A stunning bass in tough conditions, what do we really know?
It felt so good to spend a few days on the Copper Coast in Ireland again. Driving and walking around felt so reassuringly familiar as we either fished/photographed various locations or passed spots I have spent time on. Specific fish I have caught or seen caught in the past came flooding back as a wonderful overload of great memories, but in reality I was there to take photographs for some lads from the Ukrainian fishing tackle company Favorite (just getting to Ireland was a serious mission for them). We had decent conditions for the actual photography, but not exactly ideal for daytime bass fishing………….
What does help is when the lads who are fishing and thrashing the various Favorite lure rods are rather good anglers. Some of you here might be aware of Marcin Kantor via his YouTube channel and other such social media fishing related stuff; the bloke can fish! One of the most interesting aspects of my work is getting to spend time around very good anglers, and although I was obviously there primarily as a photographer, believe me when I say that I can recognise a very good angler very quickly - and I watch them like a hawk. I want to learn from them. I want to better understand how they go about their fishing. How do they think about their fishing and what is in front of them? How do they move around with the sort of gear we might usually carry? What sort of lures do they turn to in various locations and conditions? And so on and so on. I love it. A couple of days with these lads and I have got back home with a head full of further fishing related ideas and thoughts.
On the first morning I got an excited yelp from Marcin on the walkie-talkie to say that he was connected to what felt like a good bass. As fast as I could I ran/stumbled/walked fast across some horribly slippery rocks and then onto the shingle and managed to get to Marcin just as he was bringing the bass to hand. As you can see I got a bunch of photos of what turned out to be a 67cms bass which in the flat calm and almost weirdly-calm conditions was one hell of a result. Marcin nailed the fish on the EvoBass Sabre 150 paddletail, a soft plastic I know he seriously likes. Interestingly he does nearly all his bass fishing with what might be termed a “shorter” lure rod these days.
We talked a lot about how efficient and easier it can be to twitch soft plastics and work surface lures on a really good, shorter rod. For Marcin this rod was the 7’6’’ Favorite Skyline 762MH 10-35g - multiple 70cms+ bass on it - but more recently he has switched over to the newer and ridiculously light/responsive Favorite Black Swan 772MH 7’7’’ 10-36g lure rod (90g weight). He fishes these rods with the Shimano TwinPower XD 4000PG spinning reel (help!). Lots more to come, as I said I came away from those couple of days with a lot of thoughts and ideas, and I was there as a photographer. I do love my work……………