Duration: 10.00 pm to 2.30 am
Tide: LW at 1.05 am
Weather: Light southwesterly breeze, clear mild night, dry
Bait: Lug
Rigs: 3/0 amd 4/0 pennel pulleys, 2 hook flapper (size 4/0 hooks)
Results: Me: 1 bass, 5 Dogfish, 2 Conger Eels; Billy: 2 Dogfish
Report: A few weeks ago Billy sent me a PM looking for some tips on Bass fishing as he has only recently taken up fishing and up to now had only been doing lure fishing. Looking at the tides with respect to dusk I reckoned that Wednesday night would the about the optimum night to go out and have a good chance of a few bass from bait fishing. After the strong winds of the last day or so I was worried that the beach might be unfishable due to weed so I checked it out at lunch time. There was a little weed about but it looked perfectly fishable and there was a good surf rolling in. So we went ahead and met up at about 9.30 pm.
I got set up and probably had the first line in the water by 10.15 pm. The wind had died down in comparison to the afternoon and the waves were not as big but there was still a nice surf so I was hopeful of a good session. I then helped Billy get set up, showed him how to join join a shockleader to the main line. Then got back to setting up my second rod. Shortly after casting out the second rod I noticed that line had gone slack. I reeled in the slack and connected with a fish - it was putting up a bit of a fight and turned out to be a 48 cm bass
That was a very promising start but it went downhill after that
I managed to snag a big clump of kelp with rocks attached. I got the line and rig back but on the next cast I had a crack off. The line must have been weakened by the strugggle with the kelp and rocks.A little later I had another slackliner - when I caught up with it I didn't strike very well as the fish was continuing to swim in towards the shore so there was too much slack to properly set the hook. I had it on for a few minutes and it felt to be a good size fish, presumably a bass, but then I lost it
I had another slackliner later but the fish dropped the bait before I had retrieved all of the slack. I missed a few more bites although I don't know if they were bass or dogfish.
Billy was the next to land a fish - a dogfish.
About midnight the dogfish onslaught commenced. I got three in quick succession and Billy got another. A little later as the weed had almost disappeared I swapped a pennel pulley for a two hook flapper baited with big lug baits. While I was holding one of the rods I felt some gentle tugs - then suddenly the line went slack. I quickly retrieved the slack and struck when I felt some resistance. This time the hook was well set. It was a strong fish and felt heavy - I reckoned I had a good bass - I was thinking that this might be a 6 lber at least. Eventually I hauled it out of the surf, in the distance I could see a big light coloured head and was sure it was a bass but as I approached I realized that something was wrong - it was way too long to be a bass - it was a fairly large conger - probably 5 or 6 lbs
I wasn't expecting that on this beach. But a new species for 2009, and by far the biggest one I have ever caught A bit later as the tide was beginning to push forward I felt some light tugs on the rod with a 4/0 pennel rig and struck when I felt a stronger bite. I felt something fairly big on the end - although it didn't really feel like a fight from a bass. It was a dogfish double, one on each hook of the pennel.
Shortly afterwards I had another bite, again on the pennel rig - it was another conger, although much smaller than the first.
So not a very successful night in terms of bass fishing despite a good surf, strong tides and favourable solunar timing. I had hoped that Billy would catch his first bass from bait fishing. Whereas about 2 weeks ago with much weaker tides and weaker surf I managed seven bass from the same mark on the same beach. The main difference been the wind direction, northwest that time, southwest last night.
hope you enjoyed it and have many more....
