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

mackerel & mullet

We headed down to the popular east Lothian bass mark yesterday with the thought of targeting a few different species, first of all we had a go for the bass with the fly rods, not much happening to be honest so after a couple of hours flogging away without a touch we decided enough was enough and moved to another spot near by. We set up our lrf rods to see what was about, hoping for wrasse I guess, first cast with the drop shot rig and cols wee tronix  buckled over with a hard fighting mackerel, soon I was in on the action too, it was a mackerel every chuck,  a switch over to the fly rods was fun with a few more before we had to move with the incoming tide.    

 after our brief  mackie bash we went back down to the bass mark, but this time to try for another fish on the to do list....  mullet. Once we wangled our way into the hot spot  I introduced some mashed up bread and sardines to try and get them on the feed and  encouragingly it didn't take long for a few to start showing. Hooking them was a different story, we fished with chubber style floats and most of the time we found ourselves striking into thin air, exciting though! I  lost a couple and was beginning to think it wasn't going to be my day when eventually one stuck, not big but I was pleased with my first ever mullet.

  Col was having an equally frustrating time but perseverance finally paid of for him and he got his reward too just before calling it a day, I could see this mullet fishing being quite addictive, don't think it'll be too long before we have another go for them.

Call of the Coast

It's been a difficult  couple of weeks to get any type of fishing in, last weekend was off the back of a really wet spell which caused flooding in many areas, ended up at a tackle shop (angling active) , for a few fly tying purchases , mainly buck tails and a fly wallet , followed by a few fruitless half hearted casts on a muddy pond for pike.  This weekend we had grayling planned with conditions being frosty it seemed a good option , but then on Friday night it rained for 3 hours , looking at the conditions we decided for a change and go for the bass , sure enough going down towards our location the rivers were out of condition, but unfortunately a north wind also put those plans  to bed, we then tried the canal but it was frozen and as i type it's snowing , So no fishing of any sort to post about.

Ive been spending a wee bit time at the vice though, mainly tying up saltwater patterns for next year, it's the  form of fishing i really crave at the moment, my heads rarely been out of  Lefty Kreh's "Saltwater Fly patterns" book, dreaming of and planning future trips for next year, digging out the OS maps looking for rock marks etc , with possibilities of  bass , mackerel , pollack, coal fish, sea trout and maybe even flounder   on the cards.

Ive also been doing a wee bit dying with certain patterns in mind and i think the efforts have been worthwhile despite dying my fingers every colour of the rainbow during the process.  First i halved a Metz silver badger cape dying one half hot orange. and also dyed a few grizzle hackles hot pink, chartreuse , and teal blue. these
were mainly for flanking  feathers for deceivers.

Ive stayed pretty much to the tried and  tested patterns , the Clousers , deceivers and half and halves in colours and sizes suited for species of baitfish (sprats , sand eels, launce) or preferred attractor colours of the quarry. Here's a few of my efforts. First up the deceivers.

Deceivers

I just had to include what looks to be almost considered the standard pattern of white over lay ed with chartreuse buck tail with it's red crystal flash beard , I've dressed it on a size 2. The other two pictured i had with loose sprat imitations in mind dressed on size 4 hooks in grey and white and aqua and white. I guess any colour which takes your fancy can be used or more importantly what catches the the fishes eye .


  Next up are the clousers,there are  many ways to tie them up, with all materials under the hook, the tail or along  the shank, or perhaps the best known way with the white on top and contrasting colour on the bottom bearing in mind that clousers swim upside down.i guess they give them slightly different tapers . Traditionally buck tail was the material  used to tie these and i must admit i do think they look the part.

Buck tail Clousers (3 styles)

But theres no restrictions, and with the countless synthetic materials available to the saltwater/pike fly tyer today anything go's like frizz fibre, fish-hair, supreme hair , H2o's slinky fibre or flash n' slinky etc,  but here I've used kanekallon hair extensions (aka jumbo braid) which is much better value and IMO just as good as the above it also comes in a huge array of colours some more useful than others .I guess one advantage synthetics have over buck tail is they can be tied really long. 

Synthetic hair Clousers

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Other clousers that will be in my box next year will be flash based  clousers, i had a bit success earlier on in the year with a mixed blend of pearl gold and silver.To add to those i got hold of some micro tinsel from Castle feathers , they do quite a spectrum of colours in this material and I'll have to add to my colours i currently have shortly as i really like the look of it .

Flash Clousers

So that's the trusty clousers sorted for now anyway.

Another  lot I'm really quite excited about trying, are the half and halves, that's half deceiver half Clouser and is a genuine pattern from the inventors Lefty Kreh and Bob Clouser not some dodgy hybrid  concocted in my head . Ive tied mine slightly different from the examples in the book , but i think they shouldn't be any worse for that.

