Every spring and autumn great shoals of bass swim by my house; well, near enough that my fishing year has been regulated by these annual migrations for more years than I choose to remember!
They are the migrating shoals of bass which are following the edge of the 10-11 degree warm water thermocline as it moves its way east up the Channel and then back down again at the back end of the season.
For a few tides in the spring, and then again in the autumn, the Eddystone Reef becomes a staging post for these migratory shoals of fish as they stop over to feed up on the huge shoals of spring greater launce, and then joey mackerel, scad and occasionally herring, providing protein for the rest of the year.
Because the bass are “here today and gone tomorrow” the trick is being on the ‘Stone when
