Author: Robin Bradley

It’s hard to find somewhere that isn’t blown out, weeded up or dirty! – at least on the South Coast. We  seem to have had a run strong southerlies, just when I’ve traditionally had my best fish of the year.

In previous years this would have thrown a serious spanner in the works, but  now I have other options – like estuary fishing. It was only last year that I switched onto this in a big way, and I still have much to learn, but my confidence is growing, along with my enjoyment.

Unfinished business

Those who have read my book A Bass Angler’s Life may recall that estuary fishing was the one area of bass fishing that I had yet to get to grips with. Other ‘unfinished business’ included catching bass on mackerel, both legered and free-lined.

It seems slightly ridiculous that I had never tried mackerel, but other baits – lug,  sandeel, and then peeler crab, prawn, squid and finally razor, took precedence.  A determined effort to correct this since the book was finished saw me legering frozen mackerel in the surf at night – and catching some quite nice fish.

It took fishing with Simon Willey for me to make the connection between using mackerel bait, specifically free-lining it, and  fishing estuaries. With Simon’s coarse fishing background, this was a natural progression for him when he started targeting bass recently.

One of the things that had held me back from adopting free-lining for bass as a regular method was the requirement for calm conditions. Even in calm weather there is often some wave action on the coast, so the opportunities to use this technique are limited. Whereas in estuaries this is rarely a problem, especially if you can tuck in out of the wind somewhere.

Simon has put his limited time in bass fishing to good use. Through a combination of perseverance, hard graft and good angling, he has caught some good bass using big free-lined baits in estuaries. Like this cracking 68cm (7lb 2oz) fish taken on a whole squid (lots of squid around at the moment).

I’ve even managed to catch one myself. Only a modest 49cm, but great to finally do it, and get to experience the bite and subsequent run (although this was not as rapid as is usual). I love the simplicity of this method – braid main line (20+lb), bead, swivel, short 20lb Amnesia trace and 8/0 circle hook. No need for heavy gear either – just a 50g rated 9ft 6 lure rod and medium-sized spinning reel.

Mind you, you have to put up with other species grabbing your bait as well – like the inevitable huss (I’ve caught them to 12lb – if only that was a bass!), and conger.

Festival fishing

The weekend of 7th – 9th October saw me fishing the Cornish Lure Festival and the Tintagel Open Bass competition, which were both scheduled for the same weekend. It’s great to take part in these events and join in with other anglers. They make you do things you normally wouldn’t – like back to back sessions, early morning starts, and revisiting old favourite haunts that have produced good fish in the past.

The CLF is a regular in my fishing calendar, and this year’s event was bigger and better than ever. Alas the fish didn’t play their part, for although there were some good fish caught, like Johnny Jones’ superb 73cm winner which you can see in the featured image of this blog, most anglers struggled to catch the better fish. Although I caught bass on 3 of the 4 sessions I fished, I didn’t manage anything worth registering.

This was the first time I had entered the Tintagel comp. In recent years I have only fished catch and release competitions – not because I have anything against people keeping bass, provided they are over 42cm and they don’t take more than 2 a day (this changes to none at the end of this month), but because I don’t like taking fish for the sole reason of winning competition prizes. With Tintagel having made the switch to a catch and release format, I thought it was important to support them. All credit to the club for putting on a well organised event, which I hope they will repeat. This year’s comp was won by Simon Toms with a super 72cm (7lb 10oz) bait-caught fish. Simon is one of the top bass anglers in Cornwall, with many fine fish to his credit. His latest success comes hot on the heels of his winning performance in this year’s Camborne Bass Competition.

Walk the dog or walk the frog?

These days when using surface lures (sliders), everybody seems to ‘walk the dog’, but  many years ago you kinda did your own thing.

One day, many years ago, I met Jon Hnat while out fishing. I noticed that Jon was working his lure (a 9cm Yozuri Arms Pencil – later rebranded as a Duel Silver Dog 90)  in an unusual way – he would give one full turn of the (rather large) reel handle, pause, then give another turn. That can’t work I thought –  until the water exploded as a bass slashed at his lure. I can honestly say that experience changed my fishing forever. I was absolutely hooked on surface lures, and now I knew how to work them.

I carried on using this technique, but the increasing popularity of ‘walking the dog’ made me wonder if I should change to this. I have, and do, use this method, especially if the fish are a bit finicky or lazy e.g. on neap tides, but the old technique still works fine – even with larger lures.

‘Walking the dog’ is usually done with medium-fast retrieve, resulting in a lure zig-zagging across the surface in quite an energetic way. To my mind this must look like a panic-stricken baitfish fleeing for it’s life – perfect for the lively young bucks to chase. Contrast that with the turn-stop-turn retrieve resulting in a lure which slowly and erratically wakes across the surface, imitating an injured or dying baitfish – an easy meal for large and canny females.

‘Turn-stop-turn’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Rather than the continuous  movement which ‘walking the dog’ produces, this method results in the lure effectively skipping, or hopping forward. Which animal hops – frogs of course, so why not call it  ‘walking the frog’ !

Water clarity

Something I’ve noticed while estuary fishing is that surface lures seem to work better when the water is clear. In coloured water I think soft plastics have the edge, especially white ones, although I hear that black ones are one better.

I recently read an excellent article by Alan Bulmer about how turbidity affects fish behaviour.

Some of important takeaways from this, for me at least, include:

• dark lures for contrast work well in murky water in medium to high light levels
• on dull days, try to find clearer areas, and fish the boundary between clear and coloured water
• try fishing slow and low in coloured water; use a high contrast paddle tail
• in estuaries, turbidity will be greatest on spring tides, especially the middle hours when tidal flow is greatest

Sonic fingerprint

Another takeaway from Alan’s article is that your soft plastic needs to have a distinct “sonic fingerprint” so that it can be detected by the fish.

One night a couple of weeks ago, I was using a ‘Dark Sleeper’ lure. If you’re not familiar with these, have a look at this amazing video (apologies to those who have already seen it, but it stands rewatching).  First cast I had a bump, so I knew there were fish about, and they wanted this lure, just worked with a steady straight retrieve in the current. An enjoyable 45 minutes later I had landed 5 bass – nothing big (best was 50cm), but great fishing.  If you see this lure in daylight, its small paddletail goes like the clappers, which must give it one helluva sonic fingerprint –  no wonder it attracts bass.

The barbless dilemma

I use single hooks on all my plugs, but I’ve flipped back and forth between barbed and barbless. I switched to barbless in the interests of reducing damage to fish, since I release the vast majority of the ones I catch. This seemed to result in a number (perhaps 50%) of fish being lost  in the final stages of the fight, when the fish thrash about.

Now I don’t catch that many fish that I can afford to lose 50% of them, so I decided to move back to barbed hooks. This resulted in a better hooking rate, without seemingly causing too much damage to the fish – until this happened:

On the day in question the fish seemed really fizzed up, smashing the surface virtually as soon as the plug touched down. Instead of getting lip-hooked, they were practically swallowing the plug right down. This made getting the barbed hooks out very difficult; although I managed to get the hook(s) out, I’m not sure how long the fish would have survived after initially swimming off.