The orange and black ones are tied very much with Pollack in mind , as I'm told that combi as well as all-black is a good option.  The above are tied on sizes 1/0 and 2 .

A few surf candies wont go a miss.

Last of all I've done a few gurglers, just in case theres some good surface blitzes to take advantage of.

A bit of time on the vice at this time of year can be  time well spent, hopefully it'll pay dividends  come next summer. Just hope we get a break in the weather soon.

Bass-ic Instinct

A Last minute decision , had us shying away from those fickle  grayling, and  as the tidetimes being suitable and weather being fair we  looked to the coast for our sport. Not flatties this week for a change we decided to look out the SWFF gear for shot at the Bass.

The Usual clouser minnows were our flies of choice.
 It was quiet for the first couple of hours , and eventually i found the need to explore other areas. Changing to a fast sinker and casting for perhaps a pollack? That lasted all but five minutes and i then decided to go and see how Brian was getting on . When i eventually got back to him , after changing back to my intermediate, he told me he had just had one. Result!

It was good to get off the mark , shortly after i got my first.

and then i had another an hour later.

It wasn't  exactly  lots happening. Thats  until i moved , finding a  wee unoccupied corner i managed to sneak in amongst the ranks of "combat anglers " fishing there controller float rubber eel set-ups, and the sport became hectic  much to the bemusement of some.  

Brian was getting sport too!

  A good days fishing , a nice change! Just a note to myself " although it was a largely calm sea  the swell coming over the reef was at times pretty big also, it was a spring tide" never can give the sea enough respect and you cant watch those waves enough as well as being aware if wading what is behind you as you dont want a wave to wash you in a pothole.

 Hopefully wont be too long before we get another bite of the cherry although it will be very  weather dependant.

Holy Mackeral

Just back from my hols, managed a few nights SWFF ,it was'nt the greatest weather apart from the last day, unfortunately the fishing was not great also though i gained a wee bit knowledge each time, despite my best efforts i didnt get a bass , or mullet (Though i did see plenty of the later) Luckily on a few nights the best being the last the Mackeral put in appearance, had to scale down the fly pattern ,great fun chasing them along the beach , cant beat the sound of feeding mackeral , almost like a  fast approaching rainstorm , And ofcourse the best thing is you can eat them, still though Glad to be home!

Supper!

sand bank

birthday bass

It was Cols birthday yesterday so it was good to celebrate it today with another go for the bass!
fishing started of slow but perseverance payed of and Col was rewarded with the first bass of the day, a nice confidence booster!

Another fish or two followed before a short breather from the now increasingly high breakers

back into the sea for more action where the other Colin joined us, we  caught a few more wee bass and got a right good soaking in the process, magic fun!

we had a good blether back at the cars before heading home for a well earned beer or two.

Bass-tastic dude!

A flock of Dunlins

We Arrived at low tide revealing a almost lunar landscape, the flies tied during the week were tied on and we fished, remarkably after half an hour Brian hooked up and  landed the first bass  of the day! He was over the moon understandably because prior to the trip we wereboth bass virgins.

Just then Colin joined us , and he was quickly into fish after fish . His experience on fishing the salt clearly shone through.

Ripping them out

Brian was getting in on the action too!

Meanwhile i struggled on , i'd had the odd take , lost a  fish  , but i finally did get a fish.halleluja!

soaked we retreated for a coffee,  soaked  by the odd rogue wave,  before colin headed home and we had a few more casts. And no more luck. A big thankyou to Colin for showing us the ropes, without his guidance  i'm pretty sure i would still be waiting for my first bass!

Oh i do like to be beside the seaside!

The plans were in place to do a bit bass fishing, flys tied, last minute of getting  line trays assembled etc. We also had the benefit of getting some info, by an experienced saltwater fly angler, who put us right on flies materials hook sizes and gave us the general feel for the area, thankyou Colin! We also met a angler tackling up to do a bit lure fishing, and we had a good blether, it was nice to meet Martin , an obvious fishaholic , who spends a lot of his time fishing allround  the country ,  in the sea.

Unfortunately the sea was too wild to fish and it was a bit dirty, but i cannot wait to get back , when the going is good! More flies to tie , ordered up some more hooks, and converted another  basin into a line tray at work today , ...obsessed!

basin bashing!

So me and Brian on the way home decided to pop up the canal to see if we could get a pike or two. grabbed a few essentials at my house , and before long we were setting up, half the basin was covered with ice , but we had a shot in the clear half. i put  on a fire tiger jumbo braid baitfish and on my first cast fish took got off, next same result and on the third cast he was hooked , but shortly threw the hook. We did both get a few more jabs here and there. Brian decided to try one of his red and white clousers, and it proved a real hit with the jacks he landed a brace before the end of the day. If it's windy next week, and it's looking that way , might do a bit of piking on the canal , ive also a wee pond or two  in mind.

clousered!