It's the 3rd week of August and fish are starting to show over the usual areas which is late but it still feels as if the Harbour isn't as heavily populated as in previous years - the result has been having to travel further afield to find the fish - this has produced some very good quality fish both in size and number but the wind has restricted our working area on too many occasions, which is both frustrating as well as impacting the number of fish we are recording, so very difficult to conclude whether this is just a testing season or the result of dealing with difficult weather conditions.

Alex Jordan on a Foggy morning

Dan Merrit dealing with 20knts of breeze

When wading, the story has been very different and has been extremely challenging all season, with the usual areas yielding very few shoals of Y1-Y3 Bass - this is a worry as these year classes feed into the future catch returns - only time will tell but the commercial fleet are saying they are reading the same pattern with fewer fish being brought to port. Many of the fishermen who operate within the 10 mile radius I speak to swear this is cyclical so we may be seeing the low point of the curve over 9 seasons.....Are any of you seeing this pattern when you wade the inshore fishery?

"Seawolf"

The one dominant factor this season has been the lack of consistency, i.e one session you drift over ground and hook up in the usual way and then to return on the following day with very little tidal change, expecting the same and yet the area has felt completely different - sometimes large fish are taken and then within a tide they are gone,,, this has been a particularly consistent pattern on the East side of my coding area, the further West you travel has been less so and I wonder if commercial pressure in the Selsey area is greater than over on the IOW side....?

The website shop is busy with clients looking for quality lines, reels and rods at competitive prices as well as the fly patterns we use on a daily basis, so please browse or contact me with any particular questions (See Our Bass Fishing Shop)

For the Connecticut clients, that date in September will soon be with us, so please CHECK that your ESTA form is either filled out electronically or valid from previous trips to the USA, the link is below:

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta

Overall, it has been a record season so far for introducing clients to the fly, the weather has been harsh and I applaud you all in your pursuit of this favoured species, keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing you again - for those of you who have yet get a line wet, I will be calling you the evening before to confirm the weather and details of your day.