Emotionally damaged from Saturday’s rugby, had no intention of going fishing, but then the sun came out. Glad I went, lovely fish was landed…….

Part of me feels like I am living in an alternate reality with this year’s Six Nations. From potential title contenders after such a strong autumn and twelve wins on the trot, to back down to earth with such a jolt it feels like whiplash. The lot of an England rugby supporter has rarely been a smooth road, but surely I am going to wake up sometime soon and we have got back to where so many England rugby supporters dared to hope again that we might be headed. One must hope eternal I guess…………..

I haven’t been fishing for a while for various reasons including work, weather and a dose of man flu, and after the pain of the rugby on Saturday and another wet dog walk on Sunday morning with my wife, I had no intention of fishing yesterday. But I noticed on the walk that the wind didn’t seem to be blowing as much as the forecast suggested, and although it was peeing it down, it did feel like the weather was breaking when we got home. A couple of forecasts even somewhat bravely suggested the sun might come out later on. I checked the tides and messaged a mate to find out that he’d been thinking the exact same fishing related stuff about the exact same spot.

I continue to find the whole chasing bass on lures in estuary systems at this time of year to be both exciting but also a bit strange. So exciting that a few fish seem to hang around and will move into very shallow water to hit certain types of lures fished in certain ways, but the fact that this can happen is causing me to ask so many questions I know I will most likely never get the answer to. I went fishing yesterday feeling pretty confident that at least a bass would be caught, and I kinda have to check myself that we’re talking about this time of year fishing the sort of water I’d never have usually gone near until at least well into April.

So whilst I accept that we are not exactly beating the door down in terms of numbers, I’m going to open my arms to this genuine chance at a few bass on lures at this time of year. I’ve caught a handful of open coast bass in February and March, but it’s not easy, and the fact that I somehow latched onto a 76cm bass in March a couple of years ago still slightly fries my brain. I am nowhere close to sussing any of this out. I never thought I’d be feeling more confident of the chance of a bass on a lure at this time of year in an estuary. Part of me thinks what the hell have I been ignoring for so long, but the other part recognises that it’s all a big learning curve and these amazing fish are even more amazing the more we learn about them.

Anyway, we found some pretty good conditions and I had one definite “pull” from a bass just as I came to move my creature bait along the bottom, but it didn’t come to anything. Mark did catch though. He connected with a properly fat winter bass which went 59cms, again on one of those cheb-rigged Z-Man ProCrawZ 3.5'' creature baits. He was using this particular crab imitation because he had previously inserted a rattle into it and the wind yesterday was once again causing the shallow water to really colour up. Did the rattle inside the lure make a difference?

Who knows for sure, but what I do know is that rugby supporters who don’t support England will have been jumping for joy at Ireland’s incredible performance on Saturday. One minute they’re getting written off and we are being lauded, then the next minute Ireland are awesome again and England rugby is facing all kinds of questions again. Well done Wales for putting up such a fight against Scotland, and France are looking better than ever. How many of you England rugby supporters are genuinely worried about the trip to Rome in a couple of weeks?!

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