First group has left, second group arrives this afternoon, I didn’t quite appreciate how much I have missed all this

John and I usually work these trips so that the first group leaves in the morning and then the second lot arrive in the afternoon, but for some reason we’ve had an extra day in between - which is just fine by me because I get to spend a bit more time out here in Kerry. I did actually go out fishing yesterday afternoon but it was absolutely brutal trying to chuck metals into the teeth of a gale on the beach and I retreated to get on with some computer based work. I could have gone and found some shelter and quite possibly some fish, but I work for myself and there’s stuff I need to keep on top of outside of this guiding work. The weather we are getting at the moment is perfect timing really - our first group had some good conditions, it’s pretty awful right now, but it’s looking pretty good for when our second lot are here…………..

Getting back to doing this guiding work again feels even better than I knew it would, indeed as excited as I have been about it all I still reckon I’ve underestimated just how good it would feel to actually be back here in Ireland. With what’s been going on for us all over the last year or two all a part of me feels guilty for indulging in this level of joy at being able to do this work again, but I vowed to myself when we were in the first lockdown last year that I was never going to take any of this stuff for granted again.

I know how lucky I am to be able to come out here and call this work. We get some fantastic people on our trips and it’s a genuine pleasure to see them again and catch up with all the news - and especially after this length of time. To be able to work with my friend John Quinlan and help these lads catch a few fish and have a bit of a holiday (if you can call the amount of fishing time these lads put in a holiday!) in this magical part of the world is a privilege and I don’t take any of it for granted. Can you remember just how quickly and easily things that we love to do were taken away from us last year? I urge you to do the things you told yourself you were going to do before the world changed.

Anyway, on the fishing side of things we had a blast with our first group. On the third day though it was as if the bass had got together and said no way, the first two days were too good, we’re going to kick you hard and teach you a lesson! We worked it hard, we struggled, but it all came good towards the end of the day and the lads pulled a few nice bass off the most amazing shallow reef that really is one of those “if you want to know what perfect bass ground is then this is it” locations. Oh, and as per the photo above the light also went a bit loopy as well! Two or three times on their last day John made a call on where to stop and fish and one of the lads was into a bass within a minute or two. This is very much co-guiding work out here because crumbs does John know his local waters rather well, and I think it works so well because we both bring different things to the table.

I hope you know me enough by now to know that I’m not into blowing my own trumpet, but it’s some kick when you make a call, ask one of the lads to do something, and they catch a fish. We were at a spot on the second afternoon I think it was, there was obviously a fair bit of bait around because the terns were very happy, but we weren’t catching and there had to be bass there. I had a bit of a think and tried to work out in my head how I’d be changing things up a bit if I was fishing a spot like this, and I asked one of the lads to put one of the 13cm/31g Sandeel V2 Weedless lures on. “Cast just beyond the current, hit the bottom, and let the lure bounce along in the current and do its thing”. He did just that, but while he was doing it on his first cast the rod tip suddenly slammed over! A nice bass for one of our lads, but what he didn’t see was me beaming away with pride inside because I’d managed to help procure a fish and put a great big smile on an angler’s face.

This is the first time I have done my co-guiding work out here at the same time as my work with Savage Gear, so whilst I am obviously carrying a number of our recent bass lures because I trust them in so many different situations now, it’s really interesting to see how often John turns to them as well. Most of our clients have a lot of their own lures and we will always try to help them use them when applicable, but John and I both carry various bits and pieces for those times when a slightly different approach might be required. John has no affiliation with any tackle company and carries what he feels works the best for his clients, so yes, it’s a bit of a buzz to see so many Seekers, Sandeel Pencils and Gravity Sticks in his lure boxes. Make no mistake though, he often clips on a 6’’ DoLive Stick for his clients when required. Class lures don’t just go away.

I also carry a few spare rods either in case of any breakages or if any of our lads need a rod because they have flown in and rod tubes these days are not generally cheap at all to bring on a plane. We were at a location on the second day I think it was, and one of our lads broke his fairly new lure rod. The rod was not at fault - trying to bring a lump of weed to hand the wrong way, it happens, we’ve all done it, this lad was just unlucky - but I was able to nip back and pick up one of our SGS5 9’ 9-35g lure rods and he was back fishing in no time. Another lad’s lure rod snapped out of the blue on a cast and it very much wasn’t his fault, and although he had a spare rod I was able to rig him up with a more powerful lure rod for when he needed to bash Seekers into the surf. As per the photo above in fact.

On the lure side of things there is one thing that has really banged home to me yet again so far on the trip, and that’s that it’s amazing how many times it’s the case that the smaller lures often catch the bigger bass. I remember some grizzled old lure experts telling me many years ago that you need to use really big lures to catch big bass, but I still haven’t seen a 10lb+ bass from the shore that came on a lure I’d class as “really big” or even “bigger” than anything a lot of us would mostly fish with. John made such a good call the other day to change one of the lads over to the smallest size Sandeel Pencil 90, and if there is one thing I will definitely take away from this trip for my own fishing it’s matching the weight of Seeker to a run of current. Damn right the Seeker is my go-to surf fishing lure of choice, but I would also suggest that there can be a hell of a lot more to metals like these than might first meet the eye. You all have a good weekend, I can’t wait to see our second lot of lads this afternoon, and then from early on Saturday morning we are going to be looking for bass and quite possibly some pollack out here in Kerry. I know it’s the title of the blog post, but it’s true - I didn’t quite appreciate how much I have missed all this…………..

This is what these trips are all about to me - beaming smiles.

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