I’ve gone back to barbless for the time being, while the fish seem to be feeding hard for winter. I guess I’ll just have to accept that I might lose a few fish – either that or carry plugs with both barbed and barbless hooks, and use either according to how the fish are taking the plug.

Tightlines, and thanks for reading,

To most bass anglers autumn is a golden time, and not just because of the colour of the falling leaves which are everywhere as we make our way to our chosen spot. The ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ brings with it the chance of big bass, and is a favourite time for most bass anglers.

Meteorologically speaking, autumn began on the September 1. Astronomically speaking, it began on the 23rd, at the time of the autumn equinox, which is considered to be the peak time for bass fishing.

Stop-start fishing

My own fishing has been somewhat limited this month, but from what I can tell the fishing has been a bit stop-start anyway, so hopefully I haven’t missed out too much. There I was thinking we were set for a good autumn’s bass fishing when things  seemed to go quiet. When Keith Towsey and I fished a rock mark, a lack of action forced a premature return to the car. “Might be worth a cast or two on the beach on the way back” I said.

The natural tendency is to wade out and cast as far as you can, but it’s important to try to resist this. As I walked along the shore in the small surf, perhaps 10 yards out, I spooked what was obviously a very large fish; it could only have been in inches of water.  I immediately came out of the water and  cast short, as I moved along the beach, but there was to be no lunker on my line that night.

Then to totally confuse things, Keith goes and catches a 70cm beauty a few nights later! Nice one Keith. As they say with bass fishing – here today, gone tomorrow (or vice versa).

Increasing diversity

I’m all for increasing diversity in any walk of life, including fishing. Women seem to be underrepresented in fishing, so when Keith sent me a photo of his wife Donna with a cracking bass she’d caught while they were on holiday in Jersey this week, I just had to include it. The featured image of this blog shows Donna with her 55cm beauty, caught on a Gunfish popper. Well done Donna!

Transferrable skills

A few nights later I was out with Tony Welch. This was our first trip, and we opted to fish  somewhere that was new to both of us. This was a little beach I had checked out earlier in the year which looked promising. I was just waiting for the fish to be in before trying it, and with two of us fishing there was more chance of picking up any fish which might be there.

Let’s just say the action wasn’t exactly frenetic! In fact, if it hadn’t been for Tony landing a 58cm cracker, I would probably have written the mark off.  Although Tony hasn’t been lure fishing for bass long, he ably demonstrates that skills acquired from other branches of the sport, in his case carp fishing, are readily transferrable. I have a feeling he’ll catch many more fish like this, and bigger.

Masterclass

Bass fishing with mates can often be one-sided, with all the spoils going to one angler or the other, rarely both. Never has this been more amply demonstrated than during a session with Ben Harris.

It started fairly unremarkably, with both of us getting follows on our surface lures. In fact I landed a 41cm fish on an Asturie  110 – but that was it! Meanwhile Ben was into fish regularly, but whatever lure I put on, and however I worked it, I couldn’t get more than the odd half-hearted follow. And it continued! Fair play to Ben – whatever he was doing it was working, whereas whatever I was, wasn’t. This was something of a masterclass in surface lure fishing, and I lost count of how many bass he caught that day – not big fish, but good sport all the same.

Ben was very gracious in his response though, and to spare my blushes we put this down to the lure he was using – an Espetit  110 in Flashy Shad. Needless to say I have since acquired one, and just to show I haven’t totally lost it, I caught this nice bass on it, having changed the hooks to singles (Mustad size 1 Kaiju).

A helping hand

Jason Collins had never caught a bass on lures, and asked if I took people out on the shore to catch bass. I explained that I don’t do guiding, but always try to help people if I can. These days there is so much info on line, but it can be daunting ploughing through all this, and there is no substitute for learning from experienced anglers demonstrating the basics and sharing their knowledge.

Jason had bought a new rod and reel, and needed some advice on setting this up. He had filled his reel with 20lb braid and had tipped this off with a fluorocarbon leader ( I use 20lb for the coast but will go lower for estuary fishing).  I like to use a short rubbing leader, about the length of the drop I normally use (~2ft), so Jason shortened his, to stop the leader knot catching on the tip ring on the cast. Jason had brought some great lures along, but these were not ideally suited to the mark we were fishing. I loaned him a Rapala Skitterwalk surface lure, while I put on a Patchinko 100.  We ran through a couple of retrieve styles, with Jason opting for my favourite turn-stop-turn, imparting his own twist on this.

As luck would have it, a 48cm bass latched onto my lure. Satisfying as this was, especially at a mark I have never fished before, I really wanted Jason to catch one. As the Patch was working, I gave him the one I was using.

We were working along the mark, when I heard ‘I’m in’, and looked up to see Jason’s rod well bent into a fish. He patiently brought it in, and couldn’t believe the size of his prize – a lovely fish of 50cm. He was absolutely buzzing! (I was quite enjoying the moment too!).

After a few tips about correctly handling and holding the fish, I managed to get this photo (with thanks to Mike Harwood for editing the background). Well done Jason, and may this be the first of many!

Year classes

We’ve just completed this year’s programme of juvenile bass surveys in Cornwall. The first part of the programme (May & June) is about checking our conclusions about last year’s spawning, and whether there has been major losses over the winter. This is unlikely, given the absence of any prolonged very cold spells last winter.  We only had one good catch of last year’s fish (so-called ‘1’ groups), so the best we can say is that the 2021 class is fair.

The second part of the programme (August and September) is about seeing how many fish from this year’s spawning (so-called ‘0’ groups) we can find – very few this year as it happens. So our initial conclusions are that the 2022 year class is a poor one. This is surprising and disturbing in equal measures, given the prevailing weather conditions during the spring and summer, which should have been favourable to the baby bass coming in and settling in our estuaries. But our results are not definitive, being subject to various limitations, and it remains to be seen whether our conclusions will be borne out over time – in other surveys and in future catches. But in any event, with recruitment being so crucial to bass stocks, this demonstrates that great caution must be exercised when considering whether existing controls on fishing can be reduced.

I must thank our great team of people who give up their time and effort to make this work possible. If you’d like to get involved just message me via the Contact facility on this website.

New research on bass

As Science lead for BASS, I’m regularly asked how anglers can get involved in scientific research on bass. BASS has a long history of involvement in research, and we’re delighted to be partnering Essex University on an exciting and important groundbreaking project. It’s great to know that anglers will be at the forefront of developing our knowledge of this iconic species. You can read all about the project in this excellent blog produced by the University, and distributed by BASS. Please pass the link on to anyone you think might be interested.

Tightlines, and thanks for reading. Hope you catch that big one!

