The old faithful venue is still producing the goods, with my latest session producing a decent haul of Bass, albeit none of them beyond the schoolie stage of their lifecycle!
As a venue, Druridge isn’t world famous for the size of the fish it produces, but it is a safe bet to avoid a blank. In fact in 15 years of fishing here I’ve only ever blanked once and can recall the session clearly, as it’s the only time I’ve ever fished the beach in totally flat calm conditions. Mildly overcast on a late spring early morning, the water was like a sheet of glass, with zero ripple from the wind. And the small Flounder and Turbot that can usually be relied on to provide sport were nowhere to be found. Druridge is probably my most regular venue locally, but I’ve made a point to never fish it in flat calm conditions since!
At 7 miles long, the bay has the classical north east ‘C’ shape of most of the beaches in the area and is a flexible option in any onshore conditions as both the head and foot of the bay are protected by large, rocky outcrops and skeers which take the sting out of any prevailing northerly or southerly swell. It doesn’t take much to get the water moving either, and a 2-3ft swell is all that’s needed to get the Bass on the feed.
Such was the case when Marc messaged me asking if I fancied another evening bait fishing for Bass. I checked the forecast – pretty much identical conditions to when me and Mike were out the other week, with a 2.5 ft north easterly swell to put some fizz in the water and get things moving. When I arrived at around 6pm it looked positive – a little coloured from recent rain but I’ve never known that put Bass off, and it’s rarely heavy on Druridge anyway with very little silt build up over the main body of the bay. After a slight false start, which involved a trudge back to the car as I’d somehow managed to leave my rod stand in the boot in my haste to get down to the beach, I was fishing.
Short up and overs with a size 1 circle hook as a pennel and a 1/0 Sakuma worm hook as the main were generously baited with fresh Ragworm and lobbed out into the turbulence. With the onset of lighter nights, I’m starting with 2 rods as I usually find the best sport comes as the light fades and into darkness, so having the extra rod during daylight can help to pick out any early arrivals that might feel more keen than their peers. Marc arrives within half an hour and sets up to my left and, between commenting on how perfect the conditions look, we set about waiting for things to go dark in anticipation of the first fish.
Yet we needn’t have been resigned to the idea of such a waiting game. The Bass clearly had other ideas about what time dinner should be served and were quite happy to start jumping on our hooks from the word go. We each built up a succession of schoolie Bass during the last few hours of daylight, the biggest touching around 39cm so nothing huge. Bigger fish are possible if you work for them, but a fish going over 2lb frankly is a fair achievement around here.
We have a particularly mad hour where a large school of fish is clearly camped right in front of us, with some baits in the water less than a minute before they’re set upon by hungry Bass. I ended up landing 6 fish in less than 40 minutes!
Ironically, as witching hour descends, things slow down – the fish are still around and feeding, but not as hard as before. Marc manages the best of the evening around an hour before high water though with a lovely 45cm fish thats destined for the table. I add a couple more Bass to my tally to bring me to 12 for the evening and, although there are fish still there, I conceded to tiredness and decide to call it an evening.
I only recall one other session a few years ago where I had so many fish and it’s nice after such a time to have a bit of a red letter day. I think we’re about at the point when it’s time for the lure rod to come out!
