Back to bait - 2nd & 3rd July 2012

After a few fruitless lure session last week and over the weekend I decided to return to bait fishing.

2nd July:  All I had for bait was frozen razor but throught I would give it a go as I did not have time to dig fresh bait earlier in the day. I headed to a beach which produced a couple of nice bass two weeks ago and would be fishing much the same stage of the tide. There was a good surf and low cloud totally blocked out the full moon so I was hopefully of getting a few bass.

These was a lot of fine weed in the surf close to the shore so I had to cast out further than I would have liked. Shortly after setting up I had a good knock on one of the rods, at first I was convinced it was a bass since it was pulling strongly but as I retrieved the fight weakened. A few minutes later I hauled a large dogfish out of the surf. That was followed by a rather plump coalfish. I have never caught coalfish in July from that beach - probably an indication of how cold the water is, well below the average July sea temperature.

As the tide began to push in more strongly I had another dogfish. Again it was a large one which fought well and had me thinking it was a bass until I had it on the beach.

Another coalfish followed. Then I had a sharp tug on one of the rods, I picked it up and could feel a strong fish on the end. It was pulling hard so I knew it was definitely not a dogfish. As I got it in close I could see a good fish splashing about in the surf and was sure it was a bass until I had it on the beach - it was a Bull Huss!!

That was a bit of a surprise, I have never caught one on this beach before and dont think I have heard of one been caught there either.

I fished on for a bit longer but had no more bites so packed up about half an hour later.

3rd July:  I dug some rag worms at lunch time and that night returned to the same beach but fished a different location further to the west. The surf was much weaker compared to the previous night but it was relatively weed free. I cast out one rod and was setting up a second when I spotted some tugs on the first. I struck and began to retrieve. I could tell from the way the initial fight died off that this was another dogfish.

Another two dogfish followed. Then I had a fish which was putting up a much better fight. This must be a bass I thought - but I was wrong - it was another Bull Huss, smaller than the one I had the previous night.

The tide began to push in after that but there were no more bites. I fished for about another two hours with only a few gentle nibbles which were probably small fish pulling on the bait.