Bang on cue, and as anticipated in my last blog, the bass fishing has finally taken off. Even though I’m not expecting bassing to become consistent until August, the doubt and uncertainty about the state of the bass stocks, fuelled by several months of very patchy fishing,  hangs over you. We used to get some good fishing in June before the early summer hiatus when the fish went offshore in search of baitfish, but this seems to be a thing of the past. Presumably this is linked to climate change in some way affecting the movements and habits of bass. The recent hot weather certainly seemed to have brought the fish in, along with numbers of mackerel and spider crabs.

Bass bonanza!

I started hearing regular reports of good numbers of bass being caught at the end of July. On the first day of August, a combination of a moderate SW wind and backing tide after dark saw me eager to visit a favourite mark.

Once it got fully dark the fish started biting. The first three came on shallow-diving plugs up to and over dusk, the remaining six on soft plastics (DoLives/Swimsenko/Gravity Stick), fished weightless and weedless – great sport! Interestingly, the smaller fish (38, 39,40cm) seemed to come earlier in the session, with the bigger ones (45,48,50cm) coming later.  Whether this was due to the increasing darkness, the stage of tide, or some other effect, I don’t know.

Dropped fish

I probably dropped as many fish as I caught  on plugs. Like most thinking anglers, I always analyse situations like these. The lost fish came off just as the fish thrashed about as they sensed the shore approaching. Readers may know that I change all the hooks on my plugs from trebles to singles, in the interests of reducing any damage to fish. This is not a problem in terms of hooking fish (except perhaps for small ones), and until recently of landing them. But a change to barbless hooks made me wonder if this was the cause of the  problem.

A lot of fish about

Another session a few nights later saw me among the fish again. With calmer conditions, I started off with surface plugs. There must have been a lot of fish about, as the very first cast produced a great splash on the surface. The action continued into darkness, when I decided to switch to soft plastics. I finished up  with  four on surface lures (a 9cm surface walker pencil type plug acquired from Bass Pro shops many years ago – as per featured image), and three on 6″ DoLive Sticks. The fish were of a slightly better average length, with three around the 50cm mark, presumably from the good 2014 class which is steadily growing in length.

Again, I was having problems with fish coming off at the end of the retrieve on plugs. I reckon that about 50% were shaking the hook out as they approached the rock I was fishing from. I don’t think this was helped by me having to stop winding, so that I could grab the leader and bring the fish up the rocks – several tip breakages in the past have taught me not to lift fish (even of modest size) with the rod.

Keeping the pressure on

This momentary loss of pressure on the hook hold must have, in some cases, allowed the fish to throw the hook. The third fish dropped off just in front of me, and  in my haste to grab it before it escaped, I stamped on my rod tip, breaking about 6 inches off the end – ironic really, given my concern to avoid this by not lifting the fish!

I wasn’t going to let a little thing like that stop me fishing, especially with so many fish evidently about. I managed to continue without the tip ring, albeit with a few line problems, and land another four fish.

What to make of all this? Well I’m convinced that losing these fish is due to using barbless hooks, so I’m re-evaluating whether to continue with them. It’s so much quicker to release a fish with barbless hooks, and easier on you if you get one in your finger, but losing that percentage of fish is not really acceptable, and you might just lose that big one. The answer is to keep the pressure up constantly, never letting the line go slack – but this may not always be possible.

Return trip

The following night saw me returning to the same mark. I’ve never been one to tempt fate, but it seemed daft not to revisit the scene of my success, with the tides still being suitable and there being so many fish about in the general area.

The air felt cooler than the night before. I don’t know if this affected the fishing, but I ended up with fewer fish this time – five. All the fish came  on DoLive Sticks, and about the same stamp as the night before. No lost fish this time – this never seems to happen with soft plastics, which are always fitted with single hooks, but then I guess the hook is more integral to the lure.

I couldn’t resist having a final cast on a surface lure in the dark. I’ve had good fish like this before, and wanted to see if I could repeat it. I had hardly begun the retrieve (‘walk the dog’) when the plug was walloped and what felt like a good fish was on – but just as briefly off again! Not a clincher, but it shows that this is  good method.

Poppers and sliders

A couple of weeks later saw me fishing a shallow reef. The plan was to catch the last hour or so of daylight, fishing with plugs, then switch to soft plastics after dark.

But which plug? There was a nice little sea on, with quite a bit of white water. A bit too shallow, even for a shallow diver, and too rough for a slider (I use this term to refer to any surface plug which doesn’t splash or spit water in front of it). So it was on with an old favourite, the Aile Magnet Popper 105; you can see from its flat face that it’s designed to cause quite a commotion in the water – just the thing to get it noticed in rougher conditions.

I worked my way along the reef, casting every 20 yards or so. I cast as near as I dare to a large rock sticking up. Using my usual turn-stop-turn retrieve for surface lures, I caught a splash out of the corner of my eye. Was that a wave hitting a rock? Another splash really had me focussed now. Go on, go on -take it! Bang, fish on! Feels like a good one too.

She gave a very good account of herself, but after a few tense moments I slid her ashore – all 60cm. Just as well I kept the pressure on, as without this the 1/0 barbless single hook fell out just as she came to rest on the sand. She looked a real beauty – the photo below hardly does her size or appearance justice.

A 44cm bass on a DoLive stick in the dark hinted at things to come, but disappointingly that was it for the night.

Juvenile bass surveys

The surveys we do in Cornwall have been running for nearly 30 years now. As in all fields, things change and it’s good to look at what you’re doing from time. Our brilliant group of volunteers give up their time and effort to conduct these surveys, so it’s important to make as much use of the data we produce as possible, and  the more robust it is the better. Maximising bass recruitment, by identifying and protecting habitats where juvenile fish develop, is as important as making sure that stocks aren’t overfished. To this end, I’d like to see surveys like ours carried out more widely. Steve Colclough is a national expert in fish ecology in estuaries and salt marshes, and I asked him down to Cornwall to see if he could help with these points.

Steve gave a very interesting talk to the Helford Marine Conservation Group, and joined us on one of our surveys the following day, demonstrating some of the equipment he uses and imparting very useful insights. All in all, a very useful and interesting couple of days, and we look forward to working with Steve in the future.

The survey itself was disappointing with only a few of this year’s bass seen.

Bass Fisheries Management Plan

I took part in the ‘Collective Intelligence’ on line debate, hosted by Policy Lab, as part of the process for developing the Bass FMP. It was interesting to see the many statements being presented for voting on, not least because it gave a real insight into what’s important to commercial fishermen. There was an obvious divide in the statements along commercial and recreational fishing lines, the latter seemingly having taken more trouble to engage with the process. I don’t envy anyone with the task of finding a consensus among all this, but let’s hope they can.

Thanks for reading and tight lines,

 

As I’m sure many will know, Defra are working on a Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) for bass. As part of this, they have commissioned Policy Lab to collect people’s views about what’s wrong with the status quo, and how this can be improved.

This is a chance, perhaps our only chance for years to come, to achieve a bass fishery which reflects the needs and aspirations of anglers, and recognises the huge socioeconomic contribution recreational sea angling makes to society.

