Duration: Various
Tide: Various
Weather: Storm with lashing rain to calm and dry
Bait: Crab or Razor
Rigs: 3/0, 4/0 and 6/0 pennel pulleys
Results:
25th October: 1 bass, 1 coalfish, 1 flounder, 1 dogfish
30th October: 14 codling (up to 3.5 lb)
31st October: 12 codling (up to 3 lb)
2nd November: 7 codling
6th November: 6 codling
7th November: 3 bass, 2 dogfish, 2 coalfish
9th November: 1 bass, 1 codling, 1 coalfish, 1 dogfish
Report: I have been very busy with work recently so haven't had the chance to do any shore reports so here is one summarizing my fishing over the last couple of weeks. After the weekend of 23rd/24th October I oiled and greased the spinning rods and put them away until next summer. Winter bait fishing time had arrived.
25th October: As there was a strong southwesterly blowing I headed to a beach mark to fish the last couple of hours of the rising tide. A big surf had blown up so it looked good for bass. However, the wind was blowing close to parallel to the beach and dragging my line to the left. Bite detection was difficult, but at least it was relatively weed free. First fish was a coalfish, followed by a 43 cm bass close to high tide. Then a 34 cm flounder and a dogfish over high tide. The bites dried up after that as the tide began to drop so I packed up and headed home.
30th October: I decided on a cod session and picked up some big juicy peelers from Bhoy32. I fished a couple of hours either side of a low water mark. The weather was very pleasant, light southwesterly breeze, sunny and almost warm - cod fishing without a coat!!!. First cast I had a 3.5 lb codling, the biggest of the session. After that it was almost a fish a cast until activity slackened off a bit for half an hour over low tide. Once the tide began to rise the bites picked up again. After the current became to strong I packed up, having got a total of 14 codling, most were above 2 lb and at least 6 were in the 2.75-3.25 lb range.
31st October: After such a good session the previous day I headed to the same mark to fish the same stage of the tide. However, the weather was much different, a cold northwesterly had picked up and the water was much more choppy. But that didn't put the fish off, within minutes I had fish on both rods. Both fish were a decent size. The bites were not quite as frequent as the day before but I had 12 codling by the end of the session, the largest was 3 lb, several others were in the 2.5-2.75 lb range.
2nd November: I returned to the same mark, this time fishing in darkness. I had arranged to meet Patk there. I had two codling by the time he showed up, but the bites were a lot slower this time and the fish smaller. I had a total of 6 codling, but mostly about 1 lb, a couple were close to 2 lb. There was a lot of flood water coming down the estuary which probably pushed the fish further out into the bay. It was very quite over low tide and when the tide turned it became very weedy. Pat decided to head over to Green Park. I stuck it out for a bit longer but the weed was getting worse so I packed up and drove over to join him. When I arrived he was struggling with a massive ball of weed. He eventually got it in and there was a codling on the end of it. His other rod had also accumulated a mass of weed so it was more or less unfishable. We headed for home.
6th November: I decided to fish a high water estuarine mark for cod. There were 5 other anglers already there when I arrived - and I thought I was getting there early. At that stage no fish had been caught. I was fishing a bit further down stream than I would have preferred. I had a bite and it felt to be a good fish, presumably a big codling, but as I was hauling in the fish it dived in amongst some debris and I was solidly snagged - eventually I lost the shock leader. The same thing happened with the other rod. I moved a bit up stream, then the three guys at the end (East Europeans) left so everybody could move up. As soon as I had got a better location I was into a decent size codling, about 2.75 lb. A little later I had a second one which had a few bites taken out of him. Then I lost another shock leader. So switched to a single rod loaded with 50 lb line. I had a few more codling, then snagged something again, but with 50 lb line I reckoned I would be able to pull out of it. I eventually got it moving, and hauled in a decent size codling as well as one of my lost shockleaders with a small codling at the end of it. I had a couple more codling after that but nothing big. Once the tide turned and began to drop it was time to leave.
7th November: A storm with high winds and big surf was forecast for Sunday night so I thought it might be worth trying a beach for bass. I arrived at the mark at about 4.00 pm, it was relatively calm at that stage, but the wind was picking up, and there was a nice surf rolling in so I reckoned it looked good. It is a beach which fishes poorly in daylight and sure enough there was not a bite until dusk. As soon as the light was going I had a strong bite - at first I thought it must be a bass, but after an initial struggle it came in quitely - a dogfish. After dark I spotted some small twitches - and reeled in a coalfish, followed shortly afterwards by another one on the other rod. The wind had strengthened considerably after that and the rain started. It was light enough initially but then began to lash down. I noticed the line had gone slack on the rod cast in close - I reeled in the slack and connected with a fish. It didn't feel big and turned out to be a 38 cm bass.
Next fish was another dogfish - again it gave a strong bite and I thought it was a bass until I had it in close. The weather was getting even worse, the rod stand blew over a few times, my lines were being dragged to the left and it was impossible to see bites if there were any. The rain was horizontal and hammering against my back. I would have packed up at that stage but needed to wait for about an hour into the ebb to get back out - especially as the waves were surging over the rocks at the end of the beach where I would have to pass. After rebaiting one rod and casting out I picked up the other, the line had been dragged almost parallel to the beach. I presumed it was just the wind, but as I retrieved I felt resistance - I reeled it in and found two bass, both about 41 cm, one on each hook of a pennel rig.
When the tide dropped enough for me to get back out I packed up and made a hasty retreat. I got to the car, opened the boot and it was like a wind tunnel - two plastic bags swirled around inside before one took off and vanished into the night. I loaded up the car and drove back up the lane, but about 200 m along there was a tree down, partly blocking the road. I managed to move it a little and used the car to push it aside and squeeze past (the advantage of having an old car - I don’t care about adding more dents and scrapes). I was feeling quite pleased with myself until I came around a corner a bit further up the lane - there was a big tree, right across the road. No hope of getting past that
I phoned Melissa and she came to my rescue. In the morning I phoned the Co. Council and they had somebody down there with a chainsaw by lunch time, and I had my car back by 3.00 pm.
9th November: Although there was a light northerly wind blowing and it was looking like a cold frosty night I decided on a beach session on a mark that usually fishes well on the last couple of hours to low tide and the first hour or so on the rising tide. Since the following night was forecast to be wet and windy I didn't really fancy a repeat of Sunday night, calm and cold sounded a better option. When I arrived there was a nice surf - so it looked good for bass. After returning to the rod stand after casting out the second rod I noticed that the line on the first was slack. I reeled it in an there was a 1.5 lb codling on the end. Not bad for the first cast I thought. A little later there was some subtle twitches on the other rod - a coalfish. But it was quite after that. Close to low tide I had a dogfish. Over low tide it was dead. So it was looking like a very disappointing session, but I reckoned that the fish would come in with the rising tide. I had intended to pack up at 2.30 am but decided to persevere until I had one more fish. I had a few tugs but nothing hooked. As the tide pushed forward I moved my gear back and then went back for the rods, the line on one of them was running diagonally to the right - it wasn't the current and there was very little wind so I reckoned it had to be a slack line bite. I reeled in the slack - there was a lot of it, and was beginning to think the fish was gone, then connected with the fish in close, it put up a fair struggle in the shallows and when I hauled it ashore it was a plump 51 cm bass
So that considerably improved the night - I had one more cast before packing up at about 3.30 am.
