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Thursday 29 April 2010

And they're off !!



At last! The Season begins, as if by magic, last night, some Bass appeared!

Deep down I knew it was going to happen, the weekend had conjoured up absolutely zilch from the Kayaks despite our best efforts, but that wind was still in the East.
Come Monday and it was all change, the wind began to turn, clawing it's way round to a Southerly direction, by Tuesday, It was warm and muggy, and Wednesday was even more so. The tides were perfect and I had commented only a few days ago that the Fish may well turn up on these end of Month Springs. All day yesterday I was on edge, trying not to allow my confidence to crank up too far in case I was utterly wrong. But how could I be?, every Angling instinct was trying to scream at me that this was it, this was the day we would start catching in earnest. And so it came to pass...

The evening was very warm and incredibly humid, barely a breath of wind was stirring the trees and flags as we made our way across the exposed mud flats toward the receded channel that remained at low tide. On the other side opposite us was the Sand flats that had rewarded us so richly last year with so many Bass. Its still a little early to be venturing over there, but as soon as we see the first Gulls following the shoals of Baitfish driven across the flats by the Bass, we'll be over there.
For now we were content to target the narrow stretch of water left at low tide, knowing that the less water, the more concentrated the Fish would be as they began to run in on the Flooding tide, if they were here....
Our first casts were across the bottom of the tide, with no response, no surprise there, then, as the water began to make it's way from left to right, flooding inwards at a fair pace, my Fly was hit by a solid resistance, had I tripped a bit of weed?, then the weed began to try and swim away from me, jagging and darting in a desperate bid for freedom, a Bass was on!!
Oh how I whooped for joy as I steered My prize toward Me, Only a Schoolie of barely a few ounces, but at that moment it was the best Fish I'd ever caught, It was the first of a new season and a welcome relief after all the long cold winter months spent day dreaming of the time I could return to the Sea and catch these silvery bars of attitude and pure aggression on Fly tackle, and after weeks of worrying that we may not see any Bass for fear that the cold winter or commercial fishing had taken it's toll on their numbers.


My friend and I went on to take over twenty fish between us, confirming that they were indeed resident in large numbers, and although we didn't take anything larger than 10oz's or so, it was a superb evening and akin to the many similar evenings of last season. I'm looking forward to many, many more...Hooray for the Bass!

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