There are lots of ways in which things could potentially be improved if anglers have the will to ask for them. The Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society and the Angling Trust  have worked very hard to come up with some serious proposals in this regard. But it’s also vital that as many anglers as possible engage in the process of developing the  FMP via Policy Lab. It doesn’t need to get complicated – at the end of the day it’s about being able to regularly catch bass when you go fishing, and having a realistic chance of catching a few decent-sized ones each season.

I recently attended one of Policy Lab’s drop-in sessions – at Newlyn. It was good to see other anglers keen to share their views and experiences. I found the Policy Lab staff easy to talk to, and they were genuinely interested in my comments.

Although these sessions have finished now, you can still have your say by taking part in the collective intelligence debate starting on 15th August – click on the link for details:  Bass FMP Collective Intelligence Debate, hosted by Policy Lab (1).  And you can always email your thoughts to Policy Lab via bass@policylab.gov.uk

As part of my ‘lived experiences’ of bass fishing, I submitted  a report on the standard of bass angling in Cornwall, on behalf of the Cornish Federation of Sea Anglers, to Policy Lab. You’ll find this on the CFSA website here. If you fish in Cornwall, and aren’t already a member of the CFSA, why not think about joining – either as a member of an affiliated club, or a personal member?

Catches

Fishing-wise, things are pretty quiet at the moment. I did manage a couple of bass in the mid-fifties while estuary fishing earlier this month, including my first half-decent one on a surface plug.

I was using my all-time favourite Yozuri Arms Pencil, worked with my usual turn-stop-turn of the reel handle retrieve, when the fish slammed into it. The size 1 VMC barbless single hooks held well, and made for a quick (and painless – for the fish and me!) return to the water. Sadly, these lures are no longer available as such, but you should be able to find them, albeit in a different colour range, by searching under ‘Duel or Yozuri Silver Dog 90’.

There seems to be a few bass around the 26cm size in or near estuaries at the moment. Like this one, which was my first bass on an IMA ‘Chappy’ lure.

I was interested in what year class it was. From its length I estimated this to be a 3 year old fish, so from the 2019 class. Hopefully you can make out 3 rings on some of the scales I took in the photo below. 

Our juvenile bass surveys suggested this class was reasonably good (but nothing compared to the great classes in the past).

In the last few years, I’ve found that the fishing hasn’t really become consistent in Cornwall until August. As this is just around the corner, I’m hopeful that things are about to take off (we’ll see!).

Handsome boy

Readers of my book A Bass Angler’s Life  may recall that our late golden retriever, Toby, was awarded 2nd prize in the ‘Most Handsome’ category in the fun dog show at  the Classic Cars and Country Show at Trewithen Gardens near my home. Despite our current dog Archie’s somewhat (very!) excitable nature, I couldn’t resist entering him for this year’s event.

To his credit, he was a very good boy. As we waited for the judge to take in all the other ‘competitors’ I whispered  “no pressure” to him, reminding him of his predecessor’s achievement. But he is a handsome boy, and I was half expecting it when the judge turned towards us with the second prize rosette.

Light show

A recent Facebook post from the Kernow Weather Team  talked about bioluminescence in the sea at night. This is something I see quite regularly during the summer. I always think what an awesome sight it is, lighting up the waves, and even giving a momentary trace as your lure or bait comes through the water.

The other night I thought I was seeing things when the weed on the beach literally sparkled – like some early Christmas light show, as I put my rucksack down on it. Just to check I wasn’t seeing things, I walked heavily across it. Sure enough, every step lit up the weed. Amazing!

That’s it for this month. Thanks for reading.

 

Please note this is an update of my last blog, containing revised information regarding sea trout reporting.

You can say that again! Having never caught a sea trout in all the years (nearly 40) I’ve been sea fishing in Cornwall, that was the last thing I expected to see as I landed my first fish of the session. As I got closer to the water’s edge I thought “that’s a funny-looking bass!”, and then recognised the fish from photos I’ve seen as a sea trout.

I was lure fishing at night on a beach, when the SF125 (courtesy of Danny Watson at High Street Tackle and the UKBLF raffle) I was using was hit hard  – not far out. This was its first outing after receiving it and  changing the treble hooks for size 1 VMC barbless singles. I’ve caught lots of bass on this plug fitted with singles. I love that ‘Joker’ colour, which previous experience suggested would catch fish in the dark.

I did a Facebook post, to see if anybody else had caught a sea trout on the Cornish coast. Apart from the responses to my question – it turns out quite a few people have – one responder mentioned that sea trout are not as robust as bass. After measuring (53cm) and photographing my fish, it seemed to go back just fine – maybe this had something to do with the fact that I had switched to single hooks, causing less damage to the fish?

One of the responders to my Facebook post suggested I also report the catch to the SAMARCH project, which I duly did. I find the science aspects of fish, especially their movements and spawning,  fascinating and salmonids are a good example of this. Dylan Roberts contacted me and explained:

“Sea trout are like salmon they spawn in rivers, the juveniles spend 2-3 years in the river then migrate to sea to feed and grow. They go to sea in March – May and then spend a year or two at sea before migrating back into the river between May and September to spawn in Nov & Dec. Your fish was probably feeding near shore with the view of finding its natal river to return and spawn this year as I say probably in Nov.”

Dylan adds:

The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust are looking for scale samples from any sea trout caught at sea to help with a study to investigate the movements of sea trout at sea from their natal river. If you catch sea trout at sea and want to help, please contact Dylan Roberts, Head of Fisheries at droberts@gwct.org.uk and he will send you a scale collection kit and what details need recording.

It should be noted that the Environment Agency needs to know about any captures of sea trout and are keen to receive scales if accompanied by information on location of capture (email: enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk).  Please note that anyone wishing to target or retain  sea trout needs an EA licence. Any fish caught accidentally must be returned unharmed with minimum delay.

Not just sea trout

I had brought a selection of lures – various plugs, weighted and unweighted soft plastics, to try. One of these was a Fish Arrow Flash J Shad in a bright greeny – yellow colour, which I’m pleased to say produced the goods, in the shape of a 40cm bass. This was looking good – not just sea trout, but bass as well.

My daydreaming about catching my first sea trout was interrupted when the lure I was retrieving felt like it had taken off in a different direction. I had switched to a DoLive Stick (white), as it seemed rude to neglect my all-time favourite soft plastic. “This is interesting” I thought, especially when the fish, which by now had realised its fate, started banging.

“Could be a nice one” I thought , as I brought her through the waves. “You beauty!” I called out, as a 65cm beauty of a bass slid ashore.

This is turning into quite a session I thought. Sticking with the DoLive for a few more casts, just before closing time another bass, this time of 44cm, decided to join the party.  Time to head for the hills.

