Christmas Bass

Decided to head out down the icy snow covered lane to the beach, to have a walk and chuck a few casts out into the rivermouth (one of Matts favourite spots!), as the tide was pushing a couple of hours after high. Beautiful sunshine, clean 1' waves rolling in, but bitterly cold.

Walked to a spot I call the landing strip, where the first bit of weed cover starts on the bottom of the estuary. A handful of Cormorant type birds diving and surfacing, maybe there is some bait fish about? Cast out upstream of the flow, and proceeded to shake and pause with the Senko, taking up the slack. Couple of turns of the reel, and the rod tip bent over, to my huge suprise, fish on! Short scrappy fight, and a flash of silver, followed by a bass landed at my feet.

Coming in just short of 44cm, and weighing 1lb 12oz on the digi scales. Tide was flooding really quick, and the cold had already started to get the better of me, so after only a few more casts, I felt as if it was mission accomplished, and decided to start heading back to the car. Total fishing time about 20 mins! Probably the last session I will have before Christmas comes.

Really happy to have caught a Bass again, especially in the bitter cold conditions. I guess all the snow melt had not brought the temp down too much in the estuary. This is the first Bass I have caught since 15th November!

Also the first fish I have caught using my new Snowbee Flourocarbon leader. Tried it out first on a Wrasse hunting mission, with snaggy conditions. Found that when the lure got caught tight in the rocks and weed, I was able to pull it free. Previously I was using 12lb Trilene, which often lead to break offs at the lure when snagged. It's thick, but this first Bass in crystal clear water is promising for future use.

Also just a close up of the lure I took todays Bass on. 4" Stinger Senko in Junebug colour, with a 7g conehead, held tight with a powergum stop knot. The hook is a Mustad 3/0 Ultrapoint Soft Bait Spike Hook.