Casting and hoping

The week ticked past again but things didn’t look good for an evening on the beach; high tide was due in the middle of the afternoon but this alone wouldn’t have put us off, a fresh north easterly blowing straight into our chops was the clincher.  To be honest I was tempted to just go anyway but in the end Giles and I came up with another plan, we’d fish an estuary for Bass.  But this also had its problems as our ‘secret spot’ would be getting the full force of the wind too and when I say secret spot I actually mean only spot.  This was something we needed to change and we also had another big box unticked, neither of us had ever caught a Bass on a lure, maybe fishing mobile we could put this right and find other places to fish?

We started with a tip off, a spot where a friend had caught them on lures in the past and with the help of Google earth we had a plan.  Next I needed lures which should be no problem as I have boxes and boxes of the things in the shed.  But it turns out that I didn’t have too many that inspired confidence, a small Pike lure looks a bit big for catching Bass.  In the end I selected a spinner, a couple of rubber sandeel looky likey things, a Thunderstick plug and a couple of spoons including a ‘Dexter Wedge’ which is a shiny chunk of metal that looked like it would cast miles.

We arrived at a car park on top of a hill and strolled down towards the river, when we reached the water the wind was blasting us.  We began fishing around 1430, I was using an eight foot light spinning rod and clipped on the wedge and yes it did cast well, covering plenty of water or the upper layers at least, anything that sank down became enveloped in weed.  We walked on casting here and there all the time approaching a narrower stretch where we’d been tipped off Bass would be present.  The area was very weedy which restricted the spots we could fish and consequently we covered ground quickly, eventually reaching the feature we’d been seeking.

This was an area of concrete structures, rocks, islands and channels, depending on the state of the tide.  At times the water ripped through quickly, later it was barely a trickle.  We stood side by side with the wind on our backs casting, switching lures from time to time and trying to find something that would work.  After a while I had a definite pull on the wedge but didn’t hook up, at least this gave us confidence to keep going.  We moved again to a spot where the rising tide was ripping through with pace, it looked good but was carrying quite a bit of weed which made fishing difficult.  We stayed here, going through the lures, looking for something that would do the trick, it was fun but we weren’t catching anything.

The ripping current slowed down then turned completely around within a couple of minutes, soon the water was creeping backwards and exposing more snaggy structure.  Giles yelled, he was in! But then it went slack again.  We told ourselves where there was one there’d be more.  The lowering water level would surely concentrate any fish?  We kept casting and hoping.

Another short move and we resumed, after a few casts it happened, Giles hooked a fish on a spinner and soon swung in our first lure caught Bass, result!  A few minutes later I also hooked one having switched to a spinner myself but this one didn’t stay hooked.  It seemed there were fish in front of us but this situation didn’t last, the water drained away and soon we were fishing in only inches.  I moved back to the fast water spot but by now I was tired and going through the motions.  I was pretty much beaten but decided to clip on the spinner again and try to cover a band of clear water between two muddy areas.  Then it happened, something latched onto my lure and pulled back, I carefully led the fish towards me and up the muddy bank, I’d done it, a silver bar – my first Bass on a lure.  This gave us another short lived boost of confidence and lures were hurled with enthusiasm once more but the tide was now running out quickly, as was our energy.  With a fish each and new ground covered we’d done what we set out to do, now where did we leave the car?