Sunday, June 19, 2016

Weathers too good...?



Weathers too good for Bass Fishing” I said to my understanding wife as I prepared to head out after lunch for a quick afternoon session last weekend. I’d noticed the wind would be switching From SE to S then SW that afternoon but had expected cloud cover, which I’d prefer, but in fact the sun was high in the clear blue May sky and splitting the stones as they say here in beautiful West Cork.

So off I went to the spot I had in mind, trudging across the sands past throngs of people in various stages of undress enjoying the fabulous beach weather with I feeling decidedly over dressed in my waterproof breathable fishing gear with hat on and hood up! On reaching my spot I found the tide had dropped a good bit from its high point on this very weak tide allowing me to wade quietly down a line of rocks, squeeze through a gap and position myself behind another lowish rock giving me a perfect position from which to both hide away and cover the area in front of me. The water was clear and weedless with nice little wave rolling in - perfect!

I selected a long casting shallow diver - The ever reliable Daiwa Shore Line Shiner 17 F-G and fired out the perfect cast diagonally across the rough ground and immediately started my retrieve in a “Jerk bait” style in view of the warm conditions…as the lure got halfway back to me it suddenly stopped and BANG the rod lurched round and the battle was on (First cast Syndrome strikes again)!!

Looking around me I could see wandering beach goers very close by, not wishing to advertise the location I kept the rod low to the water as it bent double and after a spirited battle I had the fish on the opposite side of the rock in front, which was at about chest level, I managed to steer the lively fish round that to me and I found myself in the close proximity of a very angry Bass, lure in its mouth, whilst waist deep in moving water…!!


So not being in the most comfortable of positions I paused after grabbing the fluorocarbon leader while I stowed away my rod to free up another hand and that was all the fish, of an estimated           7 lbs +, needed to  shake itself free of the barbless treble hooks and make it’s escape! For a split second it wallowed on the surface before realising it was free and as I lunged forward to grab it, the fish shot away at lightning speed with powerful thrust of its tail…I would have loved a photo but never mind. Needless to say I fished for another 2 hrs with no further action…oh well…J