February Review

It was a pretty slow start to February with a couple of beach bass sessions, the first a total blank and the second only producing 1 Bass about 2lb. That was despite having fresh rock work, perfect tides and near perfect conditions. I’m not sure if it was due to the huge amount of rain we’d had causing a lot of fresh water to run onto the beach or the fact it coincided with the bass ban starting so the beaches had been heavily netted the week before but for whatever reason they weren’t there.

Next up was a short and very hectic Garfish session in the town harbour. It was a fish a cast from the off and I had 25 in 2 hours although the only decent one I hooked came off! Dad did manage his first club weigher of the year though.

Next was a scratching session for Rockling, I used to like fishing for these in the quieter winter months but in recent years they seem to of more or less disappeared completely and I only had the usual strap conger and small pouting.

Then it was back on the beach looking for a Bass. This session also started slow with just a few little schoolies in the first couple of hours but then I had a more positive looking bite. I picked the rod up and felt a nice slow pull which I struck into and felt a decent resistance. After a decent scrap I managed to coax it onto the beach, a nice solid looking fish. After a quick photo (hence the poor focus) and weigh at 7lb 7ozs she was safely released.

I then had a couple more nice fish in the 3-4lb bracket before it all went quiet again.

I went back with dad a couple of nights later, very similar tides and conditions but they weren’t there and I only had a dogfish.

I then went back again a couple of nights later trying a different beach but despite moving half way through the session I could only find small fish around the 1lb mark.

Next session was a trip to St Catherine’s Breakwater with dad. I chucked a couple of big baits out and used a 3rd rod to try and catch some fresh bait. The big rods were really quiet but the bait rod was busy with loads of Dogfish, a few pouting and a couple of surprise Black Bream. I was just thinking of calling it a night when I had a nice slow pull down on one of my big rods. I picked the rod up and as the fish moved off I struck into a solid resistance which felt like a decent eel. I managed to get it moving and it started swimming in, really strange. When it got closer in it started running along the wall and I thought it has to be a small Tope or a big Bass. Once it was on the surface I could just make out what looked like a Tope in the gloom. Dad was quite a way further up from me so I decided to try and manage on my own. Over the net went and without too much drama I managed to net it solo. I started pulling the net up but about a quarter of the way up the wall everything went solid and I couldn’t move the net. Oddly I could roll the net along the wall (this is why we make them round instead of square) and I could lower it but I couldn’t bring it up. I can only presume it had picked up some heavy duty lost gear at the bottom of the wall. After failing to budge it I gave dad a shout to come and give me a hand. We managed to make some inroads and got the next about half way up the wall before everything went solid again. To be honest at this point I was far more worried about potentially losing my net than the fish. The net was handmade by dad 30 years ago as a surprise Christmas present and is one of my most prized possessions. Dad suggested tying the rope to his van and trying to use the van to drag it up the wall. It sounded drastic to me but as he said what other options do you have so reluctantly we gave it a go. Very slowly the net came up and we finally managed to land the fish. Once up it was clearly a lot bigger than I thought, it was really long and I thought it might even be a new PB. As it happens it wasn’t quite as big as it looked but at 37lb 6ozs I’m not complaining. A quick photo and back she went.

We fished on for another hour and dad managed a jumbo Pout of 1-2 for he’s second club weigher of the month.

We did another couple of sessions over the next few days as often the Tope come up in batches but no more runs and just the usual Dogfish, Pouting and small Conger although I did have a spectacular slack line bite from an eel about 6lb that had me excited briefly.

March sees the start of the Sinkers Bass on measure competition so hopefully there will be a few Bass sessions, maybe a try for another early season Tope and possibly an early Gilthead towards the end of the month.