Apologies for the radio silence folks. The juvenile bass survey work and reporting have taken up most of my time of late (more about this later), but I have a little window now – until I start preparing the report for the BASS Catch Recording Scheme next month.
Fishing-wise, results haven’t been spectacular. I’m still hoping for another 70cm fish this year, to book-end the one I had earlier in the year, but time is running out! I have had some success, particularly on the coast, with up to 10 fish on occasion.
Moving on
I’ve been taking stock of my fishing lately. Over the years I’ve had many great experiences, in some amazing places – enough to fill anyone’s memory store. But things move on – your views and preferences, and physical capacity change.
I am very fortunate to be untroubled by joint problems as yet, but deterioration in my balance and hearing mean I am less confident on reefy, weedy ground – especially in the dark.
So I’m fishing more in estuaries, and with the greater flexibility that retirement brings I’m increasingly fishing during the day, particularly with Creature Bait type lures. I find this type of fishing more enjoyable these days. My catch rate is much lower compared to when I’m fishing on the coast, but as long as I catch the odd fish, preferably bigger ones, I’m quite happy.
I also enjoy freelining mackerel or squid in estuaries. I’ve only had one fish of note – 60cm so far, but the potential for bigger ones is there.
A matter of conscience
I’m increasingly wrestling with my conscience about fish and cruelty these days, so in this regard catching fewer fish might not actually be a bad thing. There seems to be a growing body of opinion about fishing being cruel, perhaps fuelled by the increasing popularity of catch and release, which is perceived (by some) as ‘torturing fish for fun’. Personally, I have always felt that fish don’t feel pain, but I’m not so sure now.
Assuming that fish can feel pain from angling-related activities (and I’m not totally convinced they can), what else can I do to reduce this, without actually giving up fishing, which is so much a part of my life? Well, using single and barbless hooks, to reduce injury and unhooking time has to help. Focussing on targeting fewer, but larger fish might also help – if they were there to be caught!
Pure fishing
I’ve never been into group fishing, and I’m increasingly fishing alone these days. I find this allows me to enjoy fishing in its purest form, without the competitive element, disappointments and restrictions that can come with fishing with others. But then, perhaps I’m just becoming a grumpy old man!
Juvenile bass surveys
Although my fishing time is curtailed during the productive summer and early autumn months by the juvenile bass surveys, this is a sacrifice I’m more than prepared to make. It’s so rewarding working with people (see featured image – photo courtesy of Esther Hughes) who are passionate about bass conservation, and the data that this provides.
The report of our work in 2025 can be downloaded from the Cornwall Bass Investigations Group website. The settlement (taking up residence within the estuary system) of this year’s ‘0’ groups appears reduced, particularly for the Helford. Just when we were expecting a ‘bumper’ year class, perhaps even approaching the exceptional years of 1959, 1976 or 1989, prompted by improving stock levels and a prolonged marine heatwave in the spring, nature threw a spanner in the works!
We’re not sure why this happened (but there are a few ideas in the discussion section of the report), but the take-home is that the 2025 year class looks poor on the Helford, and only fair/reasonable on the Fal. Let’s hope things are better next year.
Achieving an excellent bass fishery
Although stocks may be improving, they’re not where they should be, to provide a margin of safety in the event of a run of bad year classes. The last time this happened it led, in conjunction with overfishing, to the stock crashing around 2015. Let’s hope that fishery managers remember this when they agree catch limits for next year at the annual fishing opportunities meeting.
If you want the chance to catch more and bigger bass please donate whatever you can afford to this initiative from Bass Angling Conservation. It could well be the best money you’ll spend on fishing this year.
That’s all for now folks, thanks for reading,
Enjoyed your post Robin. When you get older you do reflect on things, and in my own lifetime I have cut back on shooting and a few birds for the table is more than enough. On the suffering thing, I genuinely have my doubts and believe they don’t suffer. I’ve caught the same fish twice in the one day on quite a few occasions, and I ask myself if it was painful/bad experience, why do it again. Fishing is good for the soul, and offers a hell of a lot more than a bend in the rod. The solitude, the fresh air, and wildlife can’t be beaten
Good work with your juvenile surveys. It’s a good barometer on Bass stocks in your locality, and possibly a litmus test for Bass stocks overall. Campaigning for Bass is worthwhile . We have the choice to return a fish or not. Lying in the bottom of a fish box is terminal.
Thanks Melvin. Your comments are much appreciated.
Dear Robin,
I understand your wondering about fish and pain. As a keen trout (and salmon and sewin) fly angler, when younger, I used to take fish for the table and often examined the stomach contents. It wasn’t uncommon to find wasps and bees therein. Trout, infuriatingly, can distinguish one fly from another and, presumably, bees and wasps too. I doubt they would eat them if they felt being stung. I also lure fish for bass and I don’t feel bad hooking and releasing a bass, I keep maybe one or two a year of around 50cm, and release the rest. You have to kiss a lot of frogs as they say! I don’t keep trout mostly due to the release of sewage into rivers here in Wales. Salmon are so rare I no longer fish for them.
Thank you for the blog which I always read with interest.
Thanks Mick.
One of the articles I saw about pain and fish used chemicals to simulate painful stimuli in fish’s lips,saying that fish react to these. Your point about trout and bees would seem counter to this.
