Didn't get out much over the summer - high temperatures and low river levels prompting local clubs to enforce fishing bans being one of the reasons. Had nearly three weeks in France as well, where temperatures peaked in the early evenings in the low forties. We therefore limited our excursions to the relative cool of the mornings and spent the afternoons back at the cottage sat around our makeshift pool and spa complex taking in plenty of liquid refreshment. In amongst the sight-seeing I managed several trips out on the local River Charente in the kayak or on the paddleboard.
With it being low and gin clear it was like like looking into an aquarium - saw roach and gudgeon, big chub and perch, shoals of coral-finned barbel and bream, carp exploding out of the margins and even two wels catfish with heads as big as my paddle that, in contrast, barely twitched as I passed over them. Certainly made me re-think about taking some tackle over next time. Arrived back in the UK just as some much-needed rain arrived to provide some respite, although it curtailed any plans to get out on the local rivers.
Instead I found myself with an unexpected opportunity to do some sea fishing when our friends invited us down to Exmouth for the weekend. Normally I would take the LRF gear and go fishing for mini species in and around the marina, but this time I took my lure rod having seen a couple of clips on Youtube of people fishing the estuary for the bass. Arrived Friday afternoon and took a walk down to the seafront while our friends finished work. There were a few lure anglers about and I watched one chap catch a decent bass of 45 cm+ on a white Sandy Andy that was promptly despatched and popped in his bag. The following day my friend Simon and I got up at 6 o'clock and were down on the beach half an hour later for low water. There were already a few other folks down there thrashing the water, including the chap from the day before, with more arriving after us. The tide was already pushing back in so I joined them, punching out a Savage Gear sandeel as far as I could out into the channel and swinging it in the flow. Hadn't brought the chesties, but at 17 degrees the water was perfectly pleasant for wet wading. Carried on for about an hour in a couple of different spots without a sniff before suffering the mother of all wind knots. Hadn't seen anything caught up to that point, so rather than try and sort it out on the beach, we found a bench and had a coffee and a natter in the sun as the beach got busier with swimmers and dog walkers. The next morning we were up at the same time .
In contrast to the day before there was a stiff breeze blowing straight in from the sea that was causing a good chop on the surface. Started with the same tactics but the cross-wind was a right pain and was limiting my casting distance. However, as the sun came up I had a bang on the rod tip as a greedy, little schoolie nailed the lure, then added another one a few casts later. As I carried on I could see a big flock of seabirds starting to work the surface out in the estuary in fronnt of me. Eventually they drifted tantalisingly almost within casting distance, so I clipped on a chrome Sling Shot "surface iron" in an attempt to get a bit more distance. Worked immediately as I had two more schoolies before the birds drifted off again. The wind had dropped off a bit by now and there were visible pockets of activity cropping up all over the estuary at this point.
In places the bass were striking really close to the shore with bait fish throwing themselves up onto the sand in panic. Following the disturbance and casting parallel to the beach I had three more small bass on the surface iron, which turned out to be a perfect match for the prey items they were busy gorging themselves on. More anglers had turned up at this point and it got a bit daft with people virtually running down the beach and wading in where I had been casting literally seconds ago! As there didn't seem to be any bigger fish about I therefore decided to pack it in and again sat and drank a coffee with Simon in the sun before we headed back to the house for breakfast. Still, it had been a fun couple of hours spent in good company.
Back home now and already a week into September - prime "trottanostering" time for a big stripey hopefully!
With it being low and gin clear it was like like looking into an aquarium - saw roach and gudgeon, big chub and perch, shoals of coral-finned barbel and bream, carp exploding out of the margins and even two wels catfish with heads as big as my paddle that, in contrast, barely twitched as I passed over them. Certainly made me re-think about taking some tackle over next time. Arrived back in the UK just as some much-needed rain arrived to provide some respite, although it curtailed any plans to get out on the local rivers. 
