This past August Theresa and I took the girls over to Ireland. It was a two-week trip that had us land in Dublin and do a big counterclockwise circle around the island. We've been over to the Mother Land twice now and there hasn't been an opportunity to fish. I have to start changing my thinking when it comes to vacations and fishing. In my mind these jaunts are either a fishing trip or not a fishing trip. All or none, no in between. For some reason, either because I'm cheap or just selfless, I can't bring myself to just take some time for myself and go fishing for a couple of hours. On this trip I could have hired a guide and hit one of the trout or salmon waters or took advantage of the saltwater that bathes the Emerald Isle.
It wasn't like I wasn't in the know. I know that there are plenty of opportunities to experience fly fishing over in Ireland. Each year I spend some time at the Angling Ireland
booth at The Fly Fishing Show. Last January I got the names of some local guides over there and some maps to point me in the right direction. But in the end that intel stayed home on my fly tying desk. And I can't blame Theresa or the girls, Theresa always encourages me to fish, to a point, and I could have thrown the girls a couple of bucks to do something on their own.
So I write this not to explain why I don't put myself first at times and just hire a guide to go fishing while away. In a week I'll be heading to Hilton Head where I'll probably pass on just hiring a guide and catching fish. It'll be some wrong time and tide sunk up to my waist in mud dodging the alligators DIY outing that will surely leave me skunked. But hey, it makes for a good story. In the end maybe I'm just cheap, but truthfully spending $500 to fish on top of the trips cost to catch a few fish? Yeah, just cheap.
While scrolling through Facebook I saw a post from a fly tier from Ireland that caught my eye. Her line of flies is called Minka Fly. While most of her streamer flies are meant for toothy predators like pike she also ties smaller versions for trout and saltwater fishes as well. In one of her posts I saw the top picture pop up which is an online magazine titled Predator & Salt. As we all know tabletop magazines are a thing of the past although there are a few that have snubbed the online version only readings. And what caught my eye was the fish on the cover of their first version. To me it looked like a striped bass. Did I miss an opportunity to catch a striped bass while over in Ireland?
We all know about our striped bass here in the United States. The Atlantic striped bass, the species morose saxitalis, is pretty much an East Coast fish with a range from Canada down to Florida.
Thankfully that train ride from the Navesink River to the San Francisco area in 1879 the East Coast strain of striped bass made it's way to the West Coast. Some of the fish, depending on where you are located, are migratory, while others stay put living their best striped bass life. In addition there's sodium free striped bass that live far from the ocean in rivers and lakes.
So I had to dig into these Irish fish a bit. I'm no expert and the info for this post was taken from that Predator & Salt first edition along with some online searches. So what is that fish I'm talking about? Over there they call it sea bass, or just bass. Around these parts we have
sea bass, also called black sea bass. They belong to the species centroprisitis striata, if that helps at all. The reason I mention it here and checked it out was to see if our eastern United States sea bass was at all related to the sea bass from across the pond, which it is not.
The sea bass of Ireland and the United Kingdom, aka Irish sea bass or European sea bass, belong to the species dicentrarchus labrax. Its range is from around Ireland and the United Kingdom down to France, Portugal, Spain, up into the Mediterranean Sea to Italy and the top of Africa. Depending on where you are European sea bass are called branzino, yes that branzino, of the species dicentrarchus labrax. If you order it in a restaurant with a server who has a brough, then it's Irish Sea bass, sea bass, or European sea bass. If you're near Italy or over here in the United States it's called branzino. It's a fish that can be caught fresh the same day and prepared for the table or farm raised, like so many of the fish we consume and aren't aware of their origin. We see it, as branzino, from time to time offered at Costco, "fresh frozen", aka farm and pen raised.
So we've identified the Atlantic striped bass, morone saxitalis, and the European sea bass, dicentrarchus labrax. Each of the above fancy names are the species they are. I'm no fish expert by far and when you get to those Latin names I'm just about done. But in short, and hopefully in the right direction, fishes are broken down by Class, Order, Family, Subfamily, Species and so forth. The striped bass and European sea bass, yes your branzino, are related, like distant cousins.
