Got back from our walk to Georgeham just in time to grab a cup of tea and a bite to eat before I was off out again. Had been in touch with Joel Squires before coming down about the prospect of some bass on the lures and he was confident that he would find somewhere despite there being just small neap tides all weekend.
Therefore headed out to Crow Point to meet him in the car park at the end of the toll road. Had a quick catch up before we got the waders on and made our way through the dunes to the mouth of the estuary of the Rivers Taw and Torridge. He'd fished it the previous day on the ebb and had a few small bass before it coloured up as the the dirty water from upriver from the recent rain was sucked out to sea. When we got to our starting point we had a chat about what lures would work best. With some sandeels already showing he suggested paddletails would be a good start, so I clipped on a weedless Savage Gear sandeel in olive. This was cast upstream and then bumped back in the ebbing flow with a slow retrieve and low rod tip to keep it working near the bottom.
Could feel the jig head clipping the tops of the ridges of sand on the bed of the estuary, so felt confident that I was in the right zone. Every few minutes we would wade a few metres downstream and start again to cover as much ground as possible. Joel's theory was that some fish would be moving with the tide, but others would also be lying in wait for food to pass by them.
After about half an hour I looked over to see Joel land a small bass. He'd just changed his lure over to a Savage Gear slender scoop shad and had a fish on it straight away, so he immediately offered it me to use instead. It had a nice flashy, rolling action that seemed to have made the difference, so I clipped it on and carried on casting out into the tidal flow. Shortly afterwards I felt the electric bang of take, which resulted in a little schoolie that punched above its weight in the current.
Both blanks avoided we carried on slowly making our way down the estuary with no further interest until we reached an area of rockier ground. At this point Joel suggested that I put the Savage Gear sandeel back on, but retrieve it with the rod tip held high to keep it up in the water. Followed his instructions while he went to see if they would be interested in a top water lure at this stage. After a couple of moves I again felt the thump of a fish through the braid and beached another hard-fighting schoolie in the shallows. A bit later I had another take from a better fish that took a bit longer to subdue, giving Joel time to spot my bent rod and jog back just in time to see me land it. Long and lean and hollow in the belly it was a nice fish nonetheless.
Whilst he reported that he'd just had a fish follow his Patchinko, I decided to stick with the eel for the last hour of the session. However, whilst I had another take that unfortunately failed to result in a hook-up, neither of us added anything else to the scorecard.
The breeze that had been building switched round and starting blowing up the estuary, turning things chilly despite the late evening sun, so we called it a day and made the long walk back to the cars, putting the world to rights as we did so. I'd already had a cracking evening in good company but it was topped off, firstly with an amazing view of a barn owl working the fields next to the toll road and secondly with a well-earned fish and chip supper back at the bungalow with the lads.....oh, and something called Eurovision!
Joel's contact details can be found here if you are ever in the area and fancy a few hours with a top bloke and very knowledgeable lure angler.
An evening well spent. Bass on lure is still on my bucket list.
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