Author: Robin Bradley

It’s that time again – when people reflect on the year just finished, and think about the one ahead. Here’s my thoughts on another year in a bass angler’s life.

An enjoyable fishing year

I went fishing a bit less than in the last couple of years, mainly due to the bass survey work (see below), but still managed a good number of trips. My catch rate was up very slightly, and I caught fish on more trips – let’s hope this trend continues. However, as with the previous 2 years, I struggled to find larger fish, with just 3 fish of 60cm or over for the year – that’s only 2.6% of all the bass I caught! And my longest bass was just 62cm.

But fishing isn’t just about statistics – it’s about doing something you love doing, in ways you like doing it, and in places which are special to you. It’s about meeting challenges and learning new things, and about creating memories. Of course, a few more fish, especially bigger ones, would have really made 2024 for me, but all in all it was an enjoyable year, albeit with a tinge of sadness at the end.

The loss of a good friend

Just a short while ago I lost a good friend. Captain Derek Goodwin MBE did so much for sea angling and conservation, particularly regarding bass. He started doing juvenile bass surveys in the Helford estuary in Cornwall back in 1994. The unique and long-standing set of data he produced  is much valued by scientists, anglers, conservationists and students. We will make sure Derek’s name lives on and and the legacy he leaves continues.

A slow start

The year got off to a slow start, things not becoming consistent until mid-July. Some would say this is entirely predictable, and I’m toying with not starting properly until then this year – we’ll see! I’d like to see if there are bass in estuaries all year round, so I’ll probably make the odd trip if we get any settled periods, especially during April, when the odd good fish could be on the cards.

From July on the fishing was quite good at times, with few blank sessions until early November, and up 7 fish a session on occasion. The year finished with a minor flourish, with the estuaries throwing up a few fish in late December. The hoped-for improvement on the coast with the migrating fish hasn’t materialised at the time of writing this.

New toys

I really wanted to catch a bass on a ‘Creature Bait’. I’m not really into fishing rods/reels etc – I’m happy to go use what others recommend  (as long as they don’t cost ‘silly money’). But I am a sucker for new lures, and these Creature Baits are proper toys (bath toys as my mate John describes them!).

After a few failed attempts, I was lucky enough to catch my first bass on one at the beginning of August – and it was a beauty of 62cm! I wrote about this in an earlier blog. I had cast parallel to the shore, and the Megabass Sleeper Craw I was using landed a couple of feet out, among the weed. I turned the reel handle once and the lure was hit hard.

Once you’ve caught on a lure your confidence increases to the point where you start using it more and more. I’ve now caught 15 bass, of mixed sizes (62cm still the biggest), on either the Sleeper Craw or the 3″ Weighted Craw from BLUK. Just a simple turn-stop-turn style of retrieve, with one turn of the reel handle every couple of seconds or so, seems to be as effective as anything. I imagine this must mimic a crab scuttling across the bottom.

Things that go bump in the night

I had just landed a 58cm bass on the excellent Cornish Snax lure from BLUK. As I was moving along the reef, I slipped and went sprawling across the rocks. No damage done – or so I thought. On the next cast about a foot of the rod tip went flying seawards,  having cracked off following damage from the fall.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, after catching up with my fishing buddy Ian I went over again – this time banging my head on a rock on the way down! That put paid to my fishing for the night. Mind you, it could have been much worse. I have since replaced my boots with beefier studs, but I will have to give a bit more thought as to the type of mark I fish from now on – especially if I’m on my own (after all I am in my 70’s!) .

Simple bait fishing

Increasingly bass anglers are turning exclusively to lures. I love lure fishing myself, but bait fishing is also a great way to catch bass. It doesn’t have to be complicated, or involve loads of time collecting bait.  What could be simpler, or nicer, than freelining a big fillet of frozen mackerel, or whole squid? All you need is a heavy lure rod, reel loaded with 20lb braid, bead and swivel on the end + 3 foot of 20lb mono/fluoro and an 8/0 circle hook. It can be a bit smelly though – especially if you leave a bait in your bag for several weeks!

I caught good bass on both these baits this year. Feeling the line slipping through your fingers, then having the patience to wait before bringing the bale arm over when you judge the timing is right,  is the ultimate fishing high – always assuming the fish hasn’t dropped the bait!.

Goals for 2025

I’m fascinated with the lifecycle of bass – from eggs to old ladies! One of the aspects of this is their migration strategy. They are now thought to be a partially migratory species, so do some prefer to stay put in some years, rather than heading off to the spawning grounds? And where do the ones which aren’t mature enough to spawn go? To that end, I’m going to try to fish through the winter, and exclusively in estuaries. Mind you – it depends how cold it gets!

