Well since it is going to be another little while before I get out fishing and put up my first report blog entry for 2012, I thought I would add one or two historical reports from the Summer / Autumn of 2011. First up is a report of what remains my best ever lure fishing session, when I was lucky enough to land 10 silver fellas last August, here is that old report…
I’d had a few blanks when targetting bass in recent weeks, but figured I’d give it another go. The weather cleared to dry in late afternoon and with a rising neap high tide into darkness and light westerly winds, the conditions seemed decent.
Bass #1 @ 52cm, 4lb
I arrived at the mark at 18.30 and was fishing 15 minutes later. Water clarity was decent, with a little bit of murkiness after the daytime rain and there was some floating weed but nothing too bad. There was a also nice bit of swell coming in stirring up the water. After fishing 10minutes I switched to a Feed Shallow lure, and had a follow right to my feet on the first cast, this gave me some confidence at least to see that there were some fish around. I continued with the Feed Shallow but had no interest and didn’t see any more follows, so switched to the soft plastics and tried a weedless Slug-go for some time, still nothing. I then moved onto a different spot and had one more follow on a Feed Shallow but the fish still seemed reluctant to take anything.
After another while I moved back to first spot and finally had a take on the Feed Shallow, I connected with the fish about 30yards out and then the fish slack lined me, swimming fast towards me. I managed to connect again, and then he took off towards the right. After some coaxing the fish turned and was safely landed shortly after, a nice 52cm bass coming in at 4lb, quick photo and returned to sea.
Bass #2 @ 61cm, 4-5lb
I continued to fish the same spot for some more time but had no more follows or takes, so I decided to take a walk to another area. Again, on my first cast I had a follow (on the Feed Shallow), and after that nothing for 20 minutes so I moved on again.
The sun had set by now, with twilight and a quarter moon shining there was still plenty of light. I was fishing a pebbley beach area and cast out, started retrieving and bang fish on when the lure was just 4 yards from where I stood. Unforuntately I lost the fish after just a few seconds. I immediately cast again, and two casts later bang fish on, again really close to the shore. This fish was not lost and was landed after some line stripping, a lovely 61cm fish maybe between 4 and 5 pounds, it looked a bit skinny for its length.
I knew at this stage I was into something, maybe a small shoal which were actively feeding. I noticed a line of washed up kelp/weed just a few metres above the waterline and believe the fish were feeding on small bits of food being washed back down to them from the kelp by the backwash of the waves – and they were waiting just below the waterline.
I cast out again, and connected with but lost another fish close to shore. 5 minutes later I landed another nice fish, approx 56cm, maybe 4lb in weight. I was beginning to enter cloud cuckoo land and things became a bit blurry after this.. I won’t go through all the details but over the next hour and a bit I landed another 7 bass and lost another one or two. I’m still buzzing from it, I think it will be many a year before I experience a session like it again. Photos of some of the fish below, all taken on mobile phone 
Bass #3
Bass #4
Bass #5
Bass #6
Bass #7
Bass #8
Every fish was taken on a Feed Shallow, 9 out of 10 fish were safely returned (one fish was badly damaged from foul hooking so was dispatched and kept), about 2 or 3 fish were schoolies around 2lb weight, but the remainder were upwards of 4lb with the best fish at 6lb – a new personal best. The brilliant Feed Shallow came through again, but to be honest I believe that if I had switched to another lure when I was into the shoal its likely it would also have caught fish – but if its not broken… I decided to pack it in just before high tide when I reached the magic number of 10 bass, if I had stayed there may have been a few more but 10 was more than enough for me – my previous best was 3 bass in one session.. Up to this bonanza I had a grand total of 5 bass this year, now it has tripled up to 15 
Happy days!
Edit: I returned to the mark the following night and fished the same state of the tide at the same spot, hopeful some fish would show again but didn’t have a single fish, bass fishing is a funny old game..
Fishy Tales 