In the previous blog I was talking about fishing a certain mark that was really successful for me last year, but unfortunately hadn’t really had the conditions I wanted to fish it. Well every now and then we get a early finish at work compared to the usual work all day, this happened to be on the Monday, so straight away im checking the tide times and XC Weather for some info, and im really liking what I see ” 6:40 high tide, overcast, maybe rain and most important a 20mph+ SW wind” now im getting really excited!! I knew with these conditions there would be bass there.

So after a agonisingly long drive to my mark I arrive to see a thick covering of weed, abit off putting but where I wanted to fish was around the corner so I thought it might be clearer around there. I get set up and on mark and the conditions are just awesome, onshore wind kicking up big surf on top of a shallow reef with plenty of gulley’s and big structure in the water, is there really a better sounding mark!! I start fishing trying a few different lures and tactics, and am picking up abit of weed with not many clean retrieves, so I work my way up the coast trying to find clearer water to no success. Right so the plan is stick to my original spot stick the Black Minnow on and fish it hard, weed wasn’t so bad with the weedless set up of the BM, and within 15 minutes I cast out couple winds and BANG, thank god for that I knew there would be fish here, after a little scrap I land the bass, not big but seriously welcome!! 

So now that I have saved a blank im happy, and carry on fishing hard, really expecting to get smashed any second, as with this mark I’ve found that it is usually 30ish minutes of craziness followed by a sudden stop in action!! anyway id say about half an hour im starting to think its all over with the weed also becoming worse until I get mullered right at my feet about 2-3 metres away from my feet right in the breaking waves, at first im thinking im snagged until I start to hear the sound of my drag ripping braid off my spool, this fishes first run is huge, im literally standing there holding on waiting for him to stop, I gain abit of line then run number 2 takes as much line again, by this time my hearts just about beating out of my chest, the fish gives up for abit and im able to gain quite abit of line back, until run number 3 not as long but still hard, I think the fish has finally given in and I can see the fish thrashing on the top, even from a way out I can see this fish is big, im seriously excited and shaking, I get the fish close bearing in mind ive got big breaking waves to contend with, and as I crush my barbs I need to keep that line tight so he doesn’t shake the hook. I must be at the last couple metres so I grab the line in my hand and I can see the lure in the fishes mouth and the weight is something ive never felt before I know its big, so a start walking back line in hand then PING, line gave in and my fish swims away!! My heart sank, I was literally speechless I stood there for minutes replaying what just happened wondering what I had done wrong. I know everyone’s perceptions of anglers tales of “ones that got away”, but this fish took 3 big runs and if im honest my drag was on the tighter side of what it should have been, also I saw the fish and felt the weight of it in my hand and it really had to easily be 6lb+ and that’s really being conservative!! bearing in mind my PB is 5.5lbs which was caught about 3 weeks previous, the one this week made my PB feel like a mackerel!! 

Sometimes the unexpected can be most rewarding, so I am out on some pretty awesome ground in the hunt for bass, real nice shallow reefy ground, somewhere that last year was my most successful bass ground! Ok so it was not exactly the conditions I wanted being that it usually produces on a real strong onshore wind resulting in nice big waves crashing over a shallow reef, fizzing everywhere. Today it wasn’t quite that although it wasn’t flat calm.

Being such shallow ground lure choice is rather important, this was learnt the hard way, this being me chucking numerous soft plastics mounted on heavy jigheads at the reef, although at low tide most of the reef is exposed and I took a walk along it one day and actually managed to salvage one of my Savage Gear Sandeels and a Fiiish Black Minnow. Anyway I went with the Salt Skimmer red belly sardine, a lure that I had recently gained faith in, although no fish it was nice to see that it worked perfectly over the top of small waves!! I then went on to use a few different Megabass soft plastics mounted on 3/0 belly weight hooks slowly twitching them over the bottom, at this point im starting to expect a smash on any cast as the wind actually starts to pick up and there’s some decent fizz in the water.

Time to bring out the big gun, the IMA Komomo SF 125 in Cotton Candy, now this is a lure I used out in Ireland a couple weeks back given to me by Henry Gilbey, ill admit at first sight the colour doesn’t really give me confidence in thinking a fish would mistake it for something they would usually target, but I did as I was told and oh my, 4 bass in a small space of time and a whole lot more hits on the lure that’s enough to install confidence!! So I start fishing the komomo and with the water being so clear I can see the lure really working just hovering above the reef, after a few casts I notice something in the corner of my eye I look down and see a glimpse of a fish literally under a ledge of the rock im standing on just beyond my rod tip, immediately im thinking bass and it looked like a decent sized fish, the water fizzed up and I lose sight of the fish but I cast my lure over the top a started to retrieve, just a slow straight retrieve. Just as my lure is getting to the ledge I see the fish shoot out from the ledge to position itself behind the lure then paused for split second before smashing the lure, now as soon as I saw the fish move I saw it wasn’t a bass and that infact it was a wrasse, after a decent but short scrap I land the fish then realising it was of a decent size. I don’t carry scales on me but I did measure it and it was 51cm and was a rather fat one aswell, im no expert but id say that it was nudging over 4lbs, being that I fish alone the pictures are not great as they are shot on a timer so don’t really do the fish justice but at least its something.

Anyway as the title says it was certainly a surprise to hit into a decent wrasse on a cotton candy SF 125 but a very welcome surprise at that!!