A Cornish Fish-in

The weekend of 10th – 12th June saw me attending the BASS Cornwall Fish-in, based at Maker Heights campsite on the Rame Peninsula. The fishing wasn’t the best, but the ‘craic’ was awesome.  It’s always good to fish new ground, and if you throw in some friendly banter, the odd tipple and a decent curry and barbecue, what’s not to like? It can be a dilemma, deciding whether to fish or socialise, especially when the company is so good, but you find the balance that suits you best (and you can always join the lads when you get back!).

Fish-ins are a key benefit of BASS membership. Meeting people and fishing with them gives so much more than can be gained by simply interacting online.

Something’s afoot

A couple of weeks back I was out fishing with Archie (can you believe the size of him at nearly 15 months!). I looked round to see blood all over the rocks! Somehow he had punctured one of his paws – between the pads. By applying pressure with an assortment of tissues and rags, eventually the bleeding stopped. But he needed this looking at, and antibiotics as a minimum. So there was nothing for it but to cut the session short, and head back while there was still time to catch the vet.

He’s fully recovered now, but it took a week or so to fully heal.

Juvenile bass surveys

We’ve reached the halfway point in our juvenile bass survey programme. As always I extremely grateful for all the help we get from our amazing volunteers – especially Jon Williams for helping out with his boat. If you’d like to help with the surveys, even on an occasional basis, do get in touch. If you have a boat and are prepared to use it on the Fal, even better.

During May and June, we are looking for last year’s bass (so-called ‘1’ groups), as a check on our findings on the previous year, when these fish were first spawned, and to see if many have been lost over their first winter due to prolonged very cold spells.

Our results this year have been poor, apart from one good result on the Helford. Taking these results, and our findings from last year, into account, it seems likely that the 2021 class can only be described as fair. There is some uncertainty over this, given the pattern of results observed, so it will be interesting to see if our conclusions are confirmed in other surveys and future catches.

That’s all for this month; thanks for reading.

You can say that again! Having never caught a sea trout in all the years (nearly 40) I’ve been sea fishing in Cornwall, that was the last thing I expected to see as I landed my first fish of the session. As I got closer to the water’s edge I thought “that’s a funny-looking bass!”, and then recognised the fish from photos I’ve seen as a sea trout.

I was lure fishing at night on a beach, when the SF125 (courtesy of Danny Watson at High Street Tackle and the UKBLF raffle) I was using was hit hard  – not far out. This was its first outing after receiving it and  changing the treble hooks for size 1 VMC barbless singles. I’ve caught lots of bass on this plug fitted with singles. I love that ‘Joker’ colour, which previous experience suggested would catch fish in the dark.

I did a Facebook post, to see if anybody else had caught a sea trout on the Cornish coast. Apart from the responses to my question – it turns out quite a few people have – one responder mentioned that sea trout are not as robust as bass. After measuring (53cm) and photographing my fish, it seemed to go back just fine – maybe this had something to do with the fact that I had switched to single hooks, causing less damage to the fish?

If anybody has caught a sea trout on the coast (past or present), it would be useful to report this to Cornwall IFCA (as I did) as further evidence in support of the need to protect salmonids from netting.

One of the responders to my Facebook post suggested I also report the catch to the SAMARCH project, which I duly did. I find the science aspects of fish, especially their movements and spawning,  fascinating and salmonids are a good example of this. Dylan Roberts contacted me and explained:

“Sea trout are like salmon they spawn in rivers, the juveniles spend 2-3 years in the river then migrate to sea to feed and grow. They go to sea in March – May and then spend a year or two at sea before migrating back into the river between May and September to spawn in Nov & Dec. Your fish was probably feeding near shore with the view of finding its natal river to return and spawn this year as I say probably in Nov.”

Dylan adds:

The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust are looking for scale samples from any sea trout caught at sea to help with a study to investigate the movements of sea trout at sea from their natal river. If you catch sea trout at sea and want to help, please contact Dylan Roberts, Head of Fisheries at droberts@gwct.org.uk and he will send you a scale collection kit and what details need recording.

Not just sea trout

I had brought a selection of lures – various plugs, weighted and unweighted soft plastics, to try. One of these was a Fish Arrow Flash J Shad in a bright greeny – yellow colour, which I’m pleased to say produced the goods, in the shape of a 40cm bass. This was looking good – not just sea trout, but bass as well.

My daydreaming about catching my first sea trout was interrupted when the lure I was retrieving felt like it had taken off in a different direction. I had switched to a DoLive Stick (white), as it seemed rude to neglect my all-time favourite soft plastic. “This is interesting” I thought, especially when the fish, which by now had realised its fate, started banging.

“Could be a nice one” I thought , as I brought her through the waves. “You beauty!” I called out, as a 65cm beauty of a bass slid ashore.

This is turning into quite a session I thought. Sticking with the DoLive for a few more casts, just before closing time another bass, this time of 44cm, decided to join the party.  Time to head for the hills.

A Cornish Fish-in

The weekend of 10th – 12th June saw me attending the BASS Cornwall Fish-in, based at Maker Heights campsite on the Rame Peninsula. The fishing wasn’t the best, but the ‘craic’ was awesome.  It’s always good to fish new ground, and if you throw in some friendly banter, the odd tipple and a decent curry and barbecue, what’s not to like? It can be a dilemma, deciding whether to fish or socialise, especially when the company is so good, but you find the balance that suits you best (and you can always join the lads when you get back!).

Fish-ins are a key benefit of BASS membership. Meeting people and fishing with them gives so much more than can be gained by simply interacting online.

Something’s afoot

A couple of weeks back I was out fishing with Archie (can you believe the size of him at nearly 15 months!). I looked round to see blood all over the rocks! Somehow he had punctured one of his paws – between the pads. By applying pressure with an assortment of tissues and rags, eventually the bleeding stopped. But he needed this looking at, and antibiotics as a minimum. So there was nothing for it but to cut the session short, and head back while there was still time to catch the vet.

He’s fully recovered now, but it took a week or so to fully heal.

Juvenile bass surveys

We’ve reached the halfway point in our juvenile bass survey programme. As always I extremely grateful for all the help we get from our amazing volunteers – especially Jon Williams for helping out with his boat. If you’d like to help with the surveys, even on an occasional basis, do get in touch. If you have a boat and are prepared to use it on the Fal, even better.

During May and June, we are looking for last year’s bass (so-called ‘1’ groups), as a check on our findings on the previous year, when these fish were first spawned, and to see if many have been lost over their first winter due to prolonged very cold spells.

Our results this year have been poor, apart from one good result on the Helford. Taking these results, and our findings from last year, into account, it seems likely that the 2021 class can only be described as fair. There is some uncertainty over this, given the pattern of results observed, so it will be interesting to see if our conclusions are confirmed in other surveys and future catches.

That’s all for this month; thanks for reading.

In some years it’s not until mid-summer that I see a decent bass (if I’m lucky), so how’s that for a season opener!

