[Bagpuss]

My first bass trip of the year with my fishing buddy ended in a blank tonight. We were using the 'B' word, frozen peeler & fresh lug, but only a flounder showed any interest in the lug during our two hour trip.
No trip is a total waste & the beach has altered during the winter gales so it was worth it to make notes of the new gullies & exposed stones etc. A nice evening on the beach with god willing many more to come.
The sea temperature here is around 8 Celsius at the minute, so maybe still a little on the cool side, however by this time last year my bait fishing buddy had already landed 19 bass, so a slow start for us this year.

 

[Simon L]

Good effort in getting out Nigel. It's still early yet (for the sea temps this year), but as you say, the beaches have changed over the winter - and it's a good opportunity to relearn them. It wont be long now.

 

[trev richardson]

Hi Nigel,
Are you getting a decent crab moult at the minute??


Is that the Mrs in your signature....nice! .........................Manicure that is.

 

[Bagpuss]

Hi Trev

No sign of a crab moult yet, I was using some of last years crab (frozen).
It's not the missus, although she does have a nice posterior, but not as young as the one in my avatar.

 

[Steve Lewis]

Well done Nigel on getting out, nothing wrong with using bait at this time of year, water temps are an issue at the minute but with the weather changing for the better now it souldn't be to long before they start rising.

 

[Ian Morris]

Hi Trev

No sign of a crab moult yet, I was using some of last years crab (frozen).
It's not the missus, although she does have a nice posterior, but not as young as the one in my avatar.

Many a fine tune eh...;-)
My jury is out over this water temp thing - a mate of mine rang me last night - he lives in Wick(Very North East Scotland) and his mate has been catching bass on lugworm from Dunnet Bay (just up the road from Wick 1/2 way between John O'Groats and Thurso) for the past 2 months. The water temp there is showing 8 degrees, and the night before last he had 17, not big fish but averaging about 2 to 3lb. Not sure how much influence the Gulf Stream has there but the fact theres bass there is very interesting eh? - I have asked my mate to give it a go with the lures, will let you know how he does.
(Big bass are rare there but the best he's had was a 7.8, and his son had a 9 once)

 

[trev richardson]

Ian,
It's might be a case of the temperature effecting the bait fish / crabs in the local areas. I might well be wrong but if there is food around there will usually be fish. The crab moult might be the driving factor in a lot of areas but I doubt if that was the case that far north.

So what were they feeding on???

 

[Ian Morris]

They were taking lugworm bait Trev. I think theres a lot of sandeel up there too. When my mate gets some I'll ask him whats inside them. Yes the crab moult heralds the start of our fishing but looking at it another way, more bass will be caught during this period cos more people are fishing for them. I do agree it must be a combination of factors that gets things moving.

 

[pat connolly]

nigel it cant be much longer.

 

[Bagpuss]

nigel it cant be much longer.

I agree. We are going to go twice a week, weather permitting, I expect to see or hear of bass caught locally within the next few days.

 

[Tim Murphy]

Good one on having a scan Nigel, I hope to get down the North soon.

 

[kevin white]

unfortunately you've gotta get out there mate, you can't catch them sitting on the sofa, well you can if you got that the rapala fishing game i supose.

kev