Thunder Gets Em Going

Just a quick update on fishing over the last few days as I said in my last post I wouldn't be updating until after the Bass Festival. The latter half of last week saw a big change in the atmosphere, with thundery conditions prevalent. An early morning sortie last Thursday saw bass going like the clappers as I caught 3 in less than an hours fishing using the IMA Komomo SF-125. The last Dicentrarchus labrax really had my Shimano Stradic 3500 FJ singing and I estimated it to weigh around 6.5lbs. A faster retrieve did the trick with this hat trick of fish.

Thursday night I met up with a buddy who had just returned from his travels and we set out to tackle the Bandon browns. The cloud was thick and we knew at any time we may have to leave as we could see lightning streaks in the distance. However, trout were rising everywhere and we enjoyed great sport with spirited fish up to a pound weight. Best flies on the night were darkly dressed size 16 wet flies. Also evident was a couple of salmon going absolutely berserk with the anticipation of rainfall... tomorrow could be worth a shot I thought!

Friday saw the river fresher than the previous day due to the stormy downpours. Salmon waiting down in the estuary reacted to this and I came across a brace of feisty grilse hungry for a bait of worms during a brief afternoon session. They weighed 5 and 7lbs respectively.

These fish were fighting fit with the bigger taking nearly 20 minutes to land. Over the weekend the river benefited from another more appreciable rise of a foot and this saw many more grilse and summer salmon running.