Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 376
- Reaction score
- 3,440
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
Part 1.
With my struggles hopefully behind me, I headed out again this week, to try and add to my season’s tally and this time conditions couldn’t have been more different from last Thursday. The grey skies were replaced by bright blue and the strong and gusty winds were a distant memory, and in their place was just a light onshore breeze
. I arrived at my destination, about an hour after low water to find a couple of other guys already fishing there, but I still had plenty of room, so I claimed myself a spot and started off my hunt with the good old Swimish. This failed to get the instant response I always hope for, but I wasn’t discouraged and over the next 90 minutes I covered as much water as possible with a variety of lures, ranging from the big Patch to the Asturie 110, from the Mag Popper to the more subtle Salt Skimmer, as well as 3 different coloured Swimish, but despite seeing a few fish splashing on the surface, I couldn’t seem to get a response.
Eventually I decided that a bit of a gamble was in order, so I clipped on a small 100mm Ruf Manic, which I hoped wouldn’t sink too quickly or too deeply in the shallow, snag filled water ?. This change had an almost instant effect, as the Manic was hit on only the second cast, and the culprit put up a great scrap in the shallow water. After a few heart stopping moments, I was able to land my catch safely and to beat the blank again. At 48cm, it was a half decent start to the evening ?.
After a quick pic and release, I cast my lure back to roughly the same area and incredibly it was hit again almost instantly ?. I could tell immediately though, that this was a much smaller fish and sure enough, after the minimum of fuss I landed my second silver in a couple of minutes. A much smaller one this time of around 32cm, but a bass just the same ?.
In the next 10 minutes I caught 2 more bass of a similar size
but all too soon I was pushed back into the weed, from where I was unable to cast the small Ruf Manic far enough to reach the open water ?.
This was incredibly frustrating, as the bass were still feeding voraciously on the far edge of the weed bed, approximately 20 meters away from me, so I had to come up with another plan ?. By the time I had waded as close as I dared, my plan was hatched, and I clipped on an Albie Snax mounted on a 5/0. Once in position, I cast the Snax beyond the cabbage and started to twitch it back towards me and amazingly, the lure was smashed almost straight away, leaving me attached to one angry little bass. The problem now was how did I get the fish back through the dense bladderwrack ?. there was only one thing for it, so with the rod held high, I just cranked the bugger in as quickly as possible and skimmed it over the top of the weed before it had time to realise what was going on ?.
Thankfully the plan worked, and bass number 5 of the evening was safely landed ?.
The tide continued to push hard now, but fortunately I was able to land another 3 bass to 43cm using the same technique, before once more I was forced to beat a tactical retreat off the mark.
To be continued..............................
With my struggles hopefully behind me, I headed out again this week, to try and add to my season’s tally and this time conditions couldn’t have been more different from last Thursday. The grey skies were replaced by bright blue and the strong and gusty winds were a distant memory, and in their place was just a light onshore breeze
. I arrived at my destination, about an hour after low water to find a couple of other guys already fishing there, but I still had plenty of room, so I claimed myself a spot and started off my hunt with the good old Swimish. This failed to get the instant response I always hope for, but I wasn’t discouraged and over the next 90 minutes I covered as much water as possible with a variety of lures, ranging from the big Patch to the Asturie 110, from the Mag Popper to the more subtle Salt Skimmer, as well as 3 different coloured Swimish, but despite seeing a few fish splashing on the surface, I couldn’t seem to get a response.Eventually I decided that a bit of a gamble was in order, so I clipped on a small 100mm Ruf Manic, which I hoped wouldn’t sink too quickly or too deeply in the shallow, snag filled water ?. This change had an almost instant effect, as the Manic was hit on only the second cast, and the culprit put up a great scrap in the shallow water. After a few heart stopping moments, I was able to land my catch safely and to beat the blank again. At 48cm, it was a half decent start to the evening ?.
After a quick pic and release, I cast my lure back to roughly the same area and incredibly it was hit again almost instantly ?. I could tell immediately though, that this was a much smaller fish and sure enough, after the minimum of fuss I landed my second silver in a couple of minutes. A much smaller one this time of around 32cm, but a bass just the same ?.
In the next 10 minutes I caught 2 more bass of a similar size
but all too soon I was pushed back into the weed, from where I was unable to cast the small Ruf Manic far enough to reach the open water ?.
This was incredibly frustrating, as the bass were still feeding voraciously on the far edge of the weed bed, approximately 20 meters away from me, so I had to come up with another plan ?. By the time I had waded as close as I dared, my plan was hatched, and I clipped on an Albie Snax mounted on a 5/0. Once in position, I cast the Snax beyond the cabbage and started to twitch it back towards me and amazingly, the lure was smashed almost straight away, leaving me attached to one angry little bass. The problem now was how did I get the fish back through the dense bladderwrack ?. there was only one thing for it, so with the rod held high, I just cranked the bugger in as quickly as possible and skimmed it over the top of the weed before it had time to realise what was going on ?.
Thankfully the plan worked, and bass number 5 of the evening was safely landed ?.
The tide continued to push hard now, but fortunately I was able to land another 3 bass to 43cm using the same technique, before once more I was forced to beat a tactical retreat off the mark.
To be continued..............................
