The fishing gods decided that this year’s first attempt at a February bass was going to be a disaster

I don’t do any form of religion but you might and isn’t it great that we are all a bit different. What I do do though is fishing gods, or rather it’s my firm belief that if you go fishing enough then sod’s law or the law of averages is going to get you from time to time - and I choose to call that the fishing gods. This morning was obviously my time for the fishing gods to have a bit of a get together and decide that Henry Gilbey and his enthusiasm for a crack at a February bass on a lure from the shore needed taking down a notch or two…………..

I was fishing for 6.30am this morning which I know isn’t exactly very early but everything seemed to be in place for a crack at a February bass. Mark’s fish from a few days ago has definitely given me a confidence boost, with these big tides I had earmarked a location where I thought the conditions would be favourable with the forecast, and I wanted to be fishing for HW. It was still dark when I started fishing so I clipped on a white Savage Gear Paddletail on the 6/0 belly-weight hook because it’s my go-to lure for the conditions that I found out on the coast this morning, but as ever it might well have been a different lure for you.

So I’m feeling quietly confident. I know it’s early February but every single year seems to be so different when it comes to bass fishing, and aside from the odd frost down here it’s been so mild which I know could be the kiss of death! There were obviously no other anglers around because who on earth would be out trying for a bass on 2nd February at 6.30 in the morning? It’s just me and Storm and that rhythmical searching of the water with my lure - cast it out, wind it in, not too fast, I like it when the actual technique can be no more than cast out and wind in.

I’ve been playing around with a new (to me) braid which I haven’t mentioned on here yet and I wanted to keep giving it a good workout before doing a review of it (it’s not a brand that most UK anglers will have heard of). The actual braid feels great and it’s got an amazing worldwide reputation, but from the off it’s been just a touch “twitchy” with me on a Penn Slammer IV 2500 DX (I think this silver coloured version of the Slammer IV 2500 is coming to the UK at some point). I know and accept that most Penn spinning reels have their line level related quirks and you either adapt to it or don’t shore fish with the reels - I choose to adapt because I love the reels - but before I ever went and put this particular braid on, the reel was behaving just fine with my more regular Sufix braids I like to fish with.

Please note that the photo of the wind-knot here was not my reel from this morning, but damn it’s an impressive one though!

When I say “twitchy”, what I mean is when the braid sometimes feels like it kinda catches very slightly as it goes through the first guide on a cast, and I’ve had a couple of very minor wind-knots which isn’t something I tend to suffer from. The fishing gods had other ideas this morning though, because about half an hour into my session I went to make a cast out across some really shallow rough ground and my white Paddletail suddenly stopped on the way out. First thought was that perhaps the bale-arm had snapped over but this has never happened to me with a Penn spinning reel, so I put my glasses on (getting older eh?), turned away from the water, and turned my headlamp on to its lowest white-light setting. What I found was a horrible looking wind-knot in which the braid had actually broken in a couple of places. I could have tried to sort it out in the half-light and sea splashing around me, or I could admit defeat and get back home to some proper light. I made the trek back to my Epic Berlingo.

I honestly can’t remember if this has ever happened to me before, but I was so annoyed when I got home that I immediately stripped the offending braid off the reel, loaded up with a spool of Sufix X8 PE#1/0.165mm/23lb braid, and headed off for a quick chuck down the river with the dog. Not a hint of an issue with a few different lures but I now need more time with this setup to see whether I did do something wrong or whether the combination of that new (to me) braid with the reel and the way I cast just doesn’t mix. Or was it the fishing gods giving me a good old fashioned “dream on with your quest for a February bass” kicking?

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