Like many others, after the recent storms I’ve been keeping one eye on the calendar and another on the weather forecast, looking for a window of opportunity before the season ticks away.
I could see an ideal tide for a local mark on Friday afternoon but ‘fishability’ all hinged on the weather conditions. With a family wedding and a holiday wiping out the next 3 weekends and the clocks rolling back ruling out after-work sessions (I haven’t got the b*lls or skills to fish in the dark) I also realised that it could be the last roll of the dice for this season.
After 3 days of reasonably settled weather and with a bit of south in the winds I decided to use up some flexi-time and get an early dart from work, but on arriving at the mark I was disappointed to see that the water was still quite coloured and that there was a lot of weed washing up. I decided to persevere though and was pleased to find that the weed was mainly accumulating at the surf-line and weeding of the lure was not a great problem (I’ve fished in far worse!).
I started with some recently acquired Dolive Sticks in ‘Vitamin Gill’ pattern, rigged weightless and on jig-heads. They didn’t deliver on the day but I can’t wait to give them a proper swim next year. ‘Plan B’ was to outcast the coloured band of water, so I gave an Abu Toby (which gave me a new lure-caught p.b. of 66cm a few weeks ago) and the SG Line-through Eel some swimming time, but to no avail. ‘Plan C’ was to get something highly visible and ‘noisy’ in the water so on went an SG Eel in lemon-yellow … a lure that has been very kind to me in the past … but it didn’t raise any interest (well maybe a nibble, but I wasn’t sure).
Sticking with the same thinking, about 20 mins before ‘last cast’ time, on went a tatty SG Eel in pear/silver, which has actually been my most successful lure this season. Second cast and I had a very subtle hit, which I soon realised was a decent fish running away from me and peeling-off line against the clutch. I managed to turn its head and after another short run it started to kite over to my left where I knew there were some very large submerged boulders. I ended up playing it with rod held high at full arms length and walking down the beach towards it, stumbling over boulders as I went. As I played it through a raft of weed an incoming wave gave it some slack, which was a bit worrying as it was lip-hooked on a de-barbed hook, but I snatched up the slack and slid it ashore. I laid it down in a safe place and with a shake of the head it threw the hook at my feet! It was really feisty but after I had settled it down it went 64cm on the measure (about 6 ½ pound?) and after a quick photo it was slid back, kicking away immediately.
I have to say that (for me) the SG Eel is a great lure and in my opinion has the best action of any paddle-tail. It also occurred to me afterwards that with a recent influx of pin-whiting the pearl/silver pattern should have been an obvious choice from the start!
This is the latest in the season that I’ve caught a bass (previous was 21st Oct last year) and if it does indeed prove to be the end of my season I’ll be happy with it, but I’ll still be keeping my eye on the tides, weather and water temperature … next chance late November ?!
I could see an ideal tide for a local mark on Friday afternoon but ‘fishability’ all hinged on the weather conditions. With a family wedding and a holiday wiping out the next 3 weekends and the clocks rolling back ruling out after-work sessions (I haven’t got the b*lls or skills to fish in the dark) I also realised that it could be the last roll of the dice for this season.
After 3 days of reasonably settled weather and with a bit of south in the winds I decided to use up some flexi-time and get an early dart from work, but on arriving at the mark I was disappointed to see that the water was still quite coloured and that there was a lot of weed washing up. I decided to persevere though and was pleased to find that the weed was mainly accumulating at the surf-line and weeding of the lure was not a great problem (I’ve fished in far worse!).
I started with some recently acquired Dolive Sticks in ‘Vitamin Gill’ pattern, rigged weightless and on jig-heads. They didn’t deliver on the day but I can’t wait to give them a proper swim next year. ‘Plan B’ was to outcast the coloured band of water, so I gave an Abu Toby (which gave me a new lure-caught p.b. of 66cm a few weeks ago) and the SG Line-through Eel some swimming time, but to no avail. ‘Plan C’ was to get something highly visible and ‘noisy’ in the water so on went an SG Eel in lemon-yellow … a lure that has been very kind to me in the past … but it didn’t raise any interest (well maybe a nibble, but I wasn’t sure).
Sticking with the same thinking, about 20 mins before ‘last cast’ time, on went a tatty SG Eel in pear/silver, which has actually been my most successful lure this season. Second cast and I had a very subtle hit, which I soon realised was a decent fish running away from me and peeling-off line against the clutch. I managed to turn its head and after another short run it started to kite over to my left where I knew there were some very large submerged boulders. I ended up playing it with rod held high at full arms length and walking down the beach towards it, stumbling over boulders as I went. As I played it through a raft of weed an incoming wave gave it some slack, which was a bit worrying as it was lip-hooked on a de-barbed hook, but I snatched up the slack and slid it ashore. I laid it down in a safe place and with a shake of the head it threw the hook at my feet! It was really feisty but after I had settled it down it went 64cm on the measure (about 6 ½ pound?) and after a quick photo it was slid back, kicking away immediately.
I have to say that (for me) the SG Eel is a great lure and in my opinion has the best action of any paddle-tail. It also occurred to me afterwards that with a recent influx of pin-whiting the pearl/silver pattern should have been an obvious choice from the start!
This is the latest in the season that I’ve caught a bass (previous was 21st Oct last year) and if it does indeed prove to be the end of my season I’ll be happy with it, but I’ll still be keeping my eye on the tides, weather and water temperature … next chance late November ?!
