Have always been a "Thigh Wader" angler myself, but some recent visits to the river Ogmore estuary, rubbing shoulders with more appropriately dressed "Chest Wader" officianado's, plus an absolute drenching around the nether regions whilst fishing low water of a very active, big spring tide (not my usual choice of tide) was the final straw. Working on the premise that you can't take it with you, I called into Keens and purchased for myself an (Xtra Large) pair of Mustad Neoprene chest waders. They looked and felt good during a dry run "dressing", but I was impatient to give them the "salt water" test. A nice feature on these chest waders, is the zip and gusset at the top front which when unzipped, opens out to give extra freedom of movement when getting into and out of them. Checking the local weather forecast for today (Monday), strong southerly moving round to westerly by the time of low water in the evening, plus an assessment of the water movement during a lunchtime walk from the estuary car park to the Deeps, ticked almost all the boxes. I say almost, because there was a definite band of light brown tinted water stretching out from the shoreline, a sure sign that the bass were going to be thin on the ground to non existent. I liked the look of the wave action so made the decision to return to the estuary at the time of the evening low water, much against my better judgement, in the desperate hope that the curtain of silted water would have disperced. In my heart of hearts, I knew the bassing would be a disaster, but the overwhelming desire to test my new chest waders put me in "denial" mode.
I was right about the bassing, not even a touch on some excellent crab, expected but still disappointing. The pristine, new chest waders kept me dry and warm so something had been achieved. The incoming surf was thick with "suspended solids", the only possible remedy being a good storm to get some oxygen into the water. There was one other angler standing in the surf , holding his rod, on the Newton side of the estuary. On the way back to the car, I stopped off to talk to two other anglers who had had some contact with small flounders, on worm baits. The guy across the river had told them that he had caught a 7 lb. plus bass, but no mention was made of when. It was a lovely evening, white cloud above, obliterating any detrimental effects of the waning sun, a really good surf action (albeit dirty), the warm air carried on the strong westerly was comforting. No fish but never the less, a couple of hours of pleasing sensations, sponsoring some happy memories of Days gone by.
Best regards,
Ticker
I was right about the bassing, not even a touch on some excellent crab, expected but still disappointing. The pristine, new chest waders kept me dry and warm so something had been achieved. The incoming surf was thick with "suspended solids", the only possible remedy being a good storm to get some oxygen into the water. There was one other angler standing in the surf , holding his rod, on the Newton side of the estuary. On the way back to the car, I stopped off to talk to two other anglers who had had some contact with small flounders, on worm baits. The guy across the river had told them that he had caught a 7 lb. plus bass, but no mention was made of when. It was a lovely evening, white cloud above, obliterating any detrimental effects of the waning sun, a really good surf action (albeit dirty), the warm air carried on the strong westerly was comforting. No fish but never the less, a couple of hours of pleasing sensations, sponsoring some happy memories of Days gone by.
Best regards,
Ticker
