Wobbler72
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2020
- Messages
- 440
- Reaction score
- 2,285
- Points
- 93
- Location
- West Midlands
- Favourite Fishing
- Boat
After the fish fest at the end of June in Shetland, it was back to my regular stomping grounds on and around the Lleyn. July is always a good month around here. I tend to target the Tope, Bream and Bass. However, it started slowly. Mid month the waters around my usual Bass marks were full of floating weed. It was OK if you were lucky enough to land your lure on a Bass’s nose, but otherwise a few cranks of the reel would see line and lure caked in sea lettuce - and in my experience Bass are not vegetarian. I consoled myself with a short move to the Tope grounds and they duly played ball.
As the saying goes though, ”it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good” and that’s exactly how things turned out for me. With my usual Bass marks temporarily unproductive I set out to explore new ground for them. One particular day in late July stays in the memory. The forecast was for no wind and flat calm seas. I was up and out early. More out of hope than experience, I tried my usual marks. They were still full of floating weed, so I ended up heading much further afield than I would normally. I’m embarrassed to say that after 6hrs afloat I was still on a blank. I decided to head to one of the many banker Pollack marks to avoid the blank before heading home. It felt like defeat really, but that’s not how it turned out.
I got to the mark, clipped a Savage Gear Sandeel onto my Bass rod, cast out and let it drop to the bottom. Within a minute or so, I was into a decent Pollack. As I played it in, perhaps because of the lack of wind, I noticed that the drift was running a slightly different direction to normal. Moreover, in the flat calm waters I could see swirls all around me. The Pollack turned out to be a 5lber; a better way to avoid the blank than I expected.
But it quickly got better! I cast the Savage Gear Sandeel at the swirls and quickly got onto the reel, to keep it shallow and “bang”, straight into a 4lb Bass.
After a quick photo, it was returned safely and I introduced myself to another 8 of his friends in quick succession. The mark was quickly added to the chart plotter and has now become my new favourite Bass mark!
August came and went. A long since booked and twice postponed family holiday in Tenerife took up much of the month and helped me avoid the deluge of staycationers that descended upon Pwllheli. On the rare days that I visited, it was interesting to note that the swarms of baitfish that normally start to show along the coast were also absent.
I returned in earnest in September. The fry started to show sporadically around the shore and fishing for Bass and Garfish picked up. I returned to the new Bass mark and it continued where it left off. I took a few close friends with me on a couple of occasions, so apologies for the rare pic below of me actually holding a fish for a change (rather than waiting for the little buggers to lay flat for a second!).
Late September saw me and my son Mark head off to La Gomera in search of Blue Marlin. I’ll write up a separate report for that one.
In October and November, I pretty much stayed focussed on Bass, both from the shore and the boat. Both options were productive. My new favourite Bass mark continued to produce (I had at least 10 from every visit, with one crazy day yielding 30 in a few short hours). Nothing massive, the biggest was 5lb, but nothing below 2.5lb. But with the weed now subsiding, Bass were plentiful everywhere. I started trying my usual haunts again in search of a lunker. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. My PB remains stubbornly at 6lb (I’ve had two at this weight and they were both from the shore).
Talking of which, the late autumn shore fishing was excellent. Maybe the lack of fry in epidemic proportions made them easier to find and once found, they were easy to catch. Here’s one I picked up whilst “walking the dog“, not as in lure fishing parlance but literally; she’s a four year old Labrador called Molly!
December’s weather meant that I barely strayed from my home in the Midlands.
And that’s my year. It’s funny but when I set out to write this, I had the impression that it had been a strange, staccato year punctuated by lockdown’s, and bad weather. I had the impression that I hadn’t been able to maximise the opportunity afforded to me by early retirement. If anything, I was slightly disappointed. But having trawled through my photo library I realise now that I have been very lucky. Lucky to have decent health, a good family, great friends and more time to fish than most. And I’ve caught a lot of fish. No PB’s for me this year (but by God I came close - Gomera report to follow
), but I’ve learnt new things, found new marks and improved my seamanship. I should be very happy. I AM very happy! I hope you are too.
Thanks for reading. All the best
Kev
As the saying goes though, ”it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good” and that’s exactly how things turned out for me. With my usual Bass marks temporarily unproductive I set out to explore new ground for them. One particular day in late July stays in the memory. The forecast was for no wind and flat calm seas. I was up and out early. More out of hope than experience, I tried my usual marks. They were still full of floating weed, so I ended up heading much further afield than I would normally. I’m embarrassed to say that after 6hrs afloat I was still on a blank. I decided to head to one of the many banker Pollack marks to avoid the blank before heading home. It felt like defeat really, but that’s not how it turned out.
I got to the mark, clipped a Savage Gear Sandeel onto my Bass rod, cast out and let it drop to the bottom. Within a minute or so, I was into a decent Pollack. As I played it in, perhaps because of the lack of wind, I noticed that the drift was running a slightly different direction to normal. Moreover, in the flat calm waters I could see swirls all around me. The Pollack turned out to be a 5lber; a better way to avoid the blank than I expected.
But it quickly got better! I cast the Savage Gear Sandeel at the swirls and quickly got onto the reel, to keep it shallow and “bang”, straight into a 4lb Bass.
After a quick photo, it was returned safely and I introduced myself to another 8 of his friends in quick succession. The mark was quickly added to the chart plotter and has now become my new favourite Bass mark!
August came and went. A long since booked and twice postponed family holiday in Tenerife took up much of the month and helped me avoid the deluge of staycationers that descended upon Pwllheli. On the rare days that I visited, it was interesting to note that the swarms of baitfish that normally start to show along the coast were also absent.
I returned in earnest in September. The fry started to show sporadically around the shore and fishing for Bass and Garfish picked up. I returned to the new Bass mark and it continued where it left off. I took a few close friends with me on a couple of occasions, so apologies for the rare pic below of me actually holding a fish for a change (rather than waiting for the little buggers to lay flat for a second!).
Late September saw me and my son Mark head off to La Gomera in search of Blue Marlin. I’ll write up a separate report for that one.
In October and November, I pretty much stayed focussed on Bass, both from the shore and the boat. Both options were productive. My new favourite Bass mark continued to produce (I had at least 10 from every visit, with one crazy day yielding 30 in a few short hours). Nothing massive, the biggest was 5lb, but nothing below 2.5lb. But with the weed now subsiding, Bass were plentiful everywhere. I started trying my usual haunts again in search of a lunker. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. My PB remains stubbornly at 6lb (I’ve had two at this weight and they were both from the shore).
Talking of which, the late autumn shore fishing was excellent. Maybe the lack of fry in epidemic proportions made them easier to find and once found, they were easy to catch. Here’s one I picked up whilst “walking the dog“, not as in lure fishing parlance but literally; she’s a four year old Labrador called Molly!
December’s weather meant that I barely strayed from my home in the Midlands.
And that’s my year. It’s funny but when I set out to write this, I had the impression that it had been a strange, staccato year punctuated by lockdown’s, and bad weather. I had the impression that I hadn’t been able to maximise the opportunity afforded to me by early retirement. If anything, I was slightly disappointed. But having trawled through my photo library I realise now that I have been very lucky. Lucky to have decent health, a good family, great friends and more time to fish than most. And I’ve caught a lot of fish. No PB’s for me this year (but by God I came close - Gomera report to follow
), but I’ve learnt new things, found new marks and improved my seamanship. I should be very happy. I AM very happy! I hope you are too.Thanks for reading. All the best
Kev
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