Monday 18 May 2009

Fishing Report: 17th May 09 - River Colne, Essex

With the river the colour of pea soup after all the high winds I couldn't resist trying my luck upriver for the Bass as it generally fishes well in these sort of conditions and offers a little shelter if you pick the right spot. I'd initially intended to fish a spot nearer to the car park but as I made my way along the sea wall I passed one angler already heading up and came across a couple of lads on the first part of the saltings and so decided to be unsociable and head further up to a mark that I'd been intending to revisit for some time and which used to be one of my favourites for Eels when I was a lad.

In those days you didn't catch Bass at this particular mark because they were generally beaten to the bait by the hoards of Eels that flocked to it, but with the Eel becoming a rarity on the river many of these marks are becoming good for the Bass .... the theory proved to be sound one on this particular afternoon.

The mark is one of the more hazardous ones to reach and fish and is not made popular by the long walk and the gullies that have to be negotiated but I arrived in time to cross the gullies before they flooded (cutting the mark off at high tide) and had myself camped in shelter behind some short scrub with the Ragworm baits in the water about 3 hours before the 5.30pm tide.

The bites started immediately and the first two casts resulted in two small Bass lying in the long marsh grass. That remained the tempo for the session apart from a short lull at the top of the tide and bites came steadily throughout the session though with me fishing my usual large hooks and baits it was a forgone conclusion that I would miss a good proportion of the smaller Schoolies.

Just after the turn of the tide the rod smacked over and a sizeable fish put in an appearance. As usual for the Colne nothing to shout about but plenty big enough for the pot, although it was a bit of a “stretch”. The next cast resulted in a similar bite and another fish of a similar size to the previous one came into the shallows only to ditch the top hook of the pennel as I attempted to swing him onto the saltings.

The bites continued on through the ebb with the fish still biting as the water dropped too low to fish anymore but that was it for the better fish. I ended a very pleasant if windswept session at about 8.30pm having managed about a dozen small Bass ranging from 10 to 35 cm as well as the sizeable one and a token Eel of about 4 oz which took severe revenge on my rig, needing to be cut free in order to release it.

Bateman's Tower, Brightlingsea, Essex - 10/05/09

With a fairly big tide expected the chances of a decent Bass go up in the river and generally if they fall when I have the opportunity to fish I will be found on the Tower at Brightlingsea. Being a creature of habit I headed to just this spot on Saturday in beautifully calm weather, arriving at about 11pm clutching a pound of Ragworm and feeling fairly confident that there might be the chance of a few fish. I'd expected to have the place to myself (as I quite often do) but to my surprise found a couple of other anglers already there though luckily my favourite spot was still vacant and there was plenty of room for all.

Though in the past all my better fish here have come on the ebb I am alway confident of something on the flood and it is often a good indicator of how the best of the sport on the ebb might fare but on this particular night the omen wasn't particularly good. The flood tide was a complete waste of time and no matter where I put the baits I couldn't even manage a bite from a tiddler, though one of the other chaps did have a small Whiting. I was expecting to maybe hit a fish just as the current slowed at the top of the tide but rather than slow down gradually the tide just seemed to stop dead. One second it was doing 5 or 6 knots the next it was slack water; but that did at least give us a rest from the weed which was being a bit of a pain, particularly the brown cotton-like stuff that seems to have a magnetic attraction to your leader knot.

Over the top of the tide the water seemed to drop about a foot and then, as the current started to flow outward rose back up to its original level, I assume because of the sudden surge of water. Fishing at this point in the tide is difficult here with the sudden burst of current and often on the bigger tides, some huge rafts of weed, but as I mentioned before the Tower tends to turn up its better fish on the ebb so rather than get despondent about the lack of sport on the flood I set at the fishing with renewed enthusiasm in the hope of avoiding a blank. An hour or so down, bang on the expected time, the first fish turned up and it was a good job I wasn't fussy as it was a little Bass only about 3 inches long.

I thought that might at least signal a short run of fish but an hour later without any more bites and losing the water fast I decided enough was enough and that it was time to call it quits on a bad session. Sorting out my kit for the journey home, I was about to pack up the first rod when the other had a good heavy knock which resulted in me adding a Schoolie of about 12 oz to my tally. On most sessions on the Tower it would have been way too late in the tide to contact any Bass but the following two casts resulted in two more fish; the first should have gone 2lb if length was any judge but was a real "stretch" with no meat on it at all so back it went as did the last one of about 6 oz.

By now I was fishing much later in the tide than I usually would and the breakwater round the tower (which will claim your rig if your not very careful) was well and truly showing; it was finally time to call it a night. The two other guys fishing (one of them, Rob, was on his first fishing session) only managed the one little Whiting between them but both seemed happy enough just to be out on a nice night and to be perfectly honest it was pleasant (even for an unsociable git like me) to have a bit of company for a change as i generally fish alone.

Big downer of the night was discovering that my wife had filled up the memory card on my camera and having it freeze on me as I attempted to delete a few frames so I could take a couple of pictures of the "stretch" Bass but I did at least manage to clear it in time for the last fish.

