Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 402
- Reaction score
- 3,655
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
Part 1.
With a changeable forecast for later in the week, I kept my options open but things started off on a settled note and there were no weather problems for my first outing on Tuesday night. Conditions were warm, calm and sunny, and at 29ft the tides were building nicely, so I was feeling quietly confident. When I arrived at the coast I was also encouraged by the sight of lots of terns diving ?, but as I got closer to my chosen spot I could see large amounts of floating weed covering the exact area I hoped to fish. With half of the flood still to go, I hoped that this would clear quite quickly and thankfully I was right. The first half an hour was a question of trying to avoid the worst of it and using weedless lures to minimise it further, but after 30 minutes of picking bits of weed off my hooks it finally began to clear
.
With more clear water to fish I moved 20 meters or so to the right, to a spot with an obvious crease in the current where the tide was deflected over some structure, and within minutes the move paid off with a decent hit. The culprit was a sneaky bugger though and rather than head for open water, it kited to one side, heading straight for the weed instead. Thankfully the hook hold was a good one, and after a couple of minutes I was able to bully a nice bass of 57cm ashore, to equal my best of the year so far. Not a bad start to my session ?.
After waiting so long last week for the action to start, I was extremely chuffed to get off to such a quick start this time but despite missing another take 10 minutes or so later, I had to wait another half an hour for the next proper hit. When it came though, it was a carbon copy of the first and after smashing my lure on the edge of the faster flow, the attacker made straight for the weed again. This time I was ready and I turned it before it could come to any harm. Minutes later bass number 2 was landed, slightly smaller this time at around 3.5lb but still a lovely specimen, which in all the excitement I forgot to take a photo of ?. Unfortunately, that was it for this particular spot and as the rapidly advancing tide pushed me backwards, I was soon put of casting range of the fish holding feature. I kept trying for a little while longer before, I was ultimately forced to look elsewhere for my next bass.
Now I had somewhere in mind, but having done much better there in darkness it was still a bit early, so with clean ground in front of me now I decided to try fishing further out, where I hoped that the bass might be waiting in deeper water ready to move into the shallows under the cover of darkness. I rummaged around in my lure box and clipped on a Line-Thru Seeker, at 24g a proper missile, which I then whacked out to maximum range.
Despite the water being a bit deeper, by the time I engaged the bail arm and made contact with my lure it had already hit the bottom and when I felt a strange vibrating sensation through the line, I assumed that it was merely the lure bumping over the ridges left in the sand by the small swell. I carried on reeling in but when the “sand” mysteriously swerved to my left it dawned on me what was going on. Sure enough, as I drew the lure to the shore I could clearly see a mackerel darting madly around in the gin clear water, in an attempt to gain its freedom.
With nothing better to do for the time being, I spent the next 20 minutes targeting the mini-tuna and I had some great fun as I quickly caught half a dozen of them.
but as the light began to fade, I decided to change tactics back to fishing for my initial target species.
Typically, I had no mackerel patterned lures with me, so in an attempt to attract something which might be preoccupied with larger prey, I clipped on a Mishna 140 on a 13g jig-head. This I hoped would allow me to get below the mackerel, whose presence was still betrayed by the shoals of whitebait which periodically sprayed out across the calm water’s surface, and down to where the predators might be lurking, ready to pick off ant stragglers. Sure enough my plan actually worked immediately, and on the very first cast it was attacked at the start of the retrieve. I knew immediately that this was no mackerel and my theory was soon proved correct when bass number 3 of the evening was duly landed ?.
Feeling rather pleased with myself at how quickly my plan had worked I expected a few more fish now, but sadly that was it and as usual the bass had the last laugh as the next hour passed by without incident. With another night to look forward to, I didn’t want to waste any more time if the bass just weren’t there, so I called it a night and headed home for my beauty sleep ?.
Part 2.
With light rain due all day on Wednesday, my initial plan had been to re-charge my batteries with a night in, before heading out again on Thursday, but a quick check of the forecast in the morning showed Wednesday’s drizzle dying out by about 20:00. Thursday on the other hand, which was initially expected to be dry, had now changed completely and they were predicting an 80-90% chance of heavy rain all night ?. This led to an immediate change of plan and by 18:30 I was on the road again.
