Plaicehunter

Power equivalent to a 3hp petrol engine. GB

My boat, Piranha, is 18ft and weighs around half a ton. I fitted the e-Propulsion and initially was very impressed by its smoothness and silence. However, I soon realised that to get it to push the boat fast enough to combat wind and tide in the Tamar, where the tides can be fierce, I had to run it at full throttle. This is no problem in the river, but in a worst-case scenario when I was halfway to the Eddystone with a head wind I might struggle to get back. Since I sometimes go out to sea or round to Whitsand Bay, I need the battery capacity to get back if the main engine fails. I think the engine would be absolutely ideal for a lighter boat, since it is virtually silent and maintenance-free. I am selling it with great reluctance. GB

Save £100! E-propulsion Spirit 1.0 Plus electric outboard as new. It's the 'short-shaft' model which actually has the same length shaft as a long-shaft conventional petrol outboard. 48kw battery. Used for just 10 minutes before I realised it wasn't suitable for my boat, so it's as new. Cost £1650, accept £1550. Can deliver anywhere in South Devon. These engines sell like hot cakes and are often unobtainable. Graham 07941 427341 or email grahambroach@gmail.com

A couple of recent bass on topwaters: 53cm on a Patchinko 140 and a 55cm on a Spittin' Wire. Fine fat fish carefully returned.

In my local estuary, if I get a decent fish it's usually the only one of the day. So when my Patchinko 125 disappeared in an explosion of spray on the third cast this morning, I wasn't expecting much further action. The fish fought hard but my main concern was floating weed building up on the line. It was scary trying to remove it with one hand while keeping tension on the fish because I fish barbless and allowing slack in the line often results in the hooks falling out. However, all went well and a lovely plump fish of 58cm came safely aboard. My next bass on the Patch was about half a pound, and as the flood tide increased there were no further takes. In this situation, fishing over maybe four feet of water, the answer proved to be a Hound Glide in Cotton Candy, which showed up well in the slightly stained water. I'd hardly moved the lure a yard on the first cast when the rod crashed round and the reel screamed and screamed. The bass then kited round in the tide and spent the next few minutes thudding away under the boat. When it surfaced alongside I saw it was hooked on one prong of the middle treble but the de-barbed Decoy held and with relief I guided the fish into my big net. It's surprising how much difference 9cm in length makes to the bulk of a fish. This one was much bigger than the first at 67cm and probably around 7.5lb, lovely chunky specimen. After recovering in a tub of seawater, a quick snap and measure and it was back over the side and swimming away strongly. Seven more bass completed the session, though they were very modest schoolies. I've now had 14 fish of 40cm or more from this general area this season in amongst many schoolies and a few blanks. Strangely enough, three of them taped out at 67cm, and you have to wonder....

I researched both the German-made Torquedo and the US-made ePropulsion. Several things decided me: the ePropulsion has a higher capacity battery and the battery unit floats if you drop it in water. Since my battery will be going ashore after each trip, using my rubber dinghy, there is a chance it will get a dunking at some point. Also, the ePropulsion has a single stainless steel power connector, while the Torquedo has two connectors made of plastic. There's not much difference in price, so I went for the motor with the better spec. It hasn't arrived yet, but I will post a full report when I have given it a good test.

Recently I visited the Green Boat Show in my home city of Plymouth. Although I don't own a green boat (!) I wanted to look at an electric outboard before finally committing to buying one. The ePropulsion 1.0 Spirit Plus is not a trolling motor, though you could use it for trolling. It has the power equivalent of a 3.5hp petrol outboard. Because I don't use my current four-stroke 5hp auxiliary as much as I should, it is often difficult to start, which discourages me from using it - a real vicious circle. As an auxiliary which won't start in an emergency isn't much use, I'm going electric, which should be ultra-reliable. It will also enable me to move my boat around quietly in the shallow waters I often fish. The integral battery is easily removable and floats if dropped in the oggin, so I will be taking it home to recharge. I had thought of getting a solar panel and leaving it in the boat, but figure an electric outboard without the £800 battery is less tempting to thieves! I'm excited about my new engine, which should arrive from the USA in the next week or two. Once it is on the boat and I've given it a good trial I will review it here.

