Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 367
- Reaction score
- 3,374
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
With the tides all wrong for another shot at last week’s mark, I decided on Tuesday to return to a spot which has treated me well this year, with plenty of fish caught. Conditions looked perfect too, so I was confident of a successful evening 
. Despite the promising signs, the bass were conspicuous by their absence and in 4 and a half hours fishing, the closest I came to catching anything was 3 small hits on the Mishna, none of which came close to a secure hook up . With another session in which to make amends, I wasn’t too disappointed with my latest blank and so I hatched my plans for next time.
Thursday evening soon rolled around and I arrived at my chosen mark mid-way down the ebb. This was my first visit of the year but with reports of some very nice bass showing in the area, I was confident of a result.
It was too early in the tide to head straight for my planned low water mark, so I fished a spot half a mile or so along the shore to begin with. Everything looked good there, with excellent water clarity and a decent tide running left to right, which enabled me to work my lures around in a large arc, and to cover lots of water. Despite seeing a couple of fish splashing surprisingly close to me though, I couldn’t tempt anything into having a go.
After an hour it was time to head for my first choice mark, and I arrived there with 2 hours of the ebb to go, exactly as planned. Things started off quietly as the tide eased towards low water, but as darkness approached my confidence levels rose. Despite this, things remained quiet until low water passed, when the flow switched around and then began to increase in strength.
The first signs of life were just the occasional splash further out in the main run of tide, but despite me trying a variety of different lures, I didn’t get a touch. Determined not to give up though, I cycled through the lures which have caught for me at the area in the past. Eventually, an hour or so after low my yellow baby Patch was hit at maximum range, but despite the sound of a massive splash out in the darkness, the attacker only made a slight contact with my lure and just as on Tuesday, it missed the hooks 
.
I fired my next few casts in exactly the same direction, in the hope that the feeding fish was still there, but it wasn’t to be and I began to worry that I might have missed what might be my only chance of the night
.
15 minutes later and I had only just switched to an SF125 in Plasma Candy, when I had another chance. As before, the lure was smashed at maximum range and this time there was no need to worry about a hook-up, as the rod tip immediately pulled hard over, and a meter or so of line was taken off against the drag! Once the fish gained its head, it really started to fight and I knew immediately that this a bit bigger than my recent schoolies. After a moment or two the bass started to fight dirty, and I felt that horrible sensation of braid rubbing through weed, before things locked up completely!
I didn’t dare give the fish any slack, so I increased the pressure slightly while keeping everything crossed that the braid wouldn’t snap 
and thankfully after a few seconds I managed to pull the fish free. The rest of the fight was a bit nerve-wracking in the weed strewn water, but thankfully, once I had the fish on the surface it was game over and I was able to lead my catch gently to shore. The question now was would it be my first 60cm+bass of the year? 
Sadly it wasn’t but I was still chuffed to equal my best catch of the year so far, with a chunky 58cm bar of silver
.
The fish had obviously given it’s all in the fight and it took me a while to revive her in the shallows, but eventually I felt her strength return before she swam off slowly into the darkness, where hopefully she’ll soon grow another 2cm
.
I fished on with renewed confidence now, and 10 minutes later I hooked another fish at distance, regrettably though it managed to make good its escape after 10 seconds or so
.
As the tide continued to flood I was pushed back into thick weed, and though I could hear fish topping out in the clearer water in ever increasing numbers, I just couldn’t temp them into having a go at my lures. I fished on for half an hour longer than I had originally planned but the bass just weren’t interested in anything I could throw at them.
So sport is a little quiet at the moment, with the larger numbers of bass being hard to find, but thankfully the size of my catches seem to be increasing. With luck this is a foretaste of some decent fish to come in the autumn
.
. Despite the promising signs, the bass were conspicuous by their absence and in 4 and a half hours fishing, the closest I came to catching anything was 3 small hits on the Mishna, none of which came close to a secure hook up . With another session in which to make amends, I wasn’t too disappointed with my latest blank and so I hatched my plans for next time.Thursday evening soon rolled around and I arrived at my chosen mark mid-way down the ebb. This was my first visit of the year but with reports of some very nice bass showing in the area, I was confident of a result.
It was too early in the tide to head straight for my planned low water mark, so I fished a spot half a mile or so along the shore to begin with. Everything looked good there, with excellent water clarity and a decent tide running left to right, which enabled me to work my lures around in a large arc, and to cover lots of water. Despite seeing a couple of fish splashing surprisingly close to me though, I couldn’t tempt anything into having a go.
After an hour it was time to head for my first choice mark, and I arrived there with 2 hours of the ebb to go, exactly as planned. Things started off quietly as the tide eased towards low water, but as darkness approached my confidence levels rose. Despite this, things remained quiet until low water passed, when the flow switched around and then began to increase in strength.
The first signs of life were just the occasional splash further out in the main run of tide, but despite me trying a variety of different lures, I didn’t get a touch
. Determined not to give up though, I cycled through the lures which have caught for me at the area in the past. Eventually, an hour or so after low my yellow baby Patch was hit at maximum range, but despite the sound of a massive splash out in the darkness, the attacker only made a slight contact with my lure and just as on Tuesday, it missed the hooks .I fired my next few casts in exactly the same direction, in the hope that the feeding fish was still there, but it wasn’t to be and I began to worry that I might have missed what might be my only chance of the night
.15 minutes later and I had only just switched to an SF125 in Plasma Candy, when I had another chance. As before, the lure was smashed at maximum range and this time there was no need to worry about a hook-up, as the rod tip immediately pulled hard over, and a meter or so of line was taken off against the drag! Once the fish gained its head, it really started to fight and I knew immediately that this a bit bigger than my recent schoolies. After a moment or two the bass started to fight dirty, and I felt that horrible sensation of braid rubbing through weed, before things locked up completely!
I didn’t dare give the fish any slack, so I increased the pressure slightly while keeping everything crossed that the braid wouldn’t snap and thankfully after a few seconds I managed to pull the fish free. The rest of the fight was a bit nerve-wracking in the weed strewn water, but thankfully, once I had the fish on the surface it was game over and I was able to lead my catch gently to shore. The question now was would it be my first 60cm+bass of the year? Sadly it wasn’t but I was still chuffed to equal my best catch of the year so far, with a chunky 58cm bar of silver
.The fish had obviously given it’s all in the fight and it took me a while to revive her in the shallows, but eventually I felt her strength return before she swam off slowly into the darkness, where hopefully she’ll soon grow another 2cm
.I fished on with renewed confidence now, and 10 minutes later I hooked another fish at distance, regrettably though it managed to make good its escape after 10 seconds or so
.As the tide continued to flood I was pushed back into thick weed, and though I could hear fish topping out in the clearer water in ever increasing numbers, I just couldn’t temp them into having a go at my lures. I fished on for half an hour longer than I had originally planned but the bass just weren’t interested in anything I could throw at them.
So sport is a little quiet at the moment, with the larger numbers of bass being hard to find, but thankfully the size of my catches seem to be increasing. With luck this is a foretaste of some decent fish to come in the autumn
.
