One back to back 6 hour session, and then the rest of the day (a planned 4 sailings) canned to a dodgy easterly wind forecast. And on board, birthday boy Sam, and life long fishing buddy Hugh. And, I have to say, I was a bit concerned, after recent results. Marking fish, nothing hooking up. What to do...
Well, we started off with perfect beach lure fishing conditions. An offshore breeze, grey skies, empty beaches. So, we did what BIF1 was built to do. Get very close up the edges. And we had an hour of fun fishing. Lots of missed takes on the surface lures, and 7 fish to the boat. Nothing of any size though. Time to look for something bigger. Which we did for the next few hours. But the outer rocks were pretty devoid of everything. Just one wrasse for a lot of effort.
All the time Sams birthday trip slipping away, and bar two jumbo mackerel, nothing in the well. The purpose of the session was for the boys to take a brace each for a birthday dinner later with partners. It wasnt going so well. However, having recognised the bait is all very close, I tried a spot that worked rather well for me with surface lures last year. And, blow me, if it didnt work a treat. Few smalls, we quickly had the brace. I even took one for myself for tonight's tea. And the tally was pushed up to a very respectable seventeen fish, in very shallow water indeed.
Why the sudden switch on? Well, its more me being too set in my ways. I wasnt reacting to what I was seeing. Its a bigger story. It always is. Up until last week, I would always say, if you see a fish jump clear of the water, its a sea trout, or a mullet. Very unlikely to be a bass. However, I have now witnessed it with my onw eyes several times these past few days. They are simply opening their mouths and launching themselves upwards, to the point they clear the water by a couple of feet. Never seen bass do it before, yet here they are. And still I was playing shads. Answer is, surface lures. Crushed barbs highly recommended. And knowing the places the bait really collects. Finally, happy days, would seem to be here, again.
Very interesting report and very good on you for solving the puzzle. The bass sound like they’re behaving something like reservoir trout at fry-feeding time