Popular Post mike farrants Posted June 24 Popular Post Share Posted June 24 wow what a day, I met Tim and his son at Tims boat at 7.30 - with the plan to be a morning on the Shambles drifting the last of the flood for Turbot until the tide got too much and the afternoon under the bill drifting for bass and wrasse. We picked up 10 decent mackerel first thing and headed out to the shambles West bouy (as the tide as flooding W-E). Rigged up with booms, watch leads, and mackerel fillets on long traces - size 4 hooks so the small flatties have a chance too! Fist drift was a tad fast, but Tim hooked into a very nice 4lb Bass. great fish! 2nd drift it was my turn to get a bite - a good scrap, plenty of head shakes and taking line and I Bag a worldie of a fish - a monster Bass - it was huge - biggest i've ever seen let alone caught - it went to 10lb on the scales - put my previous 2lber in the shade! not long after dropping down again i got another hit - and this was another big fish - a decent fight, stripping line, and heading up tide, soon at the boat we could see it was a big tope - it didn't like the boat or the net so went for a 3rd run - soon enough we had it in the boat for a quick pic and then away. just as we had motored back to the west bouy the tide turned so we had to reposition - this drift produced a lovely Brill and a weaver for Tim. the ebbing tide picked up real quickly producing some nasty overfalls so we decided to drift off the back of the bank into deeper water and switch to soft plastics for the bass - we all managed a couple of smaller bass on lures - all around the 2lb mark. as we drifted away we realised we were heading into the race, and the sea picked up real ugly so we quickly aborted plans and motored slowly back through the horrible sea off the bill - swell coming from the SW, tide racing west - It was not pleasant for about 30 mins motoring. expert skippering from Tim on the wheel and throttle saw us back in the bay to anchor on the mud. here we caught doggies, smoothies and bream for the afternoon. I took my bass to the angling club to have it weighed as i believe it to be specimen size, meaning I might win monthly or even annual biggest Bass award. Sadly it lost weight over the day in the coolbox (I had bled it) and it came in at 4.072kg which is a fraction under 9lb - still a monster fish! Tim gave me his Brill to take home and then i had the dilemma - was i going to have bass or brill for tea? since i've never had Brill before i went for that and the bass got filleted up, Vacuum packed and put in the freezer. 10 decent sized fillets off it! there were 2 more brill fillets for the freezer too Brill fillets baked in butter and seasoned - delicious. it dwarfed my chopping board and sink! An epic day and a new PB - going to take me some time to beat that now! Dicky, Josh, GPSguru and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike farrants Posted June 24 Author Share Posted June 24 Oh and @GPSguru - i caught a smaller bass on one of your Red Gill Evos i got from you! so thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPSguru Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 Well done Mike, excellent session.👍 Although I have caught 1000’s of bass, the magic double still fails me, plenty of 9’s, but no double ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 Top dangling! Very well done @mike farrants and Tim 👍. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike farrants Posted June 24 Author Share Posted June 24 1 hour ago, JonC said: Well done @mike farrants but I think you need to show us an up to date calibration certificate before you start claiming doubles. i know- they were rueben heatons - but on a moving boat..... it was 72cm on a milwaukee tape measure if you wish to do the calcs..... but i thinks that's still under 10lb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPSguru Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 8 minutes ago, mike farrants said: rueben heatons Normally they don't lie, as all RH are calibrated at the factory. The digital scales are best on the boat. I carry both the specimen dial scales and the digitals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 Nice fishing Mike, and a great bass. I'll be honest though, if the bass was gut hooked then fair enough take it home. But if not I'd have put it back. A near double bass won't taste that great compared to a smaller younger one, and it deserves to live another day after all its avoided to this point. Just my opinion. daio web 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 Cracking days fishing 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnyswamp Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Well done that man, great days fishing and a belter of a bass 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daio web Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 nice one boys i agree with neil on that one that bass is probally 20 to 25 years old Saintly Fish 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike farrants Posted June 28 Author Share Posted June 28 On 6/24/2024 at 6:58 PM, Saintly Fish said: Nice fishing Mike, and a great bass. I'll be honest though, if the bass was gut hooked then fair enough take it home. But if not I'd have put it back. A near double bass won't taste that great compared to a smaller younger one, and it deserves to live another day after all its avoided to this point. Just my opinion. I get your point Neil, and i did consider my decision before keeping it - but i've only caught 2x bass in the last 5 years fishing (only 3 keepers in my entire life), and i certainly wont be taking the next few bass - even if i'm lucky enough to catch one. given its likely 20yrs old, it pretty much past breeding age - i'd argue its the small younger ones that should go back. I'm not up for a debate on the rights and wrongs of keeping fish - I only take what I'm going to eat - I put more fish back than I take home. GPSguru, daio web and Dicky 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted June 28 Share Posted June 28 2 hours ago, mike farrants said: I get your point Neil, and i did consider my decision before keeping it - but i've only caught 2x bass in the last 5 years fishing (only 3 keepers in my entire life), and i certainly wont be taking the next few bass - even if i'm lucky enough to catch one. given its likely 20yrs old, it pretty much past breeding age - i'd argue its the small younger ones that should go back. I'm not up for a debate on the rights and wrongs of keeping fish - I only take what I'm going to eat - I put more fish back than I take home. That's fair Mike, like I said it's just my POV, I'm not implying you should do what I do. You're a grown man who makes his own decisions in life. Andy135, daio web and mike farrants 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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