Bass on bait - 9th October 2011

Bass have been illusive on lures for me over the last few weeks so I decided to have a bait session after dark. I headed to a beach that has produced bass on an ebbing tide in the past. I arrived on the shore at about 9.15 pm. There was a moderate surf and the beach was weed free. I set the first rod up and baited a 4/0 pennel pulley with crab. While I was setting up the second rod I noticed a twitch on the first. I picked it up and felt a gentle tug, struck and hooked into a reasonably strong fish. A few minutes later I hauled a 46 cm bass on to the sand. That was a good start so I was hopeful of a great session.

About 15-20 minutes later I spotted another knock on the same rod. This was not putting up much of a fight in comparison to the first fish. It was a 38 cm bass.

A little later I had a dogfish on the second rod followed shortly by another smaller dog on the first rod.

It then went dead for two hours over low tide. The fishing only began to pick up when the tide started to push in more strongly. First fish was an average shore-size coalfish followed by two more dogfish. The last dogfish was a big one and I was convinced it was a bass until I hauled it out of the surf and saw it twisting sideways on the sand. I decided to pack up after that.

The night had not lived up to my initial expectations but two bass, four dogfish and a coalfish is not the worst session I have ever had. All fish were taken on 4/0 pennel pulleys baited with fresh peeler crab.