A Dawn Raid and a Morning Made.

No sleeping in dunes or on the beach today, I had a bit of a lie in, I left my house at around 3:00am!

It was a nice morning out too, though still dark as I walked across the beach, there was enough light to see what I was doing.

The fishing was a tad slow and hard again, with not many signs of fish. The good thing is, I have put the hours in now and know roughly where the fish holding features are along this stretch of shore. Admittedly with the winds of late coupled with the big tides, the structure has changed a little though.

As usual I started fishing with surface lures and wake baits and as has been the case of late, I had no action with those. 

I eventually gave in and changed to my Yoshikawa jig. I am kind of getting bored with these now, they do catch alright but they seem a little like Power Isome, that is, practically cheating!

Yet sure enough as I retrieved my lure, I saw a shadow come up behind it. I paused my retrieve and let the jig fall when it was engulfed by my first Bass.

I must admit she did put up a spirited fight with lots of head shakes and lunges. Soon enough however, I landed her and measured her in at 50cm on the nose.

I was really quite pleased that my home made assist hook held just fine and I couldn't help wonder if I would have lost the fish had it have taken hold of the treble.

I carried on with my little jig for a while and soon landed a 41cm fish also.

As I said before though, I was getting tired of just catching on the jig and was feeling a bit like a one trick pony, so for the next while I went through my other lures to see if I could gain any interest, it seemed I could not!

I remembered in the back of my vest, I had some Megabass Giant Xlayers. 

Now, these lures are not my favourite lures at all, I never seem to get anything on Xlayers. I hear lots of people rating them highly, but I tend to call them Megagash Xliars, because I was certain that the reports I had heard of them were false.

Anyhow, I rigged one of these up unweighted on a 4/0 Owner Wide Gape Plus and casted up current. I kept just out of contact as the lure drifted down current, I then just waked the lure back in. As I was on the retrieve, to my astonishment something grabbed the lure and took a dive. Sadly there was no hookup and the fish went free. I repeated the manoeuvre twice more and it was therefore on the third retrieve I made, that a Bass engulfed my Xlayer with a big swoosh!

I was flipping buzzing and the fish was fighting quite well, making quite a commotion with its thrashing and lunging in the current. There was no way I was letting this fish get off though and with a little persuasion, I got her in. Measuring at only 53cm I was a little surprised, as she gave a good account for herself!

I was still well pleased and the Megabass Xlayer has gone up in my estimation! It is now a lure I shall  maybe reach for sooner in future, they make a really good wake bait.

This would be the last fish of the session, as aside from some swipes by micro schoolies, there was not much action before the rain came in and I departed for home. 

During the session I managed to completely ruin my camera, the sand eventually proved to much for it. I am a tad gutted as it has been a really good camera and takes a fairly decent picture.

My big girl is also still evading me, but I am enjoying my Bass fishing a lot more than last year and I felt todays session was an excellent way to spend the morning. I really am pleased about finally making the Xlayer work for me, with the biggest fish of the day!

Well I hope you enjoyed the report.

Thanks for reading and tight lines!

Proving my Metal.

I'm not going to lie to you, I have had a difficult time with the fishing of late. I have had three blanks in a row! Well when I say blanks, I mean I haven't managed to land my target species, Bass.

I have had about a million Weever, which are becoming the bane of my life just now. The average size seems to be bigger and they seem even more intent on stinging me.

As you probably know by now, my day off of work is a Thursday and after finishing work yesterday I was intent on a session. I checked Met Office on the way home and they gave it rain for today, so I decided to head out at night after some dinner.

I left my house at 12:30am and arrived at my mark around 2:00. 

You don't half learn a lot about yourself  when alone on the shore at night, it can be somewhat scary!

I started off fishing lures like the Megabass Cutter and ima Aldente. From there I tried all manner of lures and although I had one missed hit on my Fakie Dog Downsize and a tug or two on a Savage Gear Slug, I had no fish. 

After a couple of hours I grew a little despondent and tired, I found myself a nice little nest in the dunes and had a nap. I woke up freezing, but after a Tuna sandwich and a Snickers bar I took to the shore again.

The tide was ebbing and it was now well light. I clipped on my 7g Yoshikawa jig and cast up current, with smooth lifts I let it bounce down. On the retrieve I had a good thump on my rod and line started peeling off my new Sustain. I became quite surprised by the amount of line going out and I therefore tightened up to put the hurt on!

After a fairly admirable fight, I landed a fairly nice Bass.

Here's a ruler shot.

60cm, that'll do nicely!

And a bad self timed "glory" shot.

Well I was and am very pleased to get one at last for my team, I do hope to beat it but I feel as though the pressure is off a bit now. Of course I am pleased anyway, for a while it looked like a long walk and little sleep for nothing!

I fished on for a while, bat sadly I have nothing else to report. Well other than those little jigs are awesome and are definitely now well proven!

I'll finish the report with a picture of the release;

Tight lines.

Shimano Sustain 2500FG.

I decided to brave the weather this afternoon as I wanted to try out a new toy. I had however  underestimated the wind speed and it was hard controlling my lures in such conditions.

I really thought there would be some decent Bass about but sadly, if there was, I could not find them. I did see the biggest Turbot I have ever seen on my shores though, I'd estimate it at around 5-6lb and it was sitting in no more than 30cm of water! I would love to catch that on my Blue Current!

Anyway, I did sort of get to test my new toy, although I just didn't get a fish to test it properly.

The Shimano Sustain 2500FG.

I must say I am suitably impressed with it. Loading it up earlier today with Sunline Momentum 4x4 PE 1.0, I was really impressed with the line lay straight out of the box, I didn't have to do the usual messing about with washers. 

