January Estuary Bass

Was down the road at the beach all morning, surfing some pretty good 3-4' waves in the sun. As I left around low tide, bumped into a mate I used to work with, and he was going down to fish the flooding tide at the rivermouth. I popped home, took my wetsuit off and grabbed my gear, and met him at the waters edge.

We were fishing at the point of the estuary where it met the sea, and followed the flooding tide up the beach. A quiet start, I was using an Xlayer with a weighted hook, letting it sink and bounce along the bottom in the current, with a small twitch. My mate was first into a fish, landing a smallish Bass that put up very little fight. Measured around the 38cm mark on my ruler. Did not get a chance for a photo.

Continued fishing, and again, my mate was into a fish. Much more fight in this one, and gave a good little scrap, even on his heavy gear. Landed and a quick pic;

He was fishing with a paddle tail, so I switched up for my last 15 mins to a 3" shad, but no takes that session for me. I waded back across the now flooded sandbank, and left him to fish on. He was wearing a wetsuit, and think he was planning on taking a swim back as he stayed on fishing! Good to see Bass still being caught. Might meet him again tomorrow if conditions are ok.