Rainy day, dream away...

The sun beat down as I wrestled another giant Perch from the loch. I laughed the fishing was so easy! The blue sky and happy warmth quickly disappeared with the sound of my alarm and I awoke to find the rain hammering down. No river fishing for us today then!

We decided to head down to our favourite bass mark, even though we knew fishing would be hard with a strong onshore wind. Indeed when we arrived it was raining sideways and the strong gusty north easterly wind had really put a big surf up. A very low spring tide meant we could approach the mark with relative ease. The sea however was very rough and the wind was challenging to fish against.

Whilst Scott went mini species hunting I decided to try and target bass. I geared up with my 9'6" Wright and Mcgill S-curve spinning rod, Shimano Aernos 3000 reel loaded with 20lb Sunline momentum 4x4. On the business end it was on with an 8.5g Berkley Powerbait Sandeel in white. I began to work away round the reef casting between the breaking surf and into the churned up water. Lots of suspended weed kept clogging up the lure and the wind kept blowing the line in a big bow, which meant I kept losing contact with the lure. It kept raining.

Scott meanwhile was having fun in the rockpools and gullies catching mini species.

Another long spined sea scorpion for Scott.

As I continued to hunt bass, Scott continued to catch a few more blennies and sea scorpions on his LRF setup before switching to his bass gear.

Another large male blenny falls to Scott's Power Isome.

After about 45 minutes whilst working the lure I felt a knock then a pull but with the wind constantly bowing the line I couldn't react quickly enough. I cast low again and stopped the line the instant the lure touched water. This gave me a straighter line and I began to retrieve slowly whilst giving a couple of twitches every six foot or so. Sure enough as the lure travelled in to the strike zone it was seized by a fish that tore off into the surf. After a spirited fight and a tricky landing my biggest bass of the year arrived!

The Berkley Powerbait Sandeel claims another bass.

Quite a lean fish but measured at 44cm and after a couple of pictures was released none the worse for meeting me.

Silver with delicate pastel blue highlights to the fins, a rainy day dream.

At 44cm this is my biggest bass this year

It continued to rain. Another couple of hours went by as we searched the reef before the constant rain and bitter east wind made us call time and we headed back to the car. All in all an enjoyable session even if it was very wet and very cold .The wind should switch round to a westerly later in the week, which should lead to calmer conditions and we hope to capitalise on that when it happens!

Tight lines, Schogsky.