Conditions on my arrival couldn’t have been much different from the previous night, but at least the winds were light again and I hoped that the lower light levels might encourage the bass to feed more confidently. Surprisingly there was another change from Wednesday as despite the tide being a foot bigger, there was no weed to be seen anywhere, so I was hopeful of some good sport.
It was at this point, when I began to thread my line through the rod rings, that I noticed I’d made a silly mistake. On the walk from the car to the shore, I had a feeling that something was amiss but I couldn’t put my finger on it, only now did I realise that being in such a rush to get out of the house I had mistakenly picked up one of my boys reels, a Daiwa Ninja 250 instead of my Vanford 3000! ? I cursed my absent mindedness but in reality it wouldn’t make any difference, and I might even be able to prove to the boys that their gear actually works ?, so I pressed on and got straight to the fishing.
With the tide being an hour later than on Tuesday, I decided to start off my evening at a different spot and incredibly it wasn’t long before this decision paid off. After only half a dozen casts, I felt the unmistakeable pluck as a fish nipped at the tail of the lure. The first couple of taps missed the hook but 10 seconds later it was a case of third time lucky, when my Swimmish was stopped dead in its tracks. Now I could tell immediately that the drag on the Daiwa isn’t as smooth as the Shimano, but it still performed perfectly well and in no time at all the first bass of the night was beaten, a feisty little specimen around the 2lb mark
.
Eager for more, I fished it hard for the next half an hour but apart from another missed hit a few minutes later, the bass appeared to be a loner and all was quiet. I decided now on a move to the spot where I caught the previous night, to see if the tide had started to pick up yet and as soon as I arrived, I could just make out the beginning of a tide run on the surface, it seemed that I had timed it perfectly. In order to reach the area where I expected the bass to be waiting, I waded out into thigh deep water and once I found some even footing in among the boulders, I resumed the hunt.
The next 15 minutes remained quiet, so I switched the Swimmish for another lure which has done well for me at the venue in the past, the baby Patch and as often happens, this change almost resulted in an immediate success. I cast out the lure as far as I could and allowed it to drift across the mark in the current, with just the occasional twitch for good measure, but just as it passed in front of me I was shocked by a massive splash exactly where my lure was! ? Incredibly, the fish somehow missed the lure completely but at least I knew they were out there. A few casts later and the Patch was hit again, but this time the assailant made no mistake and it was fish on. The scrap was relatively short and I soon had the fish beaten on the surface, where rather than waste time wading back to shore for a pic, I decided to get a snap in the water
I had no sooner shaken the fish off the hook and back into the water, when I was surprised to hear a familiar voice behind me, I turning around quickly and I was then pleasantly surprised to find that an old fishing aquaintance had managed to sneak up on me! ?
After a quick catch up we got back to the fishing before the bass moved off, and over the next 30 minutes or so I caught another 2 bass on the Swimmish,
while my mate also beat the blank ?, but sadly the larger tide soon pushed us off the mark ?.
The night was still young, and it was too early to try the other spot where I caught on Tuesday, so we decided to make the most of the remaining daylight and to head a mile or so along the coast to a completely different area. Though I’ve never fished there myself, I have been meaning to try it for quite a while now, so this was the ideal time to have a look.
With the evening being quite warm and humid due to the cloud cover and drizzle, the walk was a warm one to say the least ?, but the promise of tons of hungry bass waiting there spurred us on. Though my companion had actually fished the mark before, he had always got there by a different route, so he wasn’t exactly sure of the way but we asked ourselves how difficult could it be? Half an hour or so later, after several wrong turns along the way we finally arrived at the mark to find crystal clear water, but unfortunately that was where the good news ended and the weed was absolutely horrendous ?.
After making the effort to get there, we showed willing by giving it a go but after 40 minutes of pulling massive lumps of weed off our lures on every cast, we admitted defeat on this occasion and vowing to give it another go on a smaller tide next time, we headed back to where we came from.
Finding our way back was easy enough and with about an hour to go, we found ourselves at the mark where I’d caught the previous evening, where I somehow managed it again with a solitary schoolie, to make it 5 for the night
.
Alas, they weren’t there in the numbers we hoped for and my mate was unable to add to his earlier catch.
Midnight duly arrived and flagging now after my second late night in a row, I called it quits and headed for home, happy with another 8 bass in a week and a joint seasons best of 57cm to keep my recent successful run going ?.
