Bass Rock Winter League.

Lastnight I fished the Bass Rock Winter League (Leg 8), with a couple of pals Mikey and John.

The recent easterly wind had churned up the sea nice and good, which brings winter species like cod closer in to shore to feed. Combined with the darkness in which the match was being fished, it turned out to be an interesting 3 hours. The fish gain a lot more confidence as night falls, which means we don't need to cast as far.

2nd cast in and I had a sizeable flounder, which would definitely put me on the scoreboard. Brilliant. We were using black lugworm, tipped with fish baits such as Bluey and Mackerel on size 1/0 Kamasan B940 hooks.

Things cooled off for a whileas the tide pushed up, followed by somebody catching my own line as they were fishing far too close. He ended up causing me to lose all my end tackle, which out me into a very grumpy mood...

It came to the last half hour of the match, by which time Mikey had landed a few small fish, unfortunately not big enough to make it to the weigh in. I baited up another trace and dropped it short rather than long, applying my theory of the fish coming closer in during the dark. Within minutes my rod was bouncing out of the rest. I struck in to the fish and felt a good weight, which soon turned out to be a sizeable codling on the bottom hook and a smaller coalfish on the top hook. Fan-dabby-dosey!!!

On my last cast I had another coalfish which was just too small for the weigh in.

At the weigh in, a fellow matchman produced a bigger codling of 3lb 11oz, which unfortunately beat my combined fish weight of 2lb 11oz.

Overall a great night and I look forward to the next one :)