Double figure bass and lure fishing for monster mackerel + topwater hits!

A little bit of lure fishing this autumn around Herne bay. The season started pretty slowly but we ended up with a fantastic autumn in the end between all the storms and huge amounts of seaweed through the summer months. early in the year we spent hours and hours chasing fish , many blanks ensued. The town beaches get absolutely hammered by weed and its almost unfishable at times. we mainly fish with lighter tackle and lure gear when the weather and tides allow. when it blows up rough on the north kent coast we often head down to samphire hoe and hythe . the big mackerel were quite a surprise especially in the murky shallow water at low tide.. they are so much fun on the light gear. mostly i catch and release the bass, especially the larger females. we do keep a few sizeable mackerel for the bait freezer and a few dinners though. my lure setup is a 9ft shimano dialuna paired with a stradic 3000xg. its been absolutely thrashed the last 3 seasons and the reel is only now showing some signs of age. It regularly gets dunked and so far has stood up to the saltwater environment very well with only minimal maintenance i dont use a vast selection of lures nowdays, mostly savagegear seekers in 16 gram along with a few westin lures. i make my own surface lures from workshop scraps, maybe ill make a few basic ones and catch a few bass so you can see basic lures really do work well.