ouchthathurt
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 15, 2021
- Messages
- 2,910
- Reaction score
- 12,462
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Hastings East Sussex
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
Having listened to wifey reminding me long enough how she enjoys the taste of freshly caught bass, I took the hint and decided to head down the beach to see if they have arrived yet. I popped into the local tackle shop for some fresh lug wraps then prepped the gear for this mornings low water. I planned to get down to do the last 2hrs of the ebb and first 2hrs of the flood, so I would need to be on the beach for 6am. I toyed with the idea of setting an alarm, but seeing as my baby girl wakes up at 5am every morning for a feed, I chose to rely on her to get me out of bed. So come this morning when I was awoken by the sound of a chattering baby, I rolled over to see the time - 0650hrs… bugger! The one night she chooses to sleep all the way through! I leap out of bed, chuck the gear in the car and a quick dash through the lanes later and I’m on the beach for 0730, giving me about 1hr of the ebb. I set up my two Leeda Icon elite match rods with the Diawa 7HT reels and attach 2 hook clipped down rigs with 2/0 hooks baited with lug from the wraps brought the day before. Looking at the state of the sea, I could see a very shallow sandbank between me and the surf, so a wade was in order, luckily I had chesties with me. Both rods were waded through the gully then cast into the nicely bubbling surf, one short and one long. 
The conditions looked good, dull, misty, overcast with showers 
you can see the waves breaking over the sandbank here.
With the rods out, I broke out the lug pump to get some super fresh lug, I would much prefer lug straight from the sand to the hook when bass fishing, rather than relying on wrapped or frozen, the fresher the better. I managed to pump enough for a few hours fishing then went and settled behind the rods. After a few minutes, the short rod registered a bite, rattling away nicely, but the strike met with nothing, so I retrieved it and rebaited it. I noticed then that the long rod had dropped slack, so after jogging backwards to make contact with it while winding furiously, I was met with the rod taking on a nice bend as something unseen dropped away downtide, taking my 5oz gripper with it. It then reversed course heading towards me, giving me the impression it may have come off, but as I’d waded out to meet it by this point, it then swam straight past me so I was now further out in the sea than it was! I waded to shore now, thinking of beaching it and soon a lovely bass slid onto the sand. On the measure he went 46cm so was destined for the oven later.
The tide was on the flood now, and the sandbar and gully now deep enough to hold a few fish, the surf was looking good too, plus with my freshly pumped bait, I was confident of another bass or two
As the tide increased, so did the wind and rain! Soon I was struggling to hold bottom with 5oz grippers, they were tripping and trundling off with the lateral flow, the incoming tide had come in to the point I was perching on a rock formation, preventing me from walking up tide to cast out, I did try, but I managed to slip off the rock and end up sitting up to my waist in water… thank god for chest waders! With no other action, I released my recently gathered fresh lug and headed home, scratching my head over why the bass preferred wrapped to newly pumped bait! Although, analysing it, I caught on my first cast, knowing this mark, I should have got here and been fishing a good 90mins before, my feeling is that I caught the tail end of the feeding spell.
That baby had one job…
The conditions looked good, dull, misty, overcast with showers you can see the waves breaking over the sandbank here.With the rods out, I broke out the lug pump to get some super fresh lug, I would much prefer lug straight from the sand to the hook when bass fishing, rather than relying on wrapped or frozen, the fresher the better. I managed to pump enough for a few hours fishing then went and settled behind the rods. After a few minutes, the short rod registered a bite, rattling away nicely, but the strike met with nothing, so I retrieved it and rebaited it. I noticed then that the long rod had dropped slack, so after jogging backwards to make contact with it while winding furiously, I was met with the rod taking on a nice bend as something unseen dropped away downtide, taking my 5oz gripper with it. It then reversed course heading towards me, giving me the impression it may have come off, but as I’d waded out to meet it by this point, it then swam straight past me so I was now further out in the sea than it was! I waded to shore now, thinking of beaching it and soon a lovely bass slid onto the sand. On the measure he went 46cm so was destined for the oven later.
The tide was on the flood now, and the sandbar and gully now deep enough to hold a few fish, the surf was looking good too, plus with my freshly pumped bait, I was confident of another bass or two
As the tide increased, so did the wind and rain! Soon I was struggling to hold bottom with 5oz grippers, they were tripping and trundling off with the lateral flow, the incoming tide had come in to the point I was perching on a rock formation, preventing me from walking up tide to cast out, I did try, but I managed to slip off the rock and end up sitting up to my waist in water… thank god for chest waders! With no other action, I released my recently gathered fresh lug and headed home, scratching my head over why the bass preferred wrapped to newly pumped bait! Although, analysing it, I caught on my first cast, knowing this mark, I should have got here and been fishing a good 90mins before, my feeling is that I caught the tail end of the feeding spell.That baby had one job…
