Time to dust off the old blog

Well, it's been a couple of month's since i posted anything on here. But to be honest it's been a couple of month's since I've felt even a bit of enthusiasm to get out. Of course I've been out fishing most weeks and caught a few fish but really I've been going just for the sake of going. But this has changed after our last session.

At the start of the week I'd decided that the combination of the tides size and time looked best for Thursday but come Tuesday morning i felt a calling that i hadn't felt since the end of last year. I actually wanted to go fishing. Yes, the wind was blowing a steady 10 knots South easterly, the tide was smaller then a small thing and there was barely a ripple of swell but for whatever reason, i really fancied a go. I picked Woody up just before low water to give us the chance to get set up in the day light and be fishing in time for the pushing tide. We crested the hill to be greeted by this glorious sight (left) and made a quick pit stop in the lay by to see what was what. Unusually the whole beach seemed pretty uniform.

On such a big beach there tends to be big differences in how big it is over the length of it but i think that the small tides and flat sea had smoothed out any of the contours and gullies that would have been present if the sea had been a little bigger. The conclusion we came to was that it didn't matter where we were. With a sunset like this to look at we didn't really care. Fish or no fish, it wasn't going to matter.

With eager anticipation we jumped back into the car and headed down the hill to the car park. The light was just starting to fade so we both quickly threw on our gear, Put our rods together and made out way down to the beach and headed towards our favourite spot on the beach (it's our favourite spot quite simply because it's where we always seem to do best)

The plan we had formulated through the day was firstly to fish 2 rods each. One close in with a big squid bait for a Bass and the other at distance to try our luck and see if there were any early Small Eyed Ray about on the North coast yet.

My distance rod was going to be my trusted combo of an AWB 122 with a TSR strapped to it and a clipped down pulley rig. But for the second time in the year i was having a go with a set up that's new to me. In the winter i  had bought a Shakespeare zed lite 2-4oz Bass rod (circa mid 90's) to sell as second hand stock. It had the original crappy rings on and the duplon handle was a bit on the tatty side but i was blown away by the blank. Firstly it looked fabulous. The blank itself and varnish protecting it was pristine. It has that Kevlar weave that many of the top end rod's of the 90's had (and some still do) in a light red and a light green colour which sounds grim but it looks lovely. The action was something else, just what i liked, a nice and soft but crisp tip action rod with a nice progressively gutsy mid to butt section. I just couldn't bring myself to sell it.

So i stripped it down and had a new set of Fuji bnog's put on it. With a new Fugi dps 22 reel seat and a length of x-weave shrink tube it back to looking it's best and had been given the rebuild such a rod deserved.

I already had a nice fixed spool to go on it and although the Biomaster 8000 was a touch on the big side i couldn't justify a new, only slightly smaller reel to go on it when i already owned a gloriously smooth reel. Si loaded that up with 50lb braid and a short 3ft 40lb leader. I always keep my leaders short when using braid as any knot tied using braid is rock hard and can easily pop the liners out of the eye's.

Being that i was planning on using this combo for close in fishing i didn't fancy using my usual pulley rigs so instead settled on using the simplest rig of them all, a running ledger. I was only going to be casting 30 or 40 yards maximum so there was going to be no need to clip any bait down. Up until now i have spent many hours refining how i fish on the beach in whatever conditions but with this set up being new it will pay to try some different things. I'm pleased to report though that it seemed to work well. I made it quite long at about 6ft of 30lb memorex and used a zip slider with a 4oz swivel pear lead. Of the 3 casts i had i didn't have a single bit of a tangle. But that said, it was as flat as a ballet dancers tit's and with the small tide there was no rip either so I'll need to try it in a few different types of conditions to pass any judgement.  On the whole though I'm really pleased with the set up so far. It sets a lovely tip and it's nice and stable on a sand spike. I just cant wait to catch a mahoosive Bass on it. The combo of a light, tippy rod and braid should be great.

So back to the report. We had plenty of bases covered. Between the 4 rods out there was one at distance, one given a fair old chuck, one a mid range and another in very close with all rods on either unwashed squid or jumbo sand eel.

The sunset was breathtaking. It felt kind of special out there. Things just felt right again. As the light dropped further there was a lovely sight that you just don't see very often. It was dark but the sun was ever so lightly illuminating the clouds on the horizon. It looked spectacular how there was a slight red glow that faded into a fiery orange, then from a light green into a deep blue, then the stars and darkness of the sky. All within about 15deg of view. Venus was also particularly bright which was nice to see. The only thing i could liken it to was the glow that see around the Earth from pictures taken from space. I just felt totally at peace. I tried to take a picture of it but an iPhone camera has certain limitations. 

So in the end the fishing was crap. Between the 2 of us we didn't have a single bite. But it didn't matter one bit. That one session, although poor in terms of fish, has given me back the bug. The motivation i need to get back out and start this years campaign proper. There are going to be plenty of blanks along the way but it's all part of the game when fishing for big Bass. A bad nights fishing is better then a good day at work.

I'm just not sure if my new found enthusiasm stretches to fishing tonight. Flat calm seas and North East winds. That said though, it's a nice tide at a nice time. You never know. I might just give it a bash.

Tight lines

Rich

Nothing to report......