Science stuff

I’ve been lucky enough to indulge my passion for marine biology after my retirement from NHS Laboratory work. This year has been very significant for me in that respect.

Future marine biologists

I was delighted to be asked to talk to marine biology students at Plymouth University in February. It was great to give a fisher’s perspective on things to the marine biologists/conservationists/fisheries managers/policy makers of the future.

Sampling small fish

My involvement with the FinVision project on behalf of BASS has continued, and this year I took part in a fish sampling workshop on the Erme in Devon during the Summer. It was great to spend a day with anglers, students, scientists and fisheries experts, learning about this beautiful estuary, and methods of sampling small fish with nets.

On the Erme we saw tiny post-larval bass, a finding which was to be repeated in our surveys in Cornwall. 2024 was perhaps the most successful yet for our survey group, Cornwall Bass Investigations Group –  in terms of the number of surveys we were able to carry out, and the number of ‘0’ group bass we found. Of course, a poor result is just as valuable, but not quite as inspiring!

All About The Bass

I was so pleased to be involved in organising and delivering the ‘All About The Bass’ symposium at Essex University in July. I thoroughly enjoyed being part of a lovely team, who were very inclusive and welcoming to an elderly citizen scientist like myself! It was inspiring to hear from some of the leading scientists in the field of bass research. The workshop in the afternoon brought scientists, anglers and policymakers together to see if ways  of fishers contributing more to science could be found. A report and some useful resources will follow soon.

That’s it for this month folks. Sorry it’s a bit longer than normal, but these annual reviews cover a lot of ground, and I doubt that I’ll be posting again for a bit.

If you’d like to read more about my fishing (and other) exploits, why not order a copy of my book.

We’re fortunate down here in Cornwall in that our bassing season carries on for longer than in some parts of the UK; late October through to mid-January can be one of the best periods of the year.

Mind you, it doesn’t come without frustrations. The weather for a start – plans are frequently scuppered (at least on the coast) by bad weather. And then there’s the migrations – bass searching for warmer water to ripen their eggs ahead of spawning.

To bass anglers fishing further north and east that usually spells the end of their season. But for those in other areas, it marks just a temporary pause in proceedings, with things picking up again in early December, as the migrating fish make their way along the south and west coasts. This can give some good fishing in these areas right up to mid-January, with potentially an increased  chance of a decent fish too. That’s if the netters don’t catch ’em all!

Settled weather

This year the November weather has been particularly settled, allowing me to fish more or less where and when I want to (subject to family commitments). I’ve got a bit soft in my advancing years, so the dry weather has also been very welcome. The result has been some good fishing, using a mix of methods, from a variety of locations. Nothing major, but some enjoyable sessions.

Hungry for for a Cornish Snax

This 62cm beauty was hungry for a Cornish Snax soft plastic. The fish hit close-in and hard, on a steady, slow retrieve in choppy conditions on the coast, putting up a good, but brief, scrap.

Creature capers

Next up was this 59cm cracker, taken on a Megabass Sleeper Craw  in an estuary.

These ‘Creature Baits’ have been a revelation this year.  Just a short cast, worked slowly along, or up to, the weed margin, with just the occasional gentle lift of the rod seems to do it – that’s if a bass hasn’t snapped the lure up as soon as it lands!

I had another of 53cm in the same session, and then this one of 50cm the following day at another mark.

Good things come to those who bait

This time of year always brings out the bait angler in me. With all these squid about at the moment, it’s a good time to use this as bait. Bought in 1lb packs from your local tackle dealer such as the excellent Gwinear Angling  and Lowen Chy Angling they make a cheap and convenient bait, which bass love.

This 50cm bass took frozen squid mounted on a simple running leger pennel rig – a 6/0 Mustad Viking on the end of a 3 foot length of 20lb Amnesia, and a 1/0 Varivas Chinu running above this.

After this session the coast seemed to go quiet, but there still seems to be fish in the estuaries. A recent session produced bass of 56 and 57cm on freelined/legered squid, and one of 46cm on a pearl-coloured Cornish Snax. The one on freelined squid announced its presence in no uncertain terms, rattling the rod violently, and steaming off at a rate of knots!

Another estuary foray produced this fish of 60cm, only my third 60cm+ fish this year, on freelined mackerel fillet.

She looked like she’d been feeding up/filling up with eggs in anticipation of overwintering and spawning. I love fishing in this way – just a swivel on the end of your line, with a trace and hook attached. A heavier lure rod is all you need. There couldn’t be a simpler, or lighter way of bait fishing. It’s awesome to feel the line slipping through your fingers as the fish moves off. When you judge the time is right, put the bail arm over and pull the fish up short, with the 8/0 circle hook hopefully lodging nicely in the scissors.

