Before I wade into this post’s topic of discussion, I’d just like to pay homage to a couple of legends in the world of sea angling (and particularly tournament casting) who have passed away this year. Firstly, Dennis Retter who I met in February casting at Westward. In the short spell of time I knew Dennis, I found him a really likeable guy with a great sense of humour. He was also full of encouragement for a novice caster like myself, and his enthusiasm and exuberance for casting and fishing in general was second to none. I have missed him at the last couple of casting days that I have attended and I know that I will continue to do so. Secondly, Neil Mackellow whose passing was reported towards the end of last month. I’ve written previously about how Neil is the closest thing I have to a ‘hero’ in sea fishing and that, as a teenager, I used to routinely call him at Sea Angler magazine and ask him all sorts of daft questions. The biggest thing I came away with from that is that, no matter how annoying my pestering must have been, Neil was always nothing but patient and encouraging, which is more than I can say for some other older anglers who I knew around that time. I think that it is beyond dispute that Neil has been a great ambassador for sea angling and casting throughout his life, as well as having a knack for tackle design, having been involved in the creation of some of the classic Zziplex rods, as well as some landmark offerings from Penn, including the original 525 Mag range. It’s well known that Neil had suffered with Alzheimer’s for some years so ultimately, maybe his passing is a release from a truly terrible condition. In any respect, Neil has been a huge influence for me personally and I feel like the world of sea angling and casting owes him a debt of gratitude and a healthy dollop of respect for being such an innovator and a big personality in the sport.
As for me, due to the recent arrival of my wife and I’s first child and the lead up to her birth, my fishing diet has been a bit restricted lately. That hasn’t troubled me too much though as mullet fishing has still been on the cards and that’s what I’ve been into most for the last couple of months. However, I’ve also been occasionally taking the opportunity to get out and have little sessions lure fishing for bass. I must admit that compared to most of the fanatics of this facet of shore fishing my approach is crude, but I usually seem to catch them whenever I try and I am fortunate enough to have a few marks within walking distance of my house that I know pretty well. Although the fish I’ve been tangling with have been small, I’ve enjoyed catching them and they have provided a nice change of pace from the easy-to-get-lost-in world of maddies and mullet spinning. A couple of times I’ve even wondered if lure fishing for bass is something that I could start to take a bit more seriously and put some time into. I did do a lot of plugging for bass in my teens when every man and his dog was walking around with a blue and silver Rapala J13 permanently tied to the end of their line, but I was pretty unsuccessful and I’ve only sporadically fished lures for bass since. In fact, it’s been a long time since I’ve fished any method for bass with the same fervour that I’ve chased fish like ray, cod and giltheads in recent years.
Bass are an odd species for me. When I first took up sea angling at the age of 12, many of the anglers that I knew and routinely saw out fishing would be guys who valued bass as the highest sea fish you could aspire to and showed little to no interest in anything other than bass and mackerel. This impression naturally rubbed off on me and I spent a fair bit of time through my teenage years struggling to catch a good bass and being more or less oblivious to the wealth of good fishing for other species that I was missing out on. In this respect, when I got serious about expanding my sea fishing in my mid-twenties, I think I resented bass for a while as they had taken up so much of my focus when there were plenty of other equally worthy species out there to fish for. I suppose my years of struggling to catch a good bass were repaid in full when I caught a 14 pounder beach fishing for ray one night in October 2012, and that has kind of established the pattern by which I have caught most of my better bass: i.e. fishing for something else! Usually this has been beach fishing with a large fish bait aimed primarily at ray, indeed one of my most memorable sessions happened like this. The south westerly was blasting into the bay and blowing the rods off the rest (although the surf was quite small), and I caught half-a-dozen small-eyed ray in the 4-6bs category and four bass, with three over 5lbs and the best over 7lbs. I remember that night vividly because I felt very little resistance from any of those bass until they beached themselves. They were literally hooking themselves against the lead and then running full pelt at me whilst I scrambled backwards up the beach trying to keep in contact with them. I would suddenly feel the jolt as the fish beached then walk down to the water’s edge looking for the open mouth of the bass.
For a couple of years I did quite a bit of bass fishing in the classic style; touch legering in the surf. If I had to pick, I’d say that this is still my favourite way to fish for bass as it has a tactile, stealthy quality to it that really sharpens the senses, especially at night. I think it is also a style of fishing that encourages and improves watercraft which can only have beneficial crossover effects on general angling. I rarely fish like this nowadays and I think the reason for this is that I’ve found other techniques and species to fish for that scratch a similar itch but offer much better odds of big rewards. The fishing that I do for giltheads from the open shore is a good example; the chances of me catching an undersized gilt that isn’t big enough to fight or be enjoyable to catch is very slim. Surf fishing for bass, I can virtually guarantee that unless the bait is pornographically large, I am going to catch a great deal of small bass with comparatively few over the minimum size limit, never mind fish of decent proportions.
What does concern me when I stop to think about it is how much fishing I do in good bass conditions when I am after giltheads on the north coast and how few decent bass I catch doing it. Admittedly, I am using smaller baits than are ideal when targeting larger bass, but I am often fishing some pretty tasty morsels on my hooks at highly-rated bass marks and still only occasionally getting reasonable ones. Usually when I fish for giltheads, I’ll spin for bass in the quiet spells. This is sometimes quite productive and I pick up bonus fish, but again, rarely are these of any size. I should probably admit at this point that, although I’ve caught hundreds of bass on lures, I’ve never caught a good one spinning. I wouldn’t have thought that (to date) I’ve had one any better than 4lbs on a lure, despite having fished with lures a lot when plugging was all the rage in the mid ‘90s. It’s frustrating to me now to look back to when the only plug I had was the old Rapala J13, and a lot of the time when I fished, I would see good bass in the 4-6lbs category following the wriggling lure but never trying to eat it. If only I’d had Savage Gear eels back then, I am 100% certain that I would have caught some of those fish.
Savage Gear eels have been something of a revelation for me, as I’m sure they have for a lot of other anglers. I seem to get far more takes and hook-ups vs. follows with these lures than I ever did using the hard plugs of my youth (even the more effective ones like the little Duel Aile Magnet minnows). What is shocking to me though, using these highly effective lures in current times as opposed to the mid ‘90s, is the almost complete lack of the medium-sized bass that used to routinely follow my J13s and drive me insane with their seeming uncatchable-ness. Fish of these year classes seem to be disproportionately absent now, both in the reported catches of lure anglers and those using bait. It would seem logical that there would be far more of this stamp of fish than there would be those in the 7-8lbs+ category but as far as I can tell, this doesn’t seem to be true at all. This is a real shame as, in my opinion at least, the relative absence of bass in the 3-6lbs class really hurts bass fishing as a whole. For me, catching nothing but small bass with only a very slim chance of a better one is a real turn-off and probably the main reason why I have largely abandoned the bass fishing I used to do on the north coast. A proper bass of 4lbs or over is a handsome fish and one that I am always very pleased to catch. If there was a better chance of at least seeing some evidence of these fish being present, never mind catching them, I don’t think I would have lost so much interest in serious bass fishing and it might still be something I did regularly.
As far as I can see, from the evidence of my own observations as well as from the reports of other anglers, the ongoing concern for bass as a species in jeopardy is well-founded. Although there seems to be no shortage of very small fish, the mature bass that I used to at least see frequently (if not actually catch) some twenty years ago now