July 2011 – Hooks, Lines & Sinkers

Bass-man Billy!

Buoyed by the recent early morning foray before work which yielded some nice local bass I had one eye on the weather forecast last night. I thought there might be the chance this morning to give the mark another go and also thought it might give my son Billy the opportunity to get a bit more practice in and maybe even break his proper fishing duck… yes he’s caught a couple of tiddlers but nothing that could be deemed all his own work. Today that changed!

His casting has improved significantly and he was getting some good distance with his lure using his 8ft rod – albeit slightly wind assisted. He was also now twitching the lure on the retrieve much more confidently and it proved too much of a temptation for one greedy bass.

It was a real magical moment when I think about it. We were fishing a groin with our backs to each other when I heard Billy shout a single word to me…

“Fish” he cried, as the reel’s drag kicked in and the fish took a little line.

Frantically, I pulled my line in and went to assist but really there was no need apart from telling him where to bring the fish in. It was all under control and within the minute Billy had his first lure caught bass on the beach. It was nothing huge, maybe 1.5lb at best but was in perfect condition and most significantly it made for one very happy boy and an equally proud Dad! As I say, a magic moment.

After a few quick snaps we slipped the fish back in the water and watched it swim off with smiles on our faces. It didn’t matter what followed after to be honest but for the record I nabbed a bass soon after that was barely bigger than the lure that caught it and then I had a better one of around 3lb which we returned to fight another day…

The fish of the day though belonged to Billy… it may not have been the biggest but if it gives him the encouragement to get hooked on fishing, excusing the pun, then in times when there are so many other distractions for children, I think that is something of an achievement.

Well done Billy!

Until next time…

Bass before work anyone?

The weather has been relatively settled the last week but there just hasn’t been the opportunity to get out on the kayak which has been disappointing. However, with a few whispers of mackerel and bass in close locally I needed to get out and fish.

Last night I settled on a plan of getting up early this morning before work and having a couple of hours plugging for bass. With the aid of one of the dogs barking at an intruding fox in the garden at 4 a.m. I dragged myself out of my pit, got my kit together, made a coffee and headed out into the dark – it was perfectly still.

Within half an hour I was at what turned out to be the first of my venues. It was just getting light and the sea was flat calm but not a lot of activity on the surface which was contrary to recent reports. Nevertheless, I walked along the shore casting into the water to see if anything was out there and to my surprise on about my twentieth cast the rod slammed over and I was in to a fish – nothing huge and after a decent little tussle this nice fish that weighed in bang on 2lbs came ashore…

Encouraging I thought but then it went completely quiet for the next half hour so I decided to spend the last hour I had at a venue a bit further down the road I had an inkling might hold some bass but had never tried before. It proved to be a good decision.

The tide was slowly rising but at this particular place the water is pretty shallow and in fact there was probably only two or three feet of water there at best when I arrived. The water was fairly clear though with some weed cover and encouragingly there were a lot of fry moving around. Even more encouraging though were the occasional swirls amongst the fry and that said to me either mackerel or bass. It was bass. First cast and I hooked a schoolie of about a 1lb which was released but then second cast the lure was slammed by a slightly better fish around the 2.5lb mark – perfect eating size so that one went in the bag. A couple more schoolies followed but then I connected with a better fish and the result after a brief scrap was this nice bass a little over 3lb…

I walked along the water’s edge maybe 20 yards and the very next cast I was in again with a fish of a similar size… this one had a bit of fire in his belly and for it’s size put up a really good fight…

This was all in a little over a single hour’s fishing and the lure that took all these fish was the Tackle House Feed Shallow UB 15 which has certainly once again proved it’s worth. It’s funny how you can have confidence in one particular lure compared to another and that is definitely the case with the Feed Shallow range. It’s probably unjustified as there are a lot of good lures out there nowadays but psychologically it makes me think I am going to catch every time I use one!

By soon after 7.a.m. I was walking back to the car ready to head home to start work. A really enjoyable couple of hours and a great way to start the working day that’s for sure.

