Bass Chaser Of The Month - Scott Wickenden
Scott Wickenden
One of my memorable sessions occurred midway through February when Lee Smith and I planned a fishing venture to Jersey to escape the muddy waters of the UK. We arrived on the island to inclement weather conditions, so we had to improvise our approach to venues due to the gale-force winds and torrential rain. Therefore, we were limited to one area of coastline for shelter, and armed only with Google Maps and a car kindly loaned to us for the day, we set out at 5 am for a small window of opportunity on the only day possible to fish.
We went to the first mark, spread out, and tried a few different approaches. With limited time and in search of results, we set a short amount of time to fish in certain ways at each spot before moving on to the next after less than an hour. Despite our efforts being fruitless, with only a follow from a Gar fish, we decided to move again after a short amount of time.
Upon arrival at our third mark of the morning, we both looked at each other as the vast rocky landscape with a receding tide screamed bass - huge weed-filled gullies filled with crystal clear water, and a scattering of islands formed of broken pink granite. We quickly geared up and waded out to the first of the gullies, fishing some breakers coming into the end of the point into some turbulent water that met a cross-current. We spent 40 minutes at this mark, constantly checking right, looking at the ebbing tide that was revealing more and more crevices and rock pools.
We decided to move 500 yards to a large calm area of water surrounded by several rocky islands. We fished at one of the numerous boulder-stacked channels along the edge of the structure and worked our way around the vast rock pool that was about a meter deep, where we switched to lightly weighted soft plastics for shallow waters. We were 25 minutes in and looking to move again when the rod thumped over and the sound of my clutch began to sing. Yes, then, we’d found the fish…
After the initial hit, the fish started kiting across the face of me in the shallow waters and gave the clutch another good test. I saw it turn and a flash of silver told me it was what we had been looking for. Then, after a few head shakes and kites, I managed to get its head up and bring it into the shallows to one of the small rock pools. After a few quick pictures with the lure and on the tape – went 60’ back she went and new hope ensued. We spent the next twenty minutes or so fanning the area, looking for more fish unsuccessfully, before we moved again to another small gully 20 or so meters away in a channel that looked like it linked directly to the open water – a gateway so to speak.
Four to six casts and two more fish in the mid-50s for Lee. Unfortunately, shortly after this time, the water had receded to a puddle and the rain had become so heavy our Guy Cottons looked silk they were so wet. We decided to call it and go for lunch with the intention of returning to fish the incoming flood. By the time we had reached the car parked on the slipway we realized it had taken us 45 minutes to walk back from where we had waded out to and soaked to the bone but happy with our exploits we called the day and travelled to the local Waitrose for food and beer for our weekend hosts…
A super memorable trip, that I would recommend to any avid angler who would like to get rid of the winter blues in February. Take a quick 45-minute flight costing less than a tank of fuel over to the Channel Islands, a beautiful place, with epic scenery, lovely people, and cracking Winter fishing.
