Bass 2

Different location.

This location was close to open sea. About an hour before high tide, making this spot fairly deep. Its one of my usual fishing marks and has produced one or two bass, endless Wrasse and the odd Pollack. The shoreline forms a bit of a gully, so theres rock either side, sloping inwards towards the bottom. Theres a bit of kelp near the bottom and plenty of boulders. On this occassion there was a little bit of chop and good sunlight. After the last dive I wrote about, I wanted to have a look here - to drop down and wait and see what appears.

Just dropped in off the rocks and down to the bottom. Reckon just shy of 10 metres again as I wasn't quite holding the bottom without grabbing the kelp. It was teeming with small wrasse and tiny pollack. First couple of dives, thats all I saw. Caught a glimpse of a bass heading away from me close to the bottom, and he was bloody huge!

Trouble is there was plenty bubbles and particles in the water, so looking into the blue was pretty hazey. On one of my ascents, I caught sight of a pair of bass following me up. They kept their distance, a couple of metres from my fins and in the haze you could just make out their eyes and the odd scale sparkle as they changed position. Showed how good their body shape and colouring is for camouflage in open water. Since this pair were in open water, I made a point of checking above me when I was next at the bottom. Couldn't see any sillouettes though, just haze!

After a couple more dives, all of a sudden, there they were! Half a dozen or so, some schoolies with one or two bigger ones. The larger bass were a bit more cautious, but slowly moved closer towards me. The photos again suffer with the conditions. I had high hopes since I caught a few at fairly close range...see what you think..

Confirmed that yep, there's plenty of bass around at this mark. They were pretty close to the bottom though (though that may have been because I was there), which may go some way to explaining why my lures (which are shallow diving) haven't produced that many hits. Plenty of small wrasse around which may serve as food, though didn't witness any feeding.

The bass didn't hang around for long, though I didn't see which way they went. Thay may have continued to hang behind the haze. With bass of varying size in the same location, their movements seemed random, they didnt move together like the previous school, though again it was clear that they were interested in me, given that they circled closer and closer until I moved - which spooked them.