Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 402
- Reaction score
- 3,651
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
Part 1 – Lightning almost strikes twice.
After falling just short of my target last week, the pressure was really on this week to reach my century of lure caught bass for the second time in 3 years. With very small tides though, plus high water late in the afternoon and low water late at night, it wasn’t going to be easy. My first outing was on Tuesday night, when I planned to fish the ebb at the mark where I’ve done so well lately. I’ve previously only ever caught there over low water and on the flood, but I reasoned that there was still a decent chance of finding some silver at other states of the tide.
I arrived at the mark about 3 and a half hours after high water, to find lovely calm conditions with gin clear water and incredibly, my theory about the presence of bass on the ebb was proved right almost immediately, when something was smashed on the surface only a few meters away from me ?. I hurriedly cast my baby Patch in its general direction, but it must have moved on immediately after its snack and my lure remained unmolested.
Over the next 40 minutes I saw several more splashes, and a nice sea trout of a couple of pounds tail-walked across the surface right in front of me ? but despite trying the Patch, a Mishna and a Swimmish, I couldn’t tempt anything into an attack ?.
It was around now that the light level started to drop quite quickly and to begin with I thought nothing of it, but a few minutes later when I turned around, I saw that the horizon was covered by a dirty great big black cloud. Initially I wasn’t too concerned, as there was a bit of light rain in the forecast, but what happened next was a horrible case of Deja-vu. First off, I heard a distant rumble but no I thought, surely it couldn’t be thunder, it must just be a passing plane, I reassured myself. Alas, I was sadly mistaken and soon after this my worst fears were realised, when the dark skies were illuminated brightly by a flash of lightning. After my last scary encounter there with a thunderstorm, barely 3 weeks ago, I couldn’t believe my bad luck and more to the point, I couldn’t believe that the forecasters could get things completely wrong yet again! ? I quickly checked the weather radar app and sure enough, a cluster of lightning strikes was heading my way, the important question now was what should I do next ?. First off I checked the track of the storm and it looked like I might be lucky, it was due to pass slightly inland of my current position, so I decided once again to wait it out.
To begin with, I sat on the very same stone where I waited out the last storm and my plan seemed to be working, as the lightning stayed a good distance away, but just as I thought I might get away with it, I felt the first few spots of rain. This was soon followed by a much closer flash of lightning and rumble of thunder, so I decided that waiting out in the open was no longer an option and I made my way to the base of a nearby small sycamore tree, which was covered with plenty of leaves but no higher than the surrounding scrub. The next 45 minutes were a tense affair as I sheltered from the rain and watched the storm pass over Snowdonia, I wasn’t in the clear yet though and the occasional closer flash kept me pinned down. Eventually though, the storm did pass and as it got gradually further away, the rain eased, and I felt safe to come out from my hiding place ?.
Despite the squall having cleared, it had left behind some brisk winds in its wake and the calm waters of earlier were replaced by some quite choppy conditions, however the water was still clear, so I decided to fish on.
I spent the next 3 hours desperately hoping that elusive 100th bass was out there somewhere, but although the winds gradually abated and conditions grew calmer again, the tide was just too small. This meant a complete lack of flow and the features which usually hold the bass over low water, were simply too far out for me to reach. I tried wading into deeper water, where I hoped some silvers might still be feeding but I saw no signs of life whatsoever. I was also starting to get cold now from standing around in wet clothes after the earlier downpour and ultimately, as the flooding tide started to push me further away from the bass once more, I was forced to give up the hunt for another night with my first blank in 8 sessions ?.
Part 2 – Good things come in small packages.
With my eldest son’s 16th birthday falling on Thursday, I only had 1 other night free this week, so outing number 2 was pencilled in for Wednesday night. Learning from experience, and after at least seeing signs of life there on Tuesday night, my plan was to start off at the same mark again, hoping that the bass would be there at the same state of tide, before moving on to somewhere else for low water.