It feels a very sturdy reel and it runs very smoothly (having 8 bearings plus the roller bearing), I just can't wait to test the drag, I do not anticipate there being any problems there, Shimano are well reputed for having the best drags available. 

The reel also looks mint on my Megabass XOR Shadow XX SXX-85L, well these things are important you know!

I'm sure I will get on with the Sustain though, as I am and always have been a bit of a Shimano fan.

On my way back home today I found something I wish I could have taken with me, it must have washed up from somewhere during these high winds and rough seas.

A boat would surely help me get to the fish! Oh well, I emptied the water and re-plugged it. It's probably afloat now and drifting off to new shores.

Tight lines all!

Quickie after work.

With the weather due to turn nasty tomorrow I decided to pop out after work with the BLC-80. The sea was crystal clear and flat calm, beautiful but not exactly how I like it.

I was fishing my Turbot mark and Turbot is what I was targeting. Sadly I missed the hook up on just one Turbot, I was mainly catching Weever fish and caught a personal best of a whopping 15cm!

There was the odd Sea Trout jumping, but I couldn't see much signs of anything else. However as darkness fell, I hooked up on another little schoolie which put a nice little bend in my Blue Current and made my Biomaster sing a little. I have to say I love this set up, the BLC-80 just bends so nicely into a fish and is  an absolute joy to play on. 

Anyway, heres a photo of my school Bass;

It was a pleasant evening and a nice way to end the day, I feel I am really enjoying my fishing just now and just hope that improves.

Cheers and tight lines!

Schoolies out for Summer!

There are two things I have been wanting to do for a while now, one was to do a sunrise session and the other to get a 50+ cm Bass for my Lure Forum team. I figured the two could go hand in hand realistically as my best Bass have always come at or just after Sunrise on 4-5m tides.

With that in mind I left my house at 1:45 last night and arrived at my mark just after 3:00. It's the first time I have fished this mark early morning and it was strange how different it looked under the light conditions, almost scary.

I left my light game gear at home this time and took my regular Bassing gear in the hope of landing a bigger fish. I started off fishing using a Megabass Cutter 90 and could occasionally feel Bass sucking at it on the retrieve, yet no hook ups. I chopped and changed lures often and varied my retrieves, with no success. This is not how the session went in my mind before hand!

In fact the sun was well risen when I had my second take on my ZipBaits Fakie Dog, I had barely started to retrieve when a little schoolie hit it.

It wasn't quite what I was after but, at least I had beat the blank and broke in a new lure!

It really wasn't long before I came to terms with the fact I wasn't going to get my fish for the team. With the fish being small again, I switched to my trusty jigs and landed another four Bass.

The largest was 46cm and actually put up quite a fight, in fact as small as they all were, they were all  quite aggressive.

The fishing died off so I took the opportunity for a bite to eat and a couple of hours sleep on the shore. Having not slept and walking a few miles I was absolutely beat.

When I woke from my slumber  the tide had started to retreat and so I fished a little more. I caught another small Bass and a Garfish.

I did fish on for another hour or so and despite being able to see Bass, I could not get them to take my lures. I put it down to the bright conditions. 

I do hope I am able to get a decent fish for my team soon.

All in all though I am quite pleased with the Bass season so far, especially in comparison to 2012!

There's plenty of time yet and there are a few large girls coming out around our shores, lets just hope I can be in the right place at the right time.

Thanks for reading and tight lines!

Getting Jiggy.

I have only managed a couple of sessions of late as I have been away in Suffolk for my Brothers wedding (which was awesome). The first session I had was just over a week ago and was with my good friend Scott, I have not written a report for that but you can read Scotts here.

Today (Wednesday) I arrived at work to find out that my day off had been rescheduled without my knowledge. Ordinarily I would have been quite annoyed, but as it happened I had something to do in town and it was a nice sunny day. So after tying up a bit of business in town, I headed home and sorted out my light game gear for a short session.

The session started off quite hard and all I was only catching Weever Fish. Though they are better than not catching at all, I am not enjoying them so much as it may be only a matter of time before I get stung.

They are really wriggly and at times a pain to unhook!

However, as the tide started to slacken off a bit I did get a good take on my Yoshikawa Jig and after a short fight I landed a School Bass.

I had expected things to kick off a little after this fish, however, despite trying a variety of tactics and lures I was still having a tough time. I was still hooking up on Weever, but nothing to make my drag sing a little.

Seeing as I had walked a fair way to the mark, I decided to stick it out knowing as the sun and tide dropped I would get into some fish.

I was right of course.

All of the fish were taken on the 7g Yoshikawa Jig in either the Sardine pattern or the black pattern. The largest Bass was just 44cm.

The third Bass of the session also had some strange markings on its tail section, I am unsure what may have caused this, maybe a gill net, what do you think?

Before I left for home I had one more fish, which I am very chuffed about. I was actually reeling the jig in very fast and it was really just skimming the surface, when i got hit by a Garfish.

Many people do not like to catch Garfish and I cannot for the life of me work out why? They are very fast, they fight well, they jump all over the show and quite honestly I think they look awesome. Sure they smell a little, but in my mind if an angler objects to the smell of fish then he or she has the wrong hobby, they are brilliant things and some serious sport on the light stuff!

This one measured 66cm on the ruler.

The Garfish also took quite a while to revive for release which I found strange. For a moment I thought it would have to come home for tea. Eventually, with a little help from the current it swam off looking in reasonably good shape.

I wish I could have stayed out longer and fished into darkness, but unfortunately I have work in the morning. Never the less I returned home satisfied enough and I tell you the best £2.60 I have ever spent was on the Yoshikawa jig!

Thanks for reading and tight lines.