Both are from a larger family, with distinct but similar traits, and bloodlines. Striped bass are from the family Moronidae, while sea bass, European not black, are from Serranidae. It's there, in the Subcategories of the Family and Species, where they are distantly related. For someone like a me with a simple mind the cover of Predator & Salt piqued my interest, because that fish just looked like a striped bass. And looking into it there are a lot of similarities, and differences as well.
We know striped bass are anadromous, which means they live in saltwater and migrate to fresh water to spawn. European sea bass, ESB for short, spawn in either offshore and inshore waters and their eggs migrate into the estuaries to grow, the same way menhaden spawn. The spend years in the shallower water acting and eating pretty much the way striped bass do. Smell, lateral lines, and sight help them find prey, which they do more at night then during the
day. They rely on ambush tactics, and their caudal fin, at the rear, is usually large in scale attached to the body by a thick and muscular peduncle. As far as teeth, they don't have teeth. like bluefish per se, but their tongues and upper palate have "teeth" to hold prey before it makes its way down the gullet. So I guess my Irish brothers and sisters get the occasional "bass thumb" when fishing for ESB.
If you look at the image below you might guess that's taken at one of our groins here on the Jersey Shore. Nope, that's from rocks on the south of Ireland. The similarities are, well, very similar.
One big difference is the size of the two fish. The world Record ESB currently stands at 22 pounds taken in 1999 by French angler Phillip Boulet. although heavier fish to 29 pounds have been caught by spearfishing and commercial trawlers. As far as striped bass Greg Myerson still holds the World Record after his 81.88 pound fish that was caught in the Long Island Sound in 2011. Jeez, that was that long ago?
In my search I found a Facebook post by Flavien Malempree, a Frenchman who penned a book titled Le Bar a la Mouche, or Sea Bass on the Fly. He too found similarities
between striped and European sea bass and has traveled over here to Cape Cod to experience what our fish has to offer. I'll have to get a copy of his book especially before I make another trip
over to Ireland where next time I'm definitely going to fish. Well at least I'm saying that now.
And just like our challenges with striped bass and the ASMFC over here, Ireland, and I'm sure other countries, do their part to manage, or like us, poorly mange their bass populations. Like here, management of bass is written into Irish law, and managed by Inland Fisheries
Ireland (IFI) and the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA). Also like the striped bass the ESB populations plummeted in the 1990's due to commercial overfishing. The IFI runs the National Bass Programme which is dedicated to the research and conservation of European sea bass. And like the striped bass over here, stock assessments are performed and regulations are set annually for recreational fishing. Currently recreational anglers are allowed one fish per day, which is down from two, with a minimum size of 42 cm, or 16 inches. Sound familiar?
Like the United States and our EEZ, or Economic Exclusion Zone, there is one around Ireland as well. It extends out 200 miles like ours does. I see mention of a "Territorial Sea"
which extends off the coast 12 miles. Is that like our 3 mile-line? I'm not sure nor do I think I really care. But the EEZ's around the world came to be in 1982 at the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea. It's pretty much up to 200 miles off the coast of everywhere.
Where I get confused is between at the difference between the three mile-line and the territorial sea line, which is twelve miles off . In New Jersey the three mile line is the boundary
where the state has jurisdiction over those marine resources and waters, out from that is under Federal control. That seems to be common wordage between here and there. Three mile line, territorial sea, EEZ to 200 miles off, and then the high seas. If you fish with waders on and throw a fly rod then all you care about is the first 100 feet off the beach.
I have to say that was a fun wormhole to travel down this cold January morning. Digging into fish and their relatives is kinda like doing a 23 and Me search. You never know who you're related to no matter how far away they are. Thanks to Predator & Salt and authors like
Jason O'Riordan and Marcin Cantor who provided me the intel and images to go along with this post. If you'd like to read more Predator & Salt you can check it out HERE. I'll have to admit
I got excited when I saw "Jersey Kayak Fishing" in the third edition. But that "Jersey" referred to one of the largest Channel Islands, which is located between England and France.
So striped bass is still number one, redfish could become a solid number two, and these European sea bass could be third. The next trip over is in 2027 and I'm going to make it a point to get out and get one of these on the fly, if I'm still not too cheap.