Following on from Leigh Mullins superb 13-8 Bass last month I thought I would dig back through my diaries to find the entry where I just about managed my own “teenager Bass”.
It was way back in August 1991, just the 35 years ago! I would have been 18 at the time and working in Eddie’s at JFS Sport. I was really into my Bass fishing at the time and was involved in a local tagging campaign in which I actually managed to re-catch one of my own tagged fish. When the set of spring tides would come around I would fish every morning before work, often starting at 2am then dig rockworm in my lunch hour, a lot of effort but the fishing was exceptional.
On this particular set of tides I had a Bass of 6-9 on the first morning.
The next morning I had only been fishing about 30 minutes, it was just starting to get light and the bite time of the tide was just arriving when the rod pulled over and the fish moved off every so slowly, not the screaming run you might expect. This was light fishing in the shallows, tackle was a 10ft ugly stick spinning rod paired with an Abu 6000 loaded with 12lb line. A super long running ledger with a 2oz lead and a 3/0 Mustad Viking baited with fresh rockworm.
I struck into it and it just carried on as if it had no it was hooked. It ran left and must of taken 60 yards before I stopped it. It then turned and started heading back towards me in a huge loop. As it passed in front of me I remember clearly even today I could see the dorsal fin and the top of the tail fin breaking the mirror calm surface and the gap between them looked huge.
It then continued to the right and must of taken another 50 yards in that direction. I had caught some good Bass but I had never hooked anything that had fought anything like this, it wasn’t quick but the power was incredible.
Eventually I got it back in front of me, I don’t know how long it had been on but it was a really long scrap. At this point the fish had gone down deeper and was hugging the rocks in front of me. I was slowly pumping it back to the surface and the weight came out of the water right in front of me and the long trace slowly came up in the water and suddenly there was this enormous Bass lying on the surface in front of my totally exhausted.
I reached down and slid my hand into the gills and lifted it out. What a battle.
As you did back in those days you wanted an official weight on a big fish. I didn’t have a car in those days, was fishing on a motorbike back then. As most fish went back I had nothing to put the fish in only having a small bag for the few bits of tackle I had. I had to zip it on the inside of my coat to ride home with the head under my chin and the tail resting on my knee!
My neighbour back then worked at weights and measures and I managed to get home before they left for work. Greg took it to work and weighed it for me, a new PB and a teenager just at 13lbs 8drms.
This was a long lean summer Bass, in those days we measured fork length so to the centre of the tale and it was 33 inches, around 84cm so I would imagine full length of around 86-87cm and a girth of 16.25 inches. As I was tagging Bass at the time I sent some scales away for aging and it came back as a 73 year class, it was the same age as me.
Obviously today it would have gone back but it was different times that we have fortunately moved on from.
My tally for August that year was 10 Bass with the biggest 3 being 13-0-8, 9-11 & 9-7, fantastic fishing.
I occasionally go back to the area I was fishing just in case and I very rarely catch a Bass proving nothing lasts forever and you have to make the most of it when the fishings this good.
Just another fantastic memory from a lifetime of fishing.
Shore Fishing Jersey 
Leave a comment