Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 370
- Reaction score
- 3,401
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
Following on from a successful dabble in species hunting over the weekend, I hoped my upturn in fortunes would carry over into my bass fishing, but again the tide and weather for last night weren’t ideal 
. With a fresh wind blowing, it looked like I would be forced to fish another back up mark, and possibly even in the same area where I blanked last week. As it happened though, when I fished work the wind didn’t seem anywhere near as strong as forecast, so I decided to have a look at one of my more favoured spots instead.
Thankfully I arrived at my destination to find no wind whatsoever and the sea was almost flat calm, so much for the forecast of onshore winds gusting to almost 20mph ?. As I also mentioned, the tide wasn’t ideal either, being a lot smaller than I would like so with just an hour of the flood to go, the usual fast current just wasn’t running, I only hoped this wouldn’t affect the fishing too much. First lure out of the box was the mighty Mishna and as I waded out into the cool, clear water, I was reassured to see a large shoal of whitebait scattering in front of me. With any luck there would be something bigger out there feeding on them.
The rest of the flood was very quiet, as I tried the lures which have been doing the business for me lately, but the Mishna, Wave Worm and Albie Snax all failed to produce. There was one moment when the latter had attracted some interest, as I thought I saw a small splash just behind it, so more in desperation than anything else I clipped on the baby Patch in Nacre, but again this didn’t result in any action.
Strangely, as the current died away to nothing over high water, conditions started to get a little bit choppy and within 20 minutes it was pretty damn rough, this was all the more puzzling as there was still no wind to speak of ?. I fished on though and as the ebb got underway, the light also started to fade, which was exactly when things picked up the last time I fished there, so despite the less than perfect conditions, my confidence actually grew a little.
With things being a lot rougher than usual, I tried another experiment now and I clipped on the Patch 140 in yellow, hoping that it would stand out more in the noisy water, but again this failed to attract any interest whatsoever ?.
Thankfully, after 30 minutes or so things finally began to calm down once more, and by an hour after high water, conditions were almost flat calm again. Despite this improvement in sea conditions, the fishing still remained deathly quiet ?.
While I had been rotating through my usual fish catchers all evening, I had also been moving backwards and forwards along the coast and eventually, around an hour and 40 minutes after high water, my efforts finally paid off, well almost ?. Completely out of nowhere my Mishna was hit, but agonizingly, the attacker somehow missed the hook ?. I was absolutely gutted and though I should have been encouraged, I couldn’t help but think back to my last session, when I had missed the only take of the night, could it happen again I wondered?
Knowing that there was at least one bass in front of me ?, I decided to concentrate on the one spot for a while and thankfully, only 3 or 4 casts later my Mishna was smashed and this time the bass made no mistake. The next few minutes were pretty exciting as the bass made a series of attempts to escape, and though they weren’t exactly screaming runs, it did manage to take a bit of line a couple of times. Eventually the bass began to tire and I was able to draw it into the shallows then finally, as it relaxed momentarily after yet another attempt to get away, I was able to slide it safely ashore and to finally avoid my third consecutive blank ?.
The relief was massive and though it wasn’t a monster by any stretch of the imagination, I was also chuffed to land my second biggest bass of the year at 55cm ?.
As soon as the bass was released, I got straight back to the fishing and over the next 15 minutes I missed several more hits. The bass were definitely on the feed now, albeit a little later than usual and eventually I was in again. I could tell this wasn’t as big as the first one but after another half decent scrap, I was more than happy with bass number 2 for the night, this one at 52cm ?.
After such a slow start, I was on a roll now and I hoped for more of the same, but the bass stopped feeding just as quickly as they had begun. I gave it another 10 minutes at this spot, in case it was a temporary lull, but the bass had definitely moved on so I did too.
The tide was dropping fast now and the water was rapidly shallowing up, but after a short move some 50 meters or so along the shore, I started fishing again. A few casts later my lure was hit at maximum range, but once more it failed to result in a hook up. It was good to know the bass were still about though and a few minutes later, my lure was hit again almost as soon as it hit the water ?. This time the connection was a solid one but the fish was obviously quite small, and after a very brief struggle it all but gave up. At 42cm this was the smallest of the night by far, but I wasn’t complaining ?.
After a quick snap, the schoolie was released to grow bigger, while I waded out into the rocky shallows once more. Knowing that the bass were feeding at distance, I gave the next cast a proper whack and sure enough, it was hit straight away. Yet again though, the fish missed the hook ?
.
With 3 and a half hours of the ebb passed, time was running out for me now and over the next 10 minutes, I felt my lure catching increasingly often on the barely submerged rocks. The bass had gone quiet now too, so not wanting to risk losing lures for the slim chance of a fish, I called it quits.
