Bass at Sea
Mega day afloat on the good ship Drifter. We set out without a plan, hoping the birds would help us out. It was beautifully calm when we set off a little after 8am. We didn’t need to go far! As we scanned our first mark with the polaroids we spotted a few fish busting up the surface as the first run of the flood pushed baitfish up over an underwater obstacle.

With the fish high in the water it was nice to put the weedless rigs away and get stuck into the awesome hooking power of a jighead. My 3-inch Reins paddletail got nailed first or second cast and a spirited little Bass came to the side of the boat after a scrap befitting of a much larger fish. A healthy fish. Continuing on without a plan we followed the fish all morning from mark to mark, as I assume, the bait got pushed off the last by the growing tide. We had great fun catching Bass to 2lb and the odd Mackerel when we drifted away from the school of Bass. LRF tackle certainly does have a place on the boat at the right time. It was the perfect way to fish today. With the fish high in the water I didn’t go heavier than a 2.5g jighead.

Occasionally we’d get lured away from a shoal of fish by a bigger flock of birds in the distance and the hope of an older year class of fish. Sadly we didn’t find the latter today, but as we progressed we found ourselves amongst a huge shoal of Bass on the surface. A HUGE shoal! Epic!!!

When you sped a lure through them, you’d get at least 4 or 5 fish follow you and sometimes up to 10! The way you didn’t catch one was if a fish nipped at the tail of the lure and ruined its position on the jighead – and therefore the action. When you did hook a Bass, far from it spooking the rest, it seemed to draw even more in. It wasn’t uncommon to see a big shoal of fish chasing a hooked fish. Amazing to see.

I’ve never seen anything like it. Wall to wall bass. The fish were on it! I don’t think there was too much skill involved in our haul of 30-ish fish, but it was fun all the same and we took great delight in watching the spectacle develop and seeing nature winning for a change. Goes without saying that we put all our fish back to grow into PBs.

Encouraging for future seasons.