March Review.

Well March has been a bit of a strange month. Dad has been living with us while he recovers from knee replacement surgery and it’s not been all plain sailing although thankfully he is making good progress now and gradually getting more mobile.

As a result fishing trips have been a little more opportunistic than usual, I have still fished a fair bit but it’s been more about getting out when the opportunity arises. Unfortunately, it was more about the one that got away than the one I caught this month.

In fact the first round of the BOM was my first trip in two weeks almost unheard of for me. Time over the weekend was limited but I did have the Friday night to fish so decided on a beach trip with worm to just try and get a qualifying fish over 42cm to get the ball rolling. Well it didn’t exactly go to plan, best part of 4 hours in near perfect conditions and I blanked. I only had time for a couple of short daytime sessions over the rest of the weekend so it wasn’t going to be easy to get a fish.

Fortunately there was a fair bit of fog around keeping light levels low giving me a little bit of hope.

Saturday I only had about an hour and a half over the low water so I grabbed the lure rod and went for a wonder . It didn’t start well when I realised I had left my lure box on the bench in my shed. Luckily I had chucked a packet of Sidewinder Skerries in my bag so could still fish. About 30 minutes into the session I was hit and although it was only 45cm it was a welcome catch.

Sunday I had a couple of hours, this time over the high so I again reached for the lure gear making sure I had my lure box with me this time! It turned out to be a fun short session, 4 Bass landed, 1 hotdog, 47cm, 50cm and the best of the trip 52cm to finish off my weekend.

Unsurprisingly there were plenty of Bass caught over the weekend with 22 of the 40 entrants managing a qualifying fish, the best 2 both being cracking fish of 74cm for current BOM champion Daniel Bryant and local legend Steve Mullins. They were a fair bit bigger than the next biggest fish of 59cm.

Next up for me was another short beach session, this time hoping for a Gilthead. Mission was accomplished first cast with my first Gilt of the season of 1-7 which was followed up by several school Bass.

Then it was time to get out for a session with the big baits. There was a fair swell running so I decided to target Huss with the theory being if it was too bad to net a fish I could hand line it on the leader and hope it didn’t cough the bait up as they so often do.

Second cast in I had a decent bite and when I wound into it there was a bit of weight but it didn’t feel like an eel. After a decent scrap I could see the telltale reflection of the eyes of a Huss in my headlamp. I made my way down to the water to try and net it and after a couple of near misses and a boot full of water I decided to trace it out and fortunately it stayed on. It wasn’t quite a double but at 9-12 I wasn’t complaining.

Next cast I had another good bite but before I could pick the rod up everything went slack and I reeled in to find my leader had parted which seemed really strange to me as if it was damaged I would have expected it to part on the cast.

When the same thing happened the following cast I had another idea what the culprit might be. I didn’t have any Tope gear with me but I did have some Conger traces so I put one of them on and banged it back out. Sure enough the rod went again and as I wound into it, it took off like a train undoubtedly a Tope. Sadly the hook pulled and my chance was gone. I was gutted having not yet had a Tope off the rocks. To be fair it would have been a challenge to land it and I would have been pretty reluctant to use a gaff so maybe it was for the best. At least it gives me a bit of confidence to try again for them on the rocks.

I did return a couple of days later but the tide and conditions were very different and I only had the usual straps and dogs.

Then it was time for the 2nd round of the BOM. Again I opted for a beach session on the Friday night with worm and had a 45cm second cast. That was followed by quite a few over the 42cm minimum with the biggest just going 50cm.

I did however have a lovely bonus Gilthead of 2-8.

Saturday night I opted to go back on the lures for a couple of hours, a Pollack first cast and 1 Bass of 49cm being all I managed.

Sunday I only had the opportunity to fish daylight hours and being fairly bright i decided to try for an early season Mullet instead of a Bass. The theory was in the unlikely event I caught one it might be a decent fish. Well I proved the theory wrong as I did catch one and it was only 2-10.

Again it was a very good weigh in with 6 fish over 60cm with the biggest 68cm for Mark Le Moignan.

That just left time for an early season session for a Black Bream that only produced Dogfish and strap congers (They are even a nuisance in the day) before another bash for a Tope that you guessed it, produced Dogfish and strap conger.