Wonderfully the bass continued to run

It was around one in the morning, many years ago, when I was fishing this particular mark and decided enough was enough and started to slowly wade back to the shore. This stretch of the harbour is overseen by a few houses with a well kept house at the end owned by a lovely old lady. She always used to wish me good luck if she happened to be in the garden as I walked by.

As I was wading back the lady came out of her home wearing her dressing gown holding a torch to see if I was ok. I called back reassuring her and she went back to her home. Sadly the house is now up for sale, and I can only assume the worst.

I had been fishing for around two hours without any luck and frustratingly not a sign of any bass or mullet moving in on the rising tide. I had just text Rob that I was going to give it ten more minutes as everything felt dead. Earlier while walking the weed strewn shoreline I couldn't help but notice the huge amount of discarded crab shells, so I decided to wade out a couple of metres and cast parallel to the shore line hoping to intercept a bass looking for crabs amongst the weed.

Couple of casts in I experimented by bringing the white dolive to the top and gently winding creating a wake. I've used this method before but with no success, but I wanted as much line out of the water as possible. I'm not sure if I was just going through the motions, but suddenly there was a loud watery pop as a bass took the lure from the surface, and slowly started to run for deeper water. I was in a state of shock as line was being taken from the spool - yes!

Annoyingly the clutch was set a little to light for me, so I tightened it and wonderfully the bass continued to run. Whether it was because of the light clutch, or I was still slightly shocked, I found myself saying, please don't come off. The bass against a still too light clutch then ran through what I assumed was a weed bed and we were in stalemate.

For a moment I thought I had lost her, but a couple of lunges on the rod told me she was still there. I started to slowly pump her free from the weed and then felt the weight lift from the rod. I was gutted, and cursed my lack of attention earlier when setting up. I can't say how large she was as I never felt she had got into her stride, but she definitely didn't fight like a schoolie in the shallow water.

Obviously I stayed on, and obviously nothing else happened, but it was nice to get some action on a technique I will definitely try again.