The End is Nigh

Waking up was difficult this morning, the cold air making it a struggle to get out from my warm duvet, signalling winter has arrived.

Upon leaving the house for work, the foothills near my house had a good dusting of snow on the tops, both the Snowdon range and the Rhinogs had the beginnings of a decent covering.

The trouble with this is; the foothills thaw quickly during the day and leak icy water into the estuary systems either side of where I live, this is likely to signal the end of the Bass season for me.

In all fairness things have been getting slow over the first half of November, where before I was catching multiple fish per session, the catches have gone down to sometimes just one fish.

I can't say I am not slightly disappointed, I set out this year wanting to both improve my catch rate on lures and to beat my personal best Bass, the former I have accomplished but the later is not so. That being said I have enjoyed my fishing for the most part this year and managed to catch with reasonable consistency.

In fact until now this is the first time I have continued to catch Bass on lures into November, that in itself is a personal accomplishment and a good reminder that as yet, I am still a relative beginner to Bass fishing with lures!

Admittedly I have been disappointed and a little bit discouraged with the size of the fish I have caught, especially as this time of year is known for the time of monster Bass, but I am learning and that is good!

Here are some photos of some November catches;

All my fish through November have been caught on the 125mm Savage Gear Sandeel and this lure is starting to grow on me a little better.

Sunday last, I fished a mark that has been fairly consistent for me this year, but yet again it threw up just one fish. About three hours before low tide I got a decent take and at first I genuinely thought "This is the fish I have been hoping for". The fish took line against a fairly tight drag, but it was only a few seconds before I realised it was not quite the fish I had been after. Still it was certainly a better size to that which I have become accustomed to this last while and she certainly cheered me up some.

61cm and a spirited fighter;

She put a properly nice bend in my Apia rod and its actually the first nice fish I have caught using it. Anyway, after taking the measurement I released her back to catch another day.

I shall be out again on Thursday and I do hope this is not my last report of 2013, but one thing is for sure - the end of 2013's Bass season is nigh!

Tight lines.

Still searching.....

Today was a day of mixed blessings I guess you could say. On checking the weather forecast during the week things were not looking great for today, Met office had predicted strong winds and rain arriving midday. I was determined to get out anyway and if I had to battle harsh conditions then so be it.

Met office was characteristically wrong again, yet thankfully this time it worked in my favour. The strong winds had dropped off and although the sea state was rough, it was a cracking day.

I didn't fish the shore though, I had decided to try my new Apia rod on an estuary mark, fishing the last three hours of the ebb. 

Previously I had used the rod with my Shimano Sustain reel, yet today I paired it with my larger Shimano Rarenium 4000 and it actually feels better all round.

Now being that time of year I had gone out planning to catch a lunker, yet prepared to blank. I have not really caught a Bass of note in a couple of years and the constant stream of school Bass is wearing thin.

I fished the water from top down, starting with a Xorus Patchinko and going through a range of lures until I got to my Fiiish Black Minnows. Drifting the lure in the current and then a sink and draw type retrieve, the Black minnows did the business.

The first was a chubby 45cm schoolie and the first fish to be caught on my new rod.

OK, well it wasn't my big girl but it beats a blank.

A couple of casts later resulted in a leaner fish of around the same length.

Things went quiet for a little and a couple of other anglers turned up to fish not so far away, I was actually disappointed because I rarely ever see other anglers at this mark and I rather like solitude. They were no bother though and didn't stick around too long.

Whilst they were there I did catch another greedy little fish.

The fishing remained tough going, I did get the occasional knock but it was maybe half an hour before low water that I got my last fish. It was quite strange actually, the first bite came as the lure was falling from the cast, but it failed to hookup. I left the lure to drift a little, bouncing the sea bed as it went, when all of a sudden my Fiiish Black Minnow started swimming up current!

I set the hook and realised it was a slightly better fish than its predecessors. It actually put up a half decent fight, managing to take a small amount of line even with my drag set for a lunker.

She measured in at 55cm

Well my search for a big fish is still on and I was a tad disappointed not to find one again, but it was nice to get out and catch a few. It was also nice to break in the rod a little and gain a better understanding of how it performs, its starting to grow on me now.

Still time for a decent fish mind and I yet remain hopeful.

Tight lines.

Apia Foojin'AD Flow Hunt 89ML - First impressions

Well In my last post I said I had some Bass stuff to show off, well it mainly consists of soft lures and Jig heads, I've decided not to bore you with those for the time being.

The new rod however, I guess I should show off a little.

The Apia Foojin'AD Flow Hunt 89ML

Now I have been waiting to get my hands on this rod for what seems like an age. I have been looking for a rod that would fish bigger lures, both hard and soft and is around 9' in length, this one seemed to fit the bill.

Well I finally received the rod on Friday after work and upon opening the tube I was impressed straight away. The rod comes in a nice neoprene type bag which is quite thick and cushioning, the bag has a simple velcro closure and separate pockets (front and rear) for the tip and but section respectively. I realise that no one catches fish on a rod sock, but a carefully designed package is something a lot of rod manufacturers could do with looking at!

Upon pulling the rod out of the bag and assembling it even my children exclaimed "wow, that is a nice rod!" and my children rarely get as excited as I do about fishing tackle.

It really is a nice build though with good attention to detail. 

The rod itself weighs in at an impressive 134g, will cast  a maximum of 34g and has an upper line rating  of 2.0 PE.

Now I am not going to pretend that I know anything about blank design, I know that Apia have employed their 4 way axis tech on this rod and that it features double cross wrap tech. Basically by laying the carbon horizontally, vertically and diagonally on the cloth the material eliminates "twist" which results in loss of power in the cast, yet still maintains integral strength in the blank. The design is to give the angler accuracy and distance (AD), sweet!

Incase you forget the name of the rod, Apia have decided to remind you of it in several places.

On the very strong looking joint;

And on the fore grip;

Add caption

The grip and handle are lovely, I really like the mix of the AAA cork and Duplon/EVA, it looks posh and its incredibly comfortable to fish with.

The rod also features Titanium frame K guides which are also the smallest I have come across on a Bass rod, so small in fact that my JB clips that are said to "fit through the smallest of spinning rod guides", do not!

Well how does it fish? 

That is a difficult question to answer as yet as I have only used it once and despite expecting to catch, I did not!

I can say that, I wasn't expecting it to feel quite as stiff as it does and that will take a little getting used to, especially after using my lighter Megabass rod for so long. It does feel quite powerful though and is accurate for sure!

I used a range of lures on it from a 3.5g jigged and 3.5" soft plastic to the Xorus Patchinko II and Megabass 7"Dot Crawler. To my surprise it put out the 3.5g jig head softie combo a decent distance and I could feel what was going on subsurface very well, yet it also punched out the Patchinko II at 28g over the surf a respectable distance indeed. I found it very easy to work the Patchinko II on it which I have missed using somewhat.

I wouldn't say at this point that I like it as much as my lighter Megabass rod but, I have a feeling it will grow on me once I get into some fish. It certainly does what I want it to and that is to punch out some bigger lures in tough conditions. It did feel pretty good with the 25g Fiiish Black Minnow 120, but only OK with weightless soft plastics like the 6" OSP Dolive stick and the Megabass 7" Dot Crawler.

I am hoping the rain clears up soon so I can get onto one of my estuary marks to see how it fares there and hopefully find some fish to put a bend in it. 

As I've said though, these are just first impressions and I shall maybe do a more informed review after I have used it and caught on it for a decent length of time.

For now; Tight lines.