Taking the sleeper

A session over the height of the recent Springs seemed not to be to the liking of the Sleeper Craws, but the Megabass Dark Sleeper saved the day.

I have caught a number of fish on the 1oz version of this, but the 3/4 oz version feels a bit nicer to use, and seems just as effective.

Hope for the future?

This years’ juvenile bass surveys are now complete, and you can see the report about these here.  Some cause for optimism – as long as the stock is properly managed.

Tackling this issues

Speaking of managing the bass stock, it’s great to see the Bass Management Groups in England and Wales starting to tackle the issues. Good luck to all involved, and let’s give those representing recreational sea angling our full support.

That’s it for now folks, tight lines,

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.

 

I like to post quite regularly, but recent science commitments have limited fishing time, and to be honest I haven’t had much to write about when I have gone. From what I can make out, and please correct me if I’m wrong, while other areas are starting to see bass, things are still pretty quiet on the whole in Cornwall. The longer this goes on, the more you begin to wonder if the resident fish have been wiped out over the winter by the gill netters who target the pre-spawning aggregations off the Southwest.

Mojo coming back

It had got to the point where my fishing mojo, usually bullet-proof, was flagging, but recent boat fishing reports, and some modest success from a recent shore trip on the coast, have  led to a mojo revival (at least partially!). Note that this was followed by another couple of blanks!

After a pretty rubbish start to my season, it was nice to feel a bend in the rod again; let’s hope this is a sign of better things to come. Things (at least in my world) still seem pretty quiet in the estuaries though. If others are finding the same this probably means the fish are late arriving – if not, it could suggest that all the resident fish on the marks where I fish have ended up on a fish slab somewhere.

Keeping a record

As readers may know, I run the BASS Catch Recording Scheme. In addition to this, I’ve just started recording my catches in the Sea Angling Diary scheme. The latter is focussed on providing estimates of participation, catches (all species) and spend at population level – good for making the case for the recognition of sea angling as an important stakeholder, and hopefully giving a more accurate picture of the number of fish kept. I’ll feed back later in the year when I’ve had a chance to get to know the scheme, and how it compares with the BASS scheme.

All About The Bass

I really enjoyed being involved, on behalf of BASS, from the outset in planning and delivering the ‘All About The Bass’ symposium at Essex University. Not something I envisaged doing in my 70’s, but you never know what you can achieve when you  step out of your comfort zone. The team at Essex, and all the speakers, were so nice, and I took some treasured memories back to Cornwall, which will stay with me always.

This was a great opportunity to hear about the latest in bass science from leading experts in the field around the UK, Europe and Ireland, and to co-develop ways of anglers collaborating with scientists to provide data and evidence to improve the management of the bass fishery. It was nice to see BASS’ contribution to bass science recognised in several of the presentations, which also included research findings which reflect some of our concerns and should help to move the dial. A useful platform for anglers to voice concerns to scientists and those in a position to influence management and policy, and to develop good links with them.

Here’s an Executive Summary of the symposium:

AAB Executive Summary-2

Tagging bass

One of the areas where anglers have helped with bass monitoring and research is tagging bass. Anglers in Ireland do this on a regular basis, and I’d like to see this happening in the UK, if any barriers to this can be overcome. Here’s a video from SpecimenDaveTV. Not only is this a great watch, it shows how easy it is to tag bass with just a little training, and how a number of fish can be tagged in a short space of time. Hopefully someone will find these tagged fish, so that scientists can work out where the fish are going.

Juvenile bass surveys

Another area where  anglers can help in conservation and science is juvenile bass surveys. Check out our Cornwall Bass Investigations Group website for information. You can download a very short interim report, which we posted on 1st July.

I’d really like to see surveys like these happening elsewhere in the Country, so have a think about starting them yourself – I’d be happy to share my experience with you.

That’s it for now folks. Tight lines,

 

 

Just when the bass fishing season seemed to have kicked off down here in Cornwall, things have gone very quiet. I’m hoping this ‘false start’ just reflects the fact that these are probably fish migrating along the coasts to their summer feeding grounds, and that our summer residents will soon be with us. And with the foxgloves in full bloom it won’t be long.

June used to be an excellent month, with the fish often stuffed with mini-sand eels and other small baitfish, but things seem to have got pushed back a little in recent years, perhaps as a result of climate change? It’ll be interesting to see what happens this year.

Springtime surprises

I guess any decent bass caught in the spring is a (pleasant) surprise. Bryn Le Poidevin kicked things off with this nice fish of 5lb 8oz while fishing on Herm on April 11th. Not that this was his first of the year – he’s had bass of 7lb 4oz in January and 8lb 1 oz in March already this year. All these fish have come on his favourite verm bait – in daylight.

Next up was Ian Ingram with a nice fish of 57cm, one of two of this size plus a couple of smaller fish, from an excellent session on April 26th (while yours truly looked on!).

