A flounder session turns into bass heaven.
A flounder session that turned into a bass bonanza
Scraping the frost from the car windscreen during the early hours on a crisp December morning, the adrenaline was flowing freely. I was heading off on a flounder quest at one of the more remote areas of Poole Harbour in Dorset. With the harbour fishing poorly for flatties during the past months, I did have more than a few doubts, but a surprise in the form of bass was in store.
Joining me for the fun were Steve Lawrence and Chris Rogers, both from Poole, and, as usual, Steve, who is the renowned Poole flounder ace, was brimming with confidence when I arrived at the rendezvous point just as the first shafts of daylight were starting to appear over the horizon. With the car loaded, we were soon heading to Wareham, from where we would be branching off on a minor road leading to the Arne Peninsula, which juts out for several miles into the massive Poole Harbour.
Parking is very restricted, so I would recommend that visiting anglers use the RSPB pay and display car park, where parking costs around a fiver a day. Arne offers a number of interesting marks, but they all involve a good hike of more than a mile. The whole area is a nature reserve, so use the designated footpaths or the shoreline. Under no circumstances drive vehicles down the tracks – this only leads to confrontation with the wardens and leaves anglers in a bad light.
For our latest adventure we had decided to try an area midway between Gold and Patchins Point, which would be a 45-minute hike mainly using the foreshore. This area is fairly shallow with plenty of natural food that should, in theory, attract quality fish.
We arrived around three hours before the first high. The water was coloured and, with a chill in the air, we had almost perfect conditions. Steve was bubbling with enthusiasm and could not wait to get a bait in the water. As I sat catching my breath after the hike, Steve and Chris bustled around trying to be the first to launch a bait seawards. I don’t know why, but I had a strange feeling that something special was about to happen.
QUICK START
Tackle-wise, we would all be using one light rod with a running leger and a more traditional rod with a three-hook flapper. Some of the hooklengths would have small pop-ups and others not. Steve and I had settled for Kamasan B940 Aberdeens, while Chris had opted for size 4 Trabucco hooks of the same pattern.
We each had 1lb of ragworms, and no other bait. I was fishing slightly lighter than the others – using a barbel rod with a light tip and a 2oz lead weight for the running leger – while my Grauvell Surf II with a light tip and a 3oz sinker carried a more traditional flounder trace.
With both his baits in the water, Steve did not have long to wait before one of his rods started to show signs of life. One thing for certain was that the culprit causing the disturbance was not a flounder. A pretty violent bite, followed by a slack line, had all the trappings of a bass, and a couple of minutes later, after a spirited tussle, a bass nudging 3lb lay on the beach. After a few quick pictures it was gone.
A few minutes later and Steve was into his second bass, which was just slightly smaller, and then 20 minutes later it was the turn of Chris Rogers to tame another three-pounder.
Three sizable bass within a 25-minute spell was pretty good by any standards, but this was just for starters to get us on our toes. The venue’s potential was about to be unleashed.
Back watching my own rods after doing some pictures of the first three bass, I was beginning to wonder whether I was going to get a slice of the action when the tip of my barbel rod almost bent double as line poured off the reel. While the others had caught their fish on the more normal gear, playing a half decent bass on a barbel rod was a different ball game. It was exhilarating stuff, with the fish making a series of runs, twisting and turning while trying every trick in the book to secure its freedom. Then, as I was sliding a fish of around 3lb 8oz on to the beach, I saw the tip of my other rod lunging over.
BEST SESSION
This was the signal for the start of one of my best-ever bass fishing sessions with another three-pounder soon on the beach, followed by yet another fish of a similar size a couple of minutes later.
A trio of hard-fighting bass within the space of 10 minutes is often just a dream, but there was far better to come. For the next few hours it was a constant stream of bass, all goodquality fish, and we had all lost a few too.
We had decided to call lines up at 3pm to enable us to get back to the car in daylight, but with 30 minutes to go my barbel rod went crazy as a hefty fish shot off on a blistering run. The fight was breathtaking, and after what seemed an eternity I guided a 5lb 8oz bar of silver into the shallows – it was a superb looking and well-conditioned fish.
Steve was taking a few pictures of my latest fish before it went back into the water when my second rod showed a few minor twitches. He instantly quipped: “That will be a biggie”.
How right he was! After a few more rumbles on the rod tip, I leaned into the fish only for the water to erupt some 50 yards out as a bass jumped a good three feet into the air, sending plumes of water billowing into air as it made a re-entry.
Immediately, I agreed it was a big one. From previous experience of landing decent fish in shallow water, I knew it had to be treated with the utmost respect, for if you try and rush or bully a hefty predator in the shallows when using relatively light equipment there can only be a negative outcome. As expected, the fish shot off on a number of powerful runs with line being stripped freely from the reel. Gradually, I eased the bass towards the shoreline, where once again the water erupted as it made its final bid for freedom.
It took a good five minutes before I eventually landed a stunning, well-conditioned fish that thumped the scales down to exactly 8lb. It lay in the late afternoon sun like a gleaming bar of silver. What a perfect way to finish a breathtaking session – together we’d managed to land no fewer than 16 sizeable bass, my own tally being eight including the brace of beauties. What a fantastic session.
FLOUNDER FEARS
On reflection, we had a superb day’s fishing, but it was disappointing not to land a flounder. I have my thoughts about why the harbour’s flounder population has plummeted in recent years. The sheer number of bass within the harbour will certainly have had an adverse impact as the predators gobble up many of the immature flounders and other species.
Add to that the irresponsible release of a number of seals into a bass conservation area by so-called conservationists. That was, in my opinion, stupidity beyond belief, and will also have had a huge impact. Not only will the seals devour a good number of bass and flounders throughout the year, but they will also be munching away on sea-trout and salmon as they make their way through the harbour to the Rivers Frome and Piddle.
Commercial netting of flounders to feed the ever-growing potting industry has also had an impact and, finally, humans also have to shoulder some of the blame for disposing of all types of hormone products down the sewers that eventually find their way into an enclosed system such as Poole Harbour.
The future looks bright when it comes to the harbour’s bass fishery, but as far as the humble flounder is concerned – which, in my opinion, is the most valuable recreational species that we have along our shoreline – then I have grave concerns. ■