Fishing Report: 8th August 07 - Brightlingsea

With a nice weather forecast I decided to spend another evening spinning on the Colne. It was ideal conditions, the water was even clearer than last night (you could see the lures 3 ft down), the sun was shining and the water was flat calm. Quite frankly it was one of those days when catching some fish is a bonus.

I arrived at the promenade at about 4:30pm and as I had a few Ragworm left over from the previous day with the spoon I decided to try for a few Mullet. There were quite obviously no Mullet about as I would have seen them following the tide in over the mud, but as the water began rising above the first promenade step the Bass started following the bait in and within half an hour I had taken two very small Bass on the No4 hook. The river must be alive with these little fish (a good sign for the future) as hordes of them were attacking both the spoon and the bait as I reeled it in, only turning away as they got within five or six feet of me. After upping my hook size to a 1/0 to avoid hooking the tiny fish I continued on for another hour, managing a slightly more respectable specimen of about 20cm just before the die-hard swimmers began disturbing the fish and it was time to move on.

Hoping for something a little bit better I headed for another spot further upriver where I could see a few small fish hitting the surface as I arrived. I tried surface lure for an hour or two with no success whatsoever (they don't seem to do well here) but after changing over to a spoon baited with a 3 inch Eddystone Eel I eventually managed two more Bass, one of about 25cm and another of 34cm before her ladyship finally ordered me home at the top of the tide for my dinner.