Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 376
- Reaction score
- 3,432
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
After my successful session on Tuesday evening I was keen for more of the same, so on Thursday evening I dosed myself up with paracetamol, and headed back to the same mark. I arrived just after low water and though I usually catch there higher up the tide, the bass will also feed at the start of the flood, so I was hopeful of an early fish or two.
Going from past experience, I knew where the bass were likely to be feeding, so I waded out into a bank of weed, from where I could cast to the clearer water beyond. First lure on was the Mishna on a 5g jig-head but this limited the amount of water I could cover, as it swan too deeply to get through the outermost reaches of the weed, so I soon swapped this for the shallower diving Swimish. This helped a little, but being unweighted its casting range was limited. Next up was the Patch 100, which I’ve caught on at the spot before, until I finally settled on the Frosty as the best compromise between subtlety and casting range. For the next 30 minutes, I alternated between the Yellow and Cabot versions, but apart from something which was startled by my lure splashing down, and then hurriedly tail walked away from me ?, I didn’t see any more signs of life.
As the tide pushed me steadily back from the weed, and onto cleaner ground, I was able to switch back to the Mishna and Swimish, and for the next 90 minutes I twitched them around in the rapidly flooding gullies. Sadly this failed to produce any hits, but with the water in front of me getting gradually deeper, and the sun dipping ever closer to the horizon, I was still hopeful of getting a few fish.
By now the flooding tide had reached the point where the fishing usually picks up and a strong left to right flow was beginning to build, so things were looking good. Over the next couple of hours I chucked everything I had at the bass, but possibly due to the increased flow on such a large tide, the bass were conspicuous by their absence. As well as my usual Mishnas, fished on ever heavier jig-heads, I also tried several other SPs, including the Wave Worm and Do-Live Stick, but still no signs of life. I even tried the SF125 and the Hunt-House 155, in order to cover as much water as possible, but still the bass failed to put in an appearance. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the flow was starting to ease off by now and I seriously feared that I had missed my chance ?.
After more than 4 hours of fishing, the paracetamol were wearing off and with the chilling effect of the constant breeze blowing from behind me, I was starting to feel very rough indeed ?. So rough in fact that I was seriously considering giving up. I did have a couple of tablets with me for such an eventuality, so I popped them in the hope that they would kick in sooner rather than later, but the prospects for a late night weren’t looking good.
Ten minutes later and I wasn’t feeling any better, but then completely out of the blue everything changed, as my Mishna was suddenly stopped dead in its tracks! ? I was completely shocked, and in a split second I went from dreaming of the drive home in a nice warm car, to being in full on “fight mode” ?. After the initial loading of the rod tip, it now started bouncing around as the attacker tried to fight its way into deeper water, but by holding the rod high I was able to cushion these desperate attempts to escape. Once these early lunges subsided, I was able to draw the fish towards me, where after a couple of final twists and turns, it gave up and allowed me to slide it ashore. So once more the blank was beaten, albeit rather belatedly, with a nice fish of 47cm ?.
I was of course chuffed to bits to have finally caught something but more than that, all my aches, pains, coughs and sneezes were instantly forgotten ?.
After a quick pic, the bass was released into the surprisingly warm water, and I got back to the fishing with renewed optimism.
After waiting so long for my first fish of the evening, the bass were obviously on the feed now and only 15 minutes later I was in again. After an almost identical fight I was able to land an almost identical fish, but very slightly bigger this time at 48cm. Not surprisingly, my Covid was now completely forgotten about ?.
With 2 bass caught in relatively quick succession, I hoped for more of the same now but I had to wait a little longer for my next take. When it did come it was again a case of Deja-vu and after yet another matching fight, a third feisty bass was beaten and ready to be beached. Well at least I thought it was, but just when it seemed to be game over, the fish gave one last flick of the tail and was gone ?. I was gutted to have lost a fish so close to shore, but realistically there was nothing I could have done differently, so I just had to forget about it and to crack on.
As it happened, I didn’t have to wait very long at all to make amends, and on the very next cast my lure was smashed almost immediately ?. This time I took nothing for granted, and rather than rushing the fight, I made extra sure that the bass was well beaten before I attempted to land it. This time everything went without a hitch and bass number 3 of the evening, the best yet at 52cm, was soon beached safely ?.
I fished on with renewed confidence, expecting another take at any moment but the bass had seemingly vanished as quickly as they had arrived. I gave it another 30 minutes but I didn’t get any more interest in my lures, and I called it a night at 00:45.
