Action Man
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2020
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Hello all,
Here's a couple of recent reports from my last 2 outings. I've had many attempts in the past few weeks but my luck only really changed on these last 2 sessions.
Tuesday 19th October
So after having a few days work cancelled mid-week I started looking at the evening tides and what I could salvage from this opportunity. The decision was made to head to the East Kent coast and target the bass with a strong cross-shore wind due to help stir things up. High water was not until midnight and I managed to get my baits in the water about 10:15pm just as there was enough water. The wind was tearing up the beach but I was able to position the rods nicely in a way that kept my lines all tight and in check. As mentioned earlier, I had put in a lot of effort recently and had only been rewarded with doggies, and to my disappointment guess what took my bait first again? Yes - a bloody doggie! I felt a bit disheartened and kind of slumped onto my tackle box, but to my relief, just on high water I had a few decent rattles of the rod tip and I had a small but feisty 31cm Bass on the deck, a quick pic and back she went.
Having found my target species I felt a sense of relief and sat back down for a cuppa tea. Unfortunately, the relaxation didn't last that long as the wind really started to pick up and started causing havoc. I picked up one rod to reel in and change my baits but as soon as I did this the whole tripod tipped over sending one rod crashing down into the concrete. I yelled with pain knowing that I had only just the week before had 5 new guides replaced by Roly (from Ron Edwards tackle), a quick inspection confirmed they had actually somehow survived the crash - Phew! But once again my comfort was short lived and an almighty gust of wind came through, nearly sending me off balance but as you can guess, this time it sent both rods flying! Smash, down the pair went and this time what a mess. That was a costly gust of wind resulting in an additional 6 guides needing to be replaced. Not what I wanted after just collecting them from repair! The only thing I could salvage from this disaster was the fact I had actually managed to hook another bass during the rod-crashing chaos. Got myself a nice 36cm bar of silver to finish the evening off. I packed up about 1:30am and headed home full of mixed emotions.
Sunday 24th October
This doesn't happen often, but the wife decided to take our son to London for the day and night for a half-term treat, and me having an early start on Monday ruled out my attendance so the prospect of a child and responsibility-free Sunday entered my head. My wife asks ''What are you going to do with yourself'', I respond with ''sit on the beach of course, what else would I do?!?''
High tide was at 3:30 pm at my favourite North Kent bass mark, so a rare daytime session it was going to be. The only thing playing on my mind was that we have had 2 days of calm conditions, resulting in blue skies, clear water and not much activity. I chose to buy ragworm, knowing that I needed every bit of help I could get and that hopefully, the 'wiggle' factor would work in my favour.
I got to the mark about 1:30pm and the water was nearly in, so I rushed to set-up and get two baits sent out as far as I could. Daytime fishing brings its own challenges, and being so bright and sunny there were plenty of dog walkers out. Usually, this means a lot of bother but actually this time, everyone was really nice and stopped to chat, ask questions etc so it was really nice to see so many people genuinely interested in what I was doing. As it so happens, the beach cleared of people and I suddenly got a violent pull down on my right-hand rod. I struck into the fish and immediately this thing wanted a scrap all the way into shore, I got it out and onto the sand and was chuffed with this solid lump of silver coming in at 50cm. Very happy to have got one out in these bright conditions so early in the session, a quick knock over the head and this was in my cool box to take home.
Some more friendly dog walkers came over to stop and talk to me, and of course, I was duly obliged to show off my catch to them! But as I was standing there whilst complete strangers took photos of me, my left-hand rod sprung up straight and my line dropped to the deck, I quickly got my trophy fish back in the bucket and wound in the slack like a madman. I had another fish on, and this time an audience was gathering phones out et all, something I'm definitely not used to! A great little scrap and soon enough I had a nice 42cm bass on the sand. This I quickly unhooked and showed to the now many dog walkers who had congregated by tackle box for a look. In most circumstances, I would have cracked this one over the head but I decided that may not make such a pleasant scene for the youngsters about so instead gave them a little lesson on fish anatomy, conservation and catch allowances/sizes etc. I didn't mind the release, I was pretty made up with having a lovely time on the beach!
Not long after the second fish Ben (Stormtrooper) turns up with his kids and dog, no rod for himself but some appropriately sized equipment for his kids to have a go. It was a great afternoon with lots of good company on the beach, so rare to have it like this really. My luck continued as I had another good succession of bites, resulting in another bass, bigger than the last one coming in at 44cm. Now this one was going to join the first fish in the cool box and a swift crack over the head did the job.
Things really slowed down on the ebb, with none of us registering any bites. We were tormented by a shoal of baitfish or small shad which came in close and often lept out of the water right in front of us. I had my lure rod with me so gave it a few chucks, but was only picking up weed which rendered the whole exercise pointless.
We were approaching the end of our session, with the water rapidly receding, the sun now hiding behind clouds and a cold wind came through - a stark reminder that it was actually Autumn! Ben's son was the first to register a good few bites, but sadly the fish dropped the bait and he missed it. I was genuinely gutted for him, would have been great to see him get his first Bass!
I went back over to my rods and in the space of 10 mins, I missed a further 4 bites. At this stage of the tide as the water runs out it can really be the hot time to catch, but for me they just wanted to torment me! Anyway, I had already had a belter of a day and was made up with my 3 Bass, including the 2 which came home for the freezer.
