Apart from a couple of (very) short and unproductive spinning sessions the latter part of my summer has passed by all too quickly. As is so often the case, even amongst the keenest of us, other factors in life take over and fishing reluctantly has to take a back seat. I had been toying with the idea of starting up an online business for some time and finally decided to bite the bullet and go for it; just as I was starting my mother fell ill and died shortly after and that was effectively the end of my fishing this summer to all intents and purposes!
By the beginning of last week I had finally got on top of things and was itching to fish the big tides on the Colne(a favourite time for Bass) but ended up giving it a miss due to crap weather and the amount of rain that had fallen which was no doubt going to mess up the fishing. But with the tides fast coming round to mid-evening and a good southerly blow to liven up the fishing I could resist no more and so I headed to the Tower tonight, bucket loaded with some freshly dug King Ragworm, in order to get my long awaited fix.
I started fishing at about 7:30pm with a single rod and as it was a neap tide put my two large Ragworm baits out as far as I could in an attempt to find as much flow of water as possible and hopefully a nice early autumn Bass. Things were very quiet until just after the top of the 9:20pm high tide but then as the ebb started to flow I began to get the occasional bite, probably from small stuff, which needless to say didn't connect to the 3/0 hooks I was using. An hour later and a missed bite resulted in a well-slimed and tangled rig but it was not until the last hour of the session that I finally connected to a bite, not the small Bass I had expected to see but a sizable Whiting (already!) and actually not a bad sized one for the river at that. While the Whiting wasn't really what I had come for, after so long away from the beach I was glad to see anything, particularly anything sizable and so I fished on a little longer in the hope of catching more and, in the back of my mind, still hoping for a Bass.
By the beginning of last week I had finally got on top of things and was itching to fish the big tides on the Colne(a favourite time for Bass) but ended up giving it a miss due to crap weather and the amount of rain that had fallen which was no doubt going to mess up the fishing. But with the tides fast coming round to mid-evening and a good southerly blow to liven up the fishing I could resist no more and so I headed to the Tower tonight, bucket loaded with some freshly dug King Ragworm, in order to get my long awaited fix.
I started fishing at about 7:30pm with a single rod and as it was a neap tide put my two large Ragworm baits out as far as I could in an attempt to find as much flow of water as possible and hopefully a nice early autumn Bass. Things were very quiet until just after the top of the 9:20pm high tide but then as the ebb started to flow I began to get the occasional bite, probably from small stuff, which needless to say didn't connect to the 3/0 hooks I was using. An hour later and a missed bite resulted in a well-slimed and tangled rig but it was not until the last hour of the session that I finally connected to a bite, not the small Bass I had expected to see but a sizable Whiting (already!) and actually not a bad sized one for the river at that. While the Whiting wasn't really what I had come for, after so long away from the beach I was glad to see anything, particularly anything sizable and so I fished on a little longer in the hope of catching more and, in the back of my mind, still hoping for a Bass.
By 11pm I had seen very little else in the way of bites although I had managed to retrieve a lost rig. As the water was disappearing fast and the current hardly running I decided enough was enough for one night and that it was time to head for home but as I was just about to pick up the rod to reel in the tip hit round and the line went slack. It took a few seconds to make contact with the fish and although I knew it was no monster I was sure that the fish on the end was no Whiting; after a quick tussle I was proved right and swung a sizable Bass over the railings of the Tower. At around 40cm the Bass wasn't going to be breaking any records but was a pleasant end to the night and was at least some consolation for the summer I missed: as if I needed a bonus, there was also another sizable Whiting on the trace!
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