April Review

First trip of the month was a little frustrating really. It was a Gilthead session and I had made the effort to get some fresh Razorfish but the tide was late for midweek and I found myself packing up much earlier than I would of liked to having caught a handful of Bass to about 2lb and a solitary Gilthead just over 1lb.

It made me doubly determined to get back out at the weekend and as it turned out it was worth the wait. The night started with a little Bass, I then had another bite that looked like a schoolie. Nothing much happened so I wound down to have a bait check to feel a decent resistance. At first I thought it would be a bigger Bass but as it got closer in it felt less and less like a Bass and I began to believe this could be the big Gilthead I was after. After a few nervous moments in the shallows I slid my prize up the beach and wow it was by far the biggest Bream I had ever seen. I instantly knew I wanted to put this fish back as quick as possible so out came the scales which settled at 7lb 14ozs, a few quick photos and after some recovery time in the shallows off it swam.

I fished on in that confidence buzz a decent fish brings and had 3 more Giltheads to a decent 2-12 as well as a Bass of 61cm – 4lb. 7ozs.

What a cracking session!

Next was a short exploratory daylight session of a potential new Gilthead area that produced a surprise Common Eel.

Followed by a short mullet session that was very slow.

Next was the 3rd round of the Bass on measure and I have to confess with the conditions flat calm and the sea crystal clear I decided to hedge my bets and fish for Giltheads and Stingray in the hope I might pick up a Bass along the way.

Stingray have become a bit of an obsession of mine and over the last 4 years I have spent or wasted depending on your point of view an awful lot of time for very modest results but I love a challenge and I feel there is the potential to catch more than we do. It’s just difficult trying to put any kind of pattern when you catch so few but while I may well fail I certainly won’t give up.

Anyhow the Friday night did produce quite a few Bass upto 41cm so just under the minimum as well as 2 Giltheads each for me and dad the biggest going 2lb.

Saturday night was really slow and we only managed 1 tiny Bass between us.

Another short session on the Gilts only produced 1 small one and a couple of schoolies before I decided it was time to do something different and do a night session on the rocks in the hope of a Bullhuss or Conger. Despite just the right amount of swell it was fairly quiet with just a few strap Conger before I had a lovely bonus 3 Bearded Rockling of 1-9.

A St Catherine’s session with dad followed which only produced the usual Dogfish, a few Black Bream, a Pollack of 1-12 for dad and a small eel that did a great job of impersonating a Tope to get the heart going.

Then there was just time left for the 4th round of the Bass on measure which for me consisted of 3 Stingray sessions that produced a grand total of 1 small Gilthead and 1 tiny Bass.

May is most likely going to be predominantly spent trying and failing to catch a big Stingray but you never know, as that Gilthead at the start of the month proves sometimes in fishing miracles happen.