Until next time…

Charter trip…..

A few months back when we heard our mad keen fishing mate Ian was coming over from his adopted home in Australia a date was put in the diary for a charter boat session primarily to have a few laughs but hopefully to land a few fish as well. A much needed day off work was booked and yesterday, for once, the weather played ball so six of us – Kee, Ian, Dee Bill, Doc and myself – headed out from Lymington on the good ship Shogun skippered by Rob Thompson.The general plan was to fish a couple of wrecks and sandbanks off the back of the Isle of Wight and see what species we could pick up.

We were shipshape and ready to go around 8:30 in the morning ……well, most of us were shipshape and ready but there was one notable exception!!

From Lymington marina we headed out into lovely conditions in the The Solent and it did cross my mind it would have been nice out there on the kayak! We passed Hurst Castle and headed on towards The Needles…

The engines were shut about a mile off the back of The Needles and it was feathers down to bag up on mackerel – it didn’t take long with enough to live bait, dead bait and eat pulled up in no more than 15 minutes tops……

Tried to get a picture of them in the live tank as well but didn’t come out so good……

Before long we were over the first wreck mark, Dee and Ian fishing with mackerel live baits and the rest of us on soft plastics hoping for a pollack. First drift was uneventful but second time round Dee had a hit on the live mackerel and up came this nice pollack…

A couple more drifts proved fruitless so Rob moved us on to another wreck which again was uneventful so the decision was made to head for some sand banks and try for a few bass. Four rods went down with live baits and two with soft plastics and on the first drift Dee was in again with a bass followed shortly by Bill with a slightly bigger fish…

That was it for the bass here though Doc did have a decent bite and when the bait come up it was cut cleanly in half…… it was widely suspected a tope had nabbed it. We moved once more to a mark further round the back of the island, again over some sand banks, where we anchored up for some dead baiting using fillets of mackerel. There was a nice tide requiring over a 1lb of lead to hold bottom. With baits down and a couple of beers on the go it wasn’t long before Bill was into something a bit different that was pretty much a dead weight in the tide. A ray was suspected and we weren’t wrong, though maybe it wasn’t the species expected, when up came a rare small eyed variety…

Kee was next off the mark – mackerel aside – with a dogfish leaving Doc and myself bringing up the rear on the fish front! The tide had slackened off by now so less weight was needed to hold bottom which was pleasing. Dee was probably having the best day so far and it was about to get better when he was in again and this time to something a lot better which was a good test for his 12lb class rod……

After a decent tussle he was rewarded with this beauty of a blonde ray which weighed in at 19lb – a very respectable fish…

Nice mouth on it too…

As I say Doc and I were not having much luck but at least Doc was getting the odd bite and for a few seconds he had a run on his mackerel but it soon went dead and on retrieval he was missing both hook and bait – the suspect again being a tope!

Kee was feeling the effects of his antics the previous night but that didn’t stop him catching and whilst he was sat recovering he had a tentative bite on his mackerel fillet which actually resulted in the best bass of the day…

Time was getting on and before we knew it, it was time to head back to port …… but with a stop off on the way. Rob had noticed on his trip the day before a lot of school bass activity at the back of the island where they were chasing fry and suggested a bit of fun plugging for them on the way in. Sure enough when we got to the same mark the sea was boiling with bass attacking a bait ball of fry from below and birds working at the surface. With plugs and lures at the ready we fizzed them out and as hoped we were getting hammered by them pretty much immediately and at last I saved a blank with a steady stream of bass in the 1.5 – 2lb bracket similar to the one below…

It was great sport for an hour in terrific conditions and in the end we literally lost count how many we actually caught but it was a mental hour for sure.

At near on 8 o’clock though it was finally time to head back round The Needles, through The Solent and back into Lymington harbour……

A fantastic twelve hours on the water in great company as always and especially good to catch up with Ian on his trip here from Australia. The only thing appropriate to do after such a day was to finish it off with a couple of cheeky beers – it doesn’t get much better than that.

Until next time…