30/08/2013 a PB Bass and a lost monster

Launched at Dawn today 2nd day running into a nice clear calm sea but with the wind forecast to pick up a quick dash out to my marks resulted in a few Coalies to 2lb and then whilst over the Kelp it was non stop Pollack action mainly small fish but had one fish that was around 6lb that looked perfect filleting size but as I reached for my pliers to unhook it in the net it threw itself back in leaving the trebles in my net!


After that slight disappointment and a few greedy Mackerel hitting the plugs I had 2 decent fish kelp me one after the other and lost my favourite pink headed yo- zuri too!
Switched to another pattern Yo-Zuri and was soon attached to a fish of awesome power I couldnt do a thing with it after smoking the drag for quite some time with nothing I could do to control it I felt the horrible feeling of it entering the kelp beds gutted to lose it without even seeing it but amazing to feel the power of which I presume was a very nice Pollack

I managed a few more 3-4lb fish and countless smaller ones before being kelped yet again with the wind increased now I managed to get the Kayak over the top of the kelped fish and could feel it bumping now and again so knew I was still attached  I was getting blown around and needed to get the rod to the right hand side of the Kayak as I was drifting away from the fish with the rod on the wrong side so let some line off and tried to pass the line over the bow where it promptly tangled with the drain bungs  so I was effectively anchore from the very tip of the bow after a few minutes of trying to get free it was time to get wet so off the yak quick swim to the bow untangle and reboard the fully rigged kayak 2 rods landing net and so on but this is exactly why its good to practice this kind of thing

Ended up pulling for a break but managed to get the lure back but sadly the fish had long gone.
After that I switched to a deeper diving Rapala and after a few more Pollack I was heading into some shallow water less than 5ft so stopped paddling to reel in the lure to prevent it snagging but as always gave it a few twitches on the retrieve when the rod banged round at first I thought it was the rock edge  but then it went mad with a big eruption on the surface and violent head shakes at first I thought it was a Salmon or sea trout as they often fight likewise up on the surface but after a while I could see the shape and spikey fins of a nice Bass so out with the net and scooped him up first time I knew straight away it was my best Bass yet and would have just unhooked it and released it but it had engulfed the lure and was hard work getting it out without damaging the fish so took it home for the pan and when weighed on the beach it went 4lb 14oz well chuffed


The wind was now increasing again so decided to call it a day and paddle/troll back in had to keep checking with the pot buoys that I was making headway against the wind quite a slog and after a few more Pollack interupting me and drifting further offshore whilst unhooking them packed the rods away and slogged on to the beach
A great little session and result and a few fish for the freezer


Andy