Per my last blog Summer 2025 Roundup, it has been an extremely poor season (for me at least) on the lure fishing front. I definitely think I’ve ran up more hours and miles than last year and yet only 2 Bass graced my net all season. Yes – there was a few losses, but even then, managing to hook a fish was a rare thing and success hasn’t been anywhere near as consistent as last year. Even my banker marks failed to live up to expectations.
So I didn’t really hold out much hope for my last outing. But as always, that ill placed optimism crept in at the sight of some favourable conditions on one of those banker marks I talked about and, against my better judgement, I decided to have a go for what will probably be my last try of the season.
On arriving I was slightly disheartened to find the water quite coloured, with visibility only about 2ft in places and a murky brown. This was quite surprising as it has been settled for a good week since the last stir up, although the smooth <1ft swell that the forecasters had promised yet again turned out to be underestimated – the swell was quite lazy but the secondary was more like 2-3 foot.
No combination of flinging hard and soft plastic into the murk seemed to be doing anything though and it wasn’t long before I was starting to lose interest, having already thrashed the hell out of it for an hour and a half.
I decided to move north to a different mark in the hope that the visibility might be improved. It was worse! A couple of inches at best.
Dilemma
Resigned to the idea that this clearly wasn’t going to happen, I began heading further south, intending to stop off at an estuary along the way to see if it was worth a try or not. Half way there though I decided I couldn’t be bothered and instead decided to just jump back on the first mark, which would be half an hour before high water now and, given the large tide, I was hoping that maybe enough water had pushed through to clear the colour somewhat.
This actually turned out to be a good theory. Clarity hadn’t improved drastically, but it was more like 3ft visibility now rather than the 1-2ft previously. I’d clipped on a feed shallow in white to try and make as much noise as possible, hoping to draw something in, but they either weren’t there or weren’t interested.
As the tide slackened I spotted a sea trout jumping off the edge of the reef so quickly switched to a green seeker. They are supposed to be the fish of a thousand casts but at this point I was willing to try anything to get a bend in the rod. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with these seekers. They absolutely sail out into even the worst head wind and they have a lovely action, especially when you stop them dead and hang them in the water to let them spin. Apparently this is a killer tactic the Scandinavians employ for sea trout called “spin stop” and I can see why as it looks very enticing.
Anyway, I have a lot of confidence using seekers – but – I haven’t actually caught an awful lot on them, and have never actually caught a single Bass on one.
However. After a dozen or so casts FINALLY my luck changed as a fish slammed the seeker halfway back through the retrieve. Initially presuming it was a sea trout I was delighted when it turned out to be a small schoolie. It was netted without any real fuss but despite its modest size it’s the most welcome fish I’ve had all summer. And my first on a seeker as well!
I followed it up with a dozen or so more casts but by now the tide was ebbing, and from experience of the mark you only really get an hour of the ebb at the most before the fish move on, so I called it an evening.
So ends another Bass season. Like I say It’s been a really poor year for me, but I’ve got a few new marks under my belt which I need to spend more time on next season to get them cracked. Attention now turns to a mix of winter Cod interspersed with the occasional Stillwater fly fishing trip I think. Quite looking forward to both