Well, the winds have been NE and Easterly for days now, quite strong too. Small tides has meant clearing water and we had 2 days of virtually zero swell to let things stagnate Monday and Tuesday.

I'm right in the middle of the long process of adopting my 2 foster kids but still finding time to get out. I've' skished a few runs taking Wrasse, Bass, Pollack and the other day, Triggers on baited Mepps intended for Thin Lipped Mullet.

Been testing loads of new gear. More than I can shake a stick at and, there are some real gems in this batch. I had a ton of stuff from Monster Tackle and have more than impressed with the Sluggo 'El Salto' and Proluresdirect sent a batch of hard and soft lures. In amongst those are some pretty clever baits that are proving their worth and fish very well indeed.

The ' El Salto' Sluggo. Accounting for lots of weightless rigged fish right now. Cheap too and durable.

Loads of these guys are hitting salt weighted freelures. They love em. Freelures aren't free it's just a way to describe a lure that only requires a hook to operate. Senko's, Xlayers, Sluggo's etc can all be fished weightless/weedless with no added weight to good ranges and depths.

Anyway, another guy finally started the modular course. Dave (Krashtest) Watson has been deliberating starting for months. He isn't a total newbie and has been out to try new things on various occasions and, being honest, I think he's done ok considering. He has interpreted these blog pages and gone out there to do it. Fair play.

Rubbish tides and strong Easterly borne winds don't usually make for good Bass fishing and this trip wasn't a gift from the Bass gods but...we talked structure, tides, times, where Bass sit, hide, feed, and, best of all, we fished from low daylight into my beloved darkness that doesn't scare Dave anymore. He's already broken his night Bass duck thankfully.

We walked a good section of colourful beachfront and as darkness fell, fish were literally at our feet in 6" of water. We were kneeling 3 rod lengths away from waters edge as Bass and (I suspect Mullet) roamed the very clear edges of the cusp. Dave was lucky to see this activity on day1.

It wasn't long before Dave nailed this little guy on a Reins UV shad. It hit the lure stopped, doing nothing, in the dark. Well done Dave.

This Bass came to join the party. Just fishing a dead slow, and I mean, dead slow to stopped xlayer we both missed a few tentative takes. The Bass wern't easy at all but were there which helps of course.

Again, straight shanked and pegged weightless lure did the business. There is a whack of stuff in the blog about rigging weightless and weedless.

Another one falls to the same tactic. We could have stayed and enjoyed a bagup I think but it was important to show Dave the layout of the whole area as the tidal state changed.

A great start to Dave's modular. Unfortunately, right now, I cannot take anyone else on re: a modular as I'm currently at full capacity with session work. I am still free for some full days and nights as Sept reaches for it's dying breath but I'm pretty solid with stuff right now and, I have to get 4 other blokes back up to speed this next few weeks as fishing and hopefully weather improves their chances.

You know who you are so be ready. The next tidal set in Sept is usually indicative of the start of the back end and I'm predicting good things.

I'll be showing all these new lures along with rigging when i get an array of photo's to work with.

Until next time......

Thanks for reading.