Coastal Ireland: Bass, Pollack and Mackerel - Southwest Conditions Firing the Bite

This is Artificial Lure with your coastal Ireland fishing report. Along the south and west coasts we’re sitting under a typical Atlantic mix: light to moderate southwest breeze, scattered showers rolling through, and decent cloud breaks. Temperatures are cool but stable, and the barometer has been gently easing, which usually perks up the bite ahead of each passing front. Around the southeast – Wexford and Waterford coasts – the tide has been flooding through the evening into a solid high around late night local time, with a good push of water on the outer beaches and estuary mouths. Up the west, from Galway Bay to Clare and Kerry, the evening ebb has pulled hard off the reefs and rock marks, setting up tidy current lines and seams of bait. Sunrise comes early, with first light creeping in not long after 4 a.m., and sunset lingering late into the evening, giving a long crepuscular window when predators are most active. Bass anglers on the south coast report steady sport over the last few evenings: schoolies with a fair sprinkling of better fish into the 5–7 lb bracket off surf beaches and estuary mouths. Numbers aren’t wild yet, but it’s consistent enough if you move and cover ground. Soft plastic paddletails in natural baitfish colours, slim minnow plugs, and surface walkers at dawn and dusk are drawing the majority of hits. For bait, fresh peeler crab is still king where you can get it, with lugworm and rag taking their share when the surf is a bit coloured. On the west coast rocks, pollack have been obliging over rough ground, especially on the drop-offs. Lure anglers casting 20–40 g metals and weedless soft plastics are seeing good numbers of fish in the 2–5 lb range, with the odd bigger lump when the swell eases. Mackerel shoals are showing more reliably around headlands and piers when the tide runs: small silver feathers, Sabiki rigs, and slim metals worked midwater are filling buckets in short, frantic bursts rather than all day. Around Cork Harbour and similar sheltered inlets, there’s been a mixed bag: schoolie bass, coalies, small pollack, and the odd thornback ray for those soaking baits on the mud and sand patches. Simple running ledger rigs with strip mackerel, sandeel, or squid have been producing, especially on the last of the flood and first of the ebb. Flounder are still turning up in the estuaries, taking rag, lug, and pieces of crab. Best lures right now: - For bass: slim white or pearl soft plastics, sandeel-pattern metals, and subtle topwaters in low light. - For pollack: dark-backed soft shads fished close to the kelp, or 30–60 g jigging irons vertical over deeper marks. - For mackerel and coalies: small silver and blue metals or mini-feathers on light gear. If you’re planning a session, two hotspots worth a look: - The surf beaches and estuary mouths around County Wexford and south Waterford – great for bass on the flooding tide into dusk, especially with a bit of surf and colour. - The rock marks around County Clare and west Kerry – prime for pollack and mackerel when there’s a manageable swell and a strong moving tide. Work with the tides: aim to be set up for the last two hours of the flood into high water for bass on sand and estuaries, and the first of the ebb off the rocks and headlands. Use the long twilight – often the twenty minutes either side of full dark can make the whole session. That’s your coastal Ireland report from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an update. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn