BASS HUNTERS

Hello to all


As you may or not know I am lucky enough to have a friend ( Del boy) who earns his living catching fish from the sea to sell to various restaurants and fishmongers etc. As a mad keen Pike angler this is very handy indeed, there's never a shortage of free fresh baits all thanks to good ol Del boys round the clock efforts so cheers mate!

This weeks adventure was guided by none other than than the man himself, for a long time now I have wanted to catch a Sea Bass. I have fished for them on a number of occasions but never have I succeeded. This time I was in the hands of a pro and the words " you will DEFIANTLY catch a bass " put a big grin on my face as we drifted out of the harbour into the morning mist for what sounded like a promising days fishing.

The mist soon burnt off the water making way for a blue sky and mild breeze, the water was flat calm making for very pleasant fishing conditions. Del suggested that we drifted on the tide to cover the water in our search for my first Bass, for bait he had sourced some absolute monster sand eels (what he calls a mans eel ) which would surly catch the attention of any prowling Bass.On our second drift Del hooked up and landed a lovely fish of around 2.5lbs. after a few more drifts Del had landed another 3 and I was starting to get a little hot under the collar. I was beginning to think I was the anti-bass, the fish could probably sense my anguish and desperation therefor avoiding my eel on purpose?.A ridiculous thought this may be? but I have often found that a bite is far less likely to occur when an angler is deep in thought willing a it to happen. once I began to relax and enjoy just being on the water on a unseasonably nice day in good company, that magical whack of my sand eel bait being set upon sent shudders down my rod and I lifted into my first of the species.

Fortunately it didn't come off and I slipped the net under a typically sized fish of  2.5lb, I was chuffed to have ended my jinx and Del boy had kept his promise.We carried on drifting and I even went on to catch another fish.Bass are a cracking species and I would love to catch a big one,there huge eyes and cavernous mouths make them a very efficient predator and a worthy target for any angler.

 

Job done!

Til next tme

Good luck

CROCS AND CLOCKS

Hello to all

I just cant believe the clocks have gone back already, this year has flown by me and it will soon be Christmas......dang, time's a bitch huh? there can never be to much time as far as fishing is concerned. If it were a viable option I would be fishing full time, but the reality's of life such as work and socialising with non angling friends and family in a bid not to become a forgotten face puts a dent in that thought. However imbetween the trials of life I have been loitering around various waters with the intent of catching some Pike.

I have sneaked a couple of day sessions on a new water earmarked by ol Moxy, he kindly invited me along with our pal Dom Garnett to see if we could russle up a croc or two from the depths of this weedy overlooked old pit.

This 12 lb 14oz fish was caught in 20ft of water on a ledgered Mackerel head section, if truth be told I poached this one from a bite on Mox's rods when he left me to hold fought whilst he wondered with a lure setup. As it happened he did snare a couple of cute jacks on small shad swimmer baits but the low double turned out to be the biggest of the trip. Dom caught a lovely Perch on a drifted roach deadbait.

Me and Mox made a return visit but this time we set about catching a few livebaits as on the previous trip we had stuck to the deads and lure tactics. After catching myself a roach of around 6oz I set up a sub float paternoster rig (a good presentation when fishing over a weedy bottom) on my 3.25lb Fox warrior rod.This was placed close in on a marginal shelf in 5ft of water, it must have been all of 20 minutes before my alarm interrupted a very warm and pleasant morning.The bite was very savage indeed, the Pike shot off towards the deeper water which saw me pile on the pressure to stop her making it into the maze of salad that chokes the majority of the venue.

                     
 The battle was won as I slipped the net under this lovely long mid double. She has a very recognisable yellow mark around the pectoral fin which I haven't seen before. ( maybe a birthmark? ) the rest of the day proved fruitless for Mox and the only other Pike of the day was a jack of around a pound.

The Pike fun was not over as the next day Me and Mox headed over the Severn bridge into Wales for a two day trip on the mighty river Wye.We were also in the company of my dad and our friend Geordie who were both ready to try and catch a barbel or two,the car was loaded to the brim with tackle and bait including a bag containing about 20lb of deadbaits courtesy of Del boy the fishmonger.Sounds excessive but the leftovers would be fed to the fish to fatten them up for next time,we soon found ourselves bankside and as bad luck would have it there was a flippin match being held which limited us somewhat in swim choice.With around a mile of river to go at we soon (via the pimp mobile ) found a long deep slack margin on the tail of a slight bend that only had one ( slightly worried looking ) match angler on the far bank.

The area looked perfect and had a few swims to try with some nice overhanging tree features and  steep marginal drop offs, basically an ideal place for any big Pike to set up house. We soon had a couple of fresh Mackerel (that had been injected with Salmon oil) in the drink which quickly gained interest from the resident Pike. Unfortunately myself and Moxy both lost a fish each in the first hour then another kick in the balls came for mox when he lost a donkey of a fish on a lure, we were both pretty pissed but that soon changed when mox's deadbait trundled of up stream.

At 22lb Mox had a new pb and one very healthy river beast in his hands, I never had another bite that day nor did my dad and geordie ( who were fishing for Barbel for that matter ) but we did enjoy a 3 course meal and contemplated what tomorrow may bring over a few pints, which was nice.

At 5.30am Me and Mox had the peddle to the metal in the old pimp mobile making our way to the spots we had topped up with some chopped fish the night before.We quickly made it to our destination and were fishing in no time at all as we had stashed our setup rods in a bush, I was very excited at the prospect of a big Pike at dawn. As the mist started to clear I had a take and struck into a good fish, after two or so minutes I saw a large shape under the surface thrashing its head in anger.It was then my turn turn to thrash around in anger as the hooks pulled,I was not happy to say the least and decided to go a have some breakfast and a cup of tea to calm down.

I didn't get a second chance this time but I'll be back soon, me old man had this whopper tho.

22lb 10oz


Til next time

good luck