I wasn’t expecting that

With various family and other commitments, fishing time has been at a premium of late – just when I planned to start ramping up my efforts. So when an unexpected opportunity arose, it was a last-minute check of the tide and weather before setting out for a short afternoon session. I really wasn’t expecting much – perhaps an odd schoolie, given the time of year (and the sunny weather).

But fishing is never a waste of time, and always enjoyable, so I had nothing to lose. As part of my estuary-fishing learning curve, I was keen to see if there were any bigger bass in estuaries yet, or whether this only happened in the autumn. So imagine my surprise, and not a little satisfaction, at catching this 64cm beauty (estimated at around 6lb).

Everybody has their own ideas about when to expect to see bass fishing starting to become worthwhile. For me it’s traditionally been when the foxgloves show in force, or the second set of springs in May. Having said that, in the last few years the fishing (for me) hasn’t become consistent until July. I can recall catching fish of around 5lb on the coast at the end of May in years gone by, but it’s not usually until August that I see something of this size.

The question is, was this fish just moving through, or does it mark the return of adult fish from their spawning activities? But this was a solid, fit-looking fish – not thin and spawned out. So maybe it missed a spawning year for some reason, and had stayed in the estuary all winter? I guess we’ll never understand all the ins and outs of bass biology, even with the increasing amount of research that’s going on in this field.

An interesting session

Despite an apparent lack of fish, the session was interesting. As I bent down to measure the water temperature (14.6C – 3 degrees warmer than the coast at the time), I could see small ragworm swimming in the water. I have seen this before in estuaries. They leave their burrows at this time to spawn. I only saw a few, but there must have been thousands out there – perhaps this, and the warmer water temperature, brings the bass into estuaries earlier than on the coast?

My fishing was interrupted when a young seal appeared. It was a little way out, so I couldn’t see clearly what it was doing, but it appeared to have something in its mouth. It kept dipping its head underwater, then popping up again with what I assumed was a fish, and taking a bite. I couldn’t make out what fish it was, but it looked long and creamy, so not a bass I thought – possibly a dogfish (lesser spotted)? I know that some local anglers have concerns about the number of seals we’re seeing in estuaries, and the effect this might be having on bass – including the very young ones.

Matching the hatch

Towards the end of the session I started getting the odd knock as I retrieved the lure. I was using a 5″ Shad, and wondered if this was down to small bass nipping at the paddle tail on the end.

I had bought some 4″ Fish Arrow Flash J Shads as a result of discussions with fellow BASS member Ian Sefton, who finds them a good fry imitation. They also (particularly in the browny colour) vaguely resemble (at least to my eyes) the ragworm that were about. Late Spring /early summer usually sees large numbers of the fry of various species, a fact ably demonstrated in a recent juvenile bass survey, where we found literally thousands of 6-7cm mullet. These, along with the spawning ragworm,  must be tempting morsels to a hungry bass

I was eager to satisfy my curiosity, and see if I could catch one of these ‘small’ bass bumping the lure, so now seemed a good time to try one of the smaller shads. I was coming to the end of the session, and more or less just going through the motions. I’d also given up trying to keep Archie from splashing about in the shallows! Fortunately he’d found a stick to occupy himself a bit further up the shoreline because the bass I caught must have been mooching around among the weed only yards out.

A nice bass in the sunshine

As I stood in the late-afternoon sunshine the little lure (it looks tiny in the fish’s mouth) was snatched. Battle had hardly commenced before it was over – that’s how close in the take was.

Landing it was no problem – but getting the hook out was! I had fitted the lure with a 3/0 Owner Twistlock Light unweighted hook, and this was stuck fast in a solid part of the fish’s mouth. It took some shifting, and I rested the fish in the water before having another go at getting it out. Eventually I did get the hook out (not without spilling a little of my own blood!). She went back OK, after allowing the tide to gently wash over her gills to let her recover a bit. Lesson learned though – don’t forget to crush the barb next time.

I could hardly believe what had just happened. A beautiful bass, early in the season, in beautiful surroundings that I was fully able to appreciate in daylight. It occurred to me how much angling adds to our appreciation of nature. I’ve always enjoyed walking, but when you fish you not only see places – you feel them.

Quality of bass catches

The Government are developing Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs). In the first tranche of these will be a FMP for bass. This will be vital for the maintenance of healthy bass stocks with a natural age/size profile. The Angling Trust has more about this here. 

As part of this, on behalf of the Cornish Federation of Sea Anglers (for which I am Conservation Officer) I’m collating evidence (hard or anecdotal) about the quality of anglers’ catches of bass (numbers and size) in Cornwall, and how this has changed over the years. So if you have any information or personal comments that I can use and attribute to you, or know of anyone else who might (they don’t have to be CFSA members), please let me know.

 

As the blackthorn flowers come out, and the heady coconut smell of gorse is in the air, it’s nearly time to start bassing again. My head is filled with thoughts of what might unfold in the coming season. What will the fishing be like? What will be the highlights? What new things will I learn? What new friendships will be forged?

Last year was memorable for me in that I finally got to grips with estuary fishing for bass. To begin my 2022 campaign, while I establish at what point the fish come into estuaries, I’ll be using the same tactics (soft plastic paddle tails – mostly unweighted), at the same marks as last year.

During my ‘close season’ I usually try to explore potential new marks. This year my focus has been on estuary marks. There’s a certain peace and tranquility about these places, and with their wealth of wildlife they are very pleasant places to fish. Knowing what to look for certainly helps – areas where there is lots of crab-containing weed cover, and I’ve got several new spots to try once the fish are in.

I needed that break

Although I haven’t been fishing much over the last couple of months, I have been busy with other things. It’s amazing how much time fishing takes up when the season is in full swing, so the downtime not only refreshes my fishing appetite, but gives me time to catch up with a growing list of other activities, both fishing-related and domestic.

Juvenile bass surveys

Before we can start the juvenile bass survey programme for the year there is quite a bit of preparatory work to get through. This includes applying for a permit to net in the Fal, Helford and Camel estuaries for scientific purposes, updating risk assessments and arranging insurance. This year I’ve even attended a First Aid course. Hopefully everything will come together in time for our May 1st start.

Cornwall IFCA

I’m gradually getting to grips with being a general member of Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority. I have to say it’s been a positive experience so far, and I would recommend anglers to apply should a vacancy arise.  Anybody interested in applying, or just finding out a bit more about how IFCAs work, should find the recordings of the Angling Trust webinars with IFCA Chief Officers informative.

CIFCA are working through the objections to the proposed Salmonids byelaw. They hope to liaise with the main objectors, to see if concerns can be resolved, and report back to the June meeting (17.6.22). Although this byelaw is primarily aimed at salmonids (salmon and sea trout), it should also afford some protection to bass and other seafish. Note that all CIFCA meetings can be attended by the public or watched via webcast. Details of meetings can be found here.

I’m pleased to say that CIFCA have agreed to hold at least one public meeting with anglers over the next twelve months. I think these are a good opportunity for IFCAs to engage with anglers, and understand their concerns; likewise it allows anglers to appreciate the limitations under which IFCAs operate, and the needs of other stakeholders. In this way it is possible to build trust and support between both parties while taking the sea angling agenda forward.

