What are the odds that those first bass you catch in a new season are the first fish to turn up on that particular spot?

The wind continues to howl and cabin fever continues to rage although that proper win against Ireland yesterday afternoon was a bit of a soother to put it mildly! Damn that first half was impressive, but even more impressive to me is the resurgence of France in this year’s Six Nations. If you’re into bass fishing and you don’t live in the Channel Islands especially then I guess you’re in exactly the same boat as me here - waiting with an increasing degree of impatience for those wonderful fish to turn up where we tend to fish. I’d sure love the chance to get out there and at least have a sniff at a February bass but the weather is obviously killing that one, and realistically it’s another month or so until I really start giving it a proper go…………….

I landed my first bass at about 5am on Tuesday 2nd April last year. I was fishing on my own, it was still what I would call dark, and I hooked it on a white senko fished how I’d fish that lure at night - whack it out and wind it in at speed which definitely isn’t slow. It wasn’t a big bass at all but my 2019 season was underway and I could not have been happier. Note that I don’t include January of each year in the new season because for me living here in Cornwall I reckon it’s still part of the previous season.

But was that first bass I hooked and landed on that cold early April morning the out and out first bass which had come into that particular area, as in what are the odds that I chose a location and caught the very first bass which came mooching around inshore from wherever it had previously been for the past few months? It could have been I suppose, but I just don’t buy those odds, which then of course gets me thinking about all manner of different stuff. It’s a location where we tend to catch early and late especially, and the tides and conditions that early morning were what I think are perfect for where I chose to fish - but could I have caught bass even earlier, or was that first fish of my 2019 season really the first bass to arrive there?

I know I fished a few “proper” sessions earlier than 2nd April last year, but I would not have fished this particular location until the morning of 2nd April because that was when from my experience of the place the tides had just jumped up to the right size - plus I had the right conditions for a night session there. Some of us fish the same spots on very different tides and conditions which always fascinates me, but at this spot I went to early in the morning I just haven’t caught bass under a certain size tide before. If I had blanked I’d have put it down to it being a little early, but I caught my first bass of the 2019 season and of course I’m wondering how things might unfold here in 2020. That first bass is all it takes to get us bouncing again and for me it resulted in this session here a few days later because I was buzzed up and I had gotten to thinking about various locations that surely had to be worth a go with those early signs of life. For all the chance at bigger fish or being consumed with all things fishing tackle or fishing new places and so on, still one of the biggest buzzes I get from fishing is trying to think like a fish, making a call, and then catching.