After one last check of the weather forecast, just to make damn sure there were no nasty surprises sneaking up on me this time ?, I set off to resume my quest. Thankfully I arrived at the mark to find that conditions were again perfect, so I wasted no time in getting kitted up and by around 2.5 hours after high water I was fishing again. Going by Tuesday night, I hoped things would start happening straight away but despite the identical conditions there was no sign of any feeding bass. It was still a bit earlier in the tide than the night before, so I fished on, but my confidence dropped at a much quicker rate than the slowly receding tide. Even the cloak of darkness didn’t help matters, so eventually I decided to give it another 15 minutes before moving on.
10 minutes or so later and I’d had enough, so I was just having a last few casts while I gave some serious thought to my next destination, when I was taken completely by surprise. After almost 2 hours of total inaction, my lure was suddenly hit before I even had a chance to start reeling in ?. I could tell immediately that whatever had grabbed my lure was on the small side, but after the initial few seconds of struggling it gave up all efforts to escape. To begin with it seemed like I might have missed my chance, but as I started to reel in, I felt some weight on the line. My first thought was that I might have hooked a small pollack but even that was better than a blank, so I was still happy. 20 seconds later and it was all over but as I gently slid my catch ashore, I was surprised to see that it wasn’t a pollack after all, it looked exactly like a bass only smaller ?.
Whereas it had made no effort to escape while in the water, it was a completely different story now that it was on the shore, and it began to thrash around like a demented kipper. For the next 5 minutes I struggled to get a clear picture, as it flapped around all over the place, it did occasionally lie still but as son as I got my phone ready to take a photo it was off again before I could focus on it ?.
After trying for so long to catch the bugger, I wasn’t about to give up and a battle of wills soon developed, between one very determined angler and a seriously camera-shy minnow. There was only ever going to be one winner though ? and finally I was able to get my catch in the frame. Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to introduce you all to my 100th lure caught bass of 2021 ???.
After such a struggle to get a picture, the relief to have finally hit the ton was immense, so I decided to give it another 15 minutes before moving on, just in case there were more fish out there, but it turned out to be wishful thinking. Having caught one bass in the area, I briefly considered staying for rest of the evening, but it had been so quiet there over low the previous night, that I decided to stick with plan A after all and to head for pastures new.
The second mark of the evening was a place where I put a lot of time and effort into last year, and though it had produced a few fish for me, including a half decent 6lber, it didn’t do quite as well as I had hoped, which is why I haven’t fished it yet this year. It is also in an area with an almost unfishable current on the larger springs, so I hoped the small tides might actually help. A short drive later and after a yomp through the undergrowth I emerged onto the shore at my second mark, conditions were perfect once more and I could just make out some serious swirls on the surface of the dark, mirror calm water. This would enable me to locate the eddies caused by any underwater obstructions and to target these areas where any bass, and particularly the big girls might be lurking.
With the pressure of numbers now off my back, I fished this new mark with a far more relaxed attitude and after putting in so much time lately at my new favourite spot ? it was a nice change to be back again. Sadly though, the bass weren’t keen to see me return and over the next couple of hours I didn’t see any signs of fishy life. Eventually the 2 consecutive late nights started to catch up with me and I was forced to call it quits at 00:30, a little earlier than I would have liked given the time of the tide. As it happened, I couldn’t have timed it better, and just as I arrived back at the car the next batch of rain arrived, about 4 hours earlier than forecast by my friends at the Met Office ?.
So, 2 sessions, and over 10 hours of fishing this week had resulted in just a solitary schoolie, what’s more it was quite possibly the smallest bass I’ve caught this year ?, but that didn’t matter. Had I not been so close to the century of bass, I would quite possibly not even bothered heading out on such uninspiring tides, so to have fished on regardless, and to have ultimately reached my target, I was chuffed to bits. Which all goes to show, that to enjoy the ups of lure angling, you sometimes have to put up with some downs ?.
