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GeneralCoarseSeaTackleFly
84
Irish
angler
Guide’s Diary
Something is rotten in the state o Irish bass fshing.
Jim Hendrick
laments our inability to protect one oIreland’s fnest angling resources.
F
rom May 15th to June 15th it’sorbidden to sh or bass.Ireland is the only European countryto manage bass as a recreational, rather thana commercial, species. This, o course, meansthat Ireland as a bass shing destination provesvery popular to visiting anglers, and, indeed,the existence o a managed recreational shery(since 1990) provides employment in manysustainable, recreational, bass-angling-tourismprojects in coastal communities all along oursouth and west coasts.The bass shery is ideally located, providingaccess to large urban populations romwithin Ireland, the UK and Europe via Cork and Shannon airports. With the oresighto managing and developing the shery ona recreational basis, Ireland now presentsseveral quality resh and saltwater sportshingopportunities. This groundbreaking, andvisionary, achievement was due largely towork done during the Smithwick Study, whichproposed the ending o commercial exploitationo bass in Irish waters. The socio-economicbenets are briefy outlined below rom work carried out during the 2005 season.From June to October 2005 just over 10,000anglers made the trip to Ireland targeting basson the south and western coasts. As well asEuropean anglers, a urther 2,000 anglerstravelled rom the USA in the striped bass/Irishbass exchange programme. These visitorsaccount or 50 per cent o charter trips nowbooked on these coasts.
For Bass?Blind Eye
A properly managed Irish bass fshery would be the envy o the world and coulddraw visiting anglers in their thousands.
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