Soft Plastic Fishing For Bass / South East Ireland

(Patrick Gallagher)

South East Ireland is fast becoming a mecca for Bass anglers from south east Ireland. The

reasons for this are the wild beauty of our coast line and esturaries , the number and

average size of our Bass. The quality fishing is directly related to our policy of no

commercial bass fishing and a bag limit of two fish per day for those fishing with rod and

line. The best of the fishing is from March to December but Bass can be caught twelve

months of the. The autum offers your best chance at a really special fish with several wel

l over 12lb being caught and returned each year.

I am Patrick Gallagher, a professional Bass guide located in Waterford, fishing in both

Waterford and Wexford over varied grounds. My main type of fishing is with lures but I also

light tackle bait fish and occasionally fly fish our coastline. I run a guiding service that covers

two counties covering about fifty miles of coast, several large estuaries, salt water lagoons

and stunning rock marks. I have a range of high tech Japanese tackle for sale and am up to

date on developments in modern bass fishing. 

Today I will give you a description of soft plastic bass fishing in south east Ireland. Most of our plastic fishing is carried out in our estuaries and lagoons and has proved to be extremely efficient way of catching fish throughout the year. We use a number of methods and baits with a few more effective and popular than others.

Techique 1

The megabass Xlayer, by far the most popular soft plastic on the market at the moment, the xlayer has caught many fish for me and is my number 1 soft plastic. This soft versatile jerk bait is available in a range of colours and can be fished on a variety of heads. I use led heads in th e10-14g range and find these are heavy enough to cover all possibilities. Primarily I fish teh Xlayer in the mouths of estuaries usually on the ebbing tide as the bass drop out to follow the bait fish and sand eel as they head out with the tide. The best way to fish these is to cast the bait on a led head out down and across the current, allow the head to sink and when you feel it hit the bottom lift the rod tip and start to bounce the bait along the sandy bottom. To do this the rod should be held with the tip up and use a jigging motion and slow retireve to keep the xlayer moving.

Fishing the plastic in this manner does a very good job of impersonating a sand ell. Bass lie in wait for their prey in sand gullies dug out by the strong tide in the mouth’s of estuaries this style of fishing maens your bait bounces over the tops of these gullies and the Bass will hit it hard as it passes over their heads. The puffs of sand sent up as the bait hits the sandy bottom also attrct the fish as this is similar to sand sent up by burying prey. Xlayers can also be fished from rocks mark and are very effective when it is calm and bright when the bass will be a bit deeper. When the tide has slowed down you can fish these plastics over drop offs and holes in lagoons and catch fish that are laid up waiting for the tide to swing around. The unique design of these plastic baits with their ridges make them the ultimate versatile stick bait, they can be rigged in a variety of ways that results in different action. I have included a few pictures to show you some of teh range of colours but by far my favourite is the ayu.

Color: Ayu - the Xlayer in front

Technique 2

Shads: These baits fish well early and late in the year and agin can be fished at a variety of types of mark but prove most effective in estuaries and lagoons. These baits do an excellent job of imitating a main stay of the Bass diet which are sea trout and small mullet (seed mullet). I fish these in a sink and dram style, with a far more smooth lift in the rod than the jerky style of xlayer fishing. The tails of these lures have an action of there own, cast them out allow them to sink and tehm smoothly draw them back towards the surface, allow them to sink gain and reapeat the process whilst keeping your reeling quite slow. The action as I said is in the tail but they also have a tight wobble as they are drawn through the water. Again these can be fished deep and seem to be most effective when fished on an articulated jig head, this is one where the hook is floating, which adds another layer of action to lure. Some of these lures can look quite crude but believe me they hammer big bass with a number of double figure fish being caught on these last year. Some the most popular are pictured here, the GT Shad from Delande, The Fat Head JR from WOF and the Mullet from Basstrix. Also worth looking at but not pictured is the rolling shad from Xorous.

I have included pictures of a variety of jig heads on which to fish the various types of plastic bait. The most effective types for the Xlayer are fixed Carolina type heads in the 10-14g range fish on a quick to medium action rod like the supermix 240 from tenyru. This rod has a medium action in the tip which allows you to impart subtle movement into the lure and make them dance through the water liek a sand ell.

Tight lines,

Patrick Gallagher

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