With a changeable forecast for later in the week, I kept my options open but things started off on a settled note and there were no weather problems for my first outing on Tuesday night. Conditions were warm, calm and sunny, and at 29ft the tides were building nicely, so I was feeling quietly confident. When I arrived at the coast I was also encouraged by the sight of lots of terns diving ?, but as I got closer to my chosen spot I could see large amounts of floating weed covering the exact area I hoped to fish. With half of the flood still to go, I hoped that this would clear quite quickly and thankfully I was right. The first half an hour was a question of trying to avoid the worst of it and using weedless lures to minimise it further, but after 30 minutes of picking bits of weed off my hooks it finally began to clear
.With more clear water to fish I moved 20 meters or so to the right, to a spot with an obvious crease in the current where the tide was deflected over some structure, and within minutes the move paid off with a decent hit. The culprit was a sneaky bugger though and rather than head for open water, it kited to one side, heading straight for the weed instead. Thankfully the hook hold was a good one, and after a couple of minutes I was able to bully a nice bass of 57cm ashore, to equal my best of the year so far. Not a bad start to my session ?.
After waiting so long last week for the action to start, I was extremely chuffed to get off to such a quick start this time but despite missing another take 10 minutes or so later, I had to wait another half an hour for the next proper hit. When it came though, it was a carbon copy of the first and after smashing my lure on the edge of the faster flow, the attacker made straight for the weed again. This time I was ready and I turned it before it could come to any harm. Minutes later bass number 2 was landed, slightly smaller this time at around 3.5lb but still a lovely specimen, which in all the excitement I forgot to take a photo of ?. Unfortunately, that was it for this particular spot and as the rapidly advancing tide pushed me backwards, I was soon put of casting range of the fish holding feature. I kept trying for a little while longer before, I was ultimately forced to look elsewhere for my next bass.
Now I had somewhere in mind, but having done much better there in darkness it was still a bit early, so with clean ground in front of me now I decided to try fishing further out, where I hoped that the bass might be waiting in deeper water ready to move into the shallows under the cover of darkness. I rummaged around in my lure box and clipped on a Line-Thru Seeker, at 24g a proper missile, which I then whacked out to maximum range.
Despite the water being a bit deeper, by the time I engaged the bail arm and made contact with my lure it had already hit the bottom and when I felt a strange vibrating sensation through the line, I assumed that it was merely the lure bumping over the ridges left in the sand by the small swell. I carried on reeling in but when the “sand” mysteriously swerved to my left it dawned on me what was going on. Sure enough, as I drew the lure to the shore I could clearly see a mackerel darting madly around in the gin clear water, in an attempt to gain its freedom.
With nothing better to do for the time being, I spent the next 20 minutes targeting the mini-tuna and I had some great fun as I quickly caught half a dozen of them.
but as the light began to fade, I decided to change tactics back to fishing for my initial target species.
Typically, I had no mackerel patterned lures with me, so in an attempt to attract something which might be preoccupied with larger prey, I clipped on a Mishna 140 on a 13g jig-head. This I hoped would allow me to get below the mackerel, whose presence was still betrayed by the shoals of whitebait which periodically sprayed out across the calm water’s surface, and down to where the predators might be lurking, ready to pick off ant stragglers. Sure enough my plan actually worked immediately, and on the very first cast it was attacked at the start of the retrieve. I knew immediately that this was no mackerel and my theory was soon proved correct when bass number 3 of the evening was duly landed ?.
Feeling rather pleased with myself at how quickly my plan had worked I expected a few more fish now, but sadly that was it and as usual the bass had the last laugh as the next hour passed by without incident. With another night to look forward to, I didn’t want to waste any more time if the bass just weren’t there, so I called it a night and headed home for my beauty sleep ?.
Part 2.
With light rain due all day on Wednesday, my initial plan had been to re-charge my batteries with a night in, before heading out again on Thursday, but a quick check of the forecast in the morning showed Wednesday’s drizzle dying out by about 20:00. Thursday on the other hand, which was initially expected to be dry, had now changed completely and they were predicting an 80-90% chance of heavy rain all night ?. This led to an immediate change of plan and by 18:30 I was on the road again.