Ian caught this one on  a black/speckled 4.5 inch shad from Bass Lures UK.

Ben Harris had this 68cm beauty on a black seeker (original) on 3rd May.

 

Brad Wiffen  really pulled it out of the bag with a 70cm+ cracker (see featured image) from a fantastic session on May 9th.  Brad lured the fish with a 120mm Fiiish Crazy  Paddletail with a 15g head:

Hooray for a good year class

The juvenile bass survey programme is now in full swing. Our initial results seem to confirm our provisional assessment of the 2023 class as good. Both the Helford and the Fal have produced some good catches of ‘1’ groups (1 year-old fish) this year, the best so far being at Lamorran on the Fal, where we netted 266.

Bass science

I’m involved in several great projects with Universities on behalf of BASS, including ‘FinVision’ with Plymouth University, and the ‘All About The Bass’ symposium with Essex University.

The FinVision project is running some great events on June 14th in Plymouth including a practical demonstration of fish ecology, sampling and identification followed by a talk on the same subject in the evening. There will also be limited places available for a practical workshop on the River Erme the next day; information about this will be publicised soon.

The ‘All About The Bass’ symposium  follows on from the Supper4Science project (now finished from an angling perspective). The symposium will present the initial findings from this, but it’s about much more. It brings together the leading scientists working on bass from the UK, Ireland and Europe, and top bass anglers like Dr Mike Ladle.

It’s aim is to both inform, through a fascinating programme of talks, and bring out, through workshops, ways in which anglers can work with scientists to identify and fill some of the knowledge and evidence gaps in bass science, and how this data an be used to improve bass management. This should be a ‘landmark’ event, so well worth dropping in, either in person, or online.

Greetings folks! Apologies for the radio silence over the winter.  Although I haven’t done much actual fishing, I have been busy with various fishing-related projects (more about these later) and activities, and getting some domestic chores out of the way.

Fishing not much to write home about

Last year’s fishing wasn’t much to write home about. I’d better not mention how many trips I made (too many!), but only 36% of these produced fish, and the number of fish I caught per hour was just 0.36. The  average size was 42.3cm. The longest fish I caught was 60cm; I  had 3 of this size (one of which is the featured image to this post).

As always, I expect this was partly down to me messing about too much (although I did try to focus more last year!), but it doesn’t paint a particularly good picture about the state of the bass stocks at the moment. There are signs that numbers may be on the increase, perhaps boosted by recent good year classes (e.g. 2016), but few would argue that the size just isn’t there –  just 2% of my fish were 60cm or over, and this is fairly typical of anglers’ catches.

New challenges

As for this year, I’m hoping to catch a bass on ‘creature baits’, like these from Bass Lures UK. Mind you, I’m not the only one – it seems like most anglers who fish with lures in estuaries, are going to try them! That’s what’s great about bass fishing – it keeps throwing up new challenges, so even if the fishing is not what it might be, there’s still something new to keep our interest up. I’m going to try them both weighted and unweighted, worked slowly along the bottom with occasional pauses and twitches.

With the blackthorn in bloom, the bass will be making their way to their summer feeding grounds, so it’s time to start thinking about testing the water.

Catch recording scheme

One of the fishing-related activities I’ve been busy with over the winter is preparing the annual report of the BASS Catch Recording Scheme. This scheme is in its third year now, and producing some interesting data. Hopefully this is of value to anglers with regard to their fishing, and in helping to bring about improvements in the management of bass stocks. If you’d like to take part in the scheme, you can find more information here,  but please note that you’ll need to be a BASS member to do so (or see the report); you can join for the modest sum of £25 here.

Talking to students

In February I was asked to talk to undergraduates at Plymouth University as part of their final year module on fish and fisheries. I thoroughly enjoyed talking about the various roles and projects I’m involved in (including my fishing!), and it was a privilege to help the marine biologists and policymakers of the future appreciate some of the issues affecting the bass fishery from a recreational anglers perspective.

All about the bass

As a follow-on from the Supper4science project I’ve been helping with the organisation of a one-day symposium at Essex University dedicated to bass.

This is very much a first for me, and not something I envisaged doing in my seventies! It’s such a privilege to be involved in what will be a very interesting and useful day. You can find more information about the symposium, and register your interest, here.

Juvenile bass surveys

I’ve also been busy preparing for the start of this year’s juvenile bass surveys, which we’re hoping to start early next month. You can find out all about these via our website, and if you’d like to help with the surveys, just leave a comment, or get in touch via the contact page on my website.

As part of this year’s surveys, we’ll be helping scientists from Plymouth University, both in collecting samples for research, and in deploying underwater cameras as part of the ‘Finvision’ project.

