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The wind having calmed overnight and a flooding tide over the dawn period. I thought I’d sneak in a short early morning bass trip.
Left home at 0420 hrs and after half an hour drive reached my destination on the north Pembrokeshire coast. A short moonlit walk along the beach to my chosen spot, I then waded through the first gully onto a small sand bar about 30 yards out. Conditions looked perfect.
I started with a feed shallow, which didn’t get a touch. Having thought I could hear some splashing a little way out in the darkness, I decided to change to a Patchinko which I blasted out as far as I could in the direction of what I thought I had heard. Still nothing. The water level in the gully was rising so I left the sand bar and headed back towards the shore. The darkness slowly lifted and I decided to switch lures again. I had just clipped on my favourite sammy when I noticed a series of swirls in the gully about 20 yards to my right. I feverishly cast over the top and started to work the lure towards the activity. In the gloom as my lure approached the action, there suddenly appeared this bow wave reminiscent of a ww2 torpedo. For a split second I envisaged a monster bass grabbing my Sammy. Not to be, as the rather happy looking face of a seal that had just eaten my targeted, not so large bass, appeared above the surface. With a quick glance at me and before I could utter even a mild expletive the glutton was off in search of more.
I cast the other way up the gully and worked the Sammy back, just on the inside of the sand bar that I had been standing on a short while earlier. After about 10 twitches the lure was hit hard with an immediate hook up of a solid feeling fish. At last! The fish put up some spirited resistance, it tired a little and I managed to get it gliding towards me in defeat when suddenly the enormous bow wave appeared again heading straight at my tired captive with me a short distance the other side. Reeling in like my life depended on it, I got what must have been a very bewildered bass up on the plane. This I think confused the opposition, either that or it got close enough to catch a whiff of my waders forcing it to surface about 10 yards from me. It wallowed glaring at me as I unhooked a beautiful bass of about 50 cm in length.
The seal resumed its hunt and I made sure my bass was fully revived before releasing it back to the war zone.
There followed 40 or so golden minutes during which I was moving fish on virtually every cast. The seal was still occasionally visible about 100yds out. I finished my little session with eight fish to hand all released and I was back home by 0830 hrs.
Maybe we should look for seals to direct us to good fishing.
Left home at 0420 hrs and after half an hour drive reached my destination on the north Pembrokeshire coast. A short moonlit walk along the beach to my chosen spot, I then waded through the first gully onto a small sand bar about 30 yards out. Conditions looked perfect.
I started with a feed shallow, which didn’t get a touch. Having thought I could hear some splashing a little way out in the darkness, I decided to change to a Patchinko which I blasted out as far as I could in the direction of what I thought I had heard. Still nothing. The water level in the gully was rising so I left the sand bar and headed back towards the shore. The darkness slowly lifted and I decided to switch lures again. I had just clipped on my favourite sammy when I noticed a series of swirls in the gully about 20 yards to my right. I feverishly cast over the top and started to work the lure towards the activity. In the gloom as my lure approached the action, there suddenly appeared this bow wave reminiscent of a ww2 torpedo. For a split second I envisaged a monster bass grabbing my Sammy. Not to be, as the rather happy looking face of a seal that had just eaten my targeted, not so large bass, appeared above the surface. With a quick glance at me and before I could utter even a mild expletive the glutton was off in search of more.
I cast the other way up the gully and worked the Sammy back, just on the inside of the sand bar that I had been standing on a short while earlier. After about 10 twitches the lure was hit hard with an immediate hook up of a solid feeling fish. At last! The fish put up some spirited resistance, it tired a little and I managed to get it gliding towards me in defeat when suddenly the enormous bow wave appeared again heading straight at my tired captive with me a short distance the other side. Reeling in like my life depended on it, I got what must have been a very bewildered bass up on the plane. This I think confused the opposition, either that or it got close enough to catch a whiff of my waders forcing it to surface about 10 yards from me. It wallowed glaring at me as I unhooked a beautiful bass of about 50 cm in length.
The seal resumed its hunt and I made sure my bass was fully revived before releasing it back to the war zone.
There followed 40 or so golden minutes during which I was moving fish on virtually every cast. The seal was still occasionally visible about 100yds out. I finished my little session with eight fish to hand all released and I was back home by 0830 hrs.
Maybe we should look for seals to direct us to good fishing.