Bass Fishing, Hastings Beach, Hastings

England v Germany

Hastings Beach, Rock-a-Noir Parade, Hasting, East Sussex. TN34, UK

Typical English bank holiday weather!

Easter bank holiday, my partners German brother and girlfriend were staying over for a week, a hotel booked in Hastings, what could go wrong????? That's right! The weather! OMG! now I know that its a given that bank holiday equals bad weather, but even this was extreme, We arrived at 8am on Sunday to torrential rain mixed with marble sized hail stones and gales force winds with gust of 50mph, As I parked the van, I looked at the sea and knew there was no way of fishing, The surf was too big, the wind was way too strong, and to top if off the hail stones bloody hurt, So we spent the day darting in and out of various restaurants, museums and arcades, and systematically on the hour, every hour checking the forecast for a break in the weather, hoping for the best. Our planned night fishing fell on its face as well, the weather stayed the same through out the night, and combined with the big spring tide the surf was actually hitting the road, which made fishing from my hotel window now possible, but I couldn't as I needed both hands to hold the window because the wind would of ripped it off its hinges, so I just watched the storm with ore, and dreamt of fish.

The morning after

I woke up far too early, went straight to the window and opened the curtains to check the weather, I do it every time I go fishing. Its the excitement, "fishing fever" as Sarah calls it. And what a change! the sun was beaming through the curtains, I looked out to whispering clouds dotting a bright blue sky, with the low tide and big surf! I thought bass! I'd heard rumours that they had started showing, and I knew the fishing should be better after a big blow, but was the blow too big? there was only one way to find out. I woke the other camp in the room next door and before we knew it, we were all drinking coffee and eating bacon rolls with our rods in the water.

Great surf for a bass

Myself and Emil had Shakespeare 11'6" Salt extreme bass rods, with Shakespeare Salt Surf reels loaded with 15lb Ultima Power Braid each, whilst Sarah opted for Spinning with A Shakespeare 9" Ugly Stik Lite rod with a Shakespeare 035 front drag Mach 3 reel, A small,  but very strong, light and extremely well made reel, which was loaded with 10lb fox soft steel mono. The rigs were standard 2 clip down, size 2 hooks, 6 oz breakaway leads. and we had plenty of fresh lug and squid, with a few mackerel.

Fresh lug worm, Top all round bait!

Ive not used braid sea fishing before and was keen to see if it made a big difference to my casting, my first cast and I spooled out!!!! What the hell! that's about 180m of line in the sea and none left on the reel. Then the penny dropped! I didn't see the lead hit the sea but then I realised that it was the gigantic bow in the line caused by the strong wind which had taken all the line, later casts were at best in the windy conditions reaching maybe 60m being cast hard and low with some heavy feathering to keep the line as straight as possible , but this wasn't the time to test fishing lines although my first impression was good, it reeled in a lot smoother than mono and flew silently of the spool.

Aka "the match rig"

Low tide was very quite bite wise, but then 2 hours into the flooding tide they started coming thick and fast, Mainly Whiting and Rockling, I really hate Rockling, the little buggers have got such a tough jaw and usually swallow the hook into their tiny mouths making unhooking them a absolute nightmare and eventually leaving you with a bent and twisted Aberdeen hook that needs replacing! Then my German counterpart hit his first bite and landed a small Dogfish,  whilst my unhooking nightmare just continued, as I landed an Eel. Emile realised that because I was casting further than him I was getting more bites. I then watched as he launched a lead with all his might, 20 degrees straight up at the sky, I panicked for a second as I gauged where the lead would land in the strong wind, thankfully I was about right, it hit the sea about 30m in front of us, he looked at me as if to say that was a big cast, and believe me it was!. I stuck my thumbs up and smiled at him, although I didn't think he had a clue where he actually cast, I knew he had casted just behind the first breaker into bass territory. I was happy for him to leave it there because I was aching to try close in for bass, but the bites were coming further out, and fishing with one rod didn't give me the option to do both. He then asked me to look after his rod saying "If I fish over there with Sarah, I will get a bite!" he took the spare spinning rod and joined his sister in spinning for bass with Dexter wedges and spoons off the groin. It was nice to see them chatting and spending time together, as they don't get to see each other very often.

Here Bassy Bass

 He had only been gone 5 minutes then I watched his rod tip slam down violently! I hadn't seen a bite like this beach casting since the summer, it went again so violently that the rod lifted up into the air and pivoted on the tripod. I grabbed the rod butt just before it came crashing down on the stones. I didn't need to strike, and the braid fishing line meant I could feel a fish fighting straight away, It felt a lot bigger than the other fish, I shouted and screamed relentlessly at Emil and Sarah to get their attention, but the wind made my screams fall silent, I watched them obliviously fishing no more than 15m away as I played the fish. By now it was close in and I concentrated my efforts to beach the fish in the very rough surf, rather than shouting. It was a lot smaller than I thought for the fight and violent bite, but it was a bass and the best fish I've really caught beach fishing so far this year. Me and Emil shook hands and agreed that it was an joint English/German catch, I was just happy to see a Bass!.

I'm a Dab hand!! lol

I managed to catch even more annoying Rocklings, a few Dabs, and even a plate sized Flounder before the bites dried out just before high tide. To be honest, even though it was fairly sunny it was very cold and the wind made it even colder and I was ready to leave. It had been a good session and I hoped that Emil would remember his English fishing trip with a smile, and why wouldn't he? between us we had landed about 25 fish, 7 species and 4 keepers for dinner, which was more than enough to make the previous day and night wash out a distant memory. I've usually had good fishing at Hastings, and this was perhaphs one of the best, but god am I looking forward to some warm weather, please hurry up summer!