Looks like it’s going to be a busy summer!

All the best,

Bah, humbug! I’m not feeling much Christmas cheer at the moment! I haven’t caught a single bass since early November. Whether it’s just a series of unhappy coincidences, or something else, I’m not sure. Boat anglers seem to be catching a few here (Cornwall) – no great size though, but whether I try the coast or estuary, all I get is blanks. The netters seem to be making hay, and there seems to be plenty of bait fish (anchovies/pilchards etc) around, so I don’t know why it’s not happening for me. The other night Ian Ingram and I were treated to quite a spectacle of loads of garfish thrashing about in the water, seemingly oblivious to our lights – no bass though.

This isn’t a totally unique situation though. Take 2014 for example. Just when I was expecting the season to go out with a whimper, the (shore) fishing really took off around the time of the full moon. The photo in the featured image of this blog is from that year.

Plan B

It was December the 15th to be precise. Arriving at a favourite mark, I was greeted by the sight of  a boat laying a net right across the front of it. I won’t go into the politics of this, but I’ll just say that I was totally gutted! Not only would I have been wasting my time on the day in question, but the fishing would be that bit poorer afterwards – and not just in Cornwall either.

I traipsed back to the car. To say I was cheesed off was putting it mildly (and diplomatically!) , but I didn’t want to miss out on my fishing fix. After running through a mental map of the area, taking into account the tide and conditions, plan B was hatched.

Conditions looked good, and there was no sign of nets. Things started well, with a couple of bass to 50cm on a Z Claw surface lure. At that time I hadn’t even started using soft plastics at night – it was all plugs. One in particular which produced well was the Duel Hardcore Minnow 130F in rainbow colours – aka the ‘Joker’. He certainly wasn’t having a laugh that night, when he produced this nice 60cm bass.

It’s the same fish that appears in the featured image (you can also just make out the eyes of my then golden retriever Toby!).

That same period produced this cracking bass for fishing pal Paul Wallace on squid when we were out together, so I’m not giving up just yet!

FinVision

As part of my role as Science Lead for BASS, and also as organiser of juvenile bass surveys in Cornwall   I’m involved with the ‘FinVision’ project. This is a great opportunity to get involved in bass research by viewing and commenting on images of juvenile fish from the comfort of your own home. These are collected by novel underwater cameras being developed by Plymouth University. You can do this, and find out more about the project,  via this ‘Zooniverse’ web portal.

Bass Fisheries Management Plan

The Bass FMP has now been published. I’m still digesting this, so won’t comment yet, but feel free to share your own thoughts if you’d like to.

Devon and Severn IFCA netting consultation

D&SIFCA are consulting on the possible reintroduction of netting in the Salcombe Estuary.  If you care about bass fishing I would urge you to respond. I have made a personal submission, and ones on behalf of the Cornish Federation of Sea Anglers and the Cornwall Bass Investigations Group.

That’s about it for this month folks. Have a great Christmas and New Year. Thanks for reading the blog; it’s great to see the number of subscribers going up steadily.  If you don’t hear from me for a bit it’ll just be because I’ve run out go things to write about over the winter – but I will be back!

When good fishing friend Simon De La Mare invited Angela and I to spend a weekend with him and Michaela on Herm, I jumped at the chance. It was great to visit this wonderful place again in all its stormy autumn splendour. Bad weather delayed our Ferry crossing from Portsmouth to Guernsey, meaning we lost the first day of our holiday.

Sunday morning saw us catching the Trident ferry over to Herm. Angela is not the best sailor in the world, but good egg that she is, she happily (?) boarded a  second boat in 24 hours! Fortunately things weren’t too rough at that stage.

Back on Herm

As we landed on Herm we were met by Simon, and staff on the island who transported our bags up to our cottage, ‘Sea Holly’, on the back of quad bikes – the only vehicles, apart from tractors, which are allowed on the island.

A quick plugging session over dusk, after a nice lunch and cake at the Mermaid Tavern, produced several bass to the Herm meister (diddly squat for the Herm novice!).

Big bass?

Later that evening I was retrieving a white Swimsenko in the pitch-dark of the new moon, and pouring rain, when I thought I saw a large white shape approaching the rock I was standing on. Dismissing this as a figment of my imagination/less than 20/20 vision, I carried on winding. Suddenly there was a great splash practically at my feet. Big bass? Interestingly Simon had a similar experience.  Alas, that was to be my only fishy experience on the island, although Simon did catch a couple more.

Return to Guernsey

After a rough, and wet, ferry ride back to Guernsey on Tuesday morning, we returned to Simon’s excellent self-catering accommodation   which he kindly let us use for for the remainder of the week. Michaela and Simon were the perfect hosts, both on Herm and Guernsey; spending time with them really was the highlight of the holiday. Simon even gave Archie a complimentary wash, blow dry and trim in his dog grooming parlour.