Having been fishing on Tuesday...and Wednesday...and yesterday...and today, and with the forecast being wet and windy tomorrow, I'm having a day off to sort out my gear and write up my diary. Before I retired it seemed the good weather always happens during the week while I was working. Having put in my 50 years I can strongly recommend retirement! PH

Apologies for the duplicated report. I got a bit excited! I weighed the fish in a wet sling but only on a spring balance with 8oz gradations. It was somewhere between 10.5lb and 11lb. I think later in the year and in peak condition it would have gone nearly 13lb. It had a massive frame and the tail was a real paddle. PH

My boat is pretty stable, but there was plenty of rock and roll this morning on my local estuary, with a vicious wind battering against the flooding tide. After two hours, one move and many lure changes, I finally felt a bump on my Megabass Flatbacker. The fish didn't stick, and a schoolie hooked a few casts later came unstuck, but it was vaguely encouraging. Suddenly the lure stopped with a bang and a heavy fish tore off downtide with the reel wailing. My main concern was the bass coming off, as I fish barbless, but I convinced myself that if I kept a tight line it would be OK. Eventually the fish stopped and I began to work it back amid several more runs. Then it surfaced in a mighty swirl, there was a lot of head-shaking, a tail like a shovel waved me goodbye and it tore off again. All the time I was talking to the fish, telling it I wasn't going to hurt it and that I would put it back. Eventually it surfaced and I saw for the first time how big it was. At least if it fell off now I would know what I'd lost! Fortunately it didn't come off, I didn't bungle the netting and one of the biggest bass I've ever seen was heaved aboard. The lure fell out in the net and I transferred the fish into a big garden bin of sea water I keep on board. Only the front half fitted in, but at least it could breathe while I sorted out the equipment. My new red metre ruler was unfolded and the fish measured at a mighty 80cm, nose to tail-tip. It eclipsed my previous one, a fish of 8lb 6oz caught last year not far away. I desperately wanted the bass to swim away strongly and it did, none the worse for its brief encounter with me. A new personal best and a fabulous fish which I'll never forget!

I had my first AZ jab a few weeks ago. Felt fine for about nine hours, then started shivering violently and couldn't stop. Went to bed and ran a fever all night, completely out of it. Felt generally unwell with a headache next day but was OK after that. I have my second dose next Thursday. I have heard that you may get a bad reaction if you have already had Covid, as you have the antibodies in your system already.

I'm not experienced enough to give a view, but all my best fish last year came to surface lures (probably because I fish those whenever possible). The 7-10 was on a Sakura Mousty, the 8-6 on a Patchinko 125 in 500G. PH

Thanks, Andy! While I'm convinced some big bass stay in the river year-round, most of the fish at this time of year are schoolies. Most of the bigger fish are not yet back from spawning. I haven't yet discovered how to select the bigger fish; so far it's a question of catching lots of bass and the odd one will be big. My best two last year were 7-10 and 8-6, so I'm hoping for a double this year. All my bass go back and I fish barbless, which probably costs me a few fish. Today I really appreciated the ease of unhooking, with one treble in my glove and another in the bass's mouth! This was my eight-pounder. PH

It's always a good idea to clean your reel after use, then put it back in your bag. It's also good practice to carry a spare reel. Sadly, in my rush to go fishing this afternoon I failed dismally on both counts. A desperate call home brought my wife and Doug The Dog to the slipway, where the reel in its padded case was expertly lobbed aboard by Mrs PH. Back to the mark again, I had barely two hours left to fish but managed 10 hits, all on the Megabass Zonk 120 in Cruising Blue. None of the other four lures I tried attracted any interest. On a day when the schoolies seemed to be attacking the lure rather than trying to eat it, I dropped four and boated six. The water here is still a chilly 9.6C and I don't expect more fish, bigger bass or topwater action till it warms up quite a bit. For now, schoolies deep down will have to do! PH

This really is a bargain. I have owned the 20-30 model for decades and it's a fabulous blank with quality Fuji fittings. I have a 12-20 rod but it doesn't get much use and I can't justify buying this one. If you need a 12-20 I urge you to bite Dinoboy's hand off. It's a steal for £80! PH

Update: I did the bass luring bit today - see report. Tomorrow it's dirty bait (crab and rag) in search of a gilt, despite very cold water. Then plaice on Tuesday...PH

A small window of opportunity appeared today between dog-walking and dinner, so at 4.10pm I found myself at a favourite mark with two hours to catch a bass on a lure. I decided to split the time between two marks a couple of hundred yards apart. First cast a fish bumped the Hound Glide on lift-off, second cast a schoolie was hooked at long range and landed. After an hour I'd had five: two on the Glide, two on a Zonk and one on a Red Gill Rascal 135mm behind a sinking bombarda (bombarda shop.com). I moved to the second mark but didn't have a sniff, so returned to the first mark for the last 10 minutes and winkled out three more to the Zonk in short order. These are pretty modest schoolies, but you can only catch what's in front of you, and with a strong cold wind and water temperature only 9.3C I was pleased to catch at all. Tomorrow it's back to 'dirty bait' (crab and ragworm,) in the hope of an early gilt. PH

