6th May

Afternoon

Surf's up!!

9lb 8oz Prime Surf beach Spikey

The beauty of doing what I do, and living by the coast, is when things drop right, I can just up and go fishing. It really does contribute a lot to my results, and having a ready supply of bait in the fridges is the icing on the cake. I had been up to Essex crabbing on Tuesday, with a view to a hound sortie later on tonight. But on noticing a reasonably low tide on the tide table, and it being accompanied with a stiff SW wind, I popped down to Southwick this afternoon with ten soft crabs and a packet of sandeels. The fishing was tough to begin with, lots of sedimentary weed and signs of may rot, hanging on the line and breaking the three ounce grip lead out. The only solution in this situation is to reduce the amount of line that you have in the water. By wading out twenty yards, and casting ten, I was able to keep the bait weed free for ten minutes at a time. No take on the sandeel, so I switched to a soft crab. About this time the weed began easing off, and I started to get a few takes. Four small schoolies succumbed in quick succession, nothing over a 1lb.

Then I totally missed a slow head shaking take, which left me thinking I had just missed a better fish. Re-baiting with the biggest and softest crab in the bucket, I lobbed the twenty yards and resumed my pose, rod high in the strong SW wind, to keep as much line out of the water, and away from the weed, as possible. THe tide was now well finto the flood, and the water was nearly to the shingle. I started to have thoughts of leaving, when I again had a slow strong pull down. I let the rod be pulled down horizontal to the water, and then leant back. Straight away I felt three or four big head shakes. However, slow head shakes from a big bass feel an awful lot like a big eel swimming backwards in a big surf, so I began to bully my presumed anguila through the surf towards me. Then, as it came into shallower water, I noticed the big spike sticking out of the water table. At this point, the bass also saw me, and ran ten yards off the beach again. I slackened of myy drag, and began the patient game of leading it in with the forawrd waves, and holding it as much as I dared in the backwashes. A couple of times it manged to get its head, and again make ten yard dashes, my heart jumping into my mouth each time. But slowly, and by being patient, I managed to get it into a nice shore-bound water table, and walk it onto shallow enogh water that I could put in some slack and run on to it.

I walked up to the bucket and weighed the fish immediately. 9lb 8oz of surf bass. But its condition was poor, the flanks flacid, and it wasnt at its full weight. I decided to release her, as in six months time she will be back in her prime again. I wandered down to where two other chaps were fishing, and they very kindly took the pictures for me (Cheers Neil!) Photo's acomplished, I rested her in the water table, rocking her backwards and forwards to encourage air flow across the gills. THe gills began working slowly, and she bit hard on my thumb. But it took another three minutes of supporting her before her body began to roll as her rudder looked to set in the tide. AS her fins bgan working, I let her rest in the lee of my legs. She hung there, on her own, for a further minute, before swimming around me and out to sea. It truly is very rewarding to watch such a fine fish returning to her home.

Evening - Pagham

First Hound of the year - Approx 5lb.

After the excitement of the bass earlier in the afternoon, it was time to prepare for the crabs intended purpose. The first foray after smooth-hounds. Hugh and Steve met around my place, and we set off in Hughs new super duper people carrier, to the hallowed shingle of Pagham. Although really a bit too early for the hounds, its always worth keeping an eye on their progress, and being there when the run of fish is happening. But the fishing was very slow. I was quite hopeful of more bass, and I think the belting pull down and subsequent slack liner I got second cast was most likely one. But aprat from a spider crab, I had to wait until an hour down the tide to find the only hound we landed this night, pictured above. Hugh managed an eel, and Steve missed a stonking take just before I had mine. But that was it. The weed was not too troublesome, and all is looking good for some shark action. I should imagine about a fortnight should do it!