So when will the new season kick off?

I’m not giving up and I am still seeing and hearing a few reports of bass being caught on lures from the shore, but I have to be realistic and accept that I have yet to catch a bass in February from UK shores and damn we’ve had some terrible conditions around here to even have a proper go at it. I did hook and lose a bass at night last week but it definitely wasn’t a big fish although I did nearly wet myself with excitement because I (briefly) hooked the fish on a sample soft plastic that I have been working on with the Savage Gear people……….

If I get some nice conditions I am still going to head out for a sniff around here, but it’s also a good time for me to catch up on chainsawing, axing and storing/drying wood for our woodburners here at home. Winter is also cross country season for my youngest girl, with many weekends revolving around various running events seemingly all over the UK. She’s 13 and she ran her fastest ever 5K in 19:43mins on Saturday morning at the Eden Project Park Run, so she’s over the moon. She trains so hard and she absolutely loves it, indeed we have to hold her back sometimes and make sure she has rest days. My eldest girl starts sailing again next Sunday with some local racing, so she’s buzzing. Life as parents of two girls who do a hell of a lot gets increasingly busy, but you can’t beat seeing your kids so driven and motivated and happy. Lure fishing for bass came along at exactly the right time in my life with how easy it is to get out at all hours of the day and night - no need for bait! - and fish plenty of shorter sessions over prime times and managing to fit it all in around work and family and so on.

So whilst I am going to head out now and then if conditions look good, realistically I hope to start seeing bass again sometime in April or perhaps May. I wish I knew more about how different kinds of winters seem to affect when bass start turning up again, but I do know that I landed my first bass of the 2019 season at about 5am on the morning of Tuesday 2nd April, on a white senko, and I tried again the next morning with a frost on the ground and blanked. I don’t include January 2019 because to me here in south east Cornwall I count it as part of the previous season with how long we can realistically get at the bass IF the bloody weather at least cooperates a little bit like it hasn’t really done this winter!

When might things kick off again this year then, or if we get good conditions again will this incredibly mild winter prove to be the one where some lure anglers do indeed manage to catch bass all the way through? I seriously fancy a friend of mine doing so but then I also think he’s found somewhere pretty unique that seems to behave a bit differently. I should stop using words such as incredibly and mild because I bloody bet you we end up getting a great big cold spell with some snow down here in Cornwall and my woodburners end up burning overtime to keep us warm!

Oh, and notice that I am not talking about the rugby. I can’t, it’s too bloody depressing how crap we were against a resurgent France……………….