Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 376
- Reaction score
- 3,444
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
After the previous week’s blank, I fully intended to call it a day on the lures for 2020 but not for the first time this year the weather gods had other ideas, this was a little different though and for once on Thursday, the weather was too good NOT to go fishing! ? Reasoning that with cooling water temperatures, the bass would be dropping south again by now, I decided to head for a stretch of coast where the bass tend to show up early in the season, to try and catch them on their way back to warmer climes.
Conditions looked spot on when I arrived, with mirror calm, gin clear water and 30 minutes still to go until high, but there were one or two things which concerned me. First off was the clear sky and with no sign of the forecast cloud cover, the waxing moon lit up the scene almost as bright as day ?. As if that wasn’t bad enough, with the air temperature at 5.6°C ? and the water temperature down again on last week at 9.5°C, I would have preferred things a little warmer. There was no point in complaining though and after a short walk to my preferred mark I wasted no time in clipping on the Mishna and getting on with the hunt.
Now within minutes of starting to fish, I was encouraged by a large splash out in the darkness, as what I assumed to be a decent sea trout leapt clear of the water, but this proved to be a false dawn as the rest of the flood and the first 90 minutes of the ebb passed by without incident. Despite trying all of my usually reliable lures, including the Mighty Mishna, the Wave Worm, the Candy SF125 and the Ruf Manic, I couldn’t buy a bite. I remembered reading somewhere about fishing larger lures really slowly at this time of year, so I also tried the Patch II and the Mag Popper, waked really slowly down the flow with just the occasional twitch, but still nothing happened ?.
Eventually, I decided to try a change of scenery and for the next hour I wandered along the shore, barely needing my headlamp in the light of the moon, as I tried a few casts in any likely looking spots. It still wasn’t to be though and as the tide slowly ebbed away, my confidence did the same. After walking for probably a mile along the shore, I decided now to head back to my original swim to see if the bass had sneaked back while I was away.
With the tide dropping quickly by now I decided to go with a shallower diving lure to get over the top of the weed, and I clipped on the Lemon Meringue Swimmish. This was mounted on a 3g belly weighted hook, to give me that little extra casting distance without sinking the lure too deep, and I immediately resumed my quest.
After 20 more fruitless minutes in this spot, it was obvious that the bass still hadn’t turned up so I decided to make my way back to the car, fishing as I went. For the final hour of the evening I covered as much ground as possible, as I slowly retraced my original steps but no matter what I tried, the bass remained elusive I saw no signs of life.
So that’s my mojo definitely gone now and though I’ve been threatening to pack in the lures for a couple of weeks, this time really is it until March 2021. In the meantime though, look out congerzilla, I’m coming to get you ?.
Conditions looked spot on when I arrived, with mirror calm, gin clear water and 30 minutes still to go until high, but there were one or two things which concerned me. First off was the clear sky and with no sign of the forecast cloud cover, the waxing moon lit up the scene almost as bright as day ?. As if that wasn’t bad enough, with the air temperature at 5.6°C ? and the water temperature down again on last week at 9.5°C, I would have preferred things a little warmer. There was no point in complaining though and after a short walk to my preferred mark I wasted no time in clipping on the Mishna and getting on with the hunt.
Now within minutes of starting to fish, I was encouraged by a large splash out in the darkness, as what I assumed to be a decent sea trout leapt clear of the water, but this proved to be a false dawn as the rest of the flood and the first 90 minutes of the ebb passed by without incident. Despite trying all of my usually reliable lures, including the Mighty Mishna, the Wave Worm, the Candy SF125 and the Ruf Manic, I couldn’t buy a bite. I remembered reading somewhere about fishing larger lures really slowly at this time of year, so I also tried the Patch II and the Mag Popper, waked really slowly down the flow with just the occasional twitch, but still nothing happened ?.
Eventually, I decided to try a change of scenery and for the next hour I wandered along the shore, barely needing my headlamp in the light of the moon, as I tried a few casts in any likely looking spots. It still wasn’t to be though and as the tide slowly ebbed away, my confidence did the same. After walking for probably a mile along the shore, I decided now to head back to my original swim to see if the bass had sneaked back while I was away.
With the tide dropping quickly by now I decided to go with a shallower diving lure to get over the top of the weed, and I clipped on the Lemon Meringue Swimmish. This was mounted on a 3g belly weighted hook, to give me that little extra casting distance without sinking the lure too deep, and I immediately resumed my quest.
After 20 more fruitless minutes in this spot, it was obvious that the bass still hadn’t turned up so I decided to make my way back to the car, fishing as I went. For the final hour of the evening I covered as much ground as possible, as I slowly retraced my original steps but no matter what I tried, the bass remained elusive I saw no signs of life.
So that’s my mojo definitely gone now and though I’ve been threatening to pack in the lures for a couple of weeks, this time really is it until March 2021. In the meantime though, look out congerzilla, I’m coming to get you ?.
