My fishing activity has been somewhat infrequent since the turn of the new year due to a busy schedule. Unless the opportunity comes to venture further afield, it’s a pretty slow time of year in the North East so a lower motivation to get out can also be a factor. By early April the winter fishing is a distant memory and the anticipation of the arrival of the summer species has well and truly passed the boundaries of patience . I’ve been known to turn my focus temporarily to fly fishing for stocky trout at my local fishery during the spring hiatus, but so far this year I’ve resisted the temptation to dust off the fluff chucker (the inflated cost of living does not marry well with the price of a rod license renewal and a day ticket!)
With an increasing niggle to get out and prove to myself I can still actually catch fish though, I decided on an evening at Druridge on Sunday in search of the first Bass of the year. The schoolies that frequent the area can at least be relied on to provide sport all year round as long as there’s a bit surf on.
I arrived at my mark around tea time and was greeted on the beach by a chilly northerly breeze which was maintaining the 4-6ft swell that the various weather apps had predicted. It looked proper Bassy and on first impressions I had high hopes – that was until I noticed the many clumps of bladderwrack peppered all over the beach between the low and high tide points. All along the beach as far as the eye could see was the same – sigh!
Confidence slightly dinted but refusing to be deterred I soon had 2 rods rigged up with 2 hook rigs and decent ragworm baits – one dropped in short into the channel that was just beginning to fill up at my feet and the other a little further behind the breakers.
(I really need to give my bait bag a wash)
Truth be told the conditions were a bit tricky. The surf was more or less managable – but the ever moving gullies on the beach that are scoured out by the winter storms are a little deeper than I’ve seen for a while. These were creating a hellish undertow when filling up with the flooding tide, and combined with the many clumps of unavoidable bladderwrack made for some challenging fishing. I had to keep on top of the rods – removing what weed I could in the surf to stay in contact with the rigs, conceding defeat more than once to reel in and recast.
Despite this, both rods were in what I would describe as very “fishable” water. It was absolutely screaming Bass at me and I was convinced it was going to produce. Isn’t that always the way though….?
In fact it took nearly three hours for the first rod to spring into life signalling the Bass had arrived. With some relief, I landed the fish, not a monster and below legal size but it opens the account for 2022!
On my next cast I missed another cracking bite and thought “great – looks like they’re here!” Wrong.
Unfortunately that was all she wrote and by the time 10:30pm rolled around an hour and a half later I was suitably bored of contending with the combined sabotage of current and weed so decided to call it a little earlier than originally intended. I’ve set a target for myself this year of trying to catch a Bass on a lure, something I’ve never done seriously before, so I’m sure I’ll be back soon once things warm up a bit. I’ve noticed the Arctic Terns are already diving for bait fish during calmer conditions so summer can’t be that far away right?