Summer species start to show.

A couple of days after our Scott and I went perch fishing I managed to get back to the coast, this time I was hoping to find the perch's spiky cousin, the bass. Conditions seemed perfect as it was calm, warm and the tide was just starting to flood. I rigged up my 7-25g rod with a 4.5" Slug-Go in Arkansas Shiner and mounted it on a #2/0 10.5g football jighead and began to search the slowly flooding tide. I tried bouncing the lure along the bottom as well as swimming it through the water column but it proved a  fruitless exercise. I then swapped to a Ribster as they are a little bit smaller and if the bass are feeling picky then a smaller lure can sometimes illicit a response. I must have worked the lure about for an hour before I swapped to a Swimmin' Ribster as again it is a bit smaller than the Ribster and also throws out more vibration. I worked the lure with a sink and draw retrieve allowing the lure to fall with its tail wiggling enticingly through the current. After about twenty minutes of searching I felt a small tug on the lure as it was dropping through the water, I struck then had to reel like mad as the fish ran towards me. The fish came in very quickly and I was delighted to see a silvery, spiky shape break the surface, my first bass of the year. It was very small but at least it was another species added to my 2013 tally and after a quick photo I slipped it back.

First bass of 2013, small but fun!

I carried on for another half hour or so before I got bored with the lack of action and reached for my LRF gear. I rigged up a dropshot rig with a #8 offset worm hook, 8lb leader and attached a 7g weight. This was rigged with some gulp sandworm and I began to cast out and bounce and jiggle the sandworm back to me. It didn't take long before I was getting some interest and a few small rattles quickly turned into a hookup and I landed a small nicely marked pollock, another addition for my 2013 species hunt!

Rather unbelivably this is my first pollock of 2013! Nice vivid honeycomb marking.

I released the fish and began to fish the same area and again it didn't take long before a felt a sharp pecking at the lure. This bite excited me as I could instantly tell it was wrasse, I let it peck away at the lure and waited for it to pull the rod tip over before I set the hook. Sure enough the rod tip arched down and I was hooked into a feisty little ballan wrasse which did its best to get into the weedy ledge below me before it was landed.

The ballan wrasse patiently waited in a small rockpool whilst I got my camera ready!

I love wrasse and this small ballan had me grinning from ear to ear!

I quickly unhooked and photographed the fish before releasing it and quickly went back to the same spot. A couple of casts later I felt the same pecking at the lure and hooked into another little wrasse and as it came up I could see it was a corkwing.

A stunning little fish indeed.

I love these colourful little wrasse and this one was no exception with colours that would put a parrot to shame. I quickly unhooked and weighed the fish which came in at just over 4oz, a specimen fish for Scotland. Still it needed to be a bit bigger to break the record, which is one of my goals this year, so I'll just have to keep targeting them. I slipped the fish back and quickly followed it up with a plump much darker  corkwing that may have been a female that also had some wonderful green colouration.

This plump corkwing also came in at just over 4oz.

Drop shotting Gulp! Sandworm did the business again.

That was to be the last fish of the session but I was really pleased to catch my first bass of the year and even more so the wrasse and with them arriving back inshore its a sure sign summer is here!

Tight lines, Schogsky.