Bass aboard!

When I first got my Outback one of the target species high on the list was Bass. For one reason or another I’ve just not got around to putting the time in giving myself a chance of a few fish. Thankfully this changed today, mainly driven by todays weather, I dropped onto a spot that I’ve caught fish at LT and the first part of the flood from the shore. It was a dirty day, grey and wet, the rain started when I put one foot out of the car and pretty much didn’t let up.

Despite having had Bass here before I was caught by surprise not long after starting, the rod hooped over and I felt a Bass shaking its head, great start!

My first kayak caught Bass, wouldn’t have used the picture otherwise. Having taken two shots the lens was smudged in the conditions, part of one of today’s camera fiasco. Part two followed soon after when I hooked another fish. I hit record on the GoPro remote, giving it a bit of chat then holding the fish up before slipping it back. When I looked at the remote it told me there was no SD card in it, happy days.

Let’s try again shall we? Fish three…

 

 

A bonus Tub Gurnard liked the SG Sandeel as well.

  I then went on to cover a lot of ground but couldn’t track the fish down again, can’t complain, mission accomplished and another target species for the kayak campaign.

These Bass were lean and fairly modest, hope to catch up with a few larger specimens over the course of the summer. My Sea Trout season fizzled out on a run of blanks but my Bass season has started well, 14 fish in two sessions and before the end of May. Tope next, if the weather plays ball.

 

 

 

Rodney’s Beach

It must be around 18 years, probably more since Rodney took me here to catch my first Bass. Sadly he’s no longer with us but as far as I’m concerned it’s still his beach. I’ll always fish it a couple of times a year and I won’t ever step on this beach and not think about him. We had some good times here, a lot of laughs and some nice fish. Of course there were some failures. I liked to wind him up about these, he would blame me for most of it but we always laughed about it. Rodney also liked his bed so it was hard to get him out of it for the early morning sessions that always seemed to produce our best fish back then. That grey time of the morning, half-light. It was rare to get a smile from him at daft o’clock but a nice Bass usually cracked his face with a big grin. He was never far away from some kind of nonsense, fishing related or otherwise. Within a short distance of where I was stood he had a tent torn to pieces by a Great Dane, fixed some kind of belt problem on a MK2 Golf using a bait fork as one of his tools and had a panic attack climbing a cliff. These dramas didn’t necessarily amuse Rod but it did always give us something to consider bettering on any given fishing jaunt.

Anyway, I digress, the fishing was pretty good considering. I knew I wouldn’t be getting any decent fish tonight, it was very flat, but I didn’t expect to hit double figures. I’ve been over the Tay Bridge twice today on the other side of Scotland and drove past my home to Luce Bay to catch the tide for two hours fishing. Just as well it wasn’t a blank, too much on this weekend to stay any longer. I won’t be complaining about that for my first Bass trip of the year.

I just used my Sea Trout in-lines, pretty effective for this size of Bass at least.

I forgot how spikey these little fellas are while handling them.

Another highlight were these fellas. I did consider pegging it off the beach with them, Norfolk Terriers, can't say I've come across them before. I hooked a sand eel and fed it to them thus starting a short tug of war, typical terriers.

I might have a shot for Tope/Bass from the kayak on Monday weather and domestic life permitting.

 

 

 

 

 

May already

With the year passing so quickly May has arrived in no time at all and the seasonal gear change is kicking in everywhere. I’ll be taking a backseat this month, too many commitments on the domestic front, projects running behind and other things that need attended to. Given I’ve had three blank sessions trying for Sea Trout since my last capture it’s probably a good time to have a break. These were only short 2 hour trips but blanks all the same. If I can squeeze in a few hours I might but won’t be sweating it if I don’t. Most years I get to August and feel a bit burnt out, a bad time to feel like that.

I can’t complain with my year so far, the kayak challenge I’ve set myself will pick up again in June when I can get my rig out of the garage again. The Tope, Bass and Smoothound will be here in better numbers by then. I’ll get around to improving the Perch I have here as well.

I’ve only started thinking about a trip to Ireland and the possibility of a Blue Shark from my Outback, the ideas is still there but I need to start networking soon to establish if anyone else has similar thoughts. Having also entered my first kayak competition this was a step forward to putting a Zander in the kayak. I’ll be fishing the World Predator Classic 2017 qualifier to be held at Grafham in August. The final will be in Holland. For me it’s really about getting two days on that venue and the possibility of a decent Zed. If that fails it will be a long journey back down to England in the Autumn for a schoolie Zander from Rutland, motivation enough to get it right first time hopefully.