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!