So that was my first week back after my holiday, when not even Covid could stop me from getting out there and catching a few more bass. Roll on next week now though, when hopefully I’ll be back to normal and fighting fit once more ?.
Going from past experience, I knew where the bass were likely to be feeding, so I waded out into a bank of weed, from where I could cast to the clearer water beyond. First lure on was the Mishna on a 5g jig-head but this limited the amount of water I could cover, as it swan too deeply to get through the outermost reaches of the weed, so I soon swapped this for the shallower diving Swimish. This helped a little, but being unweighted its casting range was limited. Next up was the Patch 100, which I’ve caught on at the spot before, until I finally settled on the Frosty as the best compromise between subtlety and casting range. For the next 30 minutes, I alternated between the Yellow and Cabot versions, but apart from something which was startled by my lure splashing down, and then hurriedly tail walked away from me ?, I didn’t see any more signs of life.
As the tide pushed me steadily back from the weed, and onto cleaner ground, I was able to switch back to the Mishna and Swimish, and for the next 90 minutes I twitched them around in the rapidly flooding gullies. Sadly this failed to produce any hits, but with the water in front of me getting gradually deeper, and the sun dipping ever closer to the horizon, I was still hopeful of getting a few fish.
By now the flooding tide had reached the point where the fishing usually picks up and a strong left to right flow was beginning to build, so things were looking good. Over the next couple of hours I chucked everything I had at the bass, but possibly due to the increased flow on such a large tide, the bass were conspicuous by their absence. As well as my usual Mishnas, fished on ever heavier jig-heads, I also tried several other SPs, including the Wave Worm and Do-Live Stick, but still no signs of life. I even tried the SF125 and the Hunt-House 155, in order to cover as much water as possible, but still the bass failed to put in an appearance. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the flow was starting to ease off by now and I seriously feared that I had missed my chance ?.
After more than 4 hours of fishing, the paracetamol were wearing off and with the chilling effect of the constant breeze blowing from behind me, I was starting to feel very rough indeed ?. So rough in fact that I was seriously considering giving up. I did have a couple of tablets with me for such an eventuality, so I popped them in the hope that they would kick in sooner rather than later, but the prospects for a late night weren’t looking good.
Ten minutes later and I wasn’t feeling any better, but then completely out of the blue everything changed, as my Mishna was suddenly stopped dead in its tracks! ? I was completely shocked, and in a split second I went from dreaming of the drive home in a nice warm car, to being in full on “fight mode” ?. After the initial loading of the rod tip, it now started bouncing around as the attacker tried to fight its way into deeper water, but by holding the rod high I was able to cushion these desperate attempts to escape. Once these early lunges subsided, I was able to draw the fish towards me, where after a couple of final twists and turns, it gave up and allowed me to slide it ashore. So once more the blank was beaten, albeit rather belatedly, with a nice fish of 47cm ?.
I was of course chuffed to bits to have finally caught something but more than that, all my aches, pains, coughs and sneezes were instantly forgotten ?.
After a quick pic, the bass was released into the surprisingly warm water, and I got back to the fishing with renewed optimism.
After waiting so long for my first fish of the evening, the bass were obviously on the feed now and only 15 minutes later I was in again. After an almost identical fight I was able to land an almost identical fish, but very slightly bigger this time at 48cm. Not surprisingly, my Covid was now completely forgotten about ?.
With 2 bass caught in relatively quick succession, I hoped for more of the same now but I had to wait a little longer for my next take. When it did come it was again a case of Deja-vu and after yet another matching fight, a third feisty bass was beaten and ready to be beached. Well at least I thought it was, but just when it seemed to be game over, the fish gave one last flick of the tail and was gone ?. I was gutted to have lost a fish so close to shore, but realistically there was nothing I could have done differently, so I just had to forget about it and to crack on.
As it happened, I didn’t have to wait very long at all to make amends, and on the very next cast my lure was smashed almost immediately ?. This time I took nothing for granted, and rather than rushing the fight, I made extra sure that the bass was well beaten before I attempted to land it. This time everything went without a hitch and bass number 3 of the evening, the best yet at 52cm, was soon beached safely ?.
I fished on with renewed confidence, expecting another take at any moment but the bass had seemingly vanished as quickly as they had arrived. I gave it another 30 minutes but I didn’t get any more interest in my lures, and I called it a night at 00:45.
So that was my first week back after my holiday, when not even Covid could stop me from getting out there and catching a few more bass. Roll on next week now though, when hopefully I’ll be back to normal and fighting fit once more ?.
