“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
