Such fun with our first group of anglers

Today is our crossover day, when the first group of four anglers depart and the second lot arrive. Every year when it comes around to this particular part of my working in fishing that I do, I have almost forgotten quite what a blast it is to help anglers catch fish in this amazing part of the world………………

For some reason there was a distinct lack of signs of bait last year in this (massive) bay, but it all feels far more normal in 2025 with plenty of gannets, terns and cormorants working away. We have had a bunch of bass with our lads, and whilst they have been on the smaller side of what you’d ideally love to see, there are fish around and you can only catch what’s in front of you. If that bass of a lifetime turns up like it did for Paul a few years ago out here, so be it, but judging by the smiles and laughter, I go back again to something I firmly stand by - catching fish in a glorious place is more than enough if the act of fishing is truly your thing.

There seems to be a lot of small sandeels around, and almost as per usual out here it’s been the Savage Gear Sandeel Pencil that has caught a bunch of the bass - but in the smaller 90mm size. It’s a frigging missile of a little lure that covers so much (shallow) water so effectively, and with the small bait around, it seems to be that imitating something a bit smaller is key. The lads have also had a good few fish on various (smaller) surface lures which is always cool to see. The smaller 10cm/12g Westin Sandy Andy has also produced a few fish, and again it has to be something to do with matching the hatch. I hadn’t seen this specific size of Sandy Andy before and it’s an impressive looking little sandeel imitation.

We had an interesting first morning with our anglers when for some reason the fish were only feeding in a very tight area on a mark where you might more usually find the fish spread out. A couple of the lads found some ragworm on their hooks when they got their lures back, and to catch those fish they had to be fishing tight to the bottom at range with something like a 20g or 30g casting jig. Once you get past the rocks in close it’s basically sand out in front, but is there a ragworm bed out there that can hold the fish at times? Always learning!

Yesterday we got the lads out on the boat and they caught a load of pollack. I would usually trust something like the Fiiish Crazy Sandeel (best pollack lure ever?) to do the business, along with say the Savage Gear Sandeel or other paddletail/jig head combinations, but we didn’t have any of the Crazy Sandeels between us. Steve had brought along some interesting looking Seadra Strike Eye Slow Jigs in the 80g size which John and I thought might be a bit too heavy for the depth of water we were fishing, but wow these slow jigs did the damage in a serious way. I was surprised how well such a relatively heavy jig could be fished in some fairly shallow water at times, and by miles yesterday those Seadra Strike Eye Slow Jig 80g were the most successful pollack lures. Steve had some spare ones and kindly handed them out for the other lads to fish with. I hadn’t seen these particular slow jigs before, but I was glad to see them rigged with really good hooks out of the packet. Nice one Steve! Hope you’re all catching a few fish wherever you are…………….

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