And then it happened

Friday night was bright so bright you could see individual stones and weed in the water at midnight. I’d lost a substantial fish at 10.30 in really odd circumstances after the gentlest of takes  I could barely keep up with it as it ran towards me and then held solid and started to take line and run parallel to the beach but then the hooks pulled for some reason? Very strange that one. I picked up a couple of school Bass and called it a night as I had an early start.
In the morning the plan was to throw some SP’s into a mark which is thick with kelp but has sand just out of casting range. I was enjoying doing this as with the surf rolling over the kelp and boulders I watched the wave’s turnover it was easy to imagine a nice fish making its way along the shore. It felt like the right plan as the Wave Worms couldn’t have been fishing any better to be honest. As the tide started to rise I had 3 offers from small fish, one was a Bass as it splashed on the surface and the other two maybe Wrasse or a Pollack so with no solid hooks ups it was time for a move. The best part of 5 hours later I still had nothing for my efforts despite things looking pretty much spot on. I was thinking of bed for a few hours when I lifted into a slight bump on the lure as it dropped.

The fish took a white weedless & weightless Wave Worm. The Seaguar 20 pound fluro looks like tow rope in the picture

  Happy lad! It gave a proper account of itself with a couple of twitchy moments at the water’s edge before I got my hands on it. I checked the camera lens was clear, set the timer, knocked out what I thought was one picture but there were two for some reason. A quick measure and back she went. After that I pretty much packed up and went for a pint, what else was there to do? I checked the B.A.S.S length to weight when I got to my digs and had a look on the web. Either it’s out a bit or I’m out with my measure by a couple of cm.  I called it 71cm to fork which by the looks of the LTW made it around 9 pounds, it's not that. Not too bothered about exacts, it’s the biggest Bass I’ve caught and the priority was to get it back with me having a picture. I wasn’t tempted to swing a fish of this size or  any other fish that’s being returned from a lip grip for a weight, no time for that to be honest and I’ve not had digital scales and a bag with me for wee while. So I would say 8 pounds for me to beat in the future.

After a couple or celebratory early afternoon beers the intention was to get some sleep before Callum picked me up for the night shift, no chance as I’d had big Bass caffeine. The next challenge was to try and get Callum a Bass on the fly at night. The fishing on the whole was not great and it didn’t exactly go by the numbers but he managed the fish below so I was delighted for him.

Check the fins in the flash light

 

Some light entertainment

I took a break from Bass fishing on Saturday to make the most of a lull in the weather and forecasted storms and rain heading our way over the week ahead.  The fishing was nonstop really with countless small Coalfish, Mackerel and of course a couple of Sea Trout which were the main target. With the rivers likely to be in spate shortly most of but not all of these fish will be heading up a burn or river very soon. This was just the change in scenery I needed. I fished on till 10.30pm with the intention of catching a fish or two in darkness. I've a lot to learn on this front as despite hearing and seeing fish I drew a blank despite adapting to a method I was sure would work at night. Its also the first time I've came across a seal actively hunting in darkness despite having a lot of night sessions under my belt. I'm not sure who got the biggest fright.

This one came home for my supper on Sunday, the first one I've taken this year.

As for the blog and Bass fishing? I’ve taken a couple of posts down and taken the blog off line as I don’t believe anything positive would’ve come from them at that point. It would though be fair to say that I put a different value on my Bass fishing than some, that’s just how I see it and more on that at some point in the future. The fishing’s been far from easy but with handful of fish and some nice ones at that it’s been worth pursuing.