It was good to be back on Guernsey, with the fond memories this brought. I couldn’t pass up the chance of meeting up with good friend and GBASS President Bryn Le Poidevin while I was there. Wednesday afternoon saw us down on the beach for a bit of bait fishing in the surf, followed by a nice ‘brew’ at his place while we mulled over fishing politics .

 

Thursday saw Simon and I out on the rocks fishing with plugs on a beautiful afternoon. Simon’s expert local knowledge paid off this time, with us both catching fish. I managed a couple, the best being this one.

Our return trip was delayed slightly by some weather complications. I’m looking forward to the late run of bass, which should see some good fishing in Cornwall until the new year – that’s if any get past the nets!

Recent catches – in Cornwall

Things have been pretty quiet for me lately – a combination of bad weather and being away. I did manage this one on a freelined mackerel fillet at the end of October in an estuary. I just love this technique – sitting/standing there, bail arm open, with the line running through your fingers. I’m beginning to appreciate the difference between the hesitant, short runs of huss, and the definite, quicker runs that bass make.

Well Hooked Sea Angling UK

I’ve been having some interesting correspondence with Simon Attley (aka slosh). You can read about some amazing sessions he’s had , and how big bass come very close in here.

Simon and I have both been influenced by Mike Ladle, who has extolled the value of pilchards/sardines for catching bass. As soon as I can, I’ll be trying these on a beach somewhere.

That’s all for this month folks, thanks for reading.

Always a favourite time of year, the bassing seems to have gone up a notch of late. Mind you, it’s looking like Storm Babet might put the mockers on things for a bit! I suppose we should expect this bad weather at this time of year, but it is a little frustrating when the fishing can be at its best. At least some of us can usually find a sheltered  corner in an estuary somewhere.

Last minute call

The month started with a last-minute call from John Tisdale, asking if I wanted to go out in his boat tomorrow. I’ve had some enjoyable boat trips this year with Dave Jones, so this sounded appealing, especially fishing with an old friend of many years.

I tried to push the odd mishap we’ve had over the years to the back of my mind, and was soon reassured by excellent John’s boat handling skills. As we made our way along the coast, memories of great fishing nights from the shore in awe-inspiring places came flooding back. That in itself would have made the day, but then the fishing got underway……..

Putting Dave’s tips into action soon saw me landing my first bass of the day. I was using weighted soft plastics (Storm GT 360 Biscay Shad 12cm, 28g in a browny colour). One of Dave’s tips was to avoid the weedless version, or if you can only get these try supergluing the hook so that it stands proud of the top of the lure. It’s funny how I use weedless hooks all the time from the shore, without incident, but they definitely seem to result in missed/lost fish in this situation.

I ended up with 7 bass for the day (4 hours), up to 59cm – a very enjoyable trip. I even managed to get a couple more bass heads for the Supper4science   project. John did OK too – as you can see from the featured image.

Albie feast

After catching my first fish on an Albie Snax recently, I’ve been using them quite a bit.  I’d been having trouble getting hold of the pearl ones at the time, so invested in a pack of chartreuse and pearl ones, hoping they would work. I’d also bought some 5″ Cornish Handmade Senkos from Bass Lures UK, which look very similar to Albies. Armed with a selection of these, I headed off for the coast, the night after our boat trip.

First to try was the pearl Albie . A fish of 43cm showed that there were fish about, so time for some experimenting. On went the BLUK one – bang! a 50cm bass, followed by another of 47cm. I can’t believe how hard bass hit these Albie-type lures – perhaps they think they’re small squid?

Next up was the chartreuse and pearl Albie, which quickly produced another bass of 48cm. A change back to the BLUK lure produced a 41cm bass. By this time the lure was looking a bit worse for wear. Matt responded to my feedback by saying that he’ll modify the plastic mix to make it more robust, but 3 fish on a lure that costs around £1.50 ain’t bad value in my book. Back on with the Albie, which produced a 40cm bass.

Things seemed to go quiet, so I decided to call it a day. I couldn’t resist a few chucks on the way back though – just as well or I would have missed the best one of the night!

Neap tides do produce

A few nights later I returned to a spot where I had done well earlier in the year. It’s a mark which I only used to bait fish (with crab) before; lure fishing has led to me learning more about how to fish it.

I was a little doubtful about the very small tide, but previous results encouraged me to give it a go anyway. A 41cm bass on an Albie Snax early on suggested that my fears about the tide may have been unfounded, but alas that was to be the only one.  I would normally fish this mark until an hour after High Water, but the lack of action pointed to an early finish – and yet I felt I wasn’t done yet.

