The good and the bad - 19th and 22nd March 2012

People: Me

Duration: 19th - 10.45 - 2.45 am

Tide: 19th HW at 4.00 am

Weather: 19th - Light southwesterly breeze, mild, dry; 22nd: Strong SE to E wind, rain early, dry and clear later, cold

Bait:Crab and Lug

Rigs: 4/0 pennel pulleys

Results:
19th March: 5 bass, 6 Coalfish, 1 Flounder
22nd March: 2 coalfish




Report:
The Good - 19th March:
After the mega bass session last week I returned to the same mark on Monday night. I arrived at an earlier stage of the tide compared to the previous session. There was a nice surf and it was a dark overcast night with a light southwestly breeze. I dug some fresh lug earlier in the day and also had a dozen fresh peeler crabs. As on the previous session I set up two rods with 4/0 pennel pulleys, one baited with lug, the other with crab.

Shortly after setting up I had a small coalfish. After about half an hour I had a sharp tug on the rod with the lug. This time it felt a much stronger fish and after a few minutes I hauled a 49 cm bass out of the surf - so off to a good start!! I had a couple more coalfish after that.

The tide was rapidly moving in now, so after moving everything back about 50 m, I started casting into a sandy gap between low bedrock exposures which was now submerged. First cast into this area produced another good bite again on the rod with lug. This time it was a smaller bass, with a length of 42 cm. About 25-30 minutes later this was followed by a 44 cm bass, taken on crab

Maybe another 30 minutes later I had the fourth bass, a 47 fish again on crab. This ran a slackliner in towards the shore, I had to reel in a lot of slack before I reconnected with it.

There was then a dry spell with just a few small coalfish to keep me occupied. First I had a double, a small coalie on each hook of the pennel on the crab, then another one on the lug. After about an hour I had the fifth bass, a 43 cm fish, taken on lug.

After that the bass appeared to have moved on. A fished for a hour or so more but only had 31 cm flounder at the end. So while it was nothing compared to the bass frenzy of the previous session, I was happy with the result: 5 Bass,6 Coalfish and 1 Flounder.

The Bad - 22nd March
With a new moon tide Thursday night should have been one of the most productive nights to be fishing. I headed to a mark which used to produce bass on an ebbing tide - although last year they seemed to have changed their feeding patterns and were rare on the ebb. But I thought I would try anyway. I would still have a good chance of a few bass if I waited until early on the rising tide.

There was a good surf so it looked promising. However, the rods remained motionless and the baits untouched apart from two very small coalfish. A strong cold SE wind was blowing early on,with some rain, then changed to an even colder east wind. My waders had sprung a leak so one foot was soaking in cold water. Eventually I had enough - it looked like the east wind was putting off the fish, so I packed up a little earlier than planned and headed home. A night to forget!!

So much for solunar predictions:
Neap tide (15th March) = 19 bass
Quarter moon tide (19th March) = 5 bass
New Moon tide (22nd March) = 0 bass

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Fair dues Frank, you are off to a great start for the year , reckon you might have a record breaking year if you keep the current catch rate up.

Fab fishing Rockhunter. You have hundreds of us jealous!

Fair play Frank some nice fish there its funny how it didn't fish on the new moon but at least you didnt blank on the 22nd

well done frank it was still a very good nights fishing with 5 bass many of us go out and are over the moon with 1

Another super session frank well done

Well done Frank them angling gods are looking after you

Great fishing again frank,very interesting read you should definetly be a guide!ah well after 19 bass recently followed by 5 has to be some consolation you didnt have a successful night the second night excellent stuff,you make it looke far to easy!ferg

frank if i where you i,d sell your rods and fall on your tripod,s middle leg ,the shame of a bassless night ,keep your curtains drawn and dont go out till its dark imagine your solar lunar mojo must be broke!

Nice!

John D.

Thanks guys,

Fair play Frank some nice fish there its funny how it didn't fish on the new moon but at least you didnt blank on the 22nd

I thought some would at least show up as the tide began to push in (as they always did once there was a decent bit of surf). I think the easterly wind was to blame.

frank if i where you i,d sell your rods and fall on your tripod,s middle leg ,the shame of a bassless night ,keep your curtains drawn and dont go out till its dark imagine your solar lunar mojo must be broke!

I was ashamed to set foot on a beach again - until I went back out yesterday afternoon and had another 4 bass