BASS, BASS AND MORE BASS.....
Recently there has been reports of a lot of smoothound being caught from the Thames shores, especially locally to me at Southend on Sea and Canvey Island. This news gained my interest as i used to love catching smoothounds on the monthly boat fishing trips to Hayling Island that i used to take with the guys from a local boat fishing club i was a member of. The power and speed of this members of the shark family was awesome from the boat so catching one from the shore would be fantastic. After doing my homework i opted to fish the closer of the recommended venues, Southend on Sea. I used to fish of the platforms near the casino many years ago and enjoyed some good sport catching winter species and flatfish as Spring arrived, but i,ve not fished the opposite side of the pier before let alone during the summer. I decided to choose a night time time, 1.30am to be precise, as i didn't really fancy being surrounded by the daytrip brigade.
I arrived just as it was getting dark and walked across the road to the top of sea defence and found i was way too early, the tide was barely across the mud 50 yards out. Oh well thought i, just means i have plenty of time to set up my rods and get myself comfortable before making my first cast. Around half hour later with all rods tackled and ready to go, the water had covered the mud and was slowly creeping up the shingle.
First rod baited, single large ragworm, and whizzed the rig into the darkness as far as i could cast. Followed shortly after by my 2nd distance rod baited the same and then finally my last short range rod baited with squid and ragworm fishing a 2 hook flapper. i like fishing a 3rd rod close in as its surprising what you can pick up doing this. I,d just placed the 3rd rod in the rest when i had a good pull down on the first cast rod. Picking up the rod i felt a little rattle by something on the other end before a nice big thump registered on the rod tip. A quick strike followed by taking up the slack line and whatever was on the other end was gone, oh well at least it showed there was life out there.
Shortly after i had a good rattle on my right hand rod and upon striking i made contact with whatever was chomping on my bait. it turned out to be a little basslet which although small was more than welcomed. The little fella was carefully unhooked and returned to the sea where it strongly swam off to grow bigger. It followed from that point onwards, as the tide grew, that every cast resulted in a bite of one sort or another. Unfortunately as the flood grew stronger the weed started to build up and catch my lines which initially didn't really cause me any problems but by the end of the night was an absolute nightmare causing so much build up on my lines that more than once my rods were nearly being pulled out of the rest, especially if there was a hungry little bass hanging on the end of the line. More small bass paid a visit to the shore throughout the flood but nothing of any size, and definitely none of the smoothounds that i was hoping for.
I carried on using whole ragworm on my distant rods, huge great snake things they were too, whilst alternating between ragworm, squid strip and mackerel strip on the close in rod. All rods were getting bites but the rods fishing at distance were getting the most, and most positive, bites. Most casts had a rattle on the rod tips with every other cast resulting in a small school bass hitting the shingle shoreline. This action carried on to high water but i reckon i missed a lot of the action as the floating weed was starting to cause problems with the rods staying in place. I try to use as small a lead as i can get away with as i find it more comfortable to cast, but the downside is that if you get any weight of weed on the mainline it can trip the lighter leads out of their grip hold.
Just as the tide started to run again i had an almighty thump on my left hand rod and this time the tip pulled down and stayed there as a heavier fish hung on the to the end of my line. Quick wind down and sweep back and it was obvious i was into a better fish. Reeling in i could feel some good thumps from my adversary and thoughts of a nice smoothound were in my mind.m In the surf the fish started to thrash around and then up popped a nice size bass of maybe 3.5lb. I have to admit to being a little disappointed that it wasn't a smoothie but was still chuffed that it was a nice size bass that the missus would enjoy for her dinner. Rebait and recast i was just putting that rod back in the rest when my right hand rod thumped down and the rod butt actually lifted of the ground resulting in the rod balancing almost horizontal in the rod rest. Now this had to be a smoothound i thought as i leant into another heavy weight. Same as before there was some good head shakes and thumps being transmitted through the rod and again in the surf it fought well, even making me loosen the clutch so it could run a little. Thinking a small shark was about to pop its head out of the foaming water any time soon i was a bit surprised when an even bigger bass, the the previous one, beached itself upside of me a little. This one was a really nice size of maybe 5lb in weight and again i was a little disappointed it wasn't a smoothound but happy at the size of this bar of silver.
