You know, sometimes you have those days or nights where doubt starts to creep in. This was one of those nights. It was a decent F4 Northerly wind and the top layers of water on our first 'stop go' mark was quite chilled. This i thought didn't bode well for the B:1 mission to come later that night.

We, me, Chris Isaacs and Kevin worked around the edge of a local reef just 2 hours down the tide. It should have been 1 1/2 hours but as anyone who knows Chris will tell you, he's like a woman when getting ready LOL.

This first mark was to just be a sampler as it doesn't usually come really good as a mark until late October/early Novemember.  As it was, 5 minutes in and fish on...., then, fish off. Boy did this wreak of yesterday's lost fish. Then.., Kev was in, and then, OFF !. I've just been reading some posts from a guy in Guernsey who has been suffering similar issues and squid/cuttles were blamed but I've had enough night lure Bass to know the difference as has Kev.

A few more chucks and wham...fish on, not big but a good start.

This little guy took a Smith Saruna.

Nice conditioned little blighter eh?

Then Kev was in, good hit but no power..., thats a Squid. Yea, Squid On !...LOL

Cracking photo this imho. Not often you land em, but not impossible. MrFish (Jersey) has recently acquired some plugs with squid combs on the rear. This one took a Lucky Craft  'Staysee'.

Chris unfortunately hadn't had any hits despite being sat on the 'dolly hole' of the mark. Lets be fair though, he's a night 'googan', fast becoming sharpened though, so watch out.  Anyway, we got out of this mark and headed out for the parking adjacent to the mission B1 route. This is a classic triangular 'skish'. Fast in, slow section, lagoon section, very fast out route over some incredible ground. Speeds attained at places on this skish can approach that normally only experienced running away from an angry, rabid guard dog after a failed bank robbery.

However, it IS safe. You just gotta be in the right places at the right times. There is no guesswork involved its 'In the water, craft'.

So,the 3 of us start out. I had my Tenyru SuperMix 270, Kev his  BC-Predator as usual and Chris, another good, but older design plugging rod. This mention of rods, not an advert for those makes, will make sense after i describe what transpired.

Remember, both myself and Kev had already lost 2 fish on the 'waiting' mark earlier in the night.

We made our way across some mile and 1/2 of mixed terrain before hitting the gutter we needed to shoot. It wasn't carrying as much water as i'd expected due to the wind pushing straight onto the run AND, the higher barometric pressure which, on these North winds can spell disaster.

At the base of the run, fish on..., fish off...Jeez, couldn't believe it, was on an age then gone..., VS clutch screams to my right side in the darkness.., fish on ! Kev was well stuck into an angry Bass. Absolutely a Bass, scurrying away around the back of a diminishing japweed bed. Solid hit, fish on ages...., fish off ???? What ?..No way.

We couldn't believe it.

Chris was quick to work the area immediately after Kev got bust up. It turned out that on the earlier mark, one of his trebles had broke out. However, this time, no such excuses. Nothing wrong with the plug, the hooks or anything.

We are starting to look like 'googans' all over again.

We waded the main lagoon, searching for likely depressions and figuring out our exit point for when the tide was to turn. When it goes here, it goes. It really does and you HAVE to take time to establish with absoluteness, your immediate location relative to the run up back into shore.

30 inactive minutes went by as we waited for the push. Now, the water was no longer ankle deep in places and it was time to re-don the fins. Just in the time it takes to do this, the water rose nearly 6", submerging rods and reels that were, just minutes, maybe seconds ago, on dry land.

I digress:

As the water started to push, we spread out to make swinging across and casting back, up into the current shots. It wasn't long before I heard Chris cursing as he hooked, and again bumped, a good un. How many is that now ?

Then..., Kev, wallop, fish on..., reel again screams like a good un, fish off !!. This is starting to make no sense.

Minutes later, Chris Isaacs is in, this time with a solid hook hold.

This fish went over 3lb. It had a pretty hard belly too. Gave Chris a better fight than the 4lb 4oz fish he'd had on a previous skirmish.

What was of interest was, the fish was hooked on the outside of the mouth. We thought nothing of it until i remembered that my earlier fish was also 'outer' hooked. This is unusual to see as at night, whilst the hits can sometimes be subtle, they are often prone to engulfing plugs as we try to fish them in an imitative fashion. This is something Chris is really starting to grasp and he's using most of the retrieves, given the right scenario's which i've written about in various posts over the years. It works guys. Chris says so.

By now, we are in 5ft of water and skishing. Over a mile and 1/2 from shore in active current. Starting to swing plugs on in the run and using a combination of fin and rod/line control to work the plugs 'just so'..

KABOOM !!

FISH ON !!..

Kev, get the camera, this is a good un m8...

As i latched into what felt like a towed car, Kev reached for his camera and he's moving remember too. I shot by him at an extra 5 knots LOL, might not have been 5 knots but i was 'skishing'. Put the brakes on Keith i was thinking. By this, you have to be careful NOT to let yourself go forward of your fins and on your belly. No control that way. So I lean in, fins carefully being angled to brake the fish in what was now, running speed current. I lost control as the fish took a 90 degree kite right, then left. My fin control couldn't match the turning speed of this fish which was still absolutely going for it big time...

After a wicked battle on the SuperMix 270, the fish finally slid toward me some 200 yards from where i first hooked it.

A beast of a Bass. 8 1/2 lb of shining armour weighed with its tail still submerged ! I couldn't lift it high enough to get a proper weigh. Who cares anyway. Stonking fish but.., not that unusual this time of year. I hope it stays that way.

We took a break of a few minutes, revived the fish and took one more photo before release.

We skished further up the run where Kev again hooked and lost an animal. What i haven't mentioned is that my bigger Bass also took the plug 'outer'. Wasn't i just saying this was unusual ?

Over to fast constriction, Kev misjudges it and gets spit through at G-Force speeds. Great ride but misses the mark by only 10 yards LOL.

I capitalise on his misfortune and swing a plug (Jersey Style) over this rip bar...

Wham ! Fish On !

A 6 on Pink. I'll be giving you all my thoughts on colours and contrasting profile edge definition in a later post. Brill fight again. This is 'Skishing' my friends.

You know where we are.., give us a call. btw, its not all 'skishing'. On land trips, day or night available. Advice is always free so give us a shout on myfish@jerseybassguides.com.

Hope you enjoyed mission B:1 as much as we did. It was a blast !