The other evening I just needed to ESCAPE… from the world, from crap, you know how it is…

I went to a favourite mark of mine I haven’t fished this year but knew I could get into my own little world without all the crap and any disturbances.

There was some dirty, proper brown patches of muddy water, some patches of that real horrible string weed you get suspending mid water and is a pain trying to avoid as it sticks to anything and then some clearer but tinged water.

I worked my way around at first, fishing through the dirtier areas and along the edges as I worked my way to the clearer end. One of my favourite spots is half beach, half rocks with an Island just out from the shore. I always seem to pick a few fish up from here. I stuck at it but was getting nothing on the usual so switched over to try some new lures.

First up was the Mommotti 140. It cast well and I was just seeing how slow I could work it while it was still working when within a couple metre’s of the rock two nice bass came up behind it and one nipped at the tail. No idea how it didn’t get hooked on the rear treble because I felt it.  They bolted off but a good sign. To be fair I wasn’t surprised to get a follow. I normally always just get follows when straight retrieving hard plastics. I tried repeating anyway and nothing doing. I changed to the 115 Mommotti and no interest I then went smaller again to the Coexidda 100 and doing the same technique I had 4 smaller fish follow the lure in. I tried mixing up retrieves and so on with no success. I got back off the rocks and sat myself down 10ft from the shoreline and started working the lures in the same manner hoping to maybe cause a ”I’m going to loose it reaction” withthe lure coming right into the shallows and over the boulders. But nothing doing…

I then switched to the surface and started working a PRO Q90 slowly but I couldn’t get a sniff…

Next up was the Soft plastics… A weedless weightless 4.8inch Dot crawler was the lure of choice. Slow straight retrieves, twitches, Deadsticking… The list goes on and still nothing.

Two things… Either the Bass just haven’t come back since i’ve been trying different lures or they weren’t interested in my offerings…

The light was starting to fade and this could give me the edge and they might be more keen on hitting something. I finally went back to my favourite technique. Fishing Sink and Draw. The lure of choice a 90mm Fiiish Minnow Body on a sakura 7gm jighead. Small and natural coloured without to much weight allowing me to fish it slow without it getting snagged on the bottom.

15mins past before I got the classic tap… Lift and fish on… or so it felt. But it wasn’t doing much… A small schoolie surfaced shaking its head if you could even call it that! This fish has to be the worst fight I’ve had off a Bass…

More questions arise… Is it that cold it really has no energy? Is it hungry it has no energy? It can’t have spawned as it’s to small… Maybe it was just an odd fish… Who knows…

The blank was saved and eventually all my efforts had been rewarded with something.

I’m not sure if it was the fish being finicky or maybe I just got unlucky and used the wrong lures at the wrong time. Either way its good to see some fish in the area, the plan was to hit it the next morning to see if the fish would be more keen but I just never got up…