Bass Fishing - 11th - 13th Nov

[GPSguru]

Well, yes, we went estuary fishing in the deepest darkest part of South Devon, to a venue that is private, and has produced a ton of Bass for me in the past, and a mark that I have been visiting for almost 50 years and has been enjoyed by 4 generations of our family.

This mark fishes well on rising spring tides, any wind direction other than South West, total darkness, and no rain runoff in the river, which is something of a lottery when we are invited to stay at a remote estuary property at short notice.

A quick look at the tide tables showed that the weekend was falling springs, but certainly enough water, the tides were in the evening (perfect) and the wind was light South East (perfect).

We decided to fish just the 3 evening tides (Fri, Sat , and Sun), using 12ft Carp rods and big pit reels loaded with 20lb braid, as the casting distance is critical, and you really need to hit 100yds and each cast.

Pre-empting a good session, I had ordered 6lb of king rag, as there were 3 of us fishing (me, my son, and Kyle).

Timing is critical, as the best time is the last 2.5 hours of the flood and the first 2 hours of the ebb. On the river there is no standing time and flood to ebb is almost an immediate transition.

On the Friday evening, I was first to arrive and went straight into the fishing, whilst my wife did the cottage stuff of lighting the log fire etc. Within minutes the first Bass was landed and that is the way it continued for the rest of the tide. I was soon joined by the other two, and we all enjoyed some excellent sport.

The stamp of fish was better than in the recent past with the average fish being probably 2.5lb

The Friday tide, I beat my record, with 17 consecutive casts producing 17 Bass. On the Saturday evening tide, the fishing was also well above average. I tried a different rig (clipped down Pat) in order to gain some extra casting yards, but the flow was causing the pat to go up in the water and the worm baits need to be nailed hard on the bottom, but it only cost me 30 minutes of wasted time.

Here are the stunning numbers, the fish size varied between 1.5 lb Basslets to fish of almost 5lb.

Between the 3 of us we caught 82 Bass over 3 tides and went through 6lb of local dug king rag, the slowest fishing being Sunday evening when the Springs were dropping in to neaps. Interestingly, when we fillet fish from this mark they are always full of crab, but annoyingly, worm is the only bait that produces consistent bites, although I have had limited success with sandeel,

Because this is such a prolific mark, that is very remote and private, there are not many pictures, another factor being that we were fishing in total darkness.

 

Ready for eating, a fish of almost 5lb and another of 3lb

Edited November 16, 2022 by GPSguru

[Saintly Fish]

Sounds like a fun weekend Ian, well done on the amount of fishies caught. 
100 yards though?? With king rag? That seems impossible without the worms exploding at cast! 
What technique did you use to stop the worms from falling apart?

[Andy135]

100 yards is only 30m, so not a huge cast in the grand scheme of things. Should be doable without bare hooks at the end I'd have thought.

@GPSguru, lovely report and congratulations on an impressive tally. Will be hard to beat next year!

[mike farrants]

awesome fishing! sounds like fun! and great conditions!

[Saintly Fish]

3 hours ago, Andy135 said:

Should be doable without bare hooks at the end I'd have thought.

 

Only way I'd ever manage it would be by utilising a needle, and tipping off. Even then the worm are so soft you'd have to have a 100% technique every cast not to obliterate them. 

[GPSguru]

5 hours ago, Saintly Fish said:

Sounds like a fun weekend Ian, well done on the amount of fishies caught. 
100 yards though?? With king rag? That seems impossible without the worms exploding at cast! 
What technique did you use to stop the worms from falling apart?

Using a 12ft Greys 2.75lb prodigy carp rod, a Shimano wide spool big pit coffee grinder, 3 oz lead on a zip slider and short 12” hook length, 100 yrds is consistently  doable. Hooks were 1/0 manta’s and we thread the worm over the hook and up the line, so the hook point is right at the tail of the worm. If you don't do that, the fish just bite off the tail and miss the hook.

Also the fact that we are wading to waist deep, makes the casting more tricky.

I did some low tide test casts and was achieving a consistent measured 95 - 110 yds ( with bait). We used a Bushnell shooting range finder to measure the distance.

 

[Andy135]

15 minutes ago, JonC said:

How is 100 yards 30m ? I think you need to go back over yor calculations there

Yeah, ok, fair cop. I was thinking about 3 feet to a metre. 🤦‍♂️

[GPSguru]

3 minutes ago, JonC said:

Does the range finder give measurements in metric units, for @Andy135? 

Yeah, does both 👍

100 yrds is 91m ish

[GPSguru]

2 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

Yeah, ok, fair cop. I was thinking about 3 feet to a metre. 🤦‍♂️

Yes I realised you were in ‘boat mode’ , but I would not have pulled you up on such a triviality. 🤣

[thejollysinker]

nice trip then Ian, sounds like you guys had a great time, spot on 🙂

can I ask where you get your rag from as my mate and I have had awful tiny little worms from our local shop (not naming names) the last few times and could do with finding something a bit better?

Bet those Bass tasted nice 😋

 

[GPSguru]

2 hours ago, thejollysinker said:

can I ask where you get your rag from as my mate and I have had awful tiny little worms from our local shop (not naming names) the last few times and could do with finding something a bit better?

Bet those Bass tasted nice 😋

 

Yes, Max gets farmed worm and it is terrible, not only small, but doesn't keep well either.

You need to give Matt a call at South West Sea Baits in Plymouth. He digs local, they keep well, and more importantly, most are like snakes. His place is easy to get to, he has a unit on the fish quay near the national aquarium. 

[thejollysinker]

8 hours ago, GPSguru said:

Yes, Max gets farmed worm and it is terrible, not only small, but doesn't keep well either.

You need to give Matt a call at South West Sea Baits in Plymouth. He digs local, they keep well, and more importantly, most are like snakes. His place is easy to get to, he has a unit on the fish quay near the national aquarium. 

Thanks for the info Ian, will have to try there in future 👌

[Odyssey]

Cracking trip that! 
 

Don’t blame you for keeping it quiet… especially if it’s private land to get there, you can be sure that some numpty will try and ruin it 😡

As for @Andy135 maths…. This may call into question the measurements of his dogfish…. Perhaps they are all fisherman’s tales 😮

[Andy135]

48 minutes ago, Odyssey said:

As for @Andy135 maths…. This may call into question the measurements of his dogfish…. Perhaps they are all fisherman’s tales 😮

I'll have you know my PB dogfish was at least 1m (foot) long. And it was a bull huss. Honest.

[Saintly Fish]

21 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

I'll have you know my PB dogfish was at least 1m (foot) long. And it was a bull huss. Honest.

Yeah and he made a small child hold it to make it look bigger than it actually was...!!!