The Fat of the Land

Yes, yet another fantastic sunny day. I thought I'd dig a few ragworm and have a quick hour to see if the bass were still about.

The ragworm were monsters....

Conditions looked good, a nice breeze, just a hint of colour in the water. I'd been fishing ten minutes when a bass crashed into the bait with real venom, the clutch screaming before I'd a chance to strike. Good start.

A few minutes later and I was in again, another very angry bass thrashing violently on the surface in the shallow water. The action continued and I ended up with five in ninety minutes, all between 2.5lb and 3.5lb.

With the bucket filled with the three bass I'd kept and a few left over ragworm, I walked across the marsh, the sun setting on a perfect autumn day. As I said to Mak Baines, mellow fruitfulness indeed.

Shining Times

Short session on a golden autumn afternoon in pursuit of roach.
I sat in the sun watching a motionless float for ninety minutes until the sun set.
From then on it was a bite a chuck.

As it got darker the size of the fish increased ( no, not literally ), until , right on dark I hooked a real clonker. The very last of the light caught the silver sheen on the fishes flank, what a sight. It probably went a pound and a half. A magnificent creature, in pristine condition, having somehow avoided pike, cormorants and other hazards over the years. Praise the lord, I'm a born again coarse angler !

Halcyon Days

Where were we ? Oh yeah, I was fishing lots and digging a bit of a bait. Similar this week too. Sh(anus) Morris is over from Canada for a couple of weeks, so I took him perching on Thursday. A nice day in the sun not catching perch, although a few carp obliged.
On Saturday Sh(anus), Mak Baines and myself went piking on a rather large stillwater down the road. It was a beautiful morning with mist covering the flat calm water, the mirror like surface broken only by the roach and bream rising.
We arrived a few minutes before Mak Baines. I made a study of the behavior of the British male when greeting a long lost friend. Mak and Shane had not seen each other for six years, this is how the conversation went.
Shane ; Mak
Mak : Alright
Shane ; Yeah. You putting a bait in the bay....?

Note, at no time was any hand shaken or back slapped. An observer would assume that they last fished with each other a week ago, not in November 2009. I cannot decide if this is admirable or sad. Probably admirable.
Anyway Mak was more concerned that I'd put a bait in "his" area and got into a bit of a flap, ordering us where we should position their rods, etc. Out of character and all the more amusing for it. The Himmler of the trio is usually me.
Within half hour my close in rod was away and an angry pike tailwalked and lept clear of the water before Sh(anus) swept it up in the net. A great start.

Shane usually unhooks all pike he sees captured and did so on this trip, although he was clearly rusty and missed wearing his slime resistant bib and brace.

This one went 13lb. That'll do nicely. Shortly afterwards the same rod was away and another of around 10lb hit the net. I then lost a fish on the same rod, before Mak Baines got in on the action with one around 11lb. The last fish of the day was a jack for me before it went quiet. Well, apart from a beagle getting tangled up in my line and running off.....

The all important tea was drunk, the sun shone and the usual shite was spouted. In now traditional fashion, here is a list of topics covered....
The Chinese and Japanese. According to Mak Baines, "they're all the same". This from a right on leftie, too.
Tactics for roach fishing at Alton.
Winter in Canada ( not for me thanks ).
Strictly Come Dancing ( I'm sure we covered this last time ).
If someones dies when they're old, do you always remember them as old ?
Jeremy Corbyn
Tony Blair
Bruce Forsyth
Crossloks, really handy bit of kit or recipe for tangles ?
Conan The Whittler - Throwing breakaway leads from trains into greenhouses, slapping school friends in the face with smelly mackeral, etc ( mandatory discussion when we get together ).
Mak's Derriboots ( ditto )
Chris Binyon...."Shining Times", very appropriate on a day like this.
Yes, you're right, same old guff. And very enjoyable too

Plans were made for me and Mak to have a go for the roach soon. Too good an opportunity too miss.

Early Sunday morning and I was out in the boat with Hungry Boy John Sait again. Another lovely autumn day, beautifully calm and sunny. We had about a dozen cod between 3-6lb and two skate, plus the usual whiting and doggies.
I have to admit Hungry Boy comprehensively out fished me today and did not waste the chance to rub it in. Well, I'd have done the same.
As we were heading in, with the sun setting over Mersea he poured us both a whisky and said "A millionaire can't enjoy this anymore than a pauper". Amen, Johnny Boy.

Autumn Equinox

I was busy last week.  Busy fishing and bait digging. Couple of crappy sessions on the beach where we were plagued with small whiting. My mate Dave did catch something very unusual though....a red mullet. I've never seen one caught locally before.

A couple of half hour sessions on the river yielded three sizable bass, best 3lb ish. Making the most of the bass now before they depart for winter.

Bad moon rising.

I never tire of this place,
On Saturday, "Hungry Boy" John Sait invited me out in the boat. Lovely day in the sun, fishing steady rather than spectacular. I ended up with a couple of nice codling to 6lb, plus three skate and heaps of whiting. Hungry Boy had a similar catch. Take a close look at the photo below, you'll see John's fifty plus years of experience has been put to good use on his bespoke rod rest.... secured by rubber bands. The man's got class.

Two Go Mad on the Beara

The Mighty Turdster and me arrived at the tip of the Beara peninsula in County Cork with the clear water bathed in sunshine.

Our B and B had an amazing sea view and was a couple of hundred yards from the rocks. Perfect.

In the evening we had a quick session on the rocks. However, it being Ireland, the weather had changed and it was pouring down with rain, driven in by high winds. At dusk, with us absolutely drenched, the fish went mad, many casts resulting in two or three decent sized fish on the feathers. I had mostly pollack and coalies, with The Turdster hammering big scad on the float.
Luckily the weather cleared up after a day or so and the rest of the week was generally fine with the odd shower. The fishing was as good as we hoped, every session resulting in fish of one sort or another.

The first few days we mostly lure fished and had countless pollack to 6lb plus, with a good number of coalies on bright spoons or feathers. For some reason the coalies never took soft plastic eels.

We had some cracking mackerel too.

I love makkie bashing.

Later in the week we did a bit more bottom fishing for huss and conger.

We tried maybe lots of different marks and all produced in one way or another. The hussing was fantastic.

The best bottom fishing session resulted in 19 huss and two conger between us in a short evening session.

Turdous was the top conger catcher of the week, having a dozen or so to just under double figures.

I had a nice mullet one day at Dursey, we had a shoal of forty or fifty feeding before a seal crashed into them, sending them scattering everywhere.

I also managed to catch a near 4lb wrasse on my mackeral head, cast out for conger. First time that's happened.

All in all, a great week.The Turdster was hungrier for fish than I've ever known and we ended the week happy, knackered and totally fished out.

The Times They Are A Changing

Got up at 1.00 to go fishing with Whittler on Saturday morning.

Lovely night, lots of whiting and pouting. Nothing decent. Didn't get light until well gone 5.

Good to be back on the beach again. That's all.

Foraging

First day of September produced a bass of 2lb ish and a hat full of mushrooms.
I lost touch with bass over the weekend and ended up kicking myself, as a dawn session that I'd pencilled in as a cracking tide, with low water co inciding with dawn "didn't happen", due to me not getting out of bed.
The Whittler went and had three decent bass in an hour.