Joint Fisheries Statement

Defra are consulting on the Joint Fisheries Statement (JSF), a key part of the new Fisheries Act. While I think it sets out some excellent policies for managing fisheries, I feel it fails to reflect the importance of Recreational Sea Fishing/Angling. Not only does this generate considerable economic and social benefit for coastal (and inland) communities, its environmental foot print is low. The JSF document is a lot to get through (80+) pages, and the deadline (12th April) is nearly up, so if you haven’t got time to respond yourself have a look at the Angling Trust’s response.

Bass netting research

Devon & Severn IFCA are undertaking research looking at the discard survivability of bass caught in short 100mm gill nets set for gilthead bream and mullet in the Salcombe estuary for limited short soak times (up to 1 hour). The results of this research will be published in due course, and are awaited with interest.

Cornish Federation of Sea Anglers

I’ve been impressed with the way that the CFSA are moving with the times. One example of this is their approach to the competitions they run. It is now possible, in most situations, to register fish using video’d footage of the fish being weighed, enabling the fish to be released alive.

Another example is their excellent Recorder’s report. Included in this are the issues of climate change and offshore commercial fishing. I include notes from the report below:

Climate change has brought novel species like gilthead bream to our shores, moving up from the Bay of Biscay.  Recent years have seen an explosion of spider crabs, and this has made rock fishing virtually impossible until they shed their shells and return to deeper water in late July. Bluefin tuna are now a common sight in Cornish waters. Their presence seems to be affecting other species too, particularly baitfish, which in turn may be having an impact on the species we like to catch. 2021 was very unusual for the absence of mackerel around Cornwall throughout the summer months. Sandeel populations have also declined substantially, which may be reducing food availability for some species. These changes may have been partially offset by the increasing number of pilchards and anchovies which are being seen and caught.

High levels of offshore commercial fishing effort are being directed at the waters around Cornwall, particularly by EU vessels to within 6 miles of the shore. It’s hard to see how this can be sustainable, either for recreational sea angling or our local inshore commercial fleet. The sheer scale of these fisheries is turning the inshore waters around Cornwall into an underwater desert. This is particularly apparent with flatfish, with very few turbot, plaice or dabs being caught by anglers in areas where they were once common.

There are particular concerns around the ‘Trevose Box’ where large numbers of trawlers target this spawning ground for flatfish (and other species) as soon as it reopens after the Feb 1st – March 31st closed period, potentially undoing all the good that has accrued during this time.

Organisations like the CFSA need our support. I have recently volunteered to be its Conservation Officer, and have been coopted onto the Committee.

BASS Catch Recording Scheme

The BASS Science group has been developing a Catch Recording Scheme. Some of the findings from the first year of running this on a trial basis have already been shared at this year’s virtual AGM, and an article will appear in the next BASS magazine.

The scheme aims to give members information about fishing quality in various parts of the Country, and information about bass biology such as year class abundance and growth. It is hoped that in time this data will also be of use to our campaigning team. Results are anonymised and locations are only recorded to County level.

If you would like more information about the scheme please get in touch via my Contact page. The more anglers who participate, and the more areas we cover, the better and more detailed data we can provide. You’ll have to be a member though, so if you aren’t one already, why not sign up for the modest sum of £25.

Marine Strandings Network

The Marine Strandings Network in Cornwall is run by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. Their data, collected by dedicated and local people, is recognized by governing bodies and used by scientists to better understand our coastal marine megafauna and the pressures they face. Their research has put real and significant pressure on government to tackle significant threats like bycatch (accidental entanglement in fishing gear) which we have proven to be one of the top causes of death in dolphins and porpoises. The science has uncovered some fascinating discoveries like the threat of bottlenose dolphins on porpoises through their fatal attacks. All of this has been led ultimately by citizen scientists. With thanks to Ruth Williams, CWT.

If you see dead dolphins, seals, sharks, seabirds, jellyfish and other marine wildlife on the shoreline of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, please contact the Marine Strandings Hotline Emergency Number on 0345 201 2626. If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer recorder, email the organisers on strandings@cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk  

I recently attended the stranding of a Risso’s dolphin. This was quite a challenging assignment, given the vagueness of location reported, and the positioning of the stranding. Fortunately I know the stretch of coastline well, and was able to locate the stranding fairly easily. It looked like the poor animal had stranded during recent gales, and was stuck fast in some rocks near the high water mark.

We normally like to get photos and measurements from all angles, but its position and weight prevented me from moving it. But with a bit of crawling under rocks, I managed to get sufficient photos for the animal to be identified and recorded.

Recent catches

As often seems to happen in March, some nice bass have been caught. Well done to the canny and hardy souls who brave the cold weather at this time of year.

Cornwall anglers Rob Taylor and Dave Noble got among the fish. Rob had a great fish of 8-9 in mid-March on lures, in bright sunny weather and east winds. Dave had a 7-15 beauty, a new PB,  at the end of March. He caught the fish on whole joey mackerel (with tail and half the head removed) just as the sun was going down. The bait was supplied by Camborne Sea Baits.

Bill Morris had several nice bass while fishing a Bristol Channel shore mark. Bill commented that the fish were spawning, and could see eggs running from the fish. Research suggests that bass spawn in the Celtic Sea. Bill adds that by mid April – May all the fish he catches are spawned out.

Terry Blampied from Jersey got a surprise when the bass he landed had a lamprey stuck to its side! Goodness knows how long the fish would have survived if Terry hadn’t caught it, and removed the lamprey. These things are pretty gruesome, attaching their mouth by suction to their prey which allows their tongue to tear at the flesh of their prey and drink its blood!

Great service

I don’t have any links with, or promote tackle suppliers, but I do like good service when I see it.

Some recent examples include Bass Lures UK who went out of their way to provide a tailored product to suit my individual needs, supplying a pack of very bassy-looking soft plastic paddle tails. These Flash J style shads look like they will be very effective for estuary bassing. The complimentary smaller versions they also sent should prove particularly attractive early in the season when bass are likely to be feeding on summer fry.

Rooney’s Fishing Supplies know how to turn a negative customer experience into a positive one. An order for some Owner Twistlock hooks ( the light Gary Yamamoto style ones I like so much) hadn’t arrived, so I contacted the proprietor.  He was eager to put things right, and within a few days the hooks were delivered, with an extra pack of 5/0’s thrown in. He was very apologetic, but It wasn’t his fault that the hooks had gone missing in the post.

That’s all for this month folks. Thanks for reading.

Not having much to write about during this period of bass fishing downtime for many, I thought I would share some pre-season musings with you. These are more outtakes which didn’t make the final cut of my book A Bass Angler’s Life.

The quest for new fishing spots

Every year, usually at the start of the season before I get into my comfort zone of familiar places, I look at new marks. There can’t be many places around the Cornish coast I haven’t looked at, and the search for new spots increasingly involves going further and further from home. And while bass marks tend to be fairly predictable, coastal erosion, and storms shifting sand about can completely change a mark, meaning you have to learn about it all over again.

