Found some good bass right before that storm hit, talk about timing!

It will always fascinate me how an angler computes what they know to make a call on where and when to go fishing. How deeply do you think about it? How many readily accessible resources do you use to help make your decision, or do you simply go fishing because you have limited time and you’d rather go fishing than not? Think back to last week and how the weather really picked up later on Thursday and overnight, but the wind forecasting app I use - XCWeather - was suggesting there would be a noticeable lull in the wind strength well before first light and until at least gone midday. It would then start to really freshen from the south later in the day on Friday, gradually swinging around as armageddon arrived in the shape of that horrible north west storm over the weekend……………..

I have obviously consulted my tide app - Tides Near Me - so I know what’s going on with the times of high and low water, plus the actual size of the tide of course. I don’t obsess about spring tides, but the relative size of the tide does tend to push me towards different locations if the conditions allow. We had half an eye on tucking away up an estuary and taking a punt on some locations we hadn’t fished before but were itching to, but the swell and webcam app I use - Surfline - was suggesting a pretty large swell quickly dying down into Friday morning before going to hell with the impending storm. Would this actually happen though? I knew that many locations I often fish were going to be out, but once I put all the different factors into my bouncing brain, a plan began to take shape.

A plan based around three different options which took into account the fact that for all the forecasts and information you can access, you know as well as I do that you never truly know what’s going on out there until you’re looking at it. I wanted to fish somewhere at first light, and although I knew it might well be unfishable with what had come in overnight, it wouldn’t really matter with the timings and location of the second spot I wanted to fish. If both those locations were gone to hell then I had a plan to take a gamble on a mark that has always intrigued me when there’s a really big swell running, but I haven’t actually fished it yet. My gut was telling me that swell forecasts are often on the “generous” side and that the first location might well be fishable, and even if it was 50/50 then the second location would most likely be perfect.

So we did fish the first spot for a short while - big surf running, green water, looked great, very fishable - but nothing was doing. I wasn’t particularly fussed though because my plan had always revolved around the second spot as being the main focus of the session. I have had some good bass from the first spot in the past, but I don’t know it well enough yet. Like any location there are a number of variables to take into account, but with three of us fishing for a short while we soon took the decision to make a move and get to the second location. Storm was certainly rather happy because moving means more exercise, and I’ll take all the walking and scrambling I can get.

A few hours into fishing the second location and all we had to show for it was a dropped bass for David. You can move around a lot here, so I did, but if we can move around a lot then surely the bass can as well. The conditions were that good I simply could not believe there were no bass around, but with the amount of ground we could fish I can’t help but wonder if there are many times when you simply aren’t fishing the right bit at the right time. You won’t know this if you blank of course, but could there be a whole heap of bass a hundred yards from where you are fishing, yet you never even knew it?

There came a natural point during the session when we could have easily called it quits and headed for home, but I like to think I know the second mark at least fairly well - and we hadn’t accessed a particular section because the tide wasn’t quite low enough yet. But it soon would be and I couldn’t bring myself to walk away quite yet, especially with the storm coming in which would most likely mean no meaningful bass fishing for at least a few days. If there is one thing I try my best to do, it’s to make the most of each and every day. Even more so with lure fishing at this time of year.

Keeping a close eye on some lively waves rolling in, I waded out to a specific rock I like to stand on to start accessing some slightly deeper water over some very rough ground. I knew if I got hit by a bigger wave that I’d be knocked backwards into a bit of a gully which I could get myself out of, and Storm wisely hung back with my rucksack. The simple fact is that you can never remove all the risk from this type of fishing, but we stay as safe as we can and keep a hell of a close eye on what’s going on. To effectively fish slightly deeper and very lively water like this, I was swimming and bumping the (rough) bottom with the killer Savage Gear Sandeel V2 Weedless, maintaining contact all the time whilst trying not to snag the lure up.

And I got nailed not long after accessing that specific rock to stand on. The lure hit the bottom, I get my rod tip up and start a mix of winding/tapping to keep the lure moving, but not too fast, and as I lift the rod tip a little bit to get the Sandeel V2 Weedless up and over what felt like a particularly rough bit of ground, I get that glorious, sharp “bang” on the rod tip. On instinct I wind down hard and strike at the same time, and I get that unmistakable thump on the end of my braid (36lb Berkley Sick, to me it’s a 25-30lb braid at the stated 36lbs, I love this stuff in this breaking strain for fishing really rough ground). Straight away I know it’s a decent bass because it’s keeping its head down and I am putting a lot of pressure on it. I know I am grinning away, but then I get a quick look at possibly 6lb+ of December bass which turns over on an exposed rock in front of me and unhooks itself. I know how much pressure I was putting on the fish because the Sandeel V2 Weedless pings out of the bass’s mouth, flies back at me, and hooks up on the pocket of my waterproof jacket. Barbless hooks work well in a few different ways!

Gutted to drop the fish, but so pleased to have hooked up and justified not heading for home yet. Andy and David know exactly what they are doing, but because I had hooked up tight to the bottom and they aren’t yet fishing like this, I obviously let them know how I had been fishing when I “nearly caught a bass”! I am always going to share information if it’s producing fish, not to be overbearing and expert-like I hope, rather that we are fishing together and it would be a bit daft not to try and help each other catch fish. I don’t do competition between friends and I simply don’t care who catches the biggest or the most. I just like being around fishing with good people in cool places.

David soon landed a nice bass on a Fiiish Black Eel (I am pretty sure it was the 150 no3, 20gm Shore version), fished along the bottom, then Andy hooked and landed a cracker of a fish on a Fiiish Black Minnow 120 with one of those Search jig heads, again fished tight to the bottom with a bit of a sink and draw. Not exactly an epic session in terms of numbers, but we were buzzing. A plan had come together, we felt like we had literally stolen a session before the sea went to hell later on that day, and we had worked together to find where a few bass were and how we needed to be targeting them.I hope you were all okay during the storm that blasted in, we have lost a bit of roof on an outside shed and the bird table in front my office has snapped in the wind……………

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