Beach Fishing With Lugworm – Connor Lands a Cracking 55cm Bass!

Sometimes the fishing sessions that mean the most aren't necessarily the ones you've spent weeks planning.

Sometimes you're simply grateful to get out there.

That's exactly how Connor and I felt heading out for this trip.

We've been putting a huge amount of time into getting Tides & Tribe properly up and running as a business. It's incredibly exciting seeing something we've talked about start becoming a reality, but there's been one slight problem...

We've been so busy building a fishing business that we haven't had enough time to actually go fishing!

So when an opportunity finally appeared, we took it.

The rods were coming out.

We headed over to Hampton with a pretty simple idea.

We'd have a quick session either from Hampton Pier or somewhere on the beach and just see what happened.

When we arrived, however, the place was packed.

Rather than trying to squeeze ourselves into an already busy fishing spot, we decided to get back in the car and carry on a little further towards Herne Bay.

It turned out to be a very good decision.

Eventually, we came across a stretch of beach that was surprisingly quiet.

Considering the beautiful sunshine, we couldn't believe there weren't more people around.

We had space.

We had sunshine.

We had the sea in front of us.

And, most importantly, Connor and I were finally fishing again.

This wasn't one of those sessions where we arrived expecting to smash it.

Quite the opposite.

We were simply happy to be out of the house, breathing in the fresh sea air and getting a line in the water together.

We got ourselves set up and kept the approach relatively simple.

For bait, we were using freshly dug lugworm.

Lugworm is something we both dig ourselves and it's also something we now sell through Tides & Tribe.

Our rigs were Sakuma 2 Hook Clip Down rigs, another product you'll now find at Tides & Tribe.

There's an important point here about the tackle we sell.

We don't want to fill the shop with products simply because we can sell them.

We want to stock tackle and bait we'd genuinely be happy to use ourselves.

We trust Sakuma's quality, so when it came to choosing rigs for our own session, that's what went onto the rods.

Fresh lugworm on.

Rigs clipped down.

And out they went.

Now we waited.

Thankfully, we didn't have to wait particularly long.

I noticed the first signs of interest on my rod.

There are few better sights when you've been away from fishing for a while!

I picked the rod up, brought the fish towards the beach and was absolutely delighted with what came in.

A lovely 45cm bass.

What a way to get back into it.

But things were about to get even better.

What had started as a session where we'd been expecting very little suddenly turned into a proper bass session.

The fish continued coming for both Connor and me.

One bass became another.

And another.

Then Connor managed to land the fish that would become the biggest of our trip.

When we measured it properly at home...

55cm.

A cracking bass and, much to Connor's satisfaction I'm sure, considerably bigger than Dad's first 45cm fish!

I'll happily take that defeat.

Seeing Connor catch the biggest bass of the session probably gave me more enjoyment than catching it myself would have.

That's one of the reasons Tides & Tribe exists in the first place.

Fishing gives us something we can do together.

By the end of our session, we'd retained five bass between the two of us to bring home for the table.

The smallest of the five measured 43cm.

The largest was Connor's 55cm bass.

That's a decent spread of fish and a session neither of us was expecting when we first arrived at a packed Hampton Pier.

Sometimes changing the plan pays off.

There's another part of this trip that's worth talking about because there's an important lesson in it.

At first, I had it in my head that the bass limit was two fish per angler.

I also, for some unknown reason, had 47cm in my head as the minimum size.

Rather than simply trusting my memory, we checked.

That's something every angler should do.

Regulations can change and none of us should rely purely on what we remember from a previous season.

Before confirming which fish were coming home, we checked the applicable regulations and measured our fish.

The rules applicable to our session allowed three bass per angler, with a minimum size of 42cm.

There were two of us fishing.

We retained five fish.

And our smallest retained bass measured 43cm, with the largest measuring 55cm.

Everything we retained was therefore within those limits.

Important: Fishing regulations and seasonal restrictions can change. Always check the latest official regulations yourself before fishing or retaining bass rather than relying on the figures contained in an older fishing report.

Unfortunately, when we got home and shared some photographs from the session, the day developed a slightly less enjoyable side.

People began commenting.

One person suggested we should be prosecuted for keeping undersized fish.

Others claimed we'd taken too many.

Neither accusation was correct.

It's surprisingly easy for someone looking at a photograph on social media to decide they know exactly how large a fish is.

We know because we actually measured them.

The smallest retained bass was 43cm.

Connor's biggest was 55cm.

In the end, I even found myself measuring our kitchen draining board because people were using it as a reference to claim the fish couldn't possibly be the sizes we'd stated!

There's probably a lesson there too.

Never underestimate the lengths a fisherman will go to when somebody questions his tape measure. 😂

Joking aside, this part bothered both of us.

Not because people questioned something we'd done. If someone genuinely believes an angler has made a mistake, there's nothing wrong with politely pointing it out.

Responsible fishing matters.

Protecting fish stocks matters.

Following regulations matters.

But there's a massive difference between helping another angler and immediately attacking or accusing somebody online without knowing the facts.

We don't want Tides & Tribe to become part of that culture.

We want to build the opposite.

We're not professional anglers.

We don't know everything.

We're not going to pretend every cast is perfect or every fishing decision comes from decades of expert knowledge.

We're simply a dad and son who absolutely love our fishing life.

We'll continue learning.

We'll continue checking.

We'll continue measuring our fish.

And when we're lucky enough to catch something legal that we want for the table, sometimes we'll take it home and enjoy it.

Thankfully, for every negative comment there were plenty of brilliant people who simply congratulated us.

And those are the people we'd rather concentrate on.

Because fishing should bring people together.

For Connor and me, this particular trip wasn't really about five bass.

It was about finally getting away from everything we'd been doing behind the scenes with Tides & Tribe and remembering exactly why we're building this business in the first place.

We love fishing.

We love being beside the sea.

And we love doing it together.

I'll remember arriving at Hampton and finding it packed.

I'll remember driving around looking for another spot.

I'll remember finding an almost empty beach with the sun blazing down.

I'll remember seeing that first knock and bringing in my 45cm bass.

And I'll definitely remember Connor beating Dad with his 55cm beauty.

Those are the memories that matter.

We've filmed the whole adventure for the Tides & Tribe YouTube channel.

You can see the beach, what we were using, the bites, the bass and, yes, the measuring!

If you're looking for polished professional anglers who never make mistakes, we're probably not your channel.

But if you enjoy genuine UK sea fishing, family adventures, learning together and seeing what really happens when ordinary anglers head for the coast, you'll fit right in.

And hopefully it won't be quite as long before Connor and I manage to get out for the next one.

Family. Fishing. Memories.

Tides & Tribe

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