More tales of green water woe. Looking back through my scribblings, historically this is the worst week of algae bloom since I began guiding in 2005. Hopefully the midweek springs will sweep it out to mid channel, where the big boys get affected, leaving the edges to be sweet clear water. When this happens, sunlight can again penetrate the depths. This triggers the velvet and spider crab peels, and then the rocks come much more alive with bass seeking the easy dinner.
But that is then and now is now. All about the now. And now the sea is more akin to slime than sea water. First sailing, Ian, Max, James and Mark, all experienced biffer's, came and gave it their all for 3 hours. Just one bass, a nice table fish, for Ian. Towards the end, I knocked up a bream rig. Sent it down, and caught one straight away.
"Great" I thought and quickly knocked up 4 more bream rigs. To no avail. One bass, one bream, for the session
Next up, joining me was Alastair and Sam, and Nico and Muey. I dispelled all notions of bass, and went on the plaice hunt. Snag is, an unforecast SE breeze also popped up, pushing us along the ebb tide at over 1.5 knots. Too fast for plaice really. Nico did manage two, before I headed out to drift alongside "Eau Buoy", a friends Rodman 740. He had a groundbait bucket on the anchor and was smashing the bream. Drifting alongside, I could literally see the shoal, captive at the back of his boat. We couldnt get a sniff of a fish.
Heading back inshore, one more plaice which Sam landed, before the breeze became a stiff wind. White horses, green seas, no fish, I had no choice really but to head back in. Guys enjoyed their hour of being bounced around, but from a pure fishing perspective, terrible so far.
Final sailing I delayed Lee, Joe and David to 1600 to get the early flood tide, and give plenty of time for that annoying SE breeze to vanish, which worked well on both counts. Not that it really mattered. Everywhere I went, and I went everywhere, green seas and zero fish. No. Not true. Odd fish here and there. Three in fact. But we were not getting any shoals marking anywhere. Out of desperation I tried one of my quite close in marks. When the screen filled with marks, I just assumed some may rot or southern water discharge, because after pretty much three days of not finding fish, how could they all be here? Top to bottom. And then the first rod went over.
For the final 30 minutes, we had taps, bangs, reluctant hook ups that quickly detached, suggesting our shads were not even close to matching what was going on. But we also triggered, where regardless the bass cannot help itself. Fifteen bass was the final score. A few would have gone over 42, more not. But more importantly, I do think I know what is happening, and the implications are quite exciting. I will know more after tomorrow mornings early sailing (0530) which still has a space if anyone is interested. Text to 07970 112774 if that is of interest to you.