A couple of days in with our first group of anglers

We were out fishing with the lads after supper last night, so we’re giving them a lie-in and breakfast at 8.30am before heading out again. The bass fishing is a bit tough at the moment but we are finding a few fish here and there, plus we had a fun session on the wrasse yesterday morning. Our group of four anglers are good as gold and they are fishing really hard. A few bass came through yesterday evening, but one of the lads dropped a good looking fish which he saw literally come up behind his SG Sandeel Pencil 125/19g and inhale it. Gutted ain’t the word!

It’s always so good to properly catch up with John Quinlan out here, and believe it or not we talk a lot about all things fishing and rugby when we can! Because he is a professional fishing guide who has been at this for years, I obviously pay very close attention to things like the lures he carries with him for clients to use. When you’re out there day in, day out, and your livelihood literally depends on your anglers catching fish, you’re naturally going to tailor the stuff you carry to be the stuff you trust the most to get the job done. For all the lovely shiny things we all use and love, I notice that John carries more Savage Gear Seekers and Sandeel Pencils than anything else, along with a healthy smattering of OSP DoLive Sticks, Slender Scoop Shads, and Gravity Sticks for the soft plastics stuff (another thing I notice is that for all my love of the white colour Seekers and Surf Seekers, John carries more of the red/black, black pearl, and green silver colours).

Which of course is in some ways a reflection of a lot of the type of bass ground we might fish over here, but the simple fact is that those easy to use Seekers and Sandeel Pencils - whack ‘em out and wind ‘em in - catch a hell of a lot of bass in a hell of a lot of different situations for John’s anglers. When I tell John that I have always believed the (sandeel shape) Sandeel Pencil to be the most misunderstood lure I am involved with via my work with Savage Gear, he just looks at me quizzically and says something like: “it looks like a sandeel, it casts great, it swims shallow, we get a lot of sandeels out here and the bass eat them, what’s not to like?”.

Anyway, I had better get on with my day and go do my 5k run before I meet up with our lads and get them out fishing again. I still can’t really believe that “running” has become a part of my life this year, but I am pretty sure it’s doing me some good! If you know Ireland as an angler then you will understand why I so love being out here, but it’s always been way more than just the fishing for me when it comes to Ireland. I miss my wife and girls but this is part of my work and it makes getting home all the more special…………….

Disclosure - if you buy anything using links found in this blog post or around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.