Sunday 3 May 2009

Fishing Report: 2nd May 09 - River Colne

Pal Herbs and I had been planning to meet up for a Bass session on the River for some time before the lucky bugger emigrates to NZ. We've known each other for a good many years and both love the peaceful if somewhat unexciting fishing to be had on the river so it was probably going to be the last summer we would have the opportunity to spend a session or two chasing the local Bass. We finally managed to sort out a session this weekend on a surprisingly quiet Bank Holiday and at the last minute another mate, Stuart, decided to join us so at 3pm we met in the Bateman's car park and headed up onto the salt marsh for a few hours chasing the local schoolies from what is a really nice peaceful spot.

None of us were expecting to break any records as the Bass here generally run rather small and we weren't disappointed on that score, with even the little fish playing hard to get, but we did all catch Bass, even if none of them were particularly big. Fishing the bulk of the flood up to the high tide at about 7pm and a couple hours of the ebb pretty hard with a variety of Peeler, Ragworm and Frozen Sandeel baits with what, by normal standards, would be seen as pretty poor results, we did at least manage to find a few fish to keep us interested. Stuart had the biggest fish at 31 cm, amongst a tally of five schoolies with both me and Herbs managing a couple ..... most of the fish coming to Ragworm.

With the exception of one sailing boat (which came in way too close for comfort) and the local wildlife we didn't have any company up on the salt marsh at all but this is one of those places that even when the fishing is quiet it really is a beautiful place and its just nice to be there as the sun starts to set over the river; these sessions always seem to be more about chilling out in peaceful surroundings with good company rather than red-hot fishing and that in itself is a draw for those of us that generally fish to get away from the rest of the world.

Fishing Report: 25th April 09 - River Colne

As the spring season starts to get into full swing I generally find myself wanting to spend more time fishing the Colne estuary and as it was a reasonably good tide on Saturday night, with a good weather forecast I decided to try Bateman's Tower for a few Bass. Its a good venue for something sizable and silver on the bigger tides particularly this early in the season, when the better fish haven't worked their way up the river.

Favourite bait on the river has always been Ragworm but I'd noticed the previous day when I was peeler crabbing that there were a lot of spent Ragworm on the mud, indicating that they had spawned recently and so I had reason to be optimistic that Ragworm would be the favourite for a fish; despite my confidence in Ragworm however I decided to try a bit of variety and added some Peeler crab and frozen Sandeel to the bait bucket.

I was into fish as soon as I arrived at about 11pm, although not the fish I was looking for ... just small Bass, Pouting and Whiting. I missed a lot of tiddler bites on the flood due to the size of the baits (and the hooks) but landed enough to keep my interest up until about an hour before the top of the tide when I leant into a cracking bite on Peeler which resulted in me getting a Bass of about 1 - 2 lbs to the edge of the concrete before it shook off the top hook of the pennel and disappeared. Things went quiet over the top as usual with a couple more tiddlers and then about an hour and a half down I hit into another good bite, this time to Ragworm. Things went much smoother for me this time and my first sizable Bass lay on the concrete - not massive by any means but about 2lbs and certainly nothing to turn your nose up to on the Colne given that the Bass generally run fairly small here. Encouraged by the better Bass I fished on till the water had all but disappeared in the hope of another Bass but as is often the case here that was was it for the better fish.

I ended the night at about 3am with about half a dozen each of Pouting and Whiting and a couple of small Bass as well as the better one. I probably could have caught a mass of tiddlers as it was a bite a chuck but I just don't do small hooks and baits when I'm Bass fishing, I really don't see the point quite frankly if you are looking for better fish though my strategy does come a little expensive on bait with me polishing off 1lb of Ragworm, 25 Peelers and 2 packs of Sandeel without trying that hard.

Fishing Report: 18th April 09 - River Colne

Having been ill this week I wasn't feeling up to a full blown fishing session but fancied a couple of hours of gentle worm drowning in the sunshine so I decided to fish an upriver mark that I haven't fished for a few years, blowing the dust off the Bass rod and trying out a new 5500 reel in the process. As you can see from the picture, this mark is a very shallow water one and you can only fish a couple of hours over the top of a short tide so its ideal for a short session.

The spot is well known locally on both sides of the water for the little schoolies that swarm into the creek over the top of the tide to feed on the brown shrimp and as usual it didn't disappoint, although probably because of the very small evening tide, the fish only really fed for about 30 minutes, just at the top of the 7pm tide. I spent a lovely couple of hours in the sunshine and managed a couple of little schoolies to Ragworm but to be honest, even without the fish, there would have been plenty to watch as the river is alive with bird life at the moment with the stars of the show being a pair of Marsh Harriers which hunt regularly across the local salt marsh and nest nearby most summers.

You can see from the picture that the first little Bass I landed looked a bit rough, with a wound on its back and this isn't particularly uncommon here as the fish are often targeted by Herons and Egrets in the shallows or even by Seals, that sit in the main run waiting for the Bass to flood into the creek with the tide. As we move into summer this spot will come alive with shoals of these little Bass and, if you are lucky, the occasional sizable fish but the bigger fish here are rare and a big tide generally seems to give you a better chance of one. Anyway, nice to see a couple of Bass (albeit small) after what feels like a long winter and on the marsh it was like a summers day with Bees and Butterflies everywhere.