First up was ever more frequent Yvette. And wonderful still and calm glassy seas did welcome us. Pretty perfect for the fly, or so I thought. But the fish had other ideas, and for the first hour and a half it was a real struggle. There was very little tide in close, and my thinking was that this might have been responsible for the lack of bass. It weighed upon me, until I could ignore it no more. we abandoned the fly gear,. picked up the lure gear, and headed offshore a little.
Here the depth proved to be the right environment for bass, but even so, hard work. Lots of very soft takes missed. Fish reluctant to feed. Dropping off. All a clue of no effort. But some were less lucky, with five fish landed, although just one for the table, landed happily by Yvette.
2nd sailing, and welcoming aboard father and daughter Chris and Sophie, collecting a prize donated by myself to a charity event. Chris was keen for bass, but 9 year old Sophie, wanted to catch everything. We settled on a deal. It is so important for the youngsters to get action, that I suggested we fish mackerel and plaice first, and then try for the bass in the 2nd half of the session. I was being cautious, as I like to check out how the kids are with handling the rods before committing to bass fishing, especially knowing it had been slow first session. The guys were up for that.
And it went rather well really, despite the promised wind arriving half way though the session, which then made the bass fishing really difficult. First try for plaice, in close, was a fail. 2nd location, was a win, and also provided for a steady trickle of mackerel in among the plaice, with a few colourful gurnards coming into the mix. Sadly though, most of the plaice were small, with just two for the table. Happily, even small plaice keep a 9 year old smiling. And a smiling 9 year old makes a much older than 9 year old daddy happy. Chain reaction. And then I see them smiling, and I begin smiling...
Although actually, that wasnt quite the case. Sophie was more of a mackerel queen, while dad Chris was catching more plaice. And they were keeping him happy, as even small plaice on the lure gear are fun. But eventually, there were more questions about bass. We went on to the bassing.
By now, the wind had pushed the sea up quite bouncy. Not ideal. A lot of weed around also, hindering perfect connection. Very difficult to convert the subtle tweaks into hooked fishes. Unless you are a mackerel queen looking to upgrade... Fish of the day, goes to the adorable Sophie. And just look at that big smile...
Rest of the day was cancelled by the wind, as is tomorrow. Likely the next blog will be on Sunday evening, with Sunday being the final day of four a day sailings for 2020. Sailing times as of next week will be 0700 - 1100 - 1500. And on the home page of this site, is the availability ticker for next week. As always, text or call 07970 112774 to reserve your space.
