I know it’s mid-December, but damn this weather is doing me in………….

We are anglers and we tend to want what we can’t have - perfect conditions for how we want to fish essentially all the time, obviously - but even so and accepting that of course it ain’t ever going to be like this, holy frigging cow we’re copping a bad one down here in the south west if lure fishing for bass is your thing. Yes, I know it’s mid December and at this time of year the weather can often be unsettled to say the least, but really?

There I was thinking about how well last November was fishing down here so losing last December to the weather was just about livable with, but ever since I got back from my last co-guiding trip over in SW Ireland the weather here in Cornwall has been somewhat up and down to say the least - with a lot more down than up, and especially for most of this November and now well into December. It’s that wet and muddy and squelchy out there that I have taken to doing many of my dog walks in a pair of waist waders and wading boots, indeed I have even done some marshalling at our local Park Run up on top of the hill at Mount Edgcumbe in a pair of breathable waders. I might look a bit strange wearing waders outside of fishing but I simply couldn’t care, but let’s be honest, breathable waders suit me a whole lot better than an all in one lycra bodysuit! How about that for a Monday morning thought of the week?

It wasn’t that many moons ago when I’d be wishing for SW gales as much as possible during winter for some of my cod fishing, indeed I can remember one particular winter when we still lived in Plymouth and we never saw a single gale or even a frost. I wasn’t seriously into my lure fishing back then, but when we get these low pressure systems sweeping in at us again and again like they bloody well are this winter, I dream about getting what I called a “nothing sort of winter” again. It’s actually calm and grey here this morning, but the rivers and estuaries are about as full of freshwater as I can remember seeing, and the coastline is properly brown.

But should we be complaining when it’s mid-December and what should we expect anyway? Not really, but as I said, we’re anglers and we like a good moan now and then. You might well live somewhere where your bass fishing was over until next season a while ago and therefore your sympathy for me is going to be a big fat zero, but part of the reason for me loving living around here so much is that we can get some good bass fishing on lures in November and December and often into January IF we get at least some half-favourable conditions. We are tending to find bass when we can actually get at it which of course only adds to the frustration levels, so damn right I’m going to have a moan when we cop the sort of weather we’re currently copping. A great big pretty please for some decent conditions over Xmas, or is that too much to ask?