For a session which had begun very slowly, things had turned out quite well and thankfully I had avoided three blanks in a row, which last happened to me way back in April ?.
. With a fresh wind blowing, it looked like I would be forced to fish another back up mark, and possibly even in the same area where I blanked last week. As it happened though, when I fished work the wind didn’t seem anywhere near as strong as forecast, so I decided to have a look at one of my more favoured spots instead.Thankfully I arrived at my destination to find no wind whatsoever and the sea was almost flat calm, so much for the forecast of onshore winds gusting to almost 20mph ?. As I also mentioned, the tide wasn’t ideal either, being a lot smaller than I would like so with just an hour of the flood to go, the usual fast current just wasn’t running, I only hoped this wouldn’t affect the fishing too much. First lure out of the box was the mighty Mishna and as I waded out into the cool, clear water, I was reassured to see a large shoal of whitebait scattering in front of me. With any luck there would be something bigger out there feeding on them.
The rest of the flood was very quiet, as I tried the lures which have been doing the business for me lately, but the Mishna, Wave Worm and Albie Snax all failed to produce. There was one moment when the latter had attracted some interest, as I thought I saw a small splash just behind it, so more in desperation than anything else I clipped on the baby Patch in Nacre, but again this didn’t result in any action.
Strangely, as the current died away to nothing over high water, conditions started to get a little bit choppy and within 20 minutes it was pretty damn rough, this was all the more puzzling as there was still no wind to speak of ?. I fished on though and as the ebb got underway, the light also started to fade, which was exactly when things picked up the last time I fished there, so despite the less than perfect conditions, my confidence actually grew a little.
With things being a lot rougher than usual, I tried another experiment now and I clipped on the Patch 140 in yellow, hoping that it would stand out more in the noisy water, but again this failed to attract any interest whatsoever ?.
Thankfully, after 30 minutes or so things finally began to calm down once more, and by an hour after high water, conditions were almost flat calm again. Despite this improvement in sea conditions, the fishing still remained deathly quiet ?.
While I had been rotating through my usual fish catchers all evening, I had also been moving backwards and forwards along the coast and eventually, around an hour and 40 minutes after high water, my efforts finally paid off, well almost ?. Completely out of nowhere my Mishna was hit, but agonizingly, the attacker somehow missed the hook ?. I was absolutely gutted and though I should have been encouraged, I couldn’t help but think back to my last session, when I had missed the only take of the night, could it happen again I wondered?
Knowing that there was at least one bass in front of me ?, I decided to concentrate on the one spot for a while and thankfully, only 3 or 4 casts later my Mishna was smashed and this time the bass made no mistake. The next few minutes were pretty exciting as the bass made a series of attempts to escape, and though they weren’t exactly screaming runs, it did manage to take a bit of line a couple of times. Eventually the bass began to tire and I was able to draw it into the shallows then finally, as it relaxed momentarily after yet another attempt to get away, I was able to slide it safely ashore and to finally avoid my third consecutive blank ?.
The relief was massive and though it wasn’t a monster by any stretch of the imagination, I was also chuffed to land my second biggest bass of the year at 55cm ?.
As soon as the bass was released, I got straight back to the fishing and over the next 15 minutes I missed several more hits. The bass were definitely on the feed now, albeit a little later than usual and eventually I was in again. I could tell this wasn’t as big as the first one but after another half decent scrap, I was more than happy with bass number 2 for the night, this one at 52cm ?.
After such a slow start, I was on a roll now and I hoped for more of the same, but the bass stopped feeding just as quickly as they had begun. I gave it another 10 minutes at this spot, in case it was a temporary lull, but the bass had definitely moved on so I did too.
The tide was dropping fast now and the water was rapidly shallowing up, but after a short move some 50 meters or so along the shore, I started fishing again. A few casts later my lure was hit at maximum range, but once more it failed to result in a hook up. It was good to know the bass were still about though and a few minutes later, my lure was hit again almost as soon as it hit the water ?. This time the connection was a solid one but the fish was obviously quite small, and after a very brief struggle it all but gave up. At 42cm this was the smallest of the night by far, but I wasn’t complaining ?.
After a quick snap, the schoolie was released to grow bigger, while I waded out into the rocky shallows once more. Knowing that the bass were feeding at distance, I gave the next cast a proper whack and sure enough, it was hit straight away. Yet again though, the fish missed the hook ?
.With 3 and a half hours of the ebb passed, time was running out for me now and over the next 10 minutes, I felt my lure catching increasingly often on the barely submerged rocks. The bass had gone quiet now too, so not wanting to risk losing lures for the slim chance of a fish, I called it quits.
For a session which had begun very slowly, things had turned out quite well and thankfully I had avoided three blanks in a row, which last happened to me way back in April ?.
