The air was cool and the wind had finally backed off. It was a gorgeous night to be on the beach.
The clock had just ticked past midnight as I made my first cast of the evening. Three or four cranks of the handle was all it took to generate a bite. I set the hook and was on with the first fish of the night on my very first cast.
The bass were here and they were feeding!
Often times it takes many hundreds of casts to generate a bite, as myself and several MFCC members experienced this past weekend at Cuttyhunk Island.
Yet that was not the case on this night. The first bass of the evening was small, but I now knew fish were in the area, which boosted my confidence.
The next fish bit on the very next cast. The fish so far were not big, but you won't catch me complaining!
My question as this point was; could there be larger bass in the area?
I was really hoping to hook up with a fish in the 20 or 30 pound class. I felt like they ought to be around.
However, feeling like big fish ought to show up is usually not enough. The schoolies were a good indication that life was present in the area.
I hoped it was only a matter of time until the larger fish showed up.
An Important Clue In The Sand That Big Bass Could Be Nearby
After making several more casts without any action I decided to continue walking down the beach, when there in the sand I noticed something I have not seen since this August 2014 surfcasting trip.
When I found these specimens in the sand during August, the result was a nice 28 pound striped bass. Catching a fish of that stature from shore is no small feat, and I was pretty pumped up back then when I caught that bass.
I will talk more about exactlywhat I found in the sand in the Extended Fishing Report for this specfic surfcasting trip, which you can access by clicking the green button below.
For now just know it was good enough to make me stop dead in my tracks, wade into the water, and begin fishing again.
And Then The Big Bass Showed Up
I made a long cast out into the darkness, curious whether or not I had just stumbled upon a school of much larger striped specimens.
I began my retrieve and instantly got slammed!
I could tell right away that this was a much bigger bass. The rod doubled over as the bass pulled line from my reel, trying desperately to swim towards open ocean.
