Mojo fully restored!

As you can probably tell from the featured image of this blog (more about this later) my fishing mojo is now fully restored !

This is no doubt due to an upturn in the bass fishing, both on the coast and in the estuaries, since late July. Ask most experienced anglers who fish the North Cornwall Coast, and they will say that the second half of July is the time to start serious shore bassing.  On the South Coast, June used to be a very good month, but things seem to have fallen more in line with the North Coast in recent years. Trouble is, it takes me a while to adjust to these (climate change-driven?) new norms, but hopefully the penny has finally dropped, and I won’t bother to start making concerted efforts until mid-July next year.

Lure obsession

Some sessions on the coast have produced up to seven fish, but nothing over 53cm. Most of these have come at night, on my current lure obsession, the Cornish Snax from Bass Lures UK. These are great lures, which cast well and withstand multiple hook-ups, and are great value for money. Just cast out and slowly straight-retrieve – about one turn every two seconds. They do some awesome colours too, and I’ve caught on most of these.

A bright light

Fishing with Ian Ingram one night, I had just landed two bass in two casts on one of these lures. A bright light appeared at the far end of the beach. As the light got nearer we could see that it was a fishing boat. It came in very close, and we could make out a line of floats in the water. Clearly it was pointless to continue fishing. We slowly made our way back along the beach, stopping to see what was in the net; the irony that any fish could have been ones we had just put back was not lost on us. At this point the boat came within yards of the beach, the owner seemingly intent on coming ashore. As if it wasn’t bad enough that we had to stop fishing, we were now faced with quite an intimidating situation. After a brief (and frank) exchange of views, we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and moved on. The incident was reported to Cornwall IFCA the next day, who I’m sure will do what they can.

Master class

Judging which surface lure to use, and how to work it in different sea conditions and depths can be tricky – as I found to my cost recently when boat fishing with Ian, who gave us a master class while I struggled to catch the odd fish!

Fishing on another occasion from the shore, over some bouldery ground with the sea coming up a little, I opted to try an old favourite – an Aile Mag Popper. It was the right choice, and just to prove that the old classics still work, a nice 50cm fish hammered it!

Estuary fishing improved

The estuary fishing has also improved. One notable catch was a 52cm bass I caught on a sunny afternoon. When I say notable, I don’t mean for its size, but for the fact that I actually saw the fish take the soft plastic I was using  right at my feet. I don’t know where the fish came from, but it was on the lure like a missile!

Creature baits

Back to that featured image. As you can see I’m rather pleased! One of my goals for this year was to catch a bass on a ‘Creature Bait’. I had several (half-hearted) attempts last year, but all I ended up with was a blob of plastic (the one I used doesn’t like mixing with other soft plastics!). I tried several types, but all to no avail.

This year I continued my quest, and to make it slightly easier I restricted my efforts to the Sleeper Craw. I like this one because it comes ready to use, with internal weight and weedless hook fitted. Admittedly they’re not cheap for a soft plastic, but I consider the investment worthwhile – and they certainly catch fish, as this 62cm beauty (same fish as the featured image), my first ever on this lure, shows. Goal achieved!

Having caught six bass on this lure now, between 27 and 62cm, I can vouch for their ability to withstand hooking by fish and being caught up in weed – that’s where you need to place them. I’ve found that casting ahead of you, so as not to spook the fish before you arrive, parallel with the shore so that the lure lands about a yard out (or “as far as you can piss” as Pete Bottono used to say!) seems to work.

That’s where the fish will be – nosing around in the weed after crabs. As soon as I started to turn the reel handle the fish hit the lure. It was quite a surreal moment, and I must admit to not quite knowing what was happening.  It was as if the splash had attracted the fish, and it didn’t want to let such a tasty morsel escape. It’s a bit like when a soft plastic hits the water, and the fish takes it on the drop – the fish must be drawn to that splash.

It’s a different type of fishing. The approach seems to be to pick your spot, cast, and if you haven’t had a bite almost instantly, bring your lure straight in. You can get fish if the lure is slowly worked back, but these seem to be the smaller ones. This also means you have more chance of getting caught up in the weed, wasting time, and potentially spooking other fish – stealth is key.

A Montagu’s takeover?

Taking about crabs, has anybody noticed a reduction in shore crabs in their local estuary? There has been some talk of this is scientific circles, and in one place I fish there seem to be very few shore crabs – most of the crabs you see here are furrowed (Montagu’s) crabs. You wonder what effect this apparent change  might have on bass presence.

A good spawning year?

The juvenile bass surveys are going well so far, with good numbers of fish from this year’s spawning being found. To follow what’s been happening (and we’re always looking for more volunteers), have a look at the latest news page on the CBIG website.

That’s all for this month folks. Thanks for reading. If you’d like to read more about my fishing (and other) adventures, why not purchase a copy of my book.