I decided to keep the rod up, and have a few casts at a spot on the way back to the car. I’ve never fished this spot, but wondered if the very small tide might not be so critical here. Faced with a flat sea over clean sand, I decided to concentrate my efforts on an area where there was some structure.

On went the BLUK 5″ Senko. I wasn’t very optimistic, but a bump on the lure got my interest up, and a couple of casts later, the lure was hit hard by what was obviously a good fish.

As the fish came in she looked a good size and was thrashing about a bit. As I got her to the edge of the rocks I was standing on, she somehow threw the lure and snapped the line at the same time. Desperate not to let it escape, I grabbed the fish and moved it to safety.

As I measured the fish I couldn’t work out why my fingers felt wet and the tape was a funny colour – in the red light of my torch I hadn’t realised this was blood, my blood! The fish must have caught me with her gill cover, taking a slice out of my thumb, but it was worth it. Recounting the story to the staff at the minor injuries unit the next morning caused much hilarity!

Tintagel bass competition

The weekend just gone saw Tintagel Sea Angling Club hosting their annual bass competition. Of the three club bass comps in Cornwall, this is the only one which is run on a C&R basis. As chairman Richard Coad says, C&R is the way forward.

Nowadays I can’t bring myself to kill a fish, especially a big one, just to win a trophy. So I was keen to support this one and paid the modest £10 entry fee (which included a free hot meal at the presentation do) and started thinking about where & when to fish.

This is a bait and lure comp, and as luck would have it the conditions came good for a spot of bait fishing at a favourite beach mark on the Friday night over low water. My chosen bait was frozen mackerel, specifically a smallish one with head and tail fin removed; I don’t seem to do that well on the heads (but yes, I know others do). A 6/0 Viking passed through the root of the tail, out the other side, and then embedded in the flesh towards the lower end of the bait with hook bend and point sticking out.

First cast was biteless after 20 minutes. I had bought a packet of anchovies from the local tackle dealer (Lowen Chy Angling), who recommended giving them a try. “They’re a bit like blueys, only they’re caught locally” said Dom. Having caught bass to 8lb on bluey, I was eager to try them. First cast produced a bass of 55cm, and I had two more later – on just one packet of six – I’ll definitely be using these again!

Next cast produced a small (42cm) bass on mackerel, with another one of 55cm falling to it right at the end of the session (right before a bloody great bull huss signalled it was time to head for the hills and a welcome bed).

Long-time fishing buddy Steve Ainsworth joined me for an early evening session on Saturday evening , but the fishing was slow. A few hours over midday on the Sunday produced a couple of smaller bass on lures.

I must compliment the Tintagel SAC Committee for all their work in organising the event, and for giving anglers like me the option of fishing a C&R competition. It was great to catch up with the other competitors at the presentation do, and to see my name up on the winners board.

Juvenile bass surveys

Thanks to all our great volunteers for supporting a busy programme of surveys, which have just come to an end for this year (start again next May). Some very encouraging results for ‘0’ groups (this year’s spawning), suggesting 2023 may be a good year class – at least in our survey area. These seemed to come in earlier than usual (mid -June). It was also noticeable that we were finding very small ones in September – indicative of May/June spawning, and evidence of the need to extend the closed period to protect spawning bass.

That’s all for this month folks, thanks for reading.

A perfect day out

As I write this, we’re coming to the end of  an Indian summer. Boat fishing is more weather dependent than shore fishing, so the recent settled weather made for a a very pleasant day out with Dave Jones . Seeing the Cornish coastline in all its glory, from a different perspective, would have been rewarding enough  in itself. Throw in some fishing and good company, and you have the ingredients for a perfect day out.

I don’t mind admitting that my boat fishing experience is limited, but I’m always up for a bit of a change from shore fishing and learning new things. Dave is an excellent mentor, and shared his considerable experience of lure fishing for bass from the boat. We managed about a dozen bass (plus pollack and wrasse) between us (with a predictable master:apprentice ratio of course). I think it’s a reflection of the state and size/age profile of the bass stocks that we didn’t get more bass, or anything over about mid-fifty cm. Having said that, I’m still getting flashbacks about losing what was potentially a very large bass on a previous trip with Dave, which snapped my leader like so much cotton!

Supper4science

The featured image (Credit Dave Jones) of this blog shows me holding a 53cm bass which I kept for the Super4science project. There’s still time to keep a bass head (or two) for this, but please hurry as they can’t take anything after the end of this month. If you can help, please email Essex Uni on seabasstasstic@gmail.com.

A night to remember

My fishing trips have been limited of late due to the juvenile bass survey programme being in full swing at the moment. When a gap in the schedule presented itself I was keen to get the rods out again.

