Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 21,365
- Reaction score
- 73,974
- Points
- 116
- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
Back to my favourite bass beach last night. The darker evenings do make it so much easier to fish after dark surf beaches at a more sociable time.
Had wanted to get out Tuesday or Wednesday but conditions were evil, the surf was huge and it might have suited the fish but it can be very hard to fish in those conditions - tripod blowing over, sand whipping about and any weed and you’re screwed.
Anyway, the surf was still a bit bigger than I’d like but generally looked pretty lush and there was no one on the beach, though the lighthouse brigade have been turning up an hour before low so I wasn’t counting any chickens just yet.
Seemed to take forever to set up. Must admit once I was there I wasn’t really feeling it, but I was there so that was that.
Mrs Moon was out but there was enough cloud cover to hide her charms for about half the evening.
The surf was STRONG. Usually it doesn’t get quite that strong until later in the year but even a few inches depth was really tugging at my legs and feet.
Not much happened for a while, then when I reeled the first cast in I found a basslet of about 8oz had lightly hooked itself on my 6/0 pennelled squid
Would have done a quick pic but it dropped off halfway to the tripod so I scooped it up and got it back quickly. It soon shot off.
As you know I like as little light as possible, so switched to my cheapy dim red headlamp, which is perfect when there’s no other bright lights nearby as it just about picks out the rod tips, is fine for baiting up and reeling in, but doesn’t penetrate more than about eight feet.
Red light district time!
I was putting out squid on one rod and bluey on another.
I still didn’t see any bites, but brought in a second basslet on the squid about 10oz, getting bigger
It looks big in the picture but it really wasn’t!
I was starting to get into it a bit more anyway.
Upon retrieving the bluey rod I had a chunky dog on there. We’ve all seen dogs before.
The flood was rushing up the beach in earnest now and as I was pushed back, I didn’t get any more bites either.
Baits were coming back pretty ragged so I wondered if there was whiting or something out there.
As I was about an hour from the cut off point, I had a good pull down on a whole small bluey and struck into what seemed to be a decent weight, but it wasn’t doing much.
It went light close in and whatever it was, was gone.
Not too sure if it was weed or just tide or what, but the bluey was absolutely smashed to bits and hanging in pieces so something had certainly had a go.
I reset both rods with half a big bluey and was in the gully at the back of the beach by then, moving my box way up to drier land because there’s a dip there and it’s easy for your gear to float away if you’re not careful.
In fact one night, I was fishing on oblivious until I realised spools of line were floating past me and my box had been capsized by a wave
Frantic chasing around retrieved most of it but lesson learned and not to be repeated!
The left rod suddenly gave a jagged sort of bite with some pull downs and a big strike while taking a few steps backwards set the hook.
There was definitely something on but it wasn’t doing much until in the dim red light I saw a reasonable bass kicking in the shallows.
I got it ashore and saw it wasn’t as big as I’d thought, but still seemed fairly chunky, 3lb was my guess.
Now, I’d thought to myself that I didn’t really need to keep any more fish right now so anything would go back.
Unfortunately this one had the lower hook pretty much embedded in its arse so I had no choice but to whack it on the head.
On weighing, it only went 2lb 7 and it certainly looked bigger, but the scales are quite new so I guess that’s what it was
No pics, sorry. The tripod was in knee deep water by then and the box was way up the beach and in all the moving around, just didn’t think of a picture.
I retrieved my tripod and the rod still fishing and brought it through the gully so I could watch it while gutting and scaling the bass.
As I glanced up I realised there was slack line blowing everywhere, bloody hell.
After winding forever and striking when I felt a weight, I had something on but it wasn’t huge.
Turned out to be a modest dogfish.
There’s so much sand covering the rocks in the gully this year that I could easily have fished on, but it was way past midnight and I was tired, so called it a night.
CBA to go out tonight but hopefully can get a few more bass attempts in this month.
Oh, no lighthouse brigade either. They seem to prefer midweek!
Had wanted to get out Tuesday or Wednesday but conditions were evil, the surf was huge and it might have suited the fish but it can be very hard to fish in those conditions - tripod blowing over, sand whipping about and any weed and you’re screwed.
Anyway, the surf was still a bit bigger than I’d like but generally looked pretty lush and there was no one on the beach, though the lighthouse brigade have been turning up an hour before low so I wasn’t counting any chickens just yet.
Seemed to take forever to set up. Must admit once I was there I wasn’t really feeling it, but I was there so that was that.
Mrs Moon was out but there was enough cloud cover to hide her charms for about half the evening.
The surf was STRONG. Usually it doesn’t get quite that strong until later in the year but even a few inches depth was really tugging at my legs and feet.
Not much happened for a while, then when I reeled the first cast in I found a basslet of about 8oz had lightly hooked itself on my 6/0 pennelled squid
Would have done a quick pic but it dropped off halfway to the tripod so I scooped it up and got it back quickly. It soon shot off.
As you know I like as little light as possible, so switched to my cheapy dim red headlamp, which is perfect when there’s no other bright lights nearby as it just about picks out the rod tips, is fine for baiting up and reeling in, but doesn’t penetrate more than about eight feet.
Red light district time!
I was putting out squid on one rod and bluey on another.
I still didn’t see any bites, but brought in a second basslet on the squid about 10oz, getting bigger
It looks big in the picture but it really wasn’t!
I was starting to get into it a bit more anyway.
Upon retrieving the bluey rod I had a chunky dog on there. We’ve all seen dogs before.
The flood was rushing up the beach in earnest now and as I was pushed back, I didn’t get any more bites either.
Baits were coming back pretty ragged so I wondered if there was whiting or something out there.
As I was about an hour from the cut off point, I had a good pull down on a whole small bluey and struck into what seemed to be a decent weight, but it wasn’t doing much.
It went light close in and whatever it was, was gone.
Not too sure if it was weed or just tide or what, but the bluey was absolutely smashed to bits and hanging in pieces so something had certainly had a go.
I reset both rods with half a big bluey and was in the gully at the back of the beach by then, moving my box way up to drier land because there’s a dip there and it’s easy for your gear to float away if you’re not careful.
In fact one night, I was fishing on oblivious until I realised spools of line were floating past me and my box had been capsized by a wave
Frantic chasing around retrieved most of it but lesson learned and not to be repeated!
The left rod suddenly gave a jagged sort of bite with some pull downs and a big strike while taking a few steps backwards set the hook.
There was definitely something on but it wasn’t doing much until in the dim red light I saw a reasonable bass kicking in the shallows.
I got it ashore and saw it wasn’t as big as I’d thought, but still seemed fairly chunky, 3lb was my guess.
Now, I’d thought to myself that I didn’t really need to keep any more fish right now so anything would go back.
Unfortunately this one had the lower hook pretty much embedded in its arse so I had no choice but to whack it on the head.
On weighing, it only went 2lb 7 and it certainly looked bigger, but the scales are quite new so I guess that’s what it was
No pics, sorry. The tripod was in knee deep water by then and the box was way up the beach and in all the moving around, just didn’t think of a picture.
I retrieved my tripod and the rod still fishing and brought it through the gully so I could watch it while gutting and scaling the bass.
As I glanced up I realised there was slack line blowing everywhere, bloody hell.
After winding forever and striking when I felt a weight, I had something on but it wasn’t huge.
Turned out to be a modest dogfish.
There’s so much sand covering the rocks in the gully this year that I could easily have fished on, but it was way past midnight and I was tired, so called it a night.
CBA to go out tonight but hopefully can get a few more bass attempts in this month.
Oh, no lighthouse brigade either. They seem to prefer midweek!
