Inspired late season Bass session.

An inspired suggestion by Mr B had us heading to a new mark a couple of nights ago, in search of some Bass. On arrival it was clear that it had all the necessary hallmarks of good Bass ground, structure, Current and shallow enough for us to wade. Dusk was setting in fast due to the cloud cover that evening, and the timing felt just right as it was the tide had just started to push in creating a nice rip line around the feature we had chosen to begin on. First cast, a few turns of the reel handle and bang I'm in straight away! Like I said, Inspired Mr B ;). It had been a while and we had struggled to find any good Bass fishing since earlier in the year, our early season mark had been seemingly deviod of fish save for a few small schoolies here and there in recent times, and the weather had been too rough to target the areas 'out back' where we knew the bigger fish were. It looked like things were possibly about to take a turn for the better as I landed a fish of around a pound. Successive casts produced a couple more fish of the same stamp, and then there was a little lull. As darkness fell, I hit into something that felt a bit better as it tore off with several yards of line, Oh how I had missed that feeling, and without even realising it! Moments later a half decent fish came into view and I handed out a fish of around three and a half pounds. A while later another decent fight resulted in another fish of slightly lesser proportions probably an upper two pounder. A few more smaller fish and my tally stood at six Bass and Mr B had managed one, ( due to some 'technical issues'!). Things seemed to go quiet after that and with just the odd tap from small fish, possibly Pollock, we opted to try another spot for half an hour and then call it a night. The new spot produced some bites, but again seemingly not from Bass, so we toddled off home very pleased with our new venue.
Of course we had to have another go the next night, ( last night ), this time we were joined by Mr H. No two nights are ever the same and tonight was definitely a different night, the sea was very calm and the tinge of colour of the previous evening had dropped out and the water was quite clear. With it being a big moon phase I prayed for some cloud cover, as to date I have never done particularly well on bright clear nights in the salt. Well I got my wish as darkness fell and a bank of cloud covered the sky overhead, obscuring the bright moon. No first cast fish this time and after a while I began to feel that it wasn't going to happen. Now we had been wading fairly far out up to this point and had heard the odd fish splash behind us in some much shallower water. Yet again in another inspired move a cast behind us by Mr B had him engaged in battle with a good fish, and clearly not the Mullet we assumed they were! The fish charged around in the shallow water creating a lot of commotion. Eventually it was in the net and a fish in the upper three's was being admired. We continued for a while but I wasn't feeling it so went off to investigate another spot for a while, but returned still biteless to find Mr H had bagged a fish of a couple of pounds and Mr B also had taken another couple of fish, so it looked like I had missed out by not sticking around.
Some time later it seemed that things had definitely quietened down and a move was in order for the last hour of our session, my two companions focused on one spot and I opted to try another, as yet unfished one. Cutting a long story short I saved a blank by bagging three Bass in the new spot to around two and a half pounds, but my companions failed to catch in their area but Mr B did lose a good fish. And that was that...
Only it wasn't! Third night and we were faced this time with clear skies and a very bright Moon..would they still play ball?
In short, they did for a very short while, and the two fish that came to me and the one to Mr B all came from maximum range and the deeper water as opposed to the close in shallow areas we had caught in the nights before. They were obviously reluctant to come in too close at this stage, perhaps later on in the tide they would briefly venture in, but the cold was getting the better of us this night so we called time and took away some new information from this session. Traditionally we  had never done at all well on a full moon phase and clear conditions, but it seemed tonight we had proved that it was possible to catch in the bright conditions but that cloud cover during such phases is preferable. 11 Bass  in three sessions is a good result, factor in Mr B's 5 fish and Mr H's 1 fish and we have 17 fish of good average size in the 3 sessions, each lasting around three hours. Pretty good fishing in my book, in probably less than ideal conditions,  I feel that this venue has much more to give, how much more this year I do'nt know, the weather is closing in and temperatures are set to drop this week, but if at all possible we will do our best to keep trying for as long as we can...

Sakura Stingray SGS 702 M

I've been meaning to review this rod for a while now, I took a punt in buying it when I first started fishing with the soft plastics at the beginning of the year, and Im pleased to say it is serving me very well.
At seven feet in length and built on a nice slim dark blue and grey blank, when coupled with a 2500 or 3000 sized reel it feels light and well balanced in the hand. The balance point when set up with a reel is just in the centre of the front screw down winch grip. The taper on the 5-21 gram rated blank is super fast and initially the rod feels very stiff and capable of working hard lures effectively. Despite the stiff feel, the tip bends very nicely and progressively through to the middle of the rod where the super stiff butt takes over and gives the rod some real power for dealing with bigger fish. Feedback when working both hard and soft lures is good, the tip, although stiff, is sensitive and when fishing for Bass there are no issues with feeling exactly what is going on at the other end as the the fish bites the lure, I can most of the time, tell exactly when to strike. The rod works very well with soft plastics fished Texas and Carolina styles and plenty of feedback can be felt when making bottom contact. I must admit to having some issues when fishing for Wrasse in the beginning, I just did not seem to be able to read the Wrasse bites and failed miserably to hook up. Of course at first I thought perhaps the rod wasn't right for the job and that the tip may be too stiff, but eventually and predictably it turned out to be my lack of experience in fishing for the species that was the problem, and I have now taken a good few Wrasse on this rod and in fact I would say it is ideal as it has plenty of stopping power for when they are diving hard towards any structure. You cannot use too soft a rod for these fish and truthfully I would not want to go any lighter than this rod for fish of even half a pound as they would easily get the upper hand on any lesser tool!
So onto the build and finish of the Stingray.
Understated it is not! it has quite a 'blingey' finish compared to some other models on the market but it is quite tasteful and I like it, I've always had a thing for slightly overstated rods and I like contrasting whippings like the gold and silver ones that are featured throughout on the Stingray. The EVA handle is of the Fuji IPS type but used in reverse here with a matching winch down reel fixing finished with an aluminium ( i think ) collar as is the EVA butt.
Rings are Fuji SIC single leg throughout and each ring whipping is finished in black thread with the silver and gold tipping. There is also a nice ( and blingey!) woven carbon effect feature on the butt section next to the reel seat, this contrasts nicely with the metallic blue finish on this section of the rod, the tip section being in plain un-ground grey carbon. 
Thats it really, there's not much more to say about the rod except that as a tool to do a job it does it well, and at a reasonable price too. I am extremely pleased with mine and have caught many many fish on it this year so far and I have no designs on changing it at the moment. I am not known for my ability to look after my equipment and so far it's standing up well to the abuse I give it, having had a few knocks in my clumsy hands! To summarise I would say this is a great HRF rod, especially for the newcomer, it's well finished, durable and does the job perfectly well.