I always think that if the choice of mark is obvious you stand a much better chance of doing well. Dithering about with a range of possible venues usually (for me anyway) means the opposite, and you end up wishing you’d gone somewhere else. After a brief check of the tide table and wind direction, I knew exactly where I was going, and it turned out to be a night to remember.

Bioluminescence

To be honest, I had thought about fishing an estuary mark, but the coast seems to be firing better than the estuary marks I fish, and a report from Ben Harris that there was a lot of bioluminescence in the water put me off. With little wave action in estuaries there isn’t a lot of background bioluminescence to mask any which your lure makes. I’m not sure that a canny bass is going to be fooled into attacking what looks like a shooting star coming past it, but who knows for sure?

First out of the bag

So, decision made, I headed out to the coast to find the mark flat calm, as expected. The first lure out of the bag was my favourite Soft Plastic, a 6″ DoLive Stick (Wagasaki colour).  I cast around for a few minutes as the light was going, gradually getting closer to a low rock sticking out of the water.

I could just about see the fish rise as it took the lure. I could instantly tell it was a decent one. It took me on a merry dance, but  she was well hooked (as they usually are with SPs), and it wasn’t long before a 60cm bass, only my second of the year, was sliding up the shore. Not bad after just five minutes fishing.

Fifteen minutes later, a switch to a black-speckled DoLive produced a 50cm bass. As this met my personal slot size (50-60cm), I decided to keep it for the supper4science project.

More to come

Things went quiet then for an hour or so, but years of experience here told me that there was more to come. Since there were obviously fish around, I decided to try one of the new Supersoft paddletails that Matt at Bass Lures UK had sent me to try. Bingo! This nice 56cm bass obviously approved of Matt’s lure.

On a roll

On a roll now, I couldn’t resist trying an Albie Snax. Although I first learned of this lure back in 2015/16, while fishing in Ireland, success on it had so far eluded me. I’ve had knocks on it, but no hook-ups. I had convinced myself that this was because the plastic was too rigid, and couldn’t collapse around the hook properly,  as the fish hit it. However, I must have read about somebody catching on them recently, so my interest in them was reignited.

As I wound in with my usual slow,  steady relieve, I felt a definite bump. My senses were now on full alert, and when I started winding again the lure was hit hard – no hooking problem this time! After a short, but feisty, scrap a real beauty lay at my feet. I quickly measured it with the BASS tape. As much as I wanted it to, it wouldn’t quite make 60cm, but at 59 it wasn’t a bad first fish on the Albie. I’m pleased to say I’ve had several others since, and the Albie is now a regular in my lure bag (shame you can’t get hold of the pearl ones now!).

Confidence

A recent trip with Ben Harris illustrated the power of confidence. Ben is ‘top dog’ with the surface lures, with many good bass catches to his credit. Like this nice 51cm bass he caught on a Patchinko.

I remember Ben trouncing me once on surface lures, but he has much less confidence when it comes to soft plastics.

As darkness fell I clipped on a dark green-coloured DoLive Stick. First cast produced a 54cm bass. I gave Ben a ring straightway (we used to dream of doing this in the old days – using walkie-talkies!) and suggested he get back over here.  Just as Ben arrived I had another hit – this time from a 53cm bass.

Ben swapped his surface lure for a DoLive Stick, but I could feel his hesitancy and lack of confidence coming through. And me landing another fish soon after (42cm), while he hadn’t had a touch didn’t help things much. I recounted to Ben how I fished with DoLives for several months before I found my rhythm with them and caught my first bass. I’m sure once it clicks Ben will be catching shedloads of bass on SPs!

 

Juvenile bass surveys

Going by our results so far, things are looking more encouraging for the 2023 class than the 2022 one. I’ll update on our final conclusions when we’ve concluded our surveys for the year.

One highlight was a successful  first survey on the Gannel estuary. We’ve been looking for a site(s) on the North Coast which works for us for a couple of years now. In time this may allow us to compare spawning and settlement success on both sides of the Cornwall peninsula.

Time to stand up and be counted

If there was ever a time for anglers to stand up and be counted it’s now. It’s absolutely vital that as many of us respond to the Bass Fisheries Management Plan consultation as possible. To help you, BASS have produced a useful blog.  You’ll need to get your response in by Oct 1st.

If you don’t have time to use the consultation tool, you can always just email your thoughts to FMPconsultations@defra.gov.uk

For me the key points are:

• Netting controls – mesh size, length set, restrictions on where and when they can be used e.g. to avoid pre-spawning bass aggregations;
• Boost recruitment – increase closed period duration to avoid spawning bass, more nursery areas to protect juveniles, higher MCRS (minimum size) to allow more bass to spawn before being harvested;
• Restore the stock size to levels seen before the crash in 2010. Restore a natural age/size profile to stock.

That’s it for this month folks – thanks for reading.