Shortly after this fish the weed got so bad that i decided to call it a night and head of home, it was after all 2.20am and i was beginning to feel a bit tired and my legs were knackered from walking upland down the shingle. Even when i reeled the rods in there was a little bass hanging on the end of two of them. So in the end i must of caught 15 or more bass in 4 hours of fishing including two good size ones of 3.5lb and 5lb, i didn't weigh them, unfortunately i didn't manage to land my actual target fish but i thoroughly enjoyed trying to catch one.
Next time maybe....
The 2 largest bass i caught
sitting on the chopping board ready to be prepared. De-scaled, heads off, tails off, fins snipped off and obviously gutted.
A few cuts were made in the body then i made a marinade of rapeseed oil, 1 whole lemon juiced, a little salt and black pepper and a good pinch of thyme freshly picked from my garden, and then spread this all over the fish making sure it got into the cuts nicely. The used lemon was then just chopped up and placed around the fish as well as a couple bits in the cavity. Popped it in tan oven covered for 10 mins then uncovered it and cooked for a further 30 mins.
The flesh was delicate and flakey with the skin being a little crispy. The herbs and lemon added a nice subtle flavour to the fish without overpowering it. Served up with broccoli, french beans and minty new potatoes. It went down a treat with missus and she's told me to go catch some more.
REEESSUULLTTT........
I arrived just as it was getting dark and walked across the road to the top of sea defence and found i was way too early, the tide was barely across the mud 50 yards out. Oh well thought i, just means i have plenty of time to set up my rods and get myself comfortable before making my first cast. Around half hour later with all rods tackled and ready to go, the water had covered the mud and was slowly creeping up the shingle.
Shortly after i had a good rattle on my right hand rod and upon striking i made contact with whatever was chomping on my bait. it turned out to be a little basslet which although small was more than welcomed. The little fella was carefully unhooked and returned to the sea where it strongly swam off to grow bigger. It followed from that point onwards, as the tide grew, that every cast resulted in a bite of one sort or another. Unfortunately as the flood grew stronger the weed started to build up and catch my lines which initially didn't really cause me any problems but by the end of the night was an absolute nightmare causing so much build up on my lines that more than once my rods were nearly being pulled out of the rest, especially if there was a hungry little bass hanging on the end of the line. More small bass paid a visit to the shore throughout the flood but nothing of any size, and definitely none of the smoothounds that i was hoping for.
Just as the tide started to run again i had an almighty thump on my left hand rod and this time the tip pulled down and stayed there as a heavier fish hung on the to the end of my line. Quick wind down and sweep back and it was obvious i was into a better fish. Reeling in i could feel some good thumps from my adversary and thoughts of a nice smoothound were in my mind.m In the surf the fish started to thrash around and then up popped a nice size bass of maybe 3.5lb. I have to admit to being a little disappointed that it wasn't a smoothie but was still chuffed that it was a nice size bass that the missus would enjoy for her dinner. Rebait and recast i was just putting that rod back in the rest when my right hand rod thumped down and the rod butt actually lifted of the ground resulting in the rod balancing almost horizontal in the rod rest. Now this had to be a smoothound i thought as i leant into another heavy weight. Same as before there was some good head shakes and thumps being transmitted through the rod and again in the surf it fought well, even making me loosen the clutch so it could run a little. Thinking a small shark was about to pop its head out of the foaming water any time soon i was a bit surprised when an even bigger bass, the the previous one, beached itself upside of me a little. This one was a really nice size of maybe 5lb in weight and again i was a little disappointed it wasn't a smoothound but happy at the size of this bar of silver.
Shortly after this fish the weed got so bad that i decided to call it a night and head of home, it was after all 2.20am and i was beginning to feel a bit tired and my legs were knackered from walking upland down the shingle. Even when i reeled the rods in there was a little bass hanging on the end of two of them. So in the end i must of caught 15 or more bass in 4 hours of fishing including two good size ones of 3.5lb and 5lb, i didn't weigh them, unfortunately i didn't manage to land my actual target fish but i thoroughly enjoyed trying to catch one.
Next time maybe....
The 2 largest bass i caught
sitting on the chopping board ready to be prepared. De-scaled, heads off, tails off, fins snipped off and obviously gutted.
A few cuts were made in the body then i made a marinade of rapeseed oil, 1 whole lemon juiced, a little salt and black pepper and a good pinch of thyme freshly picked from my garden, and then spread this all over the fish making sure it got into the cuts nicely. The used lemon was then just chopped up and placed around the fish as well as a couple bits in the cavity. Popped it in tan oven covered for 10 mins then uncovered it and cooked for a further 30 mins.
REEESSUULLTTT........
Comments
Post a Comment