Or is it just me? My apologies if this blog post sounds a bit similar to the other day, but it’s that time of year when I really start thinking about the (fishing) year to come. I know it’s already past the middle of January and we are in the middle of a global shitshow the likes of which we have to hope will never happen again, but my fishing and fishing related brain is on fire at the moment. Amongst the many things going in my head is me continuing to think about the fishing spots I know and fish, and how I might change things up a bit to see if I can positively affect my catch rates. It’s far too easy to go to the same places and do the same things time after time, but what would fishing be if we didn’t mix things up from time to time?

I went out fishing on Monday afternoon to try and catch my local coastline before it blew out with the conditions we have got right now. I was on my own and I didn’t even have the dog because my youngest girl was heading out running and then my wife wanted the dog afterwards for a walk. It was peeing down with rain, it was very misty and murky, and I found where I had chosen to fish in some truly stunning water conditions. But I blanked, and whilst I can’t really be too disappointed to blank on the 18th January when trying to catch bass on lures, my mate Mark hooked a nice fish only a few days previously which didn’t stay connected, and I still fancy my chances of finding a fish or two when the water is as nice as it was. So I didn’t catch a fish but I genuinely loved every single cast because the water was so fizzed up and lovely, and sometimes it just feels so good to be out there fishing when the weather is that filthy but you’re dry and warm and mobile and fishing effectively.

So I did blank, but I am going to leave a note in my grownup online diary to come back to this specific blog post on 1st January next year and see if what I have predicted to myself has come true. I had one of those lightbulb moments when I stopped at a section of the mark which I don’t usually stop at because I am more usually there at a different state of tide, but because it’s nearly the end of January and the weather is all over the place, I kinda feel that beggars can’t really be choosers and I’d rather give it a go than not. So I waded out a bit on this particular bit of the mark and I started fishing. The water was really fizzed up and tumbling in and this was creating plenty of little rips and so on, plus it was lovely and clear and I could get a really good idea of the makeup of the terrain which I have tended to fish further up the tide in the past.

And it suddenly hit me - Henry, you monumental eejut, why the hell haven’t you been fishing this place at night, just as the tide starts to nudge in and the water begins to move over this stunning looking ground? I was fishing away but in reality I was looking around at a bit of coastline I know perfectly well and I was seeing a part of it on Monday with a very different set of eyes. Every single thing about it screams go night fishing here because it looks so perfect for fish to move in and ambush their prey, and I am also fascinated to try and learn if my hunch on tide sizes and times is going to turn out to be anywhere near correct. The way the ground is made up says certain things to me, and I predicted to myself there and then that my best open coast bass at night in 2021 would come from one of two marks - with this being one of them. I could be completely wrong and my head is all over the place with so much stuff at the moment, but surely this is what’s so awesome about fishing? I’ve been doing it for forty years but it still gets me going like nothing else. Are we guilty of sometimes fishing the same spots in the same ways with the same lures and does this familiarity sometimes breed complacency? Why did a lightbulb suddenly go off in my head on Monday afternoon? If I hadn’t gone fishing on Monday afternoon because of the weather coming in would I have ever looked at this bit of ground in such a different way? Who knows, but holy cow is there so much more to fishing and specifically lure fishing for bass than I ever could have imagined. What’s not to love?

Are you ever fishing away and you look around and suddenly think you eejut, why the hell haven’t I been fishing this place differently?

© Henry Gilbey 2023