Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 401
- Reaction score
- 3,644
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
After the long cold winter, when my bait fishing was seriously curtailed by the Covid lockdown 
, it was a pleasant surprise when the normally unreliable Mr Drakeford lifted the travel restrictions just as the sea temperature started to climb again 
. I didn’t need asking twice, so despite the large 32.3ft+ tide, which promised to make fishing conditions a little awkward to say the least, I headed out last night for my first lure session of 2021.
Taking into account the recent strong winds, my plans were meticulously hatched but some last-minute intel which came my way just before I left the house, had me questioning if it was in fact the right thing to do after all?
After some quick deliberation, and knowing full well that last minute changes of plan have a habit of coming back to bite you on the a**e, I decided to throw caution to the now non-existent wind and to head for the new mark instead.
Thankfully I arrived to find lovely calm conditions and decent water clarity too, with only a slight discolouration which I hoped would clear once the flooding tide started to push in, so I began the hunt with last years standout lure, the Lemon Meringue Mishna. With spring almost upon us, it was great to be back on the bass trail and at 12.7°C and 9.6°C respectively, both the air and water temperatures were surprisingly high
. If I’m completely honest, I wasn’t feeling particularly confident of catching so early in the year but I was just enjoying being there on such a cracking evening.
As the flood started to push and the water clarity improved, just as I’d hoped for
, I cycled through a few of my old favourites and I had just switched to the bass magnet which is the Candy SF125, when something tried to smash it seconds after it had landed on the water! 
I was taken completely by surprise as the would-be attacker missed the lure completely, but my confidence was massively boosted all the same.
For the next 20 minutes I covered every inch of the area in front of me, trying to tempt the bass into another attack, firstly with the SF125 and when this didn’t work, I tried something a little more subtle with the baby Patch tweaked gently across the surface. Sadly my tactics failed to attract any more interest and about an hour after low, the tide run increased dramatically, bringing with it all manner of flotsam. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the water clarity also deteriorated to the point where I could barely see my lure more than 6 inches below the surface
.
Though conditions were almost unfishable, I still hoped that things would improve later in the flood as the water depth increased, so I persevered with some more “visible” lures. My main weapon was of course the Lemon Mishna, but I also tried a white Wave Worm fitted with a glass rattle, this was followed by the large yellow Patchinko, but it was more in hope than expectation. I kept at it though and eventually, about 3 hours after low water the flow gradually began to ease. Encouragingly the water also cleared slightly and I started to think that I might be in with a chance after all.
As the last hour of the flood approached and with the water clarity now almost perfect, I finally began to hear some signs of fishy life. First off was the splashing of my old friends the North Wales Sea Trout Aerial Display Team and this was followed shortly afterwards by a more subtle splosh as something altogether spikier than a trout, slurped a poor unsuspecting victim off the surface. My confidence was improving by the minute now and very shortly after this, from along the shore came the splashing sound as another angler landed the first bass of the evening.
This was the signal for me to intensify my efforts and no more than 10 minutes later, my perseverance was rewarded as my Salt Skimmer was smashed out in the darkness, on its very first cast
. This time the assailant made no mistake and for the first time since November 12th 2020, I felt the struggles of a bass on the end of my braid . The fight didn’t last more than a couple of minutes but I enjoyed every second of it, before I safely landed the opening bass of my 2021 season 
.
After a couple of snaps it was released back into the clear water, where it swam off strongly to re-join its friends.
I was absolutely buzzing now and I wasted no time in getting back to it, hoping to make the most of sport while the bass were feeding.
Though the sounds of surface topping fish kept coming, they weren’t exactly feeding voraciously and despite me trying several different lures I didn’t get any more bites. I wasn’t ready to give up just yet though. I carried on cycling through the lures which tend to do well for me early in the season and finally it paid off as around 30 minutes later my yellow Patch 140 was hit, again on its first cast
. The culprit this time was smaller than the first one but I still enjoyed the brief tussle before schoolie number 2 was beaten .
Having never caught more than 2 bass on my opening session of the year, I hoped that things might be different this time but it wasn’t to be. Soon after my second bass, the sound of feeding fish gradually subsided and by an hour after high water, things were quiet again. With 2 more days still left in work I decided not to hammer it, and more than happy to get up and running first time out, I called it a night.
