Couple of nice one’s…

There’s been some lovely bass fishing conditions of late on the south coast and despite the limited time I’ve had available I’ve been lucky enough to get out a couple of times and get amongst some fish. The first session I had a couple of weeks back yielded over twenty bass with most being in the 50-55cm bracket with the exception that is of a nice fat 68cm fish pictured above.

I started this session as light was coming up using the ever reliable Megabass Zonk which produced a couple early on as did the Savage Gear Seeker which I put on next. However, as dawn broke properly conditions looked good for the infamous Xorus Patchinko II and that was what nailed the majority of the fish thereafter, including the chunky 68cm one. This top water lure certainly holds it’s own in a bit of surface chop where I think other surface lures struggle – it certainly came up trumps for this session anyway.

None of the fish were taken at any distance, 30 yards out maximum. Another shot of the 68cm fish…

Set-up for the day was 10’6″ Triple Cross TCX-1062Surf, Van Staal VR-50 loaded with 25lb Gosen braid, 19lb Seaguar Ace Hard Fluorocarbon leader and a mini Breakaway clip.

Second session was this weekend and again conditions looked good for bass with a bigger swell, more chop and even more white water than previous trip…

Again, started around first light and picked up a couple on the Zonk. What the above photo doesn’t really show was a stiff south-westerly blowing and the Zonk is one of the lures I find casts well into a headwind. It turned out to be the best lure I had in my box with all eight fish taken succombing to it’s action! The bass were all around the 45-50cm mark this time with the exception being a nice one that was again touching 68cm albeit not as fat as the one from the previous trip…

Set-up was similar to last time with the only change being I chose to go with the Tailwalk Eginn 9′ 6″ rod as opposed to the Triple Cross option. Once more none of the fish were taken at any distance – almost under the rod tip at times.

One final observation before I finish off with a few more pictures from the last couple of trips – the Van Staal VR-50 reel I am really liking, especially with the Gosen braid. Whilst I haven’t given it enough water time as I would have liked this year I’m not experiencing wind knot issues and whilst the line lane is not as good as a Shimano reel in my opinion, it is certainly not something that is causing me issues when fishing with it. I did load the braid on initially by submersing it in a bucket of cold water and have very slightly underfilled the spool which may have helped? I know some far, far, far more experienced and respected anglers than myself have found it does not suit their fishing but I’m loving it! Undoubtedly it’s a personal thing, no-one is right or wrong… it’s fascinating how things work differently for all us anglers eh?!

Anyhow, here are a few more pictures from the last couple of weeks…