April arrival

The Bass are arriving!

An impromptu session with the Fly yesterday evening paid off, but not for me, well not directly anyway. The day had brightened from it's earlier overcast state and the wind seemed to be lessening. A quick look at the tides indicated that there was a window for a particular venue and so I text my friend and asked him if he was up for a quick session, to which the reply was most definitely yes!

The Fly hadn't been my first consideration due to the wind being slightly south easterly which wasn't ideal for this venue, ( right to left ), and soft plastics were going to be my line of attack. However, my friend had decided to be brave and take his Fly gear and so I threw mine in as well, just in case.
Upon arrival, the wind did seem to be dropping off more and more so the Fly it was.
Geared up and walking towards the water we found the wind to be manageable though still a in a slightly awkward direction, a chance to practise 'reverse casting' then, releasing the line on the back cast to shoot, compensating for the uncooperative breeze. We soon had the hang of it and 20yds plus was no problem. The evening felt 'fishy', though after an hour or so and the arrival of the 'bite time' state of tide came and went. Just when I was beginning to think we were in for another blank a shout went up from my mate who reported having had a possible hit from a fish. His next cast was the one we had been waiting for, and his Fly was repeatedly hit several times as he retrieved before finally connecting fully with the first Bass of the season!
The fish had absolutely inhaled the Fly showing that they were hungry and actively hunting prey.
The steadier water temperatures of the past few days may well have had something to do with this, and perhaps the more comfortable conditions were the trigger. Whatever the triggers, it's a good result for the 1st of April and possibly a week or two earlier than the first capture last year, which incidentaly also went to my golden sphered friend....
Spirits raised I upped my game and resolved to fish harder now, having seen that there were indeed fish to be caught, I thrashed the water to a foam but sadly my own spherical objects are clearly not the right colour as I failed to connect with a fish. My friend however made it a double and bagged a second, and well deserved fish, before tide and light got the better of us.
Luck of the draw, or the fact that we were both using different lines and flies, me on an intermediate, my friend on a floating line? It doesn't matter, the fact is there are now fish about to be caught and that means the season has started, not yet in earnest but it's all downhill from here, thank goodness!