More weed than Cheech & Chong

The weather has been true to forecast this week, wish it wasn’t but that’s showbiz! So with this in mind I went back to the same area I fished on Monday, bigger tides and possibly bigger problems with weed but I was optimistic with the incoming tide coinciding with the fading light. Anyway fished the tide down, good news, no weed to speak of. Weapon of choice fresh crab, like McDonalds I went large and didn’t hold back on the baits hoping for a big back end fish to beat my PB. Things looked promising from when on my third cast the rod indicated a solid thump followed by a standard issue slack liner which produced a fish of 3.10. This was followed by a slightly smaller fish about 20 minutes later. With the incoming tide still to come it looked like a promising session lay ahead. Well it came and went with no joy and instead the dreaded weed arrived, not a massive problem but enough to cause me to pull my hair out (if I had any). It was manageable till I got about 20 yards and the gripper, trace and leader knot picked it up like a hoover, lovely. I gave myself to 7.30pm and with the light almost gone I sat watching both rods as I tidied things up when the rod in the left cup displayed a decent bite which developed into a rod stand wrenching pull which sent the whole lot , 2 rods , stand and the bag suspended below it seaward. Having seen this happen before on this mark it’s usually the sign of a decent Bass and once I got a handle of saving the gear and with a slack liner I picked up and felt for what was surely a good fish…nada. I disappointedly wound in one rod and then the other and my reward was a surprise 2 pound cod on the other rod, not really what I was looking for but it was a fish. Makes you wonder how they can do it and not get a 2 x 3/0 pennel rig to stick, maybe a full on line bite in or around the bait and rig but I will never know that’s for sure…