After falling just short of my target last week, the pressure was really on this week to reach my century of lure caught bass for the second time in 3 years. With very small tides though, plus high water late in the afternoon and low water late at night, it wasn’t going to be easy. My first outing was on Tuesday night, when I planned to fish the ebb at the mark where I’ve done so well lately. I’ve previously only ever caught there over low water and on the flood, but I reasoned that there was still a decent chance of finding some silver at other states of the tide.
I arrived at the mark about 3 and a half hours after high water, to find lovely calm conditions with gin clear water and incredibly, my theory about the presence of bass on the ebb was proved right almost immediately, when something was smashed on the surface only a few meters away from me ?. I hurriedly cast my baby Patch in its general direction, but it must have moved on immediately after its snack and my lure remained unmolested.
Over the next 40 minutes I saw several more splashes, and a nice sea trout of a couple of pounds tail-walked across the surface right in front of me ? but despite trying the Patch, a Mishna and a Swimmish, I couldn’t tempt anything into an attack ?.
It was around now that the light level started to drop quite quickly and to begin with I thought nothing of it, but a few minutes later when I turned around, I saw that the horizon was covered by a dirty great big black cloud. Initially I wasn’t too concerned, as there was a bit of light rain in the forecast, but what happened next was a horrible case of Deja-vu. First off, I heard a distant rumble but no I thought, surely it couldn’t be thunder, it must just be a passing plane, I reassured myself. Alas, I was sadly mistaken and soon after this my worst fears were realised, when the dark skies were illuminated brightly by a flash of lightning. After my last scary encounter there with a thunderstorm, barely 3 weeks ago, I couldn’t believe my bad luck and more to the point, I couldn’t believe that the forecasters could get things completely wrong yet again! ? I quickly checked the weather radar app and sure enough, a cluster of lightning strikes was heading my way, the important question now was what should I do next ?. First off I checked the track of the storm and it looked like I might be lucky, it was due to pass slightly inland of my current position, so I decided once again to wait it out.
To begin with, I sat on the very same stone where I waited out the last storm and my plan seemed to be working, as the lightning stayed a good distance away, but just as I thought I might get away with it, I felt the first few spots of rain. This was soon followed by a much closer flash of lightning and rumble of thunder, so I decided that waiting out in the open was no longer an option and I made my way to the base of a nearby small sycamore tree, which was covered with plenty of leaves but no higher than the surrounding scrub. The next 45 minutes were a tense affair as I sheltered from the rain and watched the storm pass over Snowdonia, I wasn’t in the clear yet though and the occasional closer flash kept me pinned down. Eventually though, the storm did pass and as it got gradually further away, the rain eased, and I felt safe to come out from my hiding place ?.
Despite the squall having cleared, it had left behind some brisk winds in its wake and the calm waters of earlier were replaced by some quite choppy conditions, however the water was still clear, so I decided to fish on.
I spent the next 3 hours desperately hoping that elusive 100th bass was out there somewhere, but although the winds gradually abated and conditions grew calmer again, the tide was just too small. This meant a complete lack of flow and the features which usually hold the bass over low water, were simply too far out for me to reach. I tried wading into deeper water, where I hoped some silvers might still be feeding but I saw no signs of life whatsoever. I was also starting to get cold now from standing around in wet clothes after the earlier downpour and ultimately, as the flooding tide started to push me further away from the bass once more, I was forced to give up the hunt for another night with my first blank in 8 sessions ?.
Part 2 – Good things come in small packages.
With my eldest son’s 16th birthday falling on Thursday, I only had 1 other night free this week, so outing number 2 was pencilled in for Wednesday night. Learning from experience, and after at least seeing signs of life there on Tuesday night, my plan was to start off at the same mark again, hoping that the bass would be there at the same state of tide, before moving on to somewhere else for low water.
