Fish out but not easy to catch
This morning, the conditions are extremely cold with a feeling well below 0°C, but a great sun is announced and little wind.
So I decide to go back to the estuary to try the sight bars, because I had abandoned them for some time, busy elsewhere and especially at the office.
And well taken !
The morning started well, as the bass were present. I quickly attack a first nice fish that was searching along a big rock in search of its favorite food, green crabs!
In spite of a rather good presentation, I will take a first refusal, categorical. Then on a slightly smaller fish, another one! Decidedly! I change crab just in case, even if this model that I've been riding for years has proven itself and I try with a creation of Franck Ripault, a very good sea bass fisherman and rigger, a "small rabid".
Very quickly, I see a big dark mass on the edge, motionless.
The light is complicated in this season, because it is low and the sun rises late, but my trained eye detects a movement. I approach slowly. It is indeed a big inactive bar, posed. I throw neither one nor two while applying myself. These fish are very hard to fool. My crab falls 1,5 m in front of him and sinks slowly. The sea bass approaches, very interested, and at about ten centimeters leaves in a hurry! Well, another refusal! This is the game and these fish are so suspicious that they come to inspect their prey scrupulously. Refusals are commonplace.
Two small fish
I won't see anything else for a good twenty minutes when two bass of about 50 cm approach in very little water, hunting. My crab falls far in front of them and I wait for their passage. The smallest of them has spotted it and comes on it, then engages it. Fast and firm hooking. It is at the end. Great, even if it's not a big one. They are always very combative and every fish is earned.
Then, I go back up to the edge, because the spot in front of me is less interesting with the level of water that remains.
I go to a very good spot for big fish. I caught my record crab there. A beautiful fish of 77 cm a few years ago.
After 10 minutes of prospecting, nothing moves. No activity at all. Then I see a back eddy further downstream on the shore. I hurried to it and found another bass, alone, marauding and visibly active.
He comes down to me. I put the crab down and wait for him to come. Ãeuros its passage, I make it move slightly, and it jumps on. A second bar more beautiful between 50 and 55 cm. It is a pleasure even if they are the big ones I was looking for.
The clock is ticking and I had decided not to go up the hill because I have work to do at the office.
I go back to my car and go to a spot where I know that there are often bars and some very big ones passing by at this very moment of tide. I will take advantage of it to eat my sandwich, then I will return.
My record at the fly bar!
I have just arrived when a friend calls me, because we are planning a fishing trip in "exo" this winter.
While I'm talking to him, a very big sea bass arrives and eats a crab on the bottom in front of me in not far from two meters of water! I hang up the phone and run to the car to get my cane.
No luck, he left again.
I call back my friend Olivier, then chat while scanning the water. I hang up again, as a nice sea bass comes up the bank and eats a crab right in front of me. I throw him mine. He turns around and grabs it. I hooked it properly and a great fight ensued as the current picked up. Great! It makes me very happy. A nice bass of about 65 cm to finish the morning.
I call my friend back, finish my conversation and hang up.
I still scan the water, because the current is starting, and even if it starts to be a bit high, I will still be able to see fish.
I had not yet finished my sandwich that a very large one arrives on the post. My first throw and presentation will leave him indifferent. He is not afraid and goes up quietly. It comes to post between the sand and the algae of the bottom in the expectation of food.
I cast my crab 5 meters upstream so that he can get to the bottom not far from him and not hear the impact of the fly on the water. The cast is perfect and so is the drift. Like a sight nymph for trout. My fly arrives on him at the ideal depth. He just has to grab it.
He moves a little and turns his head. There is more than a meter and a half of water and it is not easy to see what he is doing. My experience and my instinct tell me to strike and that's what I do.
To my great astonishment, the silk stretches and the fish contorts. I can hardly believe it, but it is at the end ! It is so rare to fool these big and old estuary bass.
There follows a rush of more than 20 meters where he tries to fool me.
I bridle it as much as I can, but I'm in 25° (8 lbs) and the fish is much bigger than the line strength. Also in fluorocarbon there is very little stretch.
The fight is incredible, because it uses the current as they know how. I am without my things. No tape measure, no camera, no phone. I ask a surveyor who has come to eat in the sun to do me a favor and go get me everything I need from the trunk of my car. He accepts very kindly!
The fight is far from over and the fish are probing, leaving and returning. I am quite tense, but I try to be positive, even if in my fishing life, I have lost many big fish.
He tires and I decide to turn his head to get him down the current instead of fighting it. I go down the edge and get close to the edge to get him into a bunt where I can bridle him and ground his head.
He is not happy, but I get my way on the second attempt. He comes closer, and finally surrenders. I grab him by the mouth as usual and let out a huge cheer! Whew! What a fishing action and fight.
Quick measurement and some pictures to quickly put him back in his element. What a fish! What an unforgettable fishing moment. My personal record with this splendid specimen of 82 cm for 42 cm of circumference. Its head is enormous. A really sublime fish !
Finally the mythical 80 cm mark is passed! I'm on cloud nine!
One of my dreams just came true!
Materials used:
- Rod SAGE SALT HD 9 feet silk of 8
- SAGE Spectrum C 7/8 reel
- Rio Striper silk floating WF8F
- Rio Striper 7 foot leader
- YKG Fluoro tip 8 lbs
