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.