Words & images by Mathew Rickard, Guideline Ambassador UK.
It’s been a funny old season with the winter been one of the wettest for a long time to one of the hottest summers on record. The first part of the season seemed to be ok, the water temperature was rising steadily and a few fish were moving in. This was my first of the season and things were looking good. A perfect evening and lovely plump bass.
A few weeks later I had the company of Jim curry. Who has never bass fished before and as it happens he has one albeit on the small side but certainly great sport on the fly.
With the weather heating up brought my first clients up for a fish. I knew it was going to be hard fishing as it had been settled for too long and too warm. By now the water temperature was way above average and had a big impact on bass. But as they say, if your line ain’t in the water you ain’t going to catch. So off we went to our first mark and we had absolutely nothing. Time for a change of plan.
So we headed 5 miles south to known estuary and decided it was best fished on the ebb tide. We fished for a good mile down to sea without a sniff. By now I was getting a little worried but I had a plan. I knew an area where there is a lot of undertow etc this has to be the place to get a few as the tide was now nearly at its lowest. Low and behold we had 8 fish one after another up to 7 lbs. Phew, I could rest a little after seeing big smiles on my clients faces.
Well the weather carried on getting hotter and hotter making the bass very temperamental, they were in big numbers one and nothing the next. When the fish were on it was crazy. I think we had 80 fish the one particular night, nothing big but all on the fly. I even managed to get out with big Dave Parkes on his boat. Even that was hard work trying to locate the fish.
By now the weather had started to take a turn for the worse. Fresh water running in from the rivers and the wind been relentless for days. I did managed to get out a couple of times which resulted in nothing but that’s fishing. It’s just great to be in the outdoors. It’s all about the experience. Still there is time yet for some more action before the season is over once again and I’m sure we will get into some bigger fish.