On Tuesday night I had an impulsive drive to go fishing. The kind of impulse it would be foolish to ignore, especially with the knowledge that a few of the regular LRF faithful were out too. There had been lots of talk of schoolie bass around recently and I didn't want to miss out. What followed was about the best fun you can have in a hour with your clothes on, topped up with excellent banter and some wise teachings by our very own LRF Gandalf, otherwise known as Maurice!
I'm not ashamed to admit when I'm cashing in on other people's hard work, the guy's had already put the graft in that night and found the fish. A quick message to Joe had confirmed everyone had caught so far and I was welcome to join. No self respecting angler can refuse that offer. I arrived to find that Simon, Kieran and Maurice were there too, which was a pleasant surprise. After five minutes of catching up and spinning the yarn it was time to get to business.
I've recently bought a couple of packs of the two inch Crazy Fish Vibro Worms and I was eager to try them. Mounting one on a three gram Savage Gear Darting Jighead it looked excellent in the water. Using a bright luminescent yellow colour I was very confident I'd at least get hits. It's worth saying how fantastic this range of lures are, they are heavily scented with squid, are ultra soft and have an incredible movement through the water. I can't recommend them enough.
My first few exploratory casts were near Joe and he managed three fish in just a few minutes. It was great to hear his drag start screaming off as these spirited little bass ran off. I had a couple of hits but missed them, to be honest I was paying too much attention to Joe's escapades. It was obvious the fish were stalking about underneath the pontoon and boats in front of us, accurate casts near these features were producing hits regularly. Finally a cast produced a fantastic run of my own, the fish aggressively trying to shake the lure out. Fishing in fairly shallow water meant it could only do one thing - run. This led to lots of line being taken for such a modest fish. Joe had also managed to hook one at the same time as mine. We landed them both together, creating a great photo opportunity and one of my favourite photos I've taken this year,
The fishing really took off from there, every few casts brought a fish in a hectic twenty minute spell. With the right setting on the drag you can get such an entertaining fight from these fish. The takes were quite interesting too, you would feel more of a weight then a classic bass smack. I presume this is because of the slow retrieve and the fish engulfing the lure in it's large mouth, so that by the time you feel the hit the fish is almost already hooked. By the time Simon came along to join us I had had ten. Unfortunately his arrival seemed to lead to all the fish disappearing, something we took great pleasure in letting him know! We moved back down to where Maurice and Kieran were to find the fish.
Maurice was still catching fairly consistently, it was time for us to go to school and listen to his teachings! His theory is that, just like fly fishing at night, you use a dark lure for dark skies and a bright lure for (you guessed it) bright skies. Simon had changed over to a darker lure on this advice and quickly caught a fish. Never argue with the LRF wizard! Although I had my final fish of the night on my bright Vibro Worm, probably just going to prove that schoolie bass will smash anything given the chance!
Overall I was only out for just over an hour and a half, catching eleven schoolie bass, all averaging around a pound. It was excellent sport in great company, definitely whetting my appetite for the upcoming LRF competition.
Enjoy your fishing everyone and thank you so much for reading, apologies for the lack of photos on this one. Night time fishing and quality photos are not great bedfellows!
Please check out www.fishingtails.co.uk for up to date fishing reports and articles, including some by myself.
You also find me on Facebook and Instagram by searching: Ben Bassett Fishing
I'm not ashamed to admit when I'm cashing in on other people's hard work, the guy's had already put the graft in that night and found the fish. A quick message to Joe had confirmed everyone had caught so far and I was welcome to join. No self respecting angler can refuse that offer. I arrived to find that Simon, Kieran and Maurice were there too, which was a pleasant surprise. After five minutes of catching up and spinning the yarn it was time to get to business.
I've recently bought a couple of packs of the two inch Crazy Fish Vibro Worms and I was eager to try them. Mounting one on a three gram Savage Gear Darting Jighead it looked excellent in the water. Using a bright luminescent yellow colour I was very confident I'd at least get hits. It's worth saying how fantastic this range of lures are, they are heavily scented with squid, are ultra soft and have an incredible movement through the water. I can't recommend them enough.
My first few exploratory casts were near Joe and he managed three fish in just a few minutes. It was great to hear his drag start screaming off as these spirited little bass ran off. I had a couple of hits but missed them, to be honest I was paying too much attention to Joe's escapades. It was obvious the fish were stalking about underneath the pontoon and boats in front of us, accurate casts near these features were producing hits regularly. Finally a cast produced a fantastic run of my own, the fish aggressively trying to shake the lure out. Fishing in fairly shallow water meant it could only do one thing - run. This led to lots of line being taken for such a modest fish. Joe had also managed to hook one at the same time as mine. We landed them both together, creating a great photo opportunity and one of my favourite photos I've taken this year,
The fishing really took off from there, every few casts brought a fish in a hectic twenty minute spell. With the right setting on the drag you can get such an entertaining fight from these fish. The takes were quite interesting too, you would feel more of a weight then a classic bass smack. I presume this is because of the slow retrieve and the fish engulfing the lure in it's large mouth, so that by the time you feel the hit the fish is almost already hooked. By the time Simon came along to join us I had had ten. Unfortunately his arrival seemed to lead to all the fish disappearing, something we took great pleasure in letting him know! We moved back down to where Maurice and Kieran were to find the fish.
Maurice was still catching fairly consistently, it was time for us to go to school and listen to his teachings! His theory is that, just like fly fishing at night, you use a dark lure for dark skies and a bright lure for (you guessed it) bright skies. Simon had changed over to a darker lure on this advice and quickly caught a fish. Never argue with the LRF wizard! Although I had my final fish of the night on my bright Vibro Worm, probably just going to prove that schoolie bass will smash anything given the chance!
Overall I was only out for just over an hour and a half, catching eleven schoolie bass, all averaging around a pound. It was excellent sport in great company, definitely whetting my appetite for the upcoming LRF competition.
Enjoy your fishing everyone and thank you so much for reading, apologies for the lack of photos on this one. Night time fishing and quality photos are not great bedfellows!
Please check out www.fishingtails.co.uk for up to date fishing reports and articles, including some by myself.
You also find me on Facebook and Instagram by searching: Ben Bassett Fishing
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