on next of a lesser breaking strain than the braid (15lb on 20lb braid) 18 inches to two foot and then your hook. Hook size should match your bait. A size 2 is good for a small eel and 2/0 for a large one. The Gamakatsu worm 36 are what I use personally. They are very fine wire and tend not to restrict the movement of the bait. To set the depth I use a product called Magic Marker. This is also made by Drennan and is tied above the bead, above the float using the “Billy Lane stop knot”.


With your terminal tackle in place it’s time to bait up. Lip hooking the eel is one of your best options causing minimal damage to the bait and letting it swim freely. The other advantage of hooking it in this fashion is that the hook is fully exposed and your bite/catch ratio is massively increased. Casts should be feathered back just before the terminal tackle and bait hits the water to ensure no tangles. Braid has to be mended immediately to get direct contact from rod tip and float and then left to run down in the current unimpeded. This last bit is vital. Most of the channels that I know of contain sea lettuce. It’s that horrible bright green w**d that suspends in the water and really is a pain. If you hold back on your float the w**d will travel faster than the bait and eventually mask it. This is where the float fishing tactics win hands down when properly presented as the w**d and bait move in unison and the eel fishes w**d free. Varying your depth by sliding your stop knot up and down the braid can increase bite ratio but mid water is a good place to start. If you think you have ten feet of water in front of you, set the distance between stop knot and hook at five feet and you won’t be far wrong. Another huge plus for this style of fishing is that you can cover a lot of water. I have no problem letting the float run for 100 metres or more. Also, try running your float through different lines of the channel. Start off close in, then run it through the middle of the channel followed up with the far side. When you have done this, walk down tide the distance you’ve just covered and repeat the process. This way you fish the entire channel.
The channels fish at their best when the current is moving swiftly so spring tides and either side of them will be your best windows. Eels can be harvested in various ways. Netting, digging the spawning beds or small lures (Sabiki’s) can work well. On a good day bites come thick and fast and bass will even hit on the retrieve. We have had up to fifty fish on a tide but that was a few years ago. We always get catches in the high teens every season. It also produces big fish too. Our biggest to date was estimated at thirteen pounds.


Acquiring the sandeels and then keeping them alive is likely to be the hardest part of the process. If you do happen to live nearby a channel keep a close eye on it during September. This is the month that the sandeels spawn and the channels make perfect spawning grounds. Check them out at low water and look for bird activity over undulating coarse sand. If you see Rooks there too it is very likely you have found where the sandeels breed. A gardening fork is all you need combined with a lot of muscle. Get digging!
So that’s the mechanics of it. I do not believe in misinformation, I have never worked for the CIA or MI6. Everything in this article is true and, as long as you can harvest the eels you will catch. There are a few things that I have omitted which are really down to fine tuning but you must see it from my side of the fence too. I am a bass guide and if I “Tell All” my phone would be very quiet next season! Best of luck lads and if you’re having problems filling in the blanks you can always hire me for the day!