I've been wanting to progress more with bass and, in particular ,fishing with live baits on the drift, which does seem to pick out the real lunkers.However, boat owners I know who are consistently successful with the method, and there aren't that many,have had a few more years at it than me, so it's going to take time-all part of the fun.
I didn't leave the marina until 1400 as the winds were still a little too strong from the North and 'outside,' it looked a bit too bumpy.However the forecast predicted a drop in wind speeds and some favoutrable conditions for the afternoon and early evening which was good news as I'd not be able to get back over the bar at the river entrance until 2000.
Initially it was very rough when i reached the mark about five miles out but, apart from a glitch when a storm passed by, 'windguru' once again seem to know their onions as they were spot on with the windspeed forecast.The wind eventually dropped leaving the late afternoon and evening conditions very pleasent indeed.
As soon as I dropped down my feathers on #6 , up came a joey mackerel, and within minutes I had half a dozen swimming happily in my bait tank with a few more taken for dead baits and the pot.My confidence was high but, I wasn't to be rewarded with my target.
Concentrating solely on fishing the float rig I tried my hardest at three seperate reef marks#6,5, and 9, covering the ground as thoroughly as possible.There was one possible take but, it didn't result in a hook up-disappointing but not entirely unexpected as I didn't really have the best of the tide to play with. The majority of my fishing time was over the low water period and it's accompanying slack water.
Very few other boats were out but I do know of two who were similarly going after bass on different marks- and not the small variety that hit the 'stinger 'lures. I'll update this entry when I find out if they did any better than me which I suspect they might have.
It would have been 'easy' fishing to bag up on bream, which are still about in numbers, or hit the smoothounds which again are showing well on some of the mixed ground marks and , with hindsight, these would probably have been a better choice if only to save the bassing for better timing of the tide but,I chose the more difficult option.
Update; Neil and Mick, without crew on 'Spirit', were fishing soft ground probably near #13 and did lose a big bass which took a live bait-however Mick scored a beautiful undulate to make up for her loss.
Clive and Kim probably headed for #4 to target flatties and rays and did very well on both counts although they did pick up some small bass on the return journey.
All useful information.
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