North Dublin — 22 August 2022

Started off the session with micro sabikis casting into water that was about 20ft deep over clean sand, my first time trying to catch sandeels for bait, first cast I got a tiny pollock which I threw back and then second cast the rig cracked off, it couldn't handle the 2 ounce lead when cast hard so I gave up on that and moved on to a different spot with shallow bouldery ground to plug for bass. Two casts in and I was into a fish, which slammed the lure as it passed over a crevice between two boulders, it was an ambush, my lure hadn't a chance, I tightened down my drag as the fish was trying to pull me down into some snaggy ground, so I tried to bully it to the shore but disaster struck and it shook the hook, crap. I kept casting over the same spot and after not too long, the fish hit the lure again, I was careful to keep the drag a bit more loose, took my time and got it in! It was a nice chunky bass of 46cm and had a belly stuffed full of sandeels, it had been gorging itself out there! After dispatching the fish and getting it cleaned up, I kept fishing for another 30 minutes or so with no more enquiries so left it at that.

Catch summary: 1 Bass, 1 Pollock