Mukiwa
Well-known member
Good afternoon guys,Sharing the fun of fishing turns strangers into friends in a few hours - Eugene Clark
With the year 2020 being a tough and torcherious year to man kind as a whole. The bright, kind touch of humanity bringing communities and people together in times of such adversity brings hope of a better year ahead.
May 2021 bring wishes of health, wealth, love and friendship to you all. May your rods bend with tight lines and screaming reels, and PB's being smashed.
A very HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone.
I learnt so much over last year while exploring new marks or exercising my knowledge of old marks when we could get out. Sessions on the lure where the most exciting with session producing good quality fish with a few double figure bass. Disappointingly missing out on the best time of the year due to work and health.
I wanted to finish the year with one final session. So with some lovely fresh rag worm, it would mean a local session, only to find myself cold with burning nails and full of mud to look forward too ......What's not to like....... 20 degrees would be nice.
Chisel bay was my choice, a shallow mark with a huge mud flat, with long but small gullies engraved into the mud from fresh water out let's.
Using a clip down ,two hook flapping ring on one rod and up and over rig for a possible bass. I would normally use 4/0 to 6/0 hooks for bass, but that would be when I know the big girls are around, winter it's all schoolies. so size 1 pennel allows the bait to flutter more in the tide but also keeps the bait smaller when the cold water poducers slower bites. It's just a thought I have had and acted on.
My rods set with baits placed in remembered gullies......... a sign of the year to come, the clouds parted, mist lifted to reveal the sun, the wind calming as life stopped to absorb the warmth with the splash of a malikite kingfisher breaking the silence.
Suddenly a head of a seal caught my attention as it stealthily slipped past me, only to start hunting, chasing fish with bow waves in the shallows, splashing water as it changed direction, only to produce a lovely flounder. What a sight and tease.
Well that was it, I had to move, so went further left. Settling down as the sun started to set, the mist returning on an icey wind, a small touch on the rod tip caught my eye, a very slow pull and release, Oooooo a bite, got to be flounder...... sit on your hands Gavin.......another slow pull....... that's it ...... lifting into a lump, reeling in I could feel some movement. Gracing the beach was not a flounder but a lovely bass, photos taken and released.
As darkness set in, the turn of smaller bass feeding showed in the size I was now catching. Packing up and making my way back though the woods, fog luminated by beams of security lights and my breath turning into clouds, making it hard to see the path in my head torch, sounds of distant fireworks confirmed my thoughts about pack up from past experiences.
Making home after an hours walk, cold and wet from the fog, but happy I didn't blank on my last session of the year.
Thank you for reading, and tight lines to you all.
Cheers
Mukiwa
