A Crack at the Bass

This weekend we were hoping for a shot at the bass , watching the forecast just to make sure the winds were favourable. So with gusty south westerly blowing we fancied our chances of it being in good fishable condition, and on our way down from the roadside there wasn't a whitehorse in sight, and sure enough it looked perfect when we arrived at midday at the venue tackled up and ready to take on the waves.
First though before the tide got really moving we decided to have a bash at the blennies, it was great fun lowering our power isome along side rocks had the wee blighters sticking there heads out and pouncing on our hooks, most came adrift on the strike but a few stuck.

After half an hour we decided to get our heads down to try and tackle the bass, hours went buy as we thrashed the sea in various corners with our clousers , to no avail, still we kept our heads up and carried on. Then a splash caught my eye followed by a fish clearing the water, I immediately thought seatrout, Brian reckoned bass.

Anyway it gave us renewed enthusiasm and after a move brian hooked into a bass, it was really good to see, he had his second and third before I managed my first, but they kept coming steady for an hour or so, nothing big just typical school bass but great fun, it feels like boom or bust type fishing at times.

The sport then began to subside as the offshore wind gathered pace , and we decided to call it a day fairly contented with our days fishing. It was nice just to catch some bass as Brian pointed out it had been over a year since we last did so.

Like a coat of arms

Feeling Flat in February

January and February have been really difficult to get out and do any sort of angling at all in my neighbourhood. A contrast of high winds and and ill timed downpours have seen to that. Even this weekends plans took a detour at the last minute. Brian and I were prepared to go and have a shot at the bass , when a northerly westerly showed up on the forecast . A wee look at  comfortable areas to fish took us too a Fife beach, the first time we have given it a shot called Ravenscraig beach.

I was pleasantly surprised that it was a charming  wee spot,  that gave us shelter with its distinctive  crags and ruins an at our backs with a steady off shore breeze. the day its self was pleasant with no rain  it felt almost spring like and that sparked up conversation of the coming season , trout , pike and SWFF,  float-tubing  amongst other species and methods , really looking forward for all that kicking off.

The flounder fishing for the time of year wasn't too bad either , between us we managed perhaps 10 to a dozen small flounder between us  ,  but like other beaches we have sampled on the Fife coast it went off on the last couple of hours approaching high tide. Still it was really nice to get out  with the rods and a bonus to  catch our first flounders of 2014.

watching for a bite

With the trout season now fast approaching I've been quietly going about  a bit preparation , a few new purchases such as a new   fly line ,a new pair of forceps , and I've had a few small sessions on the vice producing the usual klinks, shucked cdc's , dirty Pollies , wire nymphs the odd spider etc.

A start on the dries

 shucked cdc

Lots more to do but still another 4 weeks to go, roll on the brownies!

making plans

Something that's been on my to do list for a long time now is an early spring trip up to Orkney to fish for sea trout in the sea, I was thinking about this over the weekend and decided to put my plan into action, Ive been intending to visit my mum who lives up there anyway so I'm off for a long weekend at the end of this month, just in time for the start of the sea trout season!. Fingers crossed the weather won't be to rough so i can get a couple of days fishing in, although up there there's no guarantees.

Tackle wise all I should need is my sw fly rod, intermediate line, 8lb fluorocarbon  and a few different lures to try. The car's going be vital to search different locations, along with an ordnance survey map and a note of the tide times around the island. As you can see Ive made a wee start on tying a up some lures which i hope will do the trick.

 from what Ive been reading fly choice isn't to critical as the sea trout feed well in the spring, the difficult bit will be finding them in the first place, there's a lot of coastline to search and blanks are common.  

i'm looking forward to giving it a try anyway

 a clouser or two wont go a miss i guess

 marabou type lures are recommended too, i'll tie up a few in orange too.