A Bit Better…

Managed to work myself an opening today for a few hours so, with all bases covered, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands! The weather forecast looked okay with some cloud cover and, with the westerly air flow of the last couple of days continuing, I was hopeful of something resembling fair conditions. The venue was the same spot as my previous trip last week when I picked up mackies and garfish.

It wasn’t an early start as on previous trips… I didn’t arrive until mid morning. Conditions were okay but not quite as good as I had hoped – it was bright overhead, the sea state had only a slight chop and was still very clear. I met a couple of fellow  lure anglers on their way back – one had caught, one hadn’t! I was surprised there were not more people about to be honest what with it being a weekend but make no mistake I was delighted to have  a good stretch of the shore all to myself!

I was fishing the ebbing tide and it was pretty slow for the first couple of hours with nothing to show for it apart from a couple of knocks which seemed typical of mackerel – certainly nothing connected.

My luck was about to change though and on reflection I think there might have been a bit of ‘good karma’ about it! I was looking along the shore and noticed something in the tide line… when I reached it, it was a decent sized ballan wrasse that had some how beached itself  but was still alive! It must have been there a while because it took me a quarter of an hour or so to reach it from when I first spotted it! I picked it up and took it to the waters edge and gradually revived it…. I’m not a fan of wrasse but it was satisfying to see it swim off strongly! This is where the ‘good karma’ bit comes in as the very next cast, right at low water, I had a take on the Megabass Zonk and my first bass of the day was safely landed!

A beautifully conditioned, if small, fish but it fought well in the improving conditions…. the wind had picked up and there was a lot more white water now. 

I thought where there was one there might be more in the vicinity…… however, if they were there they weren’t showing so I kept on the move and about half an hour later it paid off with two in quick succession.

You could be forgiven if you thought it was the same fish in these pictures above as they were almost identical! Nothing big but good takes by both fish once again.

That was as good as it got on the fish front despite my best efforts and so it was time to head back to the car and home. Nice to be connecting with the bass and certainly better than my last outing!

Here are a few more pictures from the day…

A storm a brewing….

Bass no.1…

Improving conditions…

Close up…

Beach art??

So, a bit of an improvement than of late – I have my fingers crossed for a decent Autumn on the lures… just need to manufacturer some more time to get out there!

Until next time…