It’s a summary – that probably tells you all you need to know!
Over the years, I‘ve spent countless hours on surf beaches bait fishing for Bass, but when it comes to lure fishing for them, I’m still very much an amateur. It has become a bit of an obsession the last couple of years though, which has precipitated a mass exodus of British currency from my bank account on lures, rods, braids, bags etc.
Some might describe it as something similar to having all the gear, albeit less of the idea.
This year I’ve been really slow on the uptake though. First off, we’ve had a completely rubbish summer – apart from one week in June, it’s basically rained since the beginning of May. And the flat calm, crystal clear conditions conducive with the shallow, weedy areas I fish in summer have been hard to come by, as the wind seems to have been stuck in a permanent pattern of north and south easterlies. Great for surf fishing but I haven’t tried the beaches much since spring.
Anyway I’ve taken advantage of what little opportunity the weather affords and had a few early morning/late evening flick abouts. The first schoolie of the year fell victim to a Sandeel Pencil at the end of June on an otherwise unproductive session, before the weather once again put the kibosh on any further sessions and it was another 7-8 weeks before things settled enough to be worth venturing out again. Really I should have tried the beaches, but every time there was a window I seemed to be busy.
Anyway, a couple of weeks back I dragged my corpse out of bed at 4am for an early morning session before work and was treated to my first glimpse of a Northumberland sunrise in I don’t know how many years.
The Bass weren’t as impressed as me clearly, with only one fish taking interest in my lure, a white DoLive stick, and promptly ejecting it into a thick raft of bladderwrack a few seconds later. It gave me confidence though and I decided to venture out the following evening to fish into darkness, accompanied by Marc, in what we would have usually considered perfect conditions. Gin clear and flat calm – but still the Bass weren’t in an obliging mood as for the first few hours our lures may have well been in the back of the car for all they were being intercepted by hungry fish.
As the light really faded I clipped on a patchinko 125 in 500g colour. I’ve not had a Bass on a surface lure yet but I’m determined to give it a try every time I’m out. Having thrashed the hell out the venue for hours I admit I was ready to give up, as was Marc. Just as I was contemplating my last cast, I started to see small baitfish scattering in the shallows to my right, clearly startled by something. I was then taken completely off guard by a big splash behind the pachinko. I’ve read that this is pretty typical behaviour for Bass as they attempt to ‘stun’ the prey by swiping at it then come back round to pick it up. This happened a few times over the next 10 mins, then just as Marc came over admitting defeat, a Bass finally hit the lure solid on the surface no more than 8 yards out in 2 foot of water.
A short but spirited fight ensued before the net is slipped under a nice chunky Bass approaching 3lb – a lure PB for me, and off the surface! At this point the light has more or less gone and the tide is ebbing so we decide to call it a night.
Round 2
Bit by the surface bug, I was out again the following week to see whether it was a fluke. Another 4am wake up call saw me on the same mark less than an hour later. It was still completely dark, but a very bright, waning moon was still a fair way up above me which rendered the head torch more or less unnecessary and I could make out a very faint glare on the eastern horizon signalling the approach of daybreak.
I was a bit disheartened to see the water was a little cloudy from yet another stir up a few days previous – I’d expected it to have settled out by now but clearly not. I must admit this more or less shot my confidence of expecting to catch anything, but I messed about for a bit with a couple of slow twitch soft plastics until there was enough of a haze on the horizon that I could realistically send out the patch 125 and actually be able to see it snaking about on the surface. I was mindlessly casting, dreaming away and contemplating my sanity, thinking “why the hell did I bother getting out of bed – there’s not going to be anything here when the waters this murky” when a black, fish shaped silhouette torpedoed my lure about 20 yards out and I was, rather remarkably, attached to a Bass!
“Get in!” was the thrilled cry that woke the larks, followed by numerous expletives 10 seconds or so later when the fish managed to extricate itself mid water. But confidence renewed, I started paying more attention to what I was doing, deliberately casting at structures, currents and gullies, exploring the topography of the reef as best I could. Not 10 minutes later I got slammed again – these Bass were clearly well up for it this morning!
I managed to get this one to the net and, buzzing to get another off the top, quickly removed the single hooks and sent the fish off to tell its pals.
By this point it was high tide, but surely it had another fish in it? As a matter of fact, it had another 3, plus a few other misses from smaller schoolies. The average stamp was overall good as well – I measure me one fish at 48cm and the rest of were of a similar size. So 4 fish off the top in the space of 2 hours – I’m starting to sound like I know what I’m doing!
An hour into the ebb and the bites dried up so it was as good an excuse as any to turn my attention to the first coffee of the day.
I’m dying to get out again but the tides are tiny for the next week. My usual mark fishes best on the bigger tides I’ve noticed so I may have a scout around and see if I can find somewhere to go on the neap tides.