A text message from BigMac, "Can you be at Ribs Marine for 5 tonight"
Some hope! I had an appointment with the Doc to sort out a dodgy shoulder caused by reeling in too many large fish and couldn't get there until oooh 5 past!
As it happens I managed to make it there bang on 5, slightly guilty for not going back to the office (NOT) and the guys from Aquafresh invited me onboard.
Joining the crew was a good friend and fairly well known charter skipper (sworn to secrecy and can't say anymore) and so it was the four of us headed off in a Southerly direction. Well we would have done, but the engine wouldn't start.
After five minutes of hunting around for the cause it dawned that Rupert had been tinckering with the starter motor. With hands the size of JCB shovels he hadn't tightened up the final and vital wire to the starter motor so after a moments fumbling the big Mercruiser thundered into life and we headed off.
I enjoyed the trip out of Christchurch as I had never fished from here before and all the stories of the dreaded bar had sent chills up my spine.
Bunch of pussies! It was beautiful, can't see what all the fuss is about!
Alan opened up the throttle and after sending Rupert up into the forecabin Aquafresh jumped onto the plane and we headed to the Ledge to try for bait at a rapid 30mph. Aquafresh is a nice boat, admittedly it was all but flat out there, but the four of us barely had to hold on over the "cobble stones" in the tiny bit of race between Hengistbury and the Ledge. She is a good work horse with plenty of room for 4 anglers and all their gear. Amongst other things, she boats the biggest live bait drum I have ever seen in my life which kinda of filled me with a sense of confidence about the evenings couple of hours....
.... some hope! The Ledge produced one Mackerel. The time of the tide was drawing near for our Bass session and we had four anglers and just one bait between us! Undeterred we headed to just beyond the Needles to try for bait one more time and as our "Mystery Skipper" (think of "The Stig" on Top Gear) opened up the throttle.... nothing happened. Well very little anyway. The boys little girl diudn't sound poorly, but she refused to rev hard and just wouldn't let herself get up and go. Myself and "The Skipper" exchanged views about the extra weight, the trim of the boat and various other technical possibilities and Rupert simply opened up the engine cover to discover a rather grubby air filter. Quick clean off and we are bombing along again at warp speed.
Back to the fishing. What fishing! No Mackerel at the first spot, none at the next and then Alan got one, then it was my turn and then "The Skippers".
We most certainly were not bagging up, but over the next 20 minutes we managed to put a dozen or so in the live well. Now these weren't Joey's they were full on grown up Mackerel which I eyed with a level of suspicion as to how something as much as 35cm long was possibly going to be swallowed by a Bass.
It was quite amusing. Three of us had short strings of feathers on and were steadily picking up a Mackerel here or there. Rupert on the other hand was struggling, I have no idea how many hooks he had on, but he must have spanned the whole 15m water column and he still failed to get one.
"Enough's enough" exclaimed Rupert, "The Mackereling is pants, let's go FISHING".
With that he hit a string full and once they were unhooked and in the well we headed to the mythical Bass grounds that I had heard so much about, but never fished.
My Bassing has been fairly limited to catching them on lures around the marina and over wrecks in 200 feet so this was a whole new experience.
The tackle employed was a medium spinning rod, baitrunner reel loaded with braid and topped off with a heavish leader of "exactly" ten metres. The leader needed to be exactly 10 metres as we were then to fish live Mackerel on small trebles, flourocarbon hooklengths and large sliding floats in depths up to 10 metres.
"The Skipper" set up our first drift over a mixed run of banks, rocky pinnacles and a couple of small wrecks. Nothing...
The next few drifts produced nothing apart from a few sets of lost gear after a very brief adrenalin rush as the float dived under by an unseen fish that turned out to be the snaggy bottom.
About an hour past and as the tide eased Rupert hooked into one. I think I was the most elated out of everyone as I was a Bass Virgin to this technique and finally seeing it work was a revelation. After a brief struggle a nice fish of about 3lb lay in the net.
Next it was my turn to get a bite. The float sailed away and I rushed it. Bu@@er!
Up it popped. Then it went again and I rushed it again and felt the brief thump thump thump of a good fish before being left with a rather unhappy and less than lively bait and nothing else.
The next 20 minutes or so produced zippo so we shot off to get some more bait and this time they were much more oblidging. After 5 minuets and a few string fulls we headed back for the start of the flood tide.
First drift and I am in! The fish didn't do a lot after taking the bait some 30 metres downtide of the boat. It just hung there, nodding slightly. As we caught up with it I got it fairly easily to the surface and we drifted on past her lare in the reef. At this point she decided she was rather unhappy with me and proceeded to head under the boat at very high speed. The grating, crunching feeling was being sent up my line and through my rod as she chaffed the udnerside of the boat so a bit of morris dancing stroke knitting as I dug the rod deep into the water to clear the leg of the engine and went underneath the rods of the others to join my fish on the uptide side. She was powerful. I have caught a number of Bass to double figures, but always later in the year. I had heard these early Summer fish fought hard and I can assure you it is true. She steemed off under hard pressure from the drag, but eventually I began to win and she swam towards me gathering her breath. As the fish neared the surface "The Skipper" said, "if she is a good one she'll dive again now," and right on cue she headed back for the depths one more time. A moment or two later a gleaming bar of silver lay on the surface to be netted. It was a weird sensation. I was over the moon at succeeding, but really quite disappointed too. My first Bass to this method, which fought harder than any Bass I have ever caught (and I have had some good ones). I felt sure she would be a monster, but she was just 6lb, maybe 7.
After a few handshakes all round and the next drift was set-up I began to get over the disappointment of the size and realise what a great fish she was.
She was my first of the night and only one for that matter and before we went I had decided to keep my first unless it was a real lunker. In a way, I wish I had put her back, she deserved it after fighting so hard, but she will be very much enjoyed and on the kitchen scales at home she went 1oz over 7lb.
The boys caught a few more smallish fish in the 3lb bracket, but they claimed it was very slow by normal standards. A quick check of conditions and although the tides were perfect, the wind had some East in it, the water was very coloured and the air pressure was slightly down than of late. Maybe that was the cause of a fairly quiet session.
I loved every minute of it and felt very privelaged to have been invited to join Rupert, Alan and "The Skipper".
Thanks Guys! I hope you will let me join you again sometime soon.
One final point. We got back to the mooring in pitch dark just before 10:30. The harbour is full of winding turns and back creeks. Now as we snuck into the berth, I saw what had to be a couple of poachers in an open boat silently come in alongside us. They watched us berth and then slid across for a chat. The poachers turned out to be Jimbob and Paul J who had been out for an evening session too.
They too had found the fishing hard, but James held up a good fish that he had caught and in the gloom she looked like the twin sister to mine.
Tom
PS: Alan took a couple of pics which he may post. For even the least knowledgeable about the area you may recognise the spot. But this could just be a bluff! We certainly past the area the photo's were taken, but where were we fishing?
