20/8/13 Bass Save The Day

My initial plan today was to stay local and try once again for some bass but having told Alex, my crew for the day, about yesterday's turbot, he was keen to get down there and try to bag his first of the specie, and I was game for some further experimenting.
The 5.9m tide was however, pushing the envelope a little and we left the bank #46 , after thoroughly scanning it, having caught a bass and a plaice each but no sign of a turbo.
 I'm not entirely convinced that the size of tide was to blame as drift speed weren't that quick but it was easy to cite as a reason and talk each other into a change of tactics but, it may demand further investigation.
We'd left the harbour at 10 am and intended to stay out over the lock out which meant fishing into the early evening-my favourite bass time.
My special mark at #6 probably hadn't been disturbed all day, most of the boats taking advantage of the fine weather, looked as if they'd chosen the Kingmere area, so it was selected as a spot to drop the pick and fish some big baits as the tide began to flood.
I'd chosen to slide a live mackerel on a fixed line on one of my rods, something that Alex had not seen succeed before, and I soon had a blistering run which, after positively the finest fight I've had from any bass, produced this eight pounder.I did think , at one point, that this line stealing torpedo was a tope and was surprised to see 'silver' when it reached the boat.
Unfortunately the circle hook had settled in the gills and the fish had to be dispatched but will not go wasted and produced two very fine fillets indeed.
Some smaller bass , bream and cats fell to mackerel sections to finish off yet another successful day's fishing.