Appledore - Sunsets and Sundogs

We had to work around the weather yesterday because it rained for most of it and lets be honest it's not exactly enjoyable now is it.

Once the rain subsided after a visit to the Seagate for light lunch and then some Hockings ice-cream with extra clotted cream on top we manged to do some crabbing before we ventured over to Westward Ho !! to meet my brother and his kids for a meal at the Pier House after visiting the arcade and sweet shop. 

It was a very mild evening where shorts and t-shirts were fine and when we left at around 10,00pm there was literally no wind whatsoever.

The sunset was quite incredible too however my brother has lived here for 7 years or so after moving from Coventry and I've been sent plenty of sunset pictures, certainly ones to rival sat outside Cafe Del Mar anyway, this was not unusual lets put it that way.  

High tide was at 7.30am so I headed out the following morning for a last gasp Bass. With the slip being used by swimmers I headed up a 100 metres or so over rocky ground. The surface lure was doing it's thing but after a good hour I didn't see any fish feeding or jumping either.

As I was moving up and down the mark I saw a decent amount of small silver fish a few ounces in weight quite close in and debated whether or not to go back and get my LRF gear to try and see what they were. What I didn't expect was that a few casts later from my right two bass around 4 lb or so came out of nowhere and came almost a metre away from the lure and then did an about turn 🙈 

FFS, maybe they saw me ? who knows !!!

Anyway after another 20 minutes or so with the small silver fish still hanging around I went back get the LRF gear to try and catch one of them. In the 10 minutes I was gone the water literally looked like it had dropped a foot or so and they shoal of fish that was 100+ strong had vanished. 

They almost looked like roach in body shape so it's a shame I didn't get to see what they were, damn it !!!

Anyway after another fruitless half an hour on the lure I thought I was on for a blank but with the swimmers now vacated the slip, I put back on the jig head with a small piece of worm on the hook and decided to fish up and down the slip wall for a last gasp bite.

It's so clear at the moment but it was at least 1.5m deep here and what I didn't expect that after a few casts something hit the lure on the drop.

I was hoping for something different, but no another Gobi again !! only a small'un as well, This little fella saved a blank though. When we were in Appledore yesterday as low water there are pockets of water between there and Instow where there are fish milling around in the shallows that looked like mullet, should I have a go for them ? 

In the end I decided not to bother. Another difficult Sea fishing session(s) but other anglers I've spoken too have been finding the same. Fishing the evening with bait in to dark most likely would have been the best way to fish it, but tide times and the family holiday has gotten in the way sadly. I've Spain on Thursday next week but that is for chilling and partying so the next time will be Lanzarote.