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.

A Break in the Rough.

The weather has been atrocious lately has it not?! Rain pouring down the estuaries and high winds mean my local shore is wild to say the least. I have gotten out twice lately and after blanking the first time I fully expected the same today. 

The shore was strewn with large amounts of rotting weed, some of the deposits were of bail like proportions. The sea was rough and very coloured from both churned up sand and loose weed. I honestly did not expect anything, yet the wind had dropped and the sun did come out to play, so off I went on one of my long walkabouts.

I fished the last four hours of ebb and it was bloody hard going, I was genuinely surprised when I saw a small Bass following my Savage Gear Sandeel at one point, however it raised my hopes of beating the dreaded blank. After a few knocks I eventually got a take after managing to hit a tide rip with my cast, nice!

Believe it or not that is actually the first Bass I have ever landed on a Savage gear Sandeel! I truthfully am not the biggest fan of them. I do not find they suit my fishing; I find the eye on the head is too far back and it often causes the nose to dig into the sand when you pull into it for bouncing over shallow terrain. I also find I have to crank quite fast to keep the things off the bottom, so they rarely see much water time when I have them.

Anyways, I can't complain today as it saved me a blank.

The fishing didn't exactly switch on though and it remained slow. I changed to a 120mm Fiiish Black Minnow and fished a sink and draw type retrieve and caught two more schoolies.

I lost another fish shortly after hooking these two, that was a bit of a bugger, but there was no major size to it, so I wasn't too bothered.

As the sun dropped a very stiff South Easterly blew up and killed my chances of any more fish.

So I am not going to make a specimen hunter any time soon it would seem, yet I was genuinely pleased to have caught anything given the conditions.

I made my arduous journey back home being sandblasted in the process, on reflection it was a nice way to spend a few hours on my day off work.