No wind and crystal clear water it was screaming for us to get a cheeky evening session on the boat but instead we chose to hit the darkness over a low water mark. We arrived just as the sun was going down and met Blair on the rocks. He’d already been there for a while and nailed some Wrasse to around 3lb.

I would’ve liked to have arrived a little bit earlier except things didn’t go to plan so we missed out on the Wrasse but I couldn’t help but clip on the Salt Skimmer and have a go at trying to get a fish to come up and smash through the glassy surface. On only my second cast a fish slashed at the lure three times but never hooked up. I instantly thought Bass as I’ve never seen Pollock slash at surface lures but after a few more casts the same happened again and a Pollock was landed. That was a bit of a disappointment as I was hoping it would be some small Schoolies that are often frequent on this mark.

It was getting dark pretty quickly and I was struggling to see the lure at distance as my eye’s certainly haven’t adjusted to the darkness properly yet. This mark normally fishes on the first push of the rising tide and that wasn’t for another 30mins or so… Me and Tim sat down to pass the time, let the darkness settle and hope that the tide turned soon. Meanwhile Blair does not stop fishing and before we knew what was going on he was into a fish and it wasn’t a Pollock!

In the mist of dark and light he pulled out the best Bass of the night and it wasn’t even low tide yet. Me and Tim jumped up and started fishing again full of hope. It was another 10 mins before Blair was in again but this fish smaller than the last. It was pretty much full darkness now and as he landed his fish I sneakily cast into his area. That clear cut tap of a Bass as it hit my 5 inch one up shad was what I had been waiting for and instantly it all came back to me.

Not a big fish but it’s always nice to get the first one out of the way and under your belt. For me I think it’s always the hardest and I didn’t rush out to target them this year as I knew the blanks wouldn’t do me any favours. This had started well and the tide still hadn’t started to push yet. Things went quiet and as me and Tim where chatting Blair kindly pointed out that low was actually at 2215hrs not 2115hrs like I had thought! I read the wrong tide table website and forgot to add the hour! Never mind there was fish and I could only see it getting better.

The wind picked up and the shallow reef that Tim was fishing was getting difficult to fish with the side wind getting ever stronger. I swapped positions with him to give him a better depth of water to work his SP in and switched over to a shallow running HP the Seaspin Coixedda 100 in GLB, a colour I didn’t get to try out very much last year but one I am hoping could be a big success. I started working this right across the shallow reef, probably only a metre or so deep. But fanning my cast across the bay over areas of gullies and patches of string weed that I knew where there. I had to work the lure pretty soon after splash down as it is a slow sinker and retrieved with a slightly quicker retrieve than I would with a soft plastic but just enough to feel the lure working. On one cast at range only a couple turns in I got a solid hit. The rod went solid and then almost instantly light. I wound in as quickly as possible but never felt the fish. As I go it closer it took off again and felt like another fish had hit the lure… surely not. The little guy must have just shot off across the reef and being so shallow only had one way to go rather than down.

I was pleased to land my second of the night and on a new lure in these conditions. I got this fish back in the water without a photo as I was a fair way away from my gear and on an island I had to jump on to. We fished on but it went quiet and the tide still showed no sign of turning yet. We decided to head back as it was getting late. We stopped off at another little bay on the walk back to the cars and I took my third fish of the evening on my first cast with the Coiexdda. We waded out in the shallow water here and I fear that we may have spooked any other fish around. After a couple more chucks we packed it in still happy with the evenings result and only my third proper trip of the new season. I’m just waiting for some good conditions before I bother heading out again.