, it was a pleasant surprise when the normally unreliable Mr Drakeford lifted the travel restrictions just as the sea temperature started to climb again . I didn’t need asking twice, so despite the large 32.3ft+ tide, which promised to make fishing conditions a little awkward to say the least, I headed out last night for my first lure session of 2021.Taking into account the recent strong winds, my plans were meticulously hatched but some last-minute intel which came my way just before I left the house, had me questioning if it was in fact the right thing to do after all?
After some quick deliberation, and knowing full well that last minute changes of plan have a habit of coming back to bite you on the a**e, I decided to throw caution to the now non-existent wind and to head for the new mark instead.Thankfully I arrived to find lovely calm conditions and decent water clarity too, with only a slight discolouration which I hoped would clear once the flooding tide started to push in, so I began the hunt with last years standout lure, the Lemon Meringue Mishna. With spring almost upon us, it was great to be back on the bass trail and at 12.7°C and 9.6°C respectively, both the air and water temperatures were surprisingly high
. If I’m completely honest, I wasn’t feeling particularly confident of catching so early in the year but I was just enjoying being there on such a cracking evening.As the flood started to push and the water clarity improved, just as I’d hoped for
, I cycled through a few of my old favourites and I had just switched to the bass magnet which is the Candy SF125, when something tried to smash it seconds after it had landed on the water! I was taken completely by surprise as the would-be attacker missed the lure completely, but my confidence was massively boosted all the same.For the next 20 minutes I covered every inch of the area in front of me, trying to tempt the bass into another attack, firstly with the SF125 and when this didn’t work, I tried something a little more subtle with the baby Patch tweaked gently across the surface. Sadly my tactics failed to attract any more interest and about an hour after low, the tide run increased dramatically, bringing with it all manner of flotsam. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the water clarity also deteriorated to the point where I could barely see my lure more than 6 inches below the surface
.Though conditions were almost unfishable, I still hoped that things would improve later in the flood as the water depth increased, so I persevered with some more “visible” lures. My main weapon was of course the Lemon Mishna, but I also tried a white Wave Worm fitted with a glass rattle, this was followed by the large yellow Patchinko, but it was more in hope than expectation. I kept at it though and eventually, about 3 hours after low water the flow gradually began to ease. Encouragingly the water also cleared slightly and I started to think that I might be in with a chance after all.
As the last hour of the flood approached and with the water clarity now almost perfect, I finally began to hear some signs of fishy life. First off was the splashing of my old friends the North Wales Sea Trout Aerial Display Team and this was followed shortly afterwards by a more subtle splosh as something altogether spikier than a trout, slurped a poor unsuspecting victim off the surface. My confidence was improving by the minute now and very shortly after this, from along the shore came the splashing sound as another angler landed the first bass of the evening.
This was the signal for me to intensify my efforts and no more than 10 minutes later, my perseverance was rewarded as my Salt Skimmer was smashed out in the darkness, on its very first cast
. This time the assailant made no mistake and for the first time since November 12th 2020, I felt the struggles of a bass on the end of my braid . The fight didn’t last more than a couple of minutes but I enjoyed every second of it, before I safely landed the opening bass of my 2021 season .After a couple of snaps it was released back into the clear water, where it swam off strongly to re-join its friends.
I was absolutely buzzing now and I wasted no time in getting back to it, hoping to make the most of sport while the bass were feeding.
Though the sounds of surface topping fish kept coming, they weren’t exactly feeding voraciously and despite me trying several different lures I didn’t get any more bites. I wasn’t ready to give up just yet though. I carried on cycling through the lures which tend to do well for me early in the season and finally it paid off as around 30 minutes later my yellow Patch 140 was hit, again on its first cast
. The culprit this time was smaller than the first one but I still enjoyed the brief tussle before schoolie number 2 was beaten .Having never caught more than 2 bass on my opening session of the year, I hoped that things might be different this time but it wasn’t to be. Soon after my second bass, the sound of feeding fish gradually subsided and by an hour after high water, things were quiet again. With 2 more days still left in work I decided not to hammer it, and more than happy to get up and running first time out, I called it a night.