Ok. I admit it. I have lost all interest in catching anything other then Bass. In recent weeks I have trying to motivate myself but it's just not happening. Though I never seem to struggle in the autumn. There are weeks that go by when I'd be out every night if I could. So I find myself asking myself why? Why am only interested in Bass fishing and nothing else? What is it about being on the beach that i love so much?

I think the first thing is that Bass are a worthy adversary. There not an easy fish to catch. That said though, they are not really that difficult either. For me, Bassing is all about being in the right place, in the right conditions, at the right time. Get those three thing's right and you can catch Bass on virtually any Cornish beach. It's putting the hard hours in find all these factors out that is the difficult bit. But then i suppose that those factorsare applicable to any type of fishing, not just Bassing.

Then there's the beach itself. It so much more pleasant being on the sand with plenty of room around you. It's easier to cast, it's quieter and it's generally darker. I'm probably talking rubbish here but I feel like I'm more 'at one' with the sea and thus the fish when I'm on the beach, purely because you spend about a third of your time in the water.

I spent the latter part of last year trying to scale all of gear back and fish light with one rod. Just wearing a waterproof bum bag with minimal gear in it and waders. It was nice to wade out, cast and then come back to standing knee deep in the water with the rod in your hand. Of course i would take a sand spike so I could have a drink of roll a fag or go for a chat but you really can't beat having the rod in your hand. For the first half of the year i fished the usual 2 rods. My problem with this is that when you are fishing at distance your looking at the best part of 20 minutes to reel in, change your bait, wade out, cast and wade back and that is just for a single rod. That's 20 minutes of a having a fresh bait out there with only a couple of glances towards your rod tip. I must have been missing fish. I just must have. Using a self hooking rig like a pulley does of course help but there's not a single Bass angler out there that can say that they haven't missed a massive bite what ever rig they are using. There's just no better feeling then getting that whack, whack, whack when the rod is in your hand.

The beach just feels different too. It just seems to heighten your senses. It might be pitch black walking to the beach but I can tell by the sound of waves if it's right or not. Maybe it's just the fact that your stood up all night and constantly moving up and down with the tide all night that makes you feel like that but I can honestly say that I feel different when I'm out on a beach.

The good news for those of you that haven't yet caught the Bass bug is that there are still plenty of fish out there to catch. For a start there are plenty of decent Dabs out there. I'm still hearing of some decent Codling caught and there are still plenty of whiting around. It's also going to be worth a bash at the flounder this weekend with the frost and building tides up and coming. Crab activity will also be at about it's lowest point of the year. Talking to the boat anglers there are still plenty of good size codling about but they seem to be just too far off shore for us shore anglers. Not too much out of range though as I've spoken to several anglers catching big fish within 400 yards of dry land.

I've half arranged a session out on the Huss this weekend so lets just see if I can muster up the motivation.

So, how's your motivation?

Well, it's January again and the winter fish have certainly shown up in good numbers. It's not the easiest time of year to get yourself out fishing with the unsettled weather but plenty of those that have been putting in the effort have been having fish. I'd go as far as saying that the Cod and Whiting fishing have been as good as they ever have been in at least a decade.

All over the county there have been numerous reports of big Cod in good numbers. Only last week, a good customer and friend, Jason 'penfold' Hawke had a 8lb 13oz Cod (pictured left) from a deep water mark down west. He's gotten off to a total flyer in the club this year landing that big cod, a 2lb 1oz 13dr Whiting, a 3 beard Rockling of 2lb 4oz 9dr and a Dab just under a pound. That's given him around 450% in the club and county championship for 4 fish. This just shows exactly what can be done if you are prepared to put the hours in.


(for those that don't know how club and county championships work, they are based on specimen weights for each species and are given a percentage based on your fishes weight compared to the specimen weight. That specimen weight is deduced by using a formula that takes several years returns into account)

The county Whiting record also went twice in the last month. First was a mighty fine fish of 2lb 15oz 9dr only to be demolished days later by a monster fish of 3lb 7oz 9dr.

Having said all of this I really should follow my own advice and get out myself a bit more. Like most people, i really struggle with motivation at this time of year but that's more due to the lack of my favourite fish. Bass. It sounds foreign to many but if it's not shiny, silver and spiky I'm just not that interested. In the right conditions and on the right mark, there are still plenty of Bass about but it's been a while since we have had good South Westerlies with a big ground sea. I've had a couple of Bass on each of my last few session's but nothing to write home about.

It's also the right time of year to be setting yourself a couple of target's for the coming year and reflect on the year gone by.

Last season I'd decided that i wanted to catch a Bass every month of the year and i'm happy to say that i (and woody) succeeded. February and March were the month's i was worried about. but after we both cleared that the rest of the year without an issue. There did seem to be a sever lack of big Bass last year though with very few proper fish being caught. My best of the year was only 4lb 14oz but i can console myself with the fact that only a few of the other out and out Bass angler's had anything to shout about. Why? Well I don't have a clue as there were shed loads of smaller fish around but I'm just hoping it turns around again next year.

I suppose for this year rather then set myself any targets I'm going to make an effort to fish for other species. I always used to enjoy going rough grounding, hauling big ugly fish with very sharp teeth out of the depth's but in recent year's I just haven't done any at all. So hopefully you'll all be seeing reports of big Eels and Huss in the coming month's but rest assured that if the conditions are right I'll be out on the rock's catching Bass.

It would be great to see a few comment's below of if you managed to make your targets and what yours are for the next year.