20th March - Prospecting for Bass

A skein of Brent Geese heading East along the channel

With a fresh, Southerly wind finally arrinving, the preceding week having been double figure temperatures every day, and no frosts, I was actually fairly confident to find a few bass today. An early start doesnt seem too bad at all when there is the prospect of a few fish, so it was with a tired head but cheery heart that I jumped into Steve's car at 06:00 and headed down to the surf beaches. And we werent the only ones to be having thoughts of spikey's. Simon, Ralph, and a few other guys had also made the early start. We were all wandering around looking for the tell tail signs of worms, but the pumping has deteriorated quite a lot after a heavy demand on our beaches all winter. Eventually, with the flooding tide quite advanced, we all had enough to get fishing.

"It was at least fifteen feet long, Mr. Honest......"

Any thoughts of a fish filled session quickly evaporated when no bites happened. Ralph did have one tentative knock, attributed to either a flounder or a rockling, but as for bass, not one single schoolie made it to the shingle. The surf reached the shingle, and as it was a nice day, we fished on perhaps longer than we normally would. I noticed a couple of bounces on my tip, enough to get me to pick up the rod and wind down. I hit what I initially thought was a snag, but then felt it drag along the bottom a little way. With patience, and pushing my Sonik SK3 bass rod and just 15lb line to the limits, after about ten minutes I had managed to work the unseen leviathan to within grabbing distance for Ralph in his waders. A tarpaulin, at least eighteen feet long and five wide. Now, as much as that is funny, there is an excellent side spin to the story. Because any rod that can handle such a weight and cushion the heavy pulls as each swell slammed it, without the line parting, and yet with enough backbone to allow me to work it to the shore is very capable of landing a double figure bass in any situation I can think of. An excellent pre-battle practice!! As I sit here writing this, I have just realised that although I rolled it up and pushed it to the top of the beach, when we left I didnt push it over the landward side of the fence. Should anyone read this and be heading down there could you see it over, otherwise it will be back in the sea with the next big wind.

Life in the river

Slowly it dawned on everyone that there wasnt going to be any silver fish thrashing on the shingle this tide. Most went home, Steve and I headed off to the river, just to see if there might be any flounders lurking about. We fished a very comfortable and lazy spot, as it wasnt such a nice day already. And straight from the off, the rods tips were moving, with weed and crabs.

Hmm....... Still cant work out what they are all about.....

Its not just us anglers that are affected by the cold weather, and frustrated by it. Even with the freezing cold temperatures, the river was busy with people messing about on all sorts of personal water vessels. The guy paddling an ironing board above, for example...........

We both agreed this pair were more asthetically pleasing

The skulling I do understand. Thats an excellent work out, especially for the arms, legs, stomache, upper body and chest area. Especially fighting Adur currents.

Steve won 4-2 on crabs

With the score 2-2 on crabs, we decided to call it a day. However, Steve sneakily shot ahead to a stunning 4-2 victory, with a last cast double shot of crusteceans.