My pal AW has a boat at Salcombe and is thinking about a plaice trip, probably on Tuesday. I may get out luring solo on Sunday, though the water temperature here in Plymouth has dropped again, from 10.1C a little while ago to 9.7 a couple of days ago to 9.2C today. Not surprising with low air temperatures and cold rough winds. I reckon 10C is about the minimum for successful bass luring, but I may give it a go anyway as I start getting twitchy after a few days of no fishing! PH

Well that's what it felt like this afternoon - cold, overcast with a bitter NW wind and the sea temperature back down to 9.7C. Still, getting out in the boat for three hours on a rising tide seemed like a good idea, so padded out in layers of thermals I motored gently upstream to a favourite mark. I was fishing over shallow ground but I knew the bass wouldn't come to the surface or even to a shallow diver. Until the tide flooded further, deeper divers would just be dredging up weed. So as the afternoon was dark and stormy I picked out a lurid Hound Glide which hopefully would dive to just the right depth. A strong following wind flattered my casting, and the Glide is a distance lure, so I was getting a long way, fishing across the tide. It wasn't long before the lure was hit a good 50 yards out with a real wallop. Like all my bass so far this year, this was a modest schoolie but still a satisfying catch. A lot of hard work produced two more to the same lure, then I lost one which hit me close in and thrashed on the surface, throwing the barbless treble. I tried numerous lures with no response until I moved a couple of hundred yards and lost one on the Megabass Flatbacker. Then the tide turned and I went back to the original mark and picked up one more schoolie on the Glide. Soon the water will be warm, baitfish will appear and four schoolies in three hours will be a flop. Today it felt like a result! PH

The plan today was to catch lots of bass on lures, then switch to bait for my first gilt of the year. It didn't quite work out like that... The water was a balmy 9.9C, and with sunshine and a small tide I was feeling confident. But two hours of persistent plugging with a variety of sub-surface lures yielded just three takes, two of which resulted in a schoolie in the boat. Ironically, all three came to a Zonk SW 120 Cruising Blue, which didn't work two days ago, while the lures that did then didn't today. Abandoning the lure rod, I fished the tide down from five different marks. There was no sign of a gilt, but I added eight more schoolies to the score: five on home-dug king rag and three on crab. The best fish of the day, a bass of around 2lb, came adrift at the net. I keep telling myself it's still early April and the best is yet to come. Though there was no real bird activity, I saw several terns, which is an encouraging sign. PH

I've posted this under 'Bass Lure Fishing' in the Shore section as there doesn't appear to be a slot in the Boat section. If you would prefer me to post as a general boat report, please let me know. I'm afloat again this morning! PH

Despite cold water and biting easterly wind I ventured out with the lure rod yesterday. I wasn't very optimistic, but was encouraged when my Megabass Flatbacker was hit third cast. The bass didn't stick, but the next two takes did, on a Hound Glide. I then experimented with a new vibration bait, a Bassday ORC 70mm, and nailed another schoolie with a gentle sink-and-draw action. After trying numerous sub-surface lures I had managed to add only a juvenile herring gull to the score. After a lot of 'kite flying' I got it to the side of the boat and unhooked it with long-nosed pliers. Fortunately it was hooked in the tip of the beak on one prong of the Maruto barbless treble, so it was easy to release unharmed. Finally I reverted to the Flatbacker, which yielded one missed take, one dropped fish and three more schoolies landed. Not bad for the beginning of April!

Postscript: I blanked today, but only because the decent bass I hooked fell off before I could net it. I didn't see the fish as it stayed deep, but it felt heavy. It took a Maria Slice vibration bait and was my only take of a four-hour session. I accept some losses due to fishing barbless, but this one hurt! PH

I was fishing the estuary over shallow mud flats which are dry on a big tide and have the odd rock and patch of weed. There is a channel leading to a big shallow bay which gets very warm in summer, as the dark mud absorbs the sun's heat. I anchor on the edge of the channel but most of my bass come casting onto the shallows themselves. Fish often take as the lure swings onto the edge of the channel; I don't catch many right in the channel, though I did get one of 7-10 one day while waiting for the flood tide. In summer you can see bass and mullet coming up on the surface with the tide to feed in the bay, and quite often bass drive baitfish up there and there is carnage in the shallow water. Very exciting!

I'll be back on the Tamar first thing tomorrow (Sat) in search of another lure-caught 'mackerel', you know those ones with the spiky fins. The river is a bass nursery area and you are not supposed to target bass from a boat, even if you fish barbless and put them all back like I do. It's all right for Henry Gilbey to fish for them from the shore though - and keep a couple of in-size ones if he wants to. You'll never find a dead bass on my boat. It's a crazy old world. Strangely enough, I do occasionally catch real mackerel from the river on my hard plastic bass lures. One day I was having a cup of tea with the lure dangling over the side just touching the surface when a mackerel zoomed up, grabbed it and dived, neatly hooking itself. I don't know who was more surprised. That went back too. PH