A Bass Angler’s Life – six years on

I can’t believe it’s been almost six years since A Bass Angler’s Life was published. The book describes my fishing life, and all the things connected to it, up to that point. While it remains largely current, life doesn’t stand still, and I’ve always been one to embrace change.

Fishing, fishing, fishing!

Angling is still very much a part of my life, and central to all my other activities. My fishing trips were slightly down last year, mainly due to more days spent on juvenile bass surveys, but I still managed to go fishing on about a third of the days in 2024 ( I have a very tolerant partner!)

In order to maintain my increasing fishing-related activities (and because I’m not getting any younger!), I’m no longer involved with British Divers Marine Life Rescue and the Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings Network (but still support this important work). On the other hand, my involvement in bass research via the BASS Science Group has increased significantly.

It’s so important for your mental health to have an interest, especially one which brings you in contact with the healing and restorative power of nature, and exercises both body and mind. Without fishing, my working life would have been very difficult to sustain, and my retirement would have been far less enjoyable and purposeful.

Estuaries

“They are the one setting in bass fishing I have yet to crack, and remain a challenge I am determined to meet”, as I wrote in the book.  Fast forward  to the current time, and I think I can say that I have met that challenge – at least in the “Ria” (a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea) type of estuary. I’ve yet to do much in other types of estuary.

There’s something  about these quiet backwaters, which blur the distinction between sea and river fishing. I think they would have appealed to me at any age, but I find myself increasingly drawn to them in my later years, both during the daytime and at night. I still fish the coast, but tend to avoid the rougher conditions, and don’t travel as far afield as I used to.

It was inspiration from my visits to Southern Ireland, where estuary fishing for bass is the norm, which fuelled my quest for estuary success back home. This finally came in the autumn of 2021, on lures – still the main method I use in estuaries.  Paddletail soft plastics quickly became my lure of choice. I use them unweighted in the main, but will use them weighted (belly weights or jig heads/internal weight) where  current is involved, or I want to fish along the bottom.

One thing which struck me was just how close bass will come in; you’re as likely to catch a fish casting along the shoreline as you are straight out from it.  The other day a bass came slowly cruising in towards me, stopping right opposite my feet – no more than a yard out. My boots seemed not to bother it  in the slightest, and it was only when I reached for my phone camera in that it scooted off.

Creature Baits

Presumably these fish are searching out crabs, prawns and other tasty morsels as the tide covers the weed, or retreats from it. It was this behaviour which prompted me to try ‘Creature Baits’ when they first came to my attention a couple of years ago.

The idea of an imitating one of the ‘creatures’ bass would be looking for with a crab-like imitation crawfish pattern lure seemed to make sense to me. After a series of blanks in 2023, success finally came in August of last year. I wrote about this session in a previous blog. It was a game changer, encouraging me to use  these lures more and more, with regular success.

Bait fishing

Although I am doing less bait fishing these days, its importance  to me is no less than it was, especially during the autumn and winter; I seem to do very little during the spring and summer now.

On the open coast I am doing less rough ground legering, coming full circle to the beaches where I started my bass fishing journey over 40 years ago.  I am also increasingly turning to estuaries for bait fishing. The quieter conditions here are perfect for freelining big mackerel and squid baits. I think the simplicity of the rig, with very little between you and the fish, and the light tackle approach, is what appeals to me. The feeling when a fish takes your line through the open bail arm, totally unencumbered by weights and other tackle paraphernalia, is, for me, the ultimate angling experience.

Crab was my automatic choice of bait, especially if legering over rough ground, but I rarely use it these days, preferring the convenience of frozen mackerel, squid and razor. My experience of mackerel as a bait for bass was very limited at the time I wrote the book –  a situation I have since corrected.

Favourite lures

When I write the book my favourite lures were surface lures. I still love this type of lure when fishing in open and clear water, away from weed, but increasingly I’m moving away from plugs in favour of soft plastics.

My obsession with DoLive Sticks is only slightly dimmed , having caught many good fish on them, but my head has been turned by other soft plastics – various paddletails and Snax-type lures, which are now included in the mix

I’ve been encouraged by the increasing use of single hooks on plugs, but many anglers still seem unwilling to accept the risk of losing the occasional (mainly small) bass in exchange for improved fish welfare where a bass is to be returned. I would personally like to see the use of single hooks (and also circle hooks for bait fishing) being promoted by the authorities, especially where small fish are likely to be regularly encountered.

Changing seasons

When I first started bass fishing back in the eighties, you would start at the end of May, and finish at the end of October.

Over the years that changed. First we discovered the early fishing during April, hoping to intercept big bass making their way back to their summer feeding grounds . Then we began catching in November, but the real eye-opener was catching bass, some of them good ones, through December and into January.  This year I caught my first ever February bass.

On the other hand, the ‘resident’ fish seem later arriving these days. June used to be a good month on the South Coast, but in recent years bass fishing doesn’t seem to become consistent until late July.

Whether there has been a definite change in the movements of bass in Cornish waters is difficult to say definitively without more evidence. My feeling is that the resident fish are probably arriving and leaving later. The ‘season’, at least in Cornwall, does seem to have extended, with many bass anglers now fishing for longer, and later/earlier in the year. This must putting more money into the economy, and you wonder why this doesn’t appear to be recognised by the fishing authorities or the Tourist trade.

Still no double

The holy grail of bass angling, the 10lb bass, continues to elude me. With few larger  (>60cm) bass around these days, to be honest I have all but given up hope of catching one. In my book there were regular mentions of 6lb bass, even a few 7’s, 8’s and 9’s, but these days I struggle to catch 5lbers.

I wonder that I haven’t given up bass fishing by now, but I guess it’s my natural optimism, coupled with being prepared to do my bit to improve things, that keeps me going. There are signs that at least the number of fish seems to be increasing – I caught fish on a higher proportion of trips (44%), and caught slightly more fish per trip and hour (0.94 & 0.41 respectively) last year. Still nothing to get excited about though!

That’s all for now folks. Tightlines.

A copy of A Bass Angler’s Life can be ordered here.

Featured image photo courtesy of Matt Burgoyne, Bass Lures UK.