Portugal 2024 – Day 6… The FOAL!

There was plenty of banter over dinner the previous evening about the shenanigans that happened with Nobby’s beauty of a bass he caught that day, but at the end of the evening John did call it…

“I fancy fishing that bit of coast tomorrow morning from the dark into first light”… he’s not a fishing guide for nothing.

Back at the accommodation later that night John confirmed his intention to give it a go early doors – he was on a flight home later that day so it was his last chance to fish – Nobby and myself agreed to join him, it was our last full day of fishing too… and so it came to be. Henry was staying in different accommodation to the rest of us so ended up not being directly party to what unfolded that morning which was a big, big shame.

Before I went to bed that night I had one last tinker with my kit, shoved a couple more different soft plastics into my bag as alternates to the Savage Gear Sandeel that had served us so well on that stretch of coast, tied new leaders on both the reel spools I had with me, and then very finally gave them a good old pull to check they were sound… I was good to go.

Alarms went off, we got ourselves up and fully booted, grabbed a quick coffee, in the car and we were off. Arrived in the dark and marched off along the same bit of ground that was becoming quite familiar to us now. John pressed on furthest while Nobby and myself chose to fish in pretty much the same places we had for the previous day’s chaos, again about 100 yards apart – why wouldn’t we?!

We could see that the water looked pretty decent even in the dark – probably about a half metre swell, small waves, but still bigger surges of water every now and then. The tide was the biggest of the week and was well into the ebb by the time we cast our lures out into the first light over that unforgiving bouldery, reefy ground. It really did look nice though.

I don’t recall the first lure I clipped on that morning but as the early sun turned the sky orange I do remember putting on a Heddon Super Spook surface lure and worked that for a few minutes. Nothing much was doing so I rummaged through my lure box again and chose to clip on a bigger profile 6.5” Keitech Easy Shiner soft plastic shad on a weighted weedless hook that I’d rigged up the night before. It’s a relatively heavy paddletail anyway but I figured I wanted to get it down amongst the boulders and be fishing the bottom quickly in the retrieve hence the added weight on the hook… right or wrong, that was how my mind was working at that moment.

First cast with it straight out in front of me was totally uneventful so I cast out slightly to my right second time around, no more than 30 yards out, let it sink to the bottom and then started a slow retrieve. I think I turned the handle no more than half a dozen times when the line went tight and stopped dead – my precise thoughts at that second in time were “Oh B*****ks, snagged it on a sodding rock”… but then the rock moved. My rod arched over and it moved again – this was no rock.

At this point in time I casually shouted over to Nobby “I’m in!”

He didn’t hear me at all because of the distance and the noise of the small waves hitting the boulders between us. At the same time there was a head shake – the fish had woken up and that woke me up a bit. My drag was set quite tight but now it started to sing as the fish lunged – okay, this might be alright I thought.

I shouted again but louder “Nobby I’m in!”

He heard me this time and responded casually over the radios we both carry “You need a hand?”.

By now I was trying to climb around the slippery boulders to keep an angle on the fish as it ran first right and then left – there was no way I could get to the radio tucked in my jacket to reply.

After a while I shouted, “This could be decent, get over here!”

He didn’t hear me again and radioed “Put your hand up if you need help!” – there was no way I could do that either as by now it was all I could do to keep the pressure on the fish and manage the situation. I now had an inkling I had a big fish and thoughts raced that there was a chance it was a double-figure bass. The fish continued to kite left, then right, then out, but I managed to keep the pressure on.

By now I’m probably five minutes into the fight and by chance the fish helped me out in terms of focus and a reality check – it did what I can only describe as a roll and thump on the surface as I managed to turn it once more… it was then that it first properly dawned on me the size of it.

I got excited and hollered “It’s massive!”

Nobby heard that alright and dropped everything immediately and began that perilous, slippery journey over those 100 yards or so of boulders – the same ones I’d done in reverse the previous day to get to him… except he forgot his Boga grip – yesterday’s lesson was we probably needed it, and he had to go back!

Meanwhile, I’m still dealing with massive head shakes and a drag intermittently singing as this fish lunged and ran between me attempting to gain line on it. I can’t tell you what the hell was going through my head at this point other than praying that knots held tight and trying simultaneously to think about where in this boulder strewn section of coast to land it… I just hoped playing it from the water’s edge I’d have a chance.

