29/07/2020 - Bass before breakfast

The end of July saw us travelling down to Pembrokeshire for a much-needed break and a first chance to see the in-laws since February.

However, in order to comply with the Welsh COVID-19 measures, this required us to stay in a self-contained cabin in their garden, cooking and eating separately and only meeting up at arm’s length on the lawn – very strange, but at least it saved me from the mother-in-law’s cooking! This was also straight after a 24 hour dash down to Cornwall to retrieve our son’s belongings from his student digs the very last day before his contract ran out.

Unfortunately this meant that I'd missed the best couple of early morning, low tides, but I still had a couple of opportunities to have a crack at those estuary bass. The first morning saw me down at the mark an hour after dawn. A stiff breeze from the West was causing quite a chop and the combination of the resulting wave action and recent rain meant there was also a bit of colour in the water – unfortunately not ideal conditions to catch off the top, which was my preferred method.

However, it did give me an opportunity to try one of my modified X-130’s, on this occasion the chartreuse version with Cox & Rawle plugging singles instead of trebles. As usual I went with a sandeel fly “teaser” on a dropper three feet ahead of the lure. First cast confirmed there was about 18” of visibility and that the lure action was seemingly unaffected by the change of hooks (not that an X-130 has a lot of action anyway). Started plugging away in earnest as the tide started to turn, hopefully bringing the bass with it. However, whilst the visibility noticeably improved as the tide pushed back in and the mullet started passing me in numbers, the bass appeared to be absent. Took a break to chat to a couple of local chaps who had been lure fishing off the point. They were heading home fishless this morning, but said they had a few off the point on shads the day before.

After covering the section in front of me with no success I therefore swapped the X-130 for a weedless Snowbee Stinger Skad and headed up to the point, where was a “motorway” of mullet flying past by now. Started casting across the current and letting the lure swing round. Had done this a couple of times when I had a thump on the rod tip and struck into a plump schoolie that gave a good account of itself in the flow. Thought that might have been the start of something, but nothing else was added to the tally before it was time to head back for breakfast. The next morning in contrast was still and bright and the water clarity was also excellent.

Conditions looked perfect for some top water action, so on went an IMA Skimmer, again with the sandeel treaser. Worked the areas around the pontoon and boat moorings over slack water, but surprisingly didn’t see any sign of bass on the surface – the only reaction was if I landed the lure too close to a basking mullet. As the tide picked up so did the breeze, so I swapped over to the X-130, this one with the middle treble removed and the tail treble replaced with a single.

Made my way slowly up to the point again, covering the water. Had one hit from a small schoolie on the X-130 that was nailed by the treble rather than the single, so jury is still out on them! Once at the point I once more swapped the X-130 for the Skad and snipped off the treaser. Swinging the lure with the current I had two more schoolies before it was time for breakfast again.

I was certainly puzzled by the lack of any bass on the surface lure, a method that had worked so well previously and under seemingly ideal conditions, but the relative success of the Skad could see me using soft lures more in future.