The Catch Chat page on the BASS Forum is currently one of the most active as, even this late in the year, members are catching fish; and some nice ones too. In fact, with the fairly uncooperative weather we’ve had during 2012 November could possibly become one of the best months.
BASS Treasurer Clive Hodges started the month off with a couple of small fish from a south coast beach. Collecting his bait from the shoreline on arrival at his chosen venue it actually took longer to collect enough bait (slipper limpet) than it took to catch his bass. Three bites from a one hour feeding session produced two fish.
Next up . . . Jeff Smith had a nice fish of 10lb 4oz on a big cuttle bait; he remarked that it was almost exactly a year on from taking a similar decent bass from the same spot and on the same method.
Simon Lewis is based in France and had a lovely fish of 7lbs on the 9th November. The fish took a soft plastic at last light. On the 10th November Simon’s reporting in again . . . at dawn he’d gone back to the mark that produced his 7lber and had two 5lb’ers and a 6lb’er; again on soft plastics. But . . . there’s more, in fact, another two on the 11th November.
PJ was out on his boat the same day and found some birds working over bait . . . unfortunately it was the tail end of a ‘bust-up’ . . . but he still got a dozen fish to 3lbs. Simon Lewis was out again before first light (he did remark . . . ‘wearily!’) but his dedication was rewarded with another brace of bass the best going 8lbs.
LE managed to squeeze in a half days fishing out on his boat. Bait was in short supply but he still managed to: ‘winkle out eight or nine bass around the six to eight pounds mark”. On the 15th it was too rough for the boat but Laurence popped out for an hour or so on the beach; he remarked ‘Nothing big, a dozen or so schoolies to show for my efforts . . . but great fun all the same.’
Clive Hodges has been playing around with soft plastics (Ooooh, er’ missus!) this year and acknowledged the helpful advice he’s received from other anglers regarding the methods to employ. Out on his boat he put the advice, and the experience he’s had using plastics this year, to good use. Over the course of the day he boated eight bass seven between 2lb 8oz and 7lbs . . . but the eighth went 14lb 2oz. As he commented, even without the big one, he’d have been happy with the other fish for a November trip.
Clive’s brother Kim was out on Sunday the 18th and had a 12lb 12oz and a 9lb 3oz.
But the fish haven’t just been ‘dahn saaaf’ . . . quite a bit further north Nigel Fairclough is still picking up fish as is evidenced by the 4lb’er below taken on a pearly savage gear sandeel.
Evidently fed-up with catching bass, Simon Lewis hooked what he thought was going to be a big bass . . . but on getting it to the surface it turned out to be something quite different. Unfortunately just as he was guiding it to a safe landing area the fish ‘thrashed’ and the hook pulled. On checking some images on his return home the nearest match was a Gilthead Bream. Simon estimated the fish at around 6-8lbs.
A little later in the month, somewhere in deepest, darkest Dorset Julian Fox and Matt Spence had a good day:
Matt and I made it down to Dorset on Sunday to fish a cold but sunny tide. I’m not sure how many we had, but Matt was wearing those pants again so he had about 8 or 9 or so and I had about half a dozen. As it was nearly winter the usual dodgy hat was in evidence. No size to the fish really, but of course Matt had the biggest.
Back ‘Ooop North’, on the 21st Nov, Nigel Fairclough took some pics of a 3lb(ish) bass caught by fellow BASS member Nick Robson.
Over in Jersey Alan Aubert and Derek Buesnel managed to get out on Derek’s boat . . . they had less than three hours fishing but managed fifteen bass to 5lbs.