North Wales A tough week, but I’m not done yet.

[Andy 1965]

After failing to catch a bass on my last outing, I was desperate to make the most of the fishing this week, but things seemed to be conspiring against me. This started off on Sunday night, when my recent dental abscess flared up again . Though I had a lump the size of a tennis ball on the right hand side of my face, it wasn’t actually that painful, so I would have loved to head out on Tuesday night as normal, especially as it was forecast to be flat calm. It wasn’t to be though, as I had to attend an open evening at my son’s college.

My original plan had been to fish Wednesday evening instead, but with an emergency dentist appointment in the morning, I wasn’t sure if I would be fit for it. As it happened, I arrived at the dentist to find that the computer server was down, and so they couldn’t do anything about my tooth after all .

It wasn’t all bad though, as with my appointment rescheduled for the following morning, I was free to fish that evening after all, so with my abscess protected from the cold evening air by a thermal snood I set off on the hunt for silver.

Despite the light winds, I arrived at my chosen venue about 2 hours before high water to find quite choppy conditions, with a light swell rolling ashore. The water clarity was still very good though, and with the tide flooding over the shingle and the water getting deeper, it would only get better.

Now this particular mark hasn’t fished that well for me this year, with the bass no longer showing at the traditionally productive times . Despite this, I’ve stuck at it due to the fact that it has produced lots of bass for me over the years, and I’m convinced that they will still pass through the area at some point in the tide. Anyway, back to Wednesday.

The flood turned out to be completely dead, and apart from a couple of sea trout leaping clear of the water, surprisingly close to the shore, I saw no signs of life . I told myself that it was only a matter of time though, and I continued to trash the water with all of the lures which have produced for me in the past. High water came and went, and the tide started to recede, slowly at first but gathering pace all the time, and despite my best efforts the bass remained elusive .

There was roughly an hour to go now before I would have to call it a night, and it was seriously looking like consecutive blanks for me, but then completely out of the blue my Mishna was hit . After only a few seconds though, the assailant was gone and having waited 4 hours for the first bit of action, only to miss it, I was absolutely devastated .

I could quite easily have given up at this point, but not knowing if I would be fit to go fishing again the following night, I decided to make the most of it while I was out. As it happened, I was lucky that I did carry on, as no more than 5 minutes later my lure was hit again, and this time the hook held . With very little flow now to aid it in its struggle, my catch was easily beaten and after a short scrap I safely landed a schoolie on the shingle. At 48cm it was my smallest bass for a few weeks, but I was just relieved to have caught something .


It’s amazing how things can just switch on while fishing, and for the next 30 minutes things were completely different than they had been for the previous 200, as I had a series of fast plucks at my lures. Unfortunately I missed most of them, leading me to surmise that small schoolies might be responsible, and my theory was proved correct when I finally hooked the second bass of the session. At 39cm it was the smallest bass I’ve caught for over a month but I wasn’t bothered in the slightest, as I was just happy to double my tally for the evening .


With time rapidly running out now, I hoped that I might be able to add further to my total, but it wasn’t to be and after a biteless last 20 minutes, I called it a night and headed for home.

Having done better than I expected, I was seriously considering another session the following night, but the dentist had other ideas. After taking one look at my tooth, he had no hesitation in recommending the immediate extraction of the offending premolar, along with an incision of the gum to allow the puss to escape .

10 minutes later and I was on my way home to recover, where after a couple of hours of agony as the anaesthetic wore off, I wasn’t feeling too bad. I must admit that I did still consider heading out again, but eventually common sense prevailed and I decided to give it a miss until next week, when hopefully I’ll be fully recovered.