Then the fish did something it hadn’t done so far – it swam towards me so now I was desperately winding to catch up until it all went tight again, thankfully it did with one of those reassuring head shakes. A minute or so later it was nearly, nearly beaten and then I saw its head properly for the first time – it was huge. I focussed on doing everything I could to keep that massive head up just praying everything would hold fast. Then, as luck would have it, one of those bigger surges of water, like the one that hit me in that gully the day before, sailed her almost to my vantage point where I was able to grab the leader and quickly lock my small plastic fish grips onto the lower lip – I could see the hook hold was good – thank God right in the scissors of it’s mouth! Gasping, I moved this huge, beautiful, almost prehistoric looking bass carefully up onto the closest biggest boulder I could find and started to shake. Nobby was still making his way over to me and in my excited, adrenaline rushed, state I screamed out…

“It’s a metre long!”

It wasn’t…. but I quickly measured it – over 90cm on the tape, fat as butter and had a girth on a bass the likes of which I have never witnessed.

While this was all happening, on his way over to me Nobby was calling John – this is how that frantic conversation roughly went…

“John, Andy’s hooked a monster!”

“Yeah, yeah course he has!”

“No, no, John, he’s really got a monster – reckons it could be a metre long!”

“You’re serious? Christ, I want to see it! Don’t let it go, I’m on my way!”

Almost immediately after this Nobby arrives on the scene to find me sat on a rock in a state of shock.

“Where is it?” he cries.

He moves closer and then sees this leviathan of a bass a few yards away from me lying on the boulder I’d just beached it on. He was speechless but looked over at me and thankfully sprang me from my shock. We quickly unhooked the Keitech Easy Shiner from this colossal bass, got the Boga grips securely on its lower lip and supported it back into the water until John could get to us. We both of us held that fish in the water in our frenzied state for what seemed like an eternity waiting for him to clamber down to us – all the while being slammed by waves on the tide line… but we didn’t care, the fish was being oxygenated and it’s tail was lapping nicely in the current.

When John arrived we lifted the bass out of the water – he simply could not believe it in the same way Nobby and I couldn’t – our mouths were still totally aghast. I was still shaking through all this and when I lifted it from the water again for a few pictures it was like someone had asked me to hold a suitcase full of lead! We did try to weigh this fish but it instantly bottomed out the scales we had beyond 16lb… this was a really fat bass, belly like a carp. Nobby called it at close on 20lb, whereas I erred on the side of caution and called it nearer 18lb but honestly, it didn’t matter one iota other than to be able to give someone an idea of how big this beautiful, giant of a bass actually was – it was truly unbelievable.

We managed to get a few more pictures and a bit of video but the priority was getting her nicely recovered and sent back from whence she had came so into the water I went with her again and eventually, as a lucky surge brought her in to me, another one took her back out submerging me in the process – a dunking was the least I deserved for having been so blessed with catching this magnificent fish. That release, seeing that huge tail move off was honestly as big a pleasure as anything to do with the capture.

Still in shock I sat there for a few minutes trying to comprehend what had just happened, to take it all in, realising the luck I had experienced in everything holding whether that was the knots, the clip, the hook hold, etc. It just all came together for that one single magical moment in time, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

In the midsts of the pictures and video being taken John had phoned Henry who was still at his apartment. His commentary to Henry was caught on the video and his reaction, as a bass guide himself, is my favourite…

“Henry… Henry… We’ve got a f*****g fish that could be 20lbs here, I’m tellin’ ya!”

Nobby’s screech of “Look at the tail on it!” being a close second.

We gathered ourselves, an excited Henry belatedly joined us, and we fished on for a while after that, me in a daze, but that was to be the only capture that session…but what a capture, what a fish.

So there you have it. Even as I type this and try to recall everything that occurred that morning it still seems too surreal to comprehend it actually happened – I just cannot believe how lucky I have been. More than anything, as I continue to reflect on things, I maintain the nicest thing about that stunning fish, and indeed the whole week, was the privilege to be able to share it with guys who share the same magnificent passion for bass lure fishing, who marvel at these majestic creatures we pursue, and who are thoroughly decent blokes to spend time with. Thank you lads, thank you Portugal – what a fantastic trip!

FISH OF A LIFETIME… The FOAL!

Final word from me on this epic tale – the gear used:

• Rod: Apia Foojin’RS Lynx 93M (6 – 42g)
• Reel: Van Staal VR50
• Line: Sufix 131 28lb Chartreuse
• Leader: Seaguar Ace Hard Fluorocarbon 35lb
• Clip: Seadra Speed Clip (15mm – 25lb breaking strain)
• Lure: Keitech Easy Shiner 6.5” Wagasaki (24g)
• Hook: Eagle Claw Trokar TK170 EWG 7/0 (12g)

Until next time…