Conditions on my arrival couldn’t have been much different from the previous night, but at least the winds were light again and I hoped that the lower light levels might encourage the bass to feed more confidently. Surprisingly there was another change from Wednesday as despite the tide being a foot bigger, there was no weed to be seen anywhere, so I was hopeful of some good sport.
It was at this point, when I began to thread my line through the rod rings, that I noticed I’d made a silly mistake. On the walk from the car to the shore, I had a feeling that something was amiss but I couldn’t put my finger on it, only now did I realise that being in such a rush to get out of the house I had mistakenly picked up one of my boys reels, a Daiwa Ninja 250 instead of my Vanford 3000! ? I cursed my absent mindedness but in reality it wouldn’t make any difference, and I might even be able to prove to the boys that their gear actually works ?, so I pressed on and got straight to the fishing.
With the tide being an hour later than on Tuesday, I decided to start off my evening at a different spot and incredibly it wasn’t long before this decision paid off. After only half a dozen casts, I felt the unmistakeable pluck as a fish nipped at the tail of the lure. The first couple of taps missed the hook but 10 seconds later it was a case of third time lucky, when my Swimmish was stopped dead in its tracks. Now I could tell immediately that the drag on the Daiwa isn’t as smooth as the Shimano, but it still performed perfectly well and in no time at all the first bass of the night was beaten, a feisty little specimen around the 2lb mark
.Eager for more, I fished it hard for the next half an hour but apart from another missed hit a few minutes later, the bass appeared to be a loner and all was quiet. I decided now on a move to the spot where I caught the previous night, to see if the tide had started to pick up yet and as soon as I arrived, I could just make out the beginning of a tide run on the surface, it seemed that I had timed it perfectly. In order to reach the area where I expected the bass to be waiting, I waded out into thigh deep water and once I found some even footing in among the boulders, I resumed the hunt.
The next 15 minutes remained quiet, so I switched the Swimmish for another lure which has done well for me at the venue in the past, the baby Patch and as often happens, this change almost resulted in an immediate success. I cast out the lure as far as I could and allowed it to drift across the mark in the current, with just the occasional twitch for good measure, but just as it passed in front of me I was shocked by a massive splash exactly where my lure was! ? Incredibly, the fish somehow missed the lure completely but at least I knew they were out there. A few casts later and the Patch was hit again, but this time the assailant made no mistake and it was fish on. The scrap was relatively short and I soon had the fish beaten on the surface, where rather than waste time wading back to shore for a pic, I decided to get a snap in the water
I had no sooner shaken the fish off the hook and back into the water, when I was surprised to hear a familiar voice behind me, I turning around quickly and I was then pleasantly surprised to find that an old fishing aquaintance had managed to sneak up on me! ?
After a quick catch up we got back to the fishing before the bass moved off, and over the next 30 minutes or so I caught another 2 bass on the Swimmish,
while my mate also beat the blank ?, but sadly the larger tide soon pushed us off the mark ?.
The night was still young, and it was too early to try the other spot where I caught on Tuesday, so we decided to make the most of the remaining daylight and to head a mile or so along the coast to a completely different area. Though I’ve never fished there myself, I have been meaning to try it for quite a while now, so this was the ideal time to have a look.
With the evening being quite warm and humid due to the cloud cover and drizzle, the walk was a warm one to say the least ?, but the promise of tons of hungry bass waiting there spurred us on. Though my companion had actually fished the mark before, he had always got there by a different route, so he wasn’t exactly sure of the way but we asked ourselves how difficult could it be? Half an hour or so later, after several wrong turns along the way we finally arrived at the mark to find crystal clear water, but unfortunately that was where the good news ended and the weed was absolutely horrendous ?.
After making the effort to get there, we showed willing by giving it a go but after 40 minutes of pulling massive lumps of weed off our lures on every cast, we admitted defeat on this occasion and vowing to give it another go on a smaller tide next time, we headed back to where we came from.
Finding our way back was easy enough and with about an hour to go, we found ourselves at the mark where I’d caught the previous evening, where I somehow managed it again with a solitary schoolie, to make it 5 for the night
.Alas, they weren’t there in the numbers we hoped for and my mate was unable to add to his earlier catch.
Midnight duly arrived and flagging now after my second late night in a row, I called it quits and headed for home, happy with another 8 bass in a week and a joint seasons best of 57cm to keep my recent successful run going ?.
