Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 410
- Reaction score
- 3,703
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
Having never caught a bass on a lure later than November 12th, I assumed my season was over for another year, but it seemed a shame not to take advantage of yesterday’s window in the weather. I was in 2 minds at the start of the week, but having had an early night on Monday, to get over the side effects of my most recent Covid booster
, I was feeling fully refreshed yesterday morning
and so I thought what the hell!
Conditions on my arrival were pretty good, with fairly calm water save for a small swell, and decent water clarity, and though at 9.5˚c the water temp was down 3.4 ˚c since my last visit on October 20th
, I hoped the bass might still be around.
Unfortunately, it looked like I was out of luck, and despite my best efforts, the next 4 and a half hours were completely dead, with no signs of life whatsoever
.
As midnight approached, I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I was going to end the season with a blank and going through the motions for the last 5 minutes, I was thinking ahead to getting back to the dirty bait fishing for the winter, but then I thought I felt a small tap on my line
. Nooo it couldn’t have been a fish, it was probably just my lure bumping on a rock I told myself, but 4 or 5 casts later there was no mistake, as this time my lure was stopped dead in its tracks and the rod started bouncing around in my hand!
I was well aware that this could well be my only chance of the night, so praying that I wouldn’t lose it, I carefully reeled the fish towards the shore and after a nervous couple of minutes, I successfully landed my latest ever lure caught bass
.
At 47cm, it wasn’t particularly big, but that didn’t matter one bit, I was just chuffed to bits to catch something
.

After a quick snap and a kiss
, it was carefully released to grow bigger, while I got straight back to the fishing.
I must admit, I thought my catch was a bit of a fluke and with no more takes in the next 20 minutes, that looked to be the case but incredibly, just as I was about to call it a night for the second time, my lure was hit again
. Once more I took my time, not wanting to bully the fish for fear of pulling the hook, but I needn’t have worried and another identical silver of 47cm was duly landed
.

I obviously couldn’t leave now
, so I decided to give it another 10 casts
.
Surprisingly, over the next 45 minutes I landed another three bass of 41, 42 & 46cm



and I also missed several more hits, but eventually the water got so shallow, that despite me switching to gradually lighter jig-heads, I just couldn’t fish the lure effectively without it snagging on the submerged rocks
.
I could probably have winkled out another couple of fish, by fishing ultra-shallow with a weightless Swimish, but with a decent drive home ahead of me, and work this morning, I thought better of it and reluctantly called it a night at 01:15
.
So having caught bass 10 days later than I’ve managed before in 11 years of lure fishing, it looks like I was mistaken in thinking that my season was over. Sadly, the forecast for the rest of the week isn’t great, but if a weather window does present itself, then I might just be tempted to have another go
.


Conditions on my arrival were pretty good, with fairly calm water save for a small swell, and decent water clarity, and though at 9.5˚c the water temp was down 3.4 ˚c since my last visit on October 20th

Unfortunately, it looked like I was out of luck, and despite my best efforts, the next 4 and a half hours were completely dead, with no signs of life whatsoever

As midnight approached, I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I was going to end the season with a blank and going through the motions for the last 5 minutes, I was thinking ahead to getting back to the dirty bait fishing for the winter, but then I thought I felt a small tap on my line



At 47cm, it wasn’t particularly big, but that didn’t matter one bit, I was just chuffed to bits to catch something


After a quick snap and a kiss

I must admit, I thought my catch was a bit of a fluke and with no more takes in the next 20 minutes, that looked to be the case but incredibly, just as I was about to call it a night for the second time, my lure was hit again



I obviously couldn’t leave now


Surprisingly, over the next 45 minutes I landed another three bass of 41, 42 & 46cm



and I also missed several more hits, but eventually the water got so shallow, that despite me switching to gradually lighter jig-heads, I just couldn’t fish the lure effectively without it snagging on the submerged rocks

I could probably have winkled out another couple of fish, by fishing ultra-shallow with a weightless Swimish, but with a decent drive home ahead of me, and work this morning, I thought better of it and reluctantly called it a night at 01:15

So having caught bass 10 days later than I’ve managed before in 11 years of lure fishing, it looks like I was mistaken in thinking that my season was over. Sadly, the forecast for the rest of the week isn’t great, but if a weather window does present itself, then I might just be tempted to have another go