Once you’ve decided that somewhere has the potential to produce bass, the anticipation begins. Is it going to be a waste of time, or will it produce that lunker? To me, the learning and experimenting is almost as enjoyable as the fishing itself, but you have to keep yourself in check; you don’t mind a few blanks if it leads to a new hotspot, but you still want to catch fish. The trick is to find the right balance between experimenting, and proper fishing at your known marks.

Being spontaneous

Thinking anglers try to get all their ‘ducks in a row’ before they go fishing. And yet, it’s important to be open to the unexpected, and not to get too regimented in your fishing habits – once you’ve caught fish at a mark, it’s tempting to keep going back and fishing the same area, at the same stage of tide. I’ve sometimes surprised myself when I’ve been a bit more spontaneous.

An unexpected bonus occurred one evening when I was fishing with Mick Larkin. The mark we were at usually produces in specific spots, but I had never before caught fish at the right-hand end. After a couple of hours on the lures, we decided to chuck out some bait. We chose to fish between the more productive ground and the right-hand end, despite the fact that I had never caught a fish there. Perhaps it was that we were fishing on the ebb, with bait, and this ground looked marginally less snaggy than the other areas we usually fish with surface plugs.

To cut a long story short, we landed three fish between us, all around 3lb, before the tide ebbed away too much and weed became a problem. Mind you, I haven’t caught a fish there since; maybe it was using bait rather than lures as I normally do there. But it’s not a place you want to hang around for too long, with those huge rocks just waiting to fall on your head!

Too much information?

Sometimes a little information about a place can be worse than none. One such mark resembles one of my favourite spots but, try as I might, it just wouldn’t produce for me. One reason may have been the fact that other people fished it, and my efforts were inevitably influenced by the tide and conditions when they were there. It was almost too easy; I had to give it a proper go, as if it was a new mark to me.

Putting any preconceived ideas to one side, I ventured forth one May evening at a stage of the tide that I thought would produce, rather than when people had told me it would. I was prepared to waste a few hours, if needed, in order to finally crack this place, and it was a lovely evening to be out anyway.

I was using the old favourite Yozuri Arms Pencil and was twitching it across the calm surface when a boil appeared behind it. Pulse racing now, I carried on winding. Suddenly the plug was seized violently, and the water was thrashed to foam. A lively fight signalled a good fish was on, and I felt more than a little pleased to see 5lb beauty come in. But it wasn’t just the elation of catching that nice fish that had me buzzing – I hadn’t been able to reproduce the catches of other anglers, but I had proved the mark to myself by catching a good bass here at a stage of tide which they dismissed.

That’s all for this month folks. Thanks for reading.

Being a quiet time on the fishing front, and not having much to write about, I thought I would share some outtakes from my book to help you pass a few minutes.  These are passages of the book which I left out in the interests of not boring the pants off everyone. Not that I was unhappy with them, but you actually can get too much of a good thing!

Fishing with prawn at night

Fishing with live prawn under a float is such a simple and natural way to catch bass. Doing this at night adds extra appeal, and can be deadly as this short tale illustrates.

After a long walk, I made my way down to a tiny, deserted cove, well off the beaten track. The path down is not for the faint-hearted, especially when carrying a bucket of prawns. As I picked my way down in the dark my pulse quickened when I heard a moaning sound coming from below. As I got nearer, I realised that a large seal was responsible for this. ‘Oh flip’ I cursed (or words to that effect!), ‘I hope he’s not staying’. He must have got the message because he left!

Half an hour with a small (10cm) ‘Sammy’ surface lure didn’t produce, so it was out with the prawn gear. I was using a 15g ‘Buldo’ weighted clear plastic float sliding on 20lb braid mainline with a 2/0 Limerick Match hook on the end.  I had pushed a small tip light into the plastic sleeve it came with, which was glued to the top of the float.

I was glad I had made the effort to fish this mark. Over the next hour, the little light on the float shot under three times, zipping along just below the surface as bass up to 3lb made off with the prawn. And a move to a couple of other spots within the cove produced more fish to round off the night.

Tales of epic catches

We’ve all heard tales of epic catches. Word gets out and the grapevine is buzzing with rumour and excitement. These tales were usually started off in the tackle shop, or fishing club, but nowadays social media plays a big part.

Each report fired me up, and I’d be down there hoping to share in the spoils.  After a while I came to realise that these reports were often out of date, and misleading with regard to the mark – people may want to tell the world about their success but, perhaps wisely, not where they caught the fish.

I learned not to take too much notice of these reports, except perhaps to note the fact that fish are around in my diary and spreadsheet. With bass being so predictable there’s a good chance they will show at the same time next year, and it could be worth redoubling your efforts at these times. On the other hand, if these reports are from a trusted source, and very current, they can be worth following up – but even then there’s no guarantee the fish will still be there.

I know anglers who follow social media, avidly soaking up the catch reports, and then feeling depressed because their own results don’t match these, or letting these reports influence them on where and when to fish. Better to decide when and where to go for yourself, based on personal knowledge and past experience. Some may feel this is a blinkered approach, but it works for me; it also has the advantage that I can fish away in blissful ignorance of all those big catches I’m missing (or not)!

Changing my fishing style

By the early noughties my fishing style had broadened. I was actively seeking out rough, rather than clean, sandy ground. The session that really convinced me that this type of ground produces bass, even in calm conditions, still sticks in my mind…..

I made my way down to a small rocky cove for a spot of late afternoon plugging. It was a sunny and calm July day, and I was returning to a mark I had first looked at in 1989. At that time I had my beach eyes on – I was only interested in finding sandy bits in all this nasty rocky stuff! This meant fishing it on a low water spring, when the tide had gone out beyond the reef. How wrong I was!

Suffice to say I blanked on that occasion and basically never fished it again – until now. This time I had my rough ground eyes on, and my inbuilt ‘bassometer’ was going off the scale!

After a couple of hours working along the reef, by climbing onto some adjacent  rocks I was able to cast my plug, a Yozuri Arms Pencil, out near a large rock, and work it over some very bassy-looking rocky gullies which were just starting to fill up; no beach angler would dream of putting their bait there.

A couple of turns and there was a violent splash as a fish missed the plug. I paused momentarily, and when I started to wind again a 4lber hit the plug. This one scrapped well in the calm, clear water. I can still recall the pleasure of the moment; a warm summer evening, a beautiful cove, fabulous bass ground, and a good fish caught on a surface lure – magic! To crown the session, I caught a couple more fish, smaller than the first, before I had to pack up.

I walked back to the car with that feeling of satisfaction which comes with your first success at a mark, but which was tinged with a sense of irony, having missed all those years of potentially good fishing. That session convinced me of the value of rough ground bass fishing and I never looked back.

That’s it for this month folks. Thanks for reading.