Welcome to winter!

I got my ass kicked up, down and around a variety of beaches today. The small tides normally suit the first mark I tried and with the sea conditions spot on I chucked out  large crab baits on 3/0  hooks using two rods. I was pretty confident the fishing was about to kick off so I got myself organised so that I could move with the tide as it made its way up the beach. I needn’t have bothered. I also bumped into another couple of anglers, 3 ½ hours, not a touch between three of us.


The sea was building but instead of ducking it I moved on to the open coast in search of a fish. I made my first cast and waited to see how bad the weed was before getting the other rod set up. The first cast came back clean, this was a fluke.  When I got  next rig back  below me with the associated weed  it was really hard to control as the waves swept it up the gully to my right. I’ve had worse fights off a Tope. It was horrendous.

Between building myself a seaweed shelter and thinking of happy summer evenings I took this little video clip

 I stomached that for about an hour and then ran for some cover and somewhere that was easy to fish. It’s not a great spot but at least it was fishable. I carried on for a little while till the  change of light and into darkness.

The gorillapod was handy for something today

What a day, a sore one to bow out with for  my 2013 Bass season. This time last year I was in Ireland. June 2014 and my next crack at a Bass now seems a long long way away.

 

 

Fishing Doppelganger

Not much fishing getting done so I’ve resorted to reading about, well fishing…..

 

Stewart gave me this magazine a few weeks back but it wasn’t till Lynne asked me how I got on the front of the magazine I actually noticed the resemblance. My mother was here for dinner that night so when I told her I’d made the front cover she was pleased for me :0) My dad did have a brother that went to Oz in the 70’s. Maybe I should get the family tree looked up as the lure fishing looks great.

From dawn till dusk

A changeable weather outlook put and an end to my plans for the weekend. I found myself fishing where I had to as opposed to where I wanted to.  I took some crab out the freezer as a backup as my thoughts were that conditions would be difficult, I wasn’t wrong.

I arrived before dawn and made my way to my chosen mark, things looked OK. As the tide started to flood and being the only person in sight I seemed to turn into a seal magnet, normally a good indication or fish being in the area they became a pest. The only offer I had was when I launched a Wave Worm at one about 20 yards away and wound the lure back at some speed a small Bass chased it over the top of the weed but couldn’t find the hook. I made a few moves but three hours after HT I was still fishless, a long time to go with only one offer for my efforts.

I took a break for a few hours and rigged up the beach rod bang on LT. Action started pretty much straight away with a double shot of Dogfish and surprisingly given the conditions very little weed  in what was a cracking surf. For the next 3 hours it was pretty frantic and on a couple of occasions I had to send out the same baits as a result of getting a hook up just after touch down and not having the last rig re-baited. Conditions were quite difficult with the surf running up the beach but I managed a few unimaginative pictures for the blog when I could. All in a nice little session with Bass being there in decent numbers but all on the small side.

The mighty Shore Rockling

I think the Bass gear might be getting put away for the winter now, still sport to be had but the weather is the problem. I met one of my contacts in the afternoon and they had a good result on Friday but with weather patterns outlined below, typical of the autumn, it’s hard to plan to be there at the right time. Maybe it's time to go get myself a big Zander.....

 All over the place!!

 

 

The first Pike and Perch of 2013

After Lynne had a last minute change of plans at the weekend it left a slot for me to catch up with Stewart on a trip to Loch Ken for the first time this year. There was a strong easterly breeze forecast for most of the day but nothing that would cause us too much of a problem.

The tactics were to trawl with a selection of plastics and metals. Stewart was off the mark quickly hooking a fish shortly after we started. I’d noticed a fish boil just under the surface as we passed it and almost straight away Stewart got hit but after a moment or so the fish came off.

Stewart saw most of the action with another couple of small Pike and apart from me getting a few hits on a Fox Spinner blade and shad combo I had to wait till late afternoon before I hooked up.




 

I then had 3 fish in 20 minutes. We discussed how this can sometimes happen where the fish just seemingly appear to switch on. While it was certainly a bright day the sun was far from going down but the slight change of light appeared to make the difference.

I’ll get one of these Loch Ken monster Perch yet. This was my first trip of the year for them. It would have been really lucky to get one, on balance I certainly wouldn’t have deserved it or in other words literally earned my stripes. Bait and switch or bait and wait with plenty of groundbait going in and waiting it out would probably do the trick. With the first frost not far away I might need to wait till next year to set my stall to get a 3 pound plus fish…. but I will get it ;0)

Thanks for the day out Stewart.