Until next time
Alan
Here's a couple of recent reports from my last 2 outings. I've had many attempts in the past few weeks but my luck only really changed on these last 2 sessions.
Tuesday 19th October
So after having a few days work cancelled mid-week I started looking at the evening tides and what I could salvage from this opportunity. The decision was made to head to the East Kent coast and target the bass with a strong cross-shore wind due to help stir things up. High water was not until midnight and I managed to get my baits in the water about 10:15pm just as there was enough water. The wind was tearing up the beach but I was able to position the rods nicely in a way that kept my lines all tight and in check. As mentioned earlier, I had put in a lot of effort recently and had only been rewarded with doggies, and to my disappointment guess what took my bait first again? Yes - a bloody doggie! I felt a bit disheartened and kind of slumped onto my tackle box, but to my relief, just on high water I had a few decent rattles of the rod tip and I had a small but feisty 31cm Bass on the deck, a quick pic and back she went.
Having found my target species I felt a sense of relief and sat back down for a cuppa tea. Unfortunately, the relaxation didn't last that long as the wind really started to pick up and started causing havoc. I picked up one rod to reel in and change my baits but as soon as I did this the whole tripod tipped over sending one rod crashing down into the concrete. I yelled with pain knowing that I had only just the week before had 5 new guides replaced by Roly (from Ron Edwards tackle), a quick inspection confirmed they had actually somehow survived the crash - Phew! But once again my comfort was short lived and an almighty gust of wind came through, nearly sending me off balance but as you can guess, this time it sent both rods flying! Smash, down the pair went and this time what a mess. That was a costly gust of wind resulting in an additional 6 guides needing to be replaced. Not what I wanted after just collecting them from repair! The only thing I could salvage from this disaster was the fact I had actually managed to hook another bass during the rod-crashing chaos. Got myself a nice 36cm bar of silver to finish the evening off. I packed up about 1:30am and headed home full of mixed emotions.
Sunday 24th October
This doesn't happen often, but the wife decided to take our son to London for the day and night for a half-term treat, and me having an early start on Monday ruled out my attendance so the prospect of a child and responsibility-free Sunday entered my head. My wife asks ''What are you going to do with yourself'', I respond with ''sit on the beach of course, what else would I do?!?''
High tide was at 3:30 pm at my favourite North Kent bass mark, so a rare daytime session it was going to be. The only thing playing on my mind was that we have had 2 days of calm conditions, resulting in blue skies, clear water and not much activity. I chose to buy ragworm, knowing that I needed every bit of help I could get and that hopefully, the 'wiggle' factor would work in my favour.
I got to the mark about 1:30pm and the water was nearly in, so I rushed to set-up and get two baits sent out as far as I could. Daytime fishing brings its own challenges, and being so bright and sunny there were plenty of dog walkers out. Usually, this means a lot of bother but actually this time, everyone was really nice and stopped to chat, ask questions etc so it was really nice to see so many people genuinely interested in what I was doing. As it so happens, the beach cleared of people and I suddenly got a violent pull down on my right-hand rod. I struck into the fish and immediately this thing wanted a scrap all the way into shore, I got it out and onto the sand and was chuffed with this solid lump of silver coming in at 50cm. Very happy to have got one out in these bright conditions so early in the session, a quick knock over the head and this was in my cool box to take home.
Some more friendly dog walkers came over to stop and talk to me, and of course, I was duly obliged to show off my catch to them! But as I was standing there whilst complete strangers took photos of me, my left-hand rod sprung up straight and my line dropped to the deck, I quickly got my trophy fish back in the bucket and wound in the slack like a madman. I had another fish on, and this time an audience was gathering phones out et all, something I'm definitely not used to! A great little scrap and soon enough I had a nice 42cm bass on the sand. This I quickly unhooked and showed to the now many dog walkers who had congregated by tackle box for a look. In most circumstances, I would have cracked this one over the head but I decided that may not make such a pleasant scene for the youngsters about so instead gave them a little lesson on fish anatomy, conservation and catch allowances/sizes etc. I didn't mind the release, I was pretty made up with having a lovely time on the beach!
Not long after the second fish Ben (Stormtrooper) turns up with his kids and dog, no rod for himself but some appropriately sized equipment for his kids to have a go. It was a great afternoon with lots of good company on the beach, so rare to have it like this really. My luck continued as I had another good succession of bites, resulting in another bass, bigger than the last one coming in at 44cm. Now this one was going to join the first fish in the cool box and a swift crack over the head did the job.
Things really slowed down on the ebb, with none of us registering any bites. We were tormented by a shoal of baitfish or small shad which came in close and often lept out of the water right in front of us. I had my lure rod with me so gave it a few chucks, but was only picking up weed which rendered the whole exercise pointless.
We were approaching the end of our session, with the water rapidly receding, the sun now hiding behind clouds and a cold wind came through - a stark reminder that it was actually Autumn! Ben's son was the first to register a good few bites, but sadly the fish dropped the bait and he missed it. I was genuinely gutted for him, would have been great to see him get his first Bass!
I went back over to my rods and in the space of 10 mins, I missed a further 4 bites. At this stage of the tide as the water runs out it can really be the hot time to catch, but for me they just wanted to torment me! Anyway, I had already had a belter of a day and was made up with my 3 Bass, including the 2 which came home for the freezer.
Until next time
Alan
