First Bassing of the year

Its taken a little while to get round to this but here goes. Last Monday the weather was looking pretty gnarly and I was on a time limit but thankfully the tide coincided just with darkness. I managed to get out to the mark where I was relying on being able to dig my bait there. It was a tough start, I couldn't make out many casts and the worms were generally small, I found a good patch and had enough for the session in about 30 minutes.

I hurried the extra couple of hundred yards over to where I would be fishing, promptly setting up as the tide was already flooding. Being down the bank I was comfortably out of the wind, the rod tips however were shaking all over the place. I'd opted to fish light, bass rods with 2-3oz weights just being enough to hold bottom but a little movement every now and then to help locate any gulleys.

On went the "bait shops" as I call them, small blow lug that you usually get at the shops, and I cast out aiming for the main channel. After missing the first bite I changed to newer, sharper hooks and what do you know, it did the trick. Not a monster, it was never going to be, but the first bass of the year was soon on the sand. Once it was released the action continued, missing a few, landing a few but in all I was pretty chuffed with landing 5 bass, the last 2 being of a better size, maybe 1/2lb at a push.

With the bass out of the way I turned my attention to codling the next day. I fished a mark on the Straits and despite managing to get out of the wind it was bloody freezing! I nearly didn't bother but apparently fortune favours the brave, just no-one told the fish that day. With crabs robbing every bait thrown in, I've never known it so bad, as it got dark something fish shaped hit the surface on the retrieve. Sadly whatever it was bounced off as it hit the rocks. In all likelihood it was a whiting but it would have been nice to have something to show.