Very interesting Robin. I think becoming a grumpy old man is just what happens to us, I’m the same. Also feel the same about fish and cruelty, plays in the back of your mind.
Recently had a bit of a breakthrough with all my joints packing in. Doctor, after several blood tests, got to the bottom of it and various different pills have made me 10 years younger!
Thanks Peter. Good to know it’s not just me then!
Great news about your joints.
Robin, as usual a great read but reading your blog brings a tear to my eye knowing that age is always against us all. I do hope you can continue to fish through your later years and fishing in an estuary isn’t a bad default to be fair.
Thanks Matt.
I count myself very fortunate to have had so many good years fishing to date. Hopefully I still have a few left in me yet, and it’s and great that angling lends itself to all ages and physical abilities.
Hey Robin,
Strangely, the day before you posted this, I checked to see I hadn’t been unsubscribed as hadn’t heard from you for a while. Thanks for posting this provocative piece.
I too have never liked group fishing as you term it. Irksome egos have always been a massive turn off for me and there’s more than enough of them in angling. I’ve been part of a fishing club for 25 years and have seen them come and go, our numbers dwindled but we remain and true to our ethos. I have wanted to walk away so many times but haven’t. Yet…
My joints are futu and I do less and less fishing and exactly the same amount of unpaid ‘work’. I don’t even have the comfort of comfy estuaries you jammy git.
I’ve recently read Every Last Fish by Rose George. I thought it was fantastic and very thought provoking and I recommend it, it’s very well written. It left me affected as it was someone else saying what I knew, that every shade of fishing is stacked against the fish. Or ‘fishes’ as Rose correctly calls them. It reasonably addresses the issue of fishes feeling pain. I can’t argue with it. It addresses the impact of the industrialisation of fishing and what’s left behind. If it wasn’t for my need to be by the sea and some kind of instinct and love of catching fish, I’d be selling my gear now, or more likely giving it away.
There’s so much wrong with fishing it’s becoming more and more difficult to square off with the need for a quiet and calm head.
Maybe I just need to go fishing more and listen to less!?
Hi Bryn. No danger of you (or anyone else) being unsubscribed (by me anyway!).
Really appreciate your comments. The blog was more reflective than usual, and I was hesitant about sharing my thoughts about these issues. I suspect I will have upset some people, but in the end didn’t want to duck the issues. Hopefully my comments will strike a chord with some (like yourself) at least.
So sorry to hear about your joint problems. Hopefully you can find a way to carry on fishing in spite of these. If you can navigate the issues that are important and accessible to you, the mental and physical health benefits of fishing are considerable. I always knew I would get back to beach fishing when age prevented me from fishing less ‘user-friendly’ ground; now I’m lucky enough to have estuaries to fish in as well (sorry this isn’t an option for you).
I’m thoroughly enjoying reading ‘Every Last Fish’ and would similarly recommend it to others.
Take care mate.
Dear Robin, May I say that the above is one of the better quality debates online. You obviously have thoughtful and caring followers. I too have become quite conflicted on similar issues, after fishing for 50 yrs on and off (although not troubling too many fish most of the time!). I think we have to acknowledge that hooking fish, hauling them out of the water, bruising them on the shingle, unhooking (circle hooks better as well as barbless) etc is bad for fish welfare. Perhaps if part of a scientific survey would be more justifiable. But being purely for fun does not sit so happily these days. Although if we look at it in a relative way, everything we do has an impact and you could argue that eating meat, say, causes more cruelty, if we trouble ourselves to think about industrial style animal rearing and slaughter. Rod caught wild fish for the table is potentially the most humane, as well as eco friendly, way of eating animal flesh? Dare I move the debate on further to bait collection. Worm digging kills and injures many creatures, destroys the habitat and releases carbon and methane. It is a small scale but absurdly destructive method of harvesting, really at odds with how rod and line fishing can be the reverse. Overall, I still want to fish but am challenged by a lot of reconstructing.
Thankyou for your kind words, and insightful comments Paul. And thankyou for raising the issue of bait.
Great read Robin! Love that you have changed your approach to bassing. A cornish double is a tough ask but you’re definitely owed one for sure. It sounds like you’re fishing in the right places with the right methods , it’s now down to being there at the right time! The difficult bit!
Thank you for your dedication to the Juvenile Bass survey work and all the volunteers also. Top work. I always find it fascinating that all these bass fry arise from the mass spawnings out to sea. I’m a firm believer that there is a spawning migration from some bass into estuaries to spawn , especially in the SW.
A lot of bigger fish fall to anglers fishing estuaries like the Tamar during these spawning months. The survival instincts of these animals, you would always want a safe environment, food rich, sheltered and lesser predation to produce the next generation. A cornish creek would be perfect! The mass spawning and large mortality of eggs and fry offshore versus some larger bass actually spawning in the environment that the offspring grow up in before they migrate back out to join the masses. Food for thought!
Thanks Dave.
Food for thought indeed! I think there may be some spawning inshore, especially with water temperatures rising in the spring. But they seem to like spawning in aggregations, and in deeper water, and spawning offshore may seed (subject to wind and tide etc as you suggest) lots of different inshore areas. Who knows for sure? Would be good to hear from anybody who finds bass running with eggs or milt in the winter inshore.
Bass are now thought to be only partially migratory, so not all will migrate, or even spawn every year. I think sometimes they decide to put all their effort into growth, rather than producing eggs.