After one last check of the weather forecast, just to make damn sure there were no nasty surprises sneaking up on me this time ?, I set off to resume my quest. Thankfully I arrived at the mark to find that conditions were again perfect, so I wasted no time in getting kitted up and by around 2.5 hours after high water I was fishing again. Going by Tuesday night, I hoped things would start happening straight away but despite the identical conditions there was no sign of any feeding bass. It was still a bit earlier in the tide than the night before, so I fished on, but my confidence dropped at a much quicker rate than the slowly receding tide. Even the cloak of darkness didn’t help matters, so eventually I decided to give it another 15 minutes before moving on.
10 minutes or so later and I’d had enough, so I was just having a last few casts while I gave some serious thought to my next destination, when I was taken completely by surprise. After almost 2 hours of total inaction, my lure was suddenly hit before I even had a chance to start reeling in ?. I could tell immediately that whatever had grabbed my lure was on the small side, but after the initial few seconds of struggling it gave up all efforts to escape. To begin with it seemed like I might have missed my chance, but as I started to reel in, I felt some weight on the line. My first thought was that I might have hooked a small pollack but even that was better than a blank, so I was still happy. 20 seconds later and it was all over but as I gently slid my catch ashore, I was surprised to see that it wasn’t a pollack after all, it looked exactly like a bass only smaller ?.
Whereas it had made no effort to escape while in the water, it was a completely different story now that it was on the shore, and it began to thrash around like a demented kipper. For the next 5 minutes I struggled to get a clear picture, as it flapped around all over the place, it did occasionally lie still but as son as I got my phone ready to take a photo it was off again before I could focus on it ?.
After trying for so long to catch the bugger, I wasn’t about to give up and a battle of wills soon developed, between one very determined angler and a seriously camera-shy minnow. There was only ever going to be one winner though ? and finally I was able to get my catch in the frame. Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to introduce you all to my 100th lure caught bass of 2021 ???.
After such a struggle to get a picture, the relief to have finally hit the ton was immense, so I decided to give it another 15 minutes before moving on, just in case there were more fish out there, but it turned out to be wishful thinking. Having caught one bass in the area, I briefly considered staying for rest of the evening, but it had been so quiet there over low the previous night, that I decided to stick with plan A after all and to head for pastures new.
The second mark of the evening was a place where I put a lot of time and effort into last year, and though it had produced a few fish for me, including a half decent 6lber, it didn’t do quite as well as I had hoped, which is why I haven’t fished it yet this year. It is also in an area with an almost unfishable current on the larger springs, so I hoped the small tides might actually help. A short drive later and after a yomp through the undergrowth I emerged onto the shore at my second mark, conditions were perfect once more and I could just make out some serious swirls on the surface of the dark, mirror calm water. This would enable me to locate the eddies caused by any underwater obstructions and to target these areas where any bass, and particularly the big girls might be lurking.
With the pressure of numbers now off my back, I fished this new mark with a far more relaxed attitude and after putting in so much time lately at my new favourite spot ? it was a nice change to be back again. Sadly though, the bass weren’t keen to see me return and over the next couple of hours I didn’t see any signs of fishy life. Eventually the 2 consecutive late nights started to catch up with me and I was forced to call it quits at 00:30, a little earlier than I would have liked given the time of the tide. As it happened, I couldn’t have timed it better, and just as I arrived back at the car the next batch of rain arrived, about 4 hours earlier than forecast by my friends at the Met Office ?.
So, 2 sessions, and over 10 hours of fishing this week had resulted in just a solitary schoolie, what’s more it was quite possibly the smallest bass I’ve caught this year ?, but that didn’t matter. Had I not been so close to the century of bass, I would quite possibly not even bothered heading out on such uninspiring tides, so to have fished on regardless, and to have ultimately reached my target, I was chuffed to bits. Which all goes to show, that to enjoy the ups of lure angling, you sometimes have to put up with some downs ?.
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