With a 5 metre tide this evening, the pull of cod fishing had to be ignored. We could have tried but it's not much fun fishing with over a 1lb of lead and with the weed, it would have been a nightmare. Our thoughts turned to some inshore bass fishing again in the hope of a repeat performance of the last trip.
We launched the boat around 6pm with a plan to try and find a few late mackerel to give us the edge over the frozen ones we had brought along. After 30 minutes of frantic feathering we conceded with a grand total of none...they are a bit thin on the ground now and I think we were very hopeful but worth a try none the less!
We anchored up as the first of the flood tide started to trickle through in the now rapidly fading Autumn sun shine. Large mackerel baits were plopped out down and up tide which were surprisingly all being nailed within minutes. Slow pulling and nodding bites were followed by dogfish after dogfish wrecking the baits and keeping us busy (and cursing!)
Perseverance though, was rewarded when something lively grabbed a mackerel head that had been patiently waiting uptide. Frantically winding to catch up with the fish, the rod started to load up and the familiar jagged fight signalled the first bass of the evening. It made the best use of the strong tide run but despite several head shakes on the surface, it soon lay in the net.
Enthusiasm renewed, Dave managed to miss a few good bites before eventually hitting one. To his dismay though, it turned out to be another dogfish!
My downtider shot off next......there was half a joey mackerel on this rod and I looked in disbelief as a bass of not much more than a lb came to the boat.....amazing that a fish that small can take on a bait like that!
More dogs followed until something with a bit more weight to it stated to back off with a bait. I was really hoping to see a nice turbot hit the surface, it had the right weight and feel about it but no, it turned out to be a small blonde ray!
We had a quiet spell after this, only interrupted by the occasional dogfish, that was until my uptide rod kicked into life again. Better fish on this time doing it's very best to shake the hook out as it came to the boat. Dave quickly scooped her up in the net though and soon she too was posing for the camera!
Dave managed to miss a couple more hard bites before the next quiet spell set in...it was 11:30 now anyway and we decided to cut our losses and head back in. An interesting night and a good bit of fun...cant wait for a bit of codding now though, got a feeling there should be some good fish around this year!
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