First light bass trip

• I sneaked out yesterday morning at 4am for a plugging session with a friend over in Cornwall, to coincide with the last part of the flood tide. But when we got down there, conditions did not look half as good as the forecast had promised. There was a nice bit of sea running though, to put some "life" into the water, so Andy and I gave it a proper go for a few hours.

• There were loads of small bits of weed in the water which made plugging a bit tricky, for half the time we would pick up a bit on the retrieve, and then that kills the action of the lures. But it was more than fishable. I love being out early in the morning when nobody else is around, it is such a special time of the day.

• Andy caught this bass below on a Maria Angel Kiss lure in the blue colour (see here for them), and he also got hit a couple of times. Another bass also came clean out of the water to try and grab the lure right at his feet, but missed it !! This fish came fairly early on, so we both thought that a few more fish might show themselves......

• I had a nice bass of about 3lbs follow my lure right in to my feet, only to turn away and never show itself again. Of course I would have loved to catch it, but I also get a hell of a kick out of actually seeing these awesome fish in the water. How hard did I try and will that fish onto my lure ??!! I am sure you can imagine the expletives that were ejected over the choppy water when the fish didn't hit my lure - I need to grow up a bit, but fishing gets me terribly overexcited. I was using an Aurora Mackerel coloured Lucky Craft Flash Minnow in an effort to get down a little bit deeper than the Maria Chase BW goes. I also caught a small pollack on the Flash Minnow - I am getting good at nailing small pollack on the bass lures. But not so good at nailing the bass at the moment !! Still, it's always very cool to see one caught.

• What a stunning day today, perfect for going to the beach with the kids, my wife and of course my dog Jess. I can not for one second understand why some petty-minded local councils ban dogs from some of the beaches around here in south Devon, so we go to places where Jess can run around chasing seagulls and basically having a blast. Strikes me that if we do not stand up for ourselves, we are all going to be banned from having any fun or taking any normal risks in this country, in case it gets in the way of health and safety issues. And then we'll all get priced out anyway with the scary increases in the cost of living. Nothing like a Saturday morning rant..............