Bass Fishing, Hastings

Smaller and Lighter for Bigger and Better

Hastings, Sussex, UK.

It's a funny time of year right now, the days notably shorter, a chill in the mornings and the tree leaves beginning to turn red, autumn is setting in, the summer species are still around, and the winter ones are just arriving, at best, recent sessions have had me landing up to 8 different species on very busy nights, and at worst, desolate nights staring at a motionless rod tip till boredom sets in. If I'm honest, I'm getting a little impatient, waiting for the South Westerly winds come and stir the gin clear water into a angry muddy soup for the Cod, well that is hoping they get past the fishing fleets as they been on the missing list a few years now, the signs are good already, but right now it's a little early. 

little rod for a little lad on a perfect day!

My attention on this trip wasn't primarily with fishing, although in hind sight it perhaps should of been. I was on a family day out on the coast, enjoying maybe the last of the nice weather. We ate out, had a train trip, threw stones, played penny slot machines and walked miles, done art work and entered drawing competitions, still waiting to hear if my boy won lol, and yes he drew fishes!!!! I did take a set up with, a travel spinning rod, a replacement for my recently snapped and much loved Sea Bass Special, another Snowbee, this time a Rapter model in the same 10 - 50 gram paired with my Shimano Stradic 5000 loaded with 20lb Power Pro braid, one of my favourite set ups period! but I took this set up for my 2.5 year old boy to catch his first fish, I had about 10 rag worm left over from a previous session and set up with a 2 hook clipped down flapper with 12lb flouro snods for the clear water and size 4 hooks, perfect I though for mackerel, gar fish, plaice, bass or sole, well a 2 years old attention span lasted less than the 10 worms!!! it was high water, the sea was gin clear and with swimmers and god knows what else, made catching a fish very unlikely, unless a shoal of Mackerel came through, they didn't, there were at least 10 others trying with feathers. We left after a hour to enjoy our day.

when going light!

We had a fantastic time, which left us back at the car 5 hours later for low water, and whoa!!! what a difference!! the tide was a fairly big one and revealed more of the beach than I'd seen in a very long time,  the rolling surf was crashing hard and with the stiff south westerly wind the water was stirred up, and had a lot of colour to it! with a setting sun, it was screaming fish. I set up again, and cast out with 2 of the remaining 4 Ragworm I had left, and immediately was having bites, I had helped my little boy reel in a few times, whilst he screaming "fishes!" only to find no fish on the end, he lasted 20mins till the wife took him and his little brother to the car to get out the ever increasing wind, it had been a long day for him. I had just kindly been given some freshly dug Lugworm by the last of the day fishermen on the beach, and the wife gave me the go ahead for a few last casts. I baited up with 2 of the Lugworm and cast it as far as I could with a 2oz pyramid lead on the light rod, the wind was howling now and the bow in the line was massive as it slowly dragged the lead and rig back toward the shore.

size 4 Owner SSW hook doing the biz!

Then there it was, a big double knock and massive slack liner, I reeled in fast to connect with the lead, and gently struck, and BANG!, the rod buckled over into a 90 degree bend and the drag screamed, this initial run must of been about 20 meters, by now I positioned my self precariously on the end of the groin, the fish kited from the right where I was fishing and went down tide to my left, the battle was crazy, the fish was in such shallow water I could see its back breaking the surface, the light rod and reel were superb, the drag smooth as hell, and easily kept a constant pressure on the fish, and the rod kept a nice tight line to the fish as it shock, bounced and swooshed about in the heavy shallow surf. This fight took about 8 minutes! but eventually I slipped the fish on to the beach! YES!!!! it's massive!! NO!!!! but it's on the wrong side of the groin!!, it was about a 14' drop down and I would of had to leave my rod and hope the tide didn't wash the fish back out to sea whilst I run 80 meters up the beach around the groin and back down the other side! I didn't! a moment of madness, saw me pull the fish back into the water by the hook, and I preceded to play it again for maybe for another 2 or 3 minutes, but I managed even with heavy crashing waves to tease it back around the concrete groin, past metal steels and plates covered in old line and rigs, and up the other side onto the beach where I was fishing from. So much could of gone wrong!!! but it didn't!! and just as the fish was slid onto the beach with 12lb line and the tiny hook, it pulled out, but I just calmly jumped into the water and grabbed the fish!!!

a near perfect bar of silver , pure admiration!

put your left foot in, dam that's a big Bass

What a fantastic battle with a beautiful specimen on light gear, a tiny hook and light snod!! where are my scales and tape when I need them!! who cares really, I estimate this fish at around 8lb, what I will remember is the fight, my heart was pounding most the fight as I saw the fish very early on in the fight and I knew it was a good fish. my heart was still pounding as pictures were quickly taken, I didn't think twice about releasing the fish which was quiet difficult in the very shallow surf, wearing my best trainers I took the plunge and walked out about 10 meters into the surf and released the fish. In my haste I managed to delete the picture one of the bystanders from the ever growing crowd took on my phone, leading to me exchanging phone numbers with a stranger just so they could send me the picture on whats app that they actually took for themselves. luckily its not a bad picture! and a big thank you to them!! for the picture, a big thank you to the wife, for the last casts xox , and a big thank you to the lads who passed on the Lugworm. Today was my day!!! my only regret as I stood there with a pounding heart and wet feet, was my little boy missed it all, what I would of loved more in the world, would be giving him that memory, him helping land the fish and being in the picture with his daddy with such a special fish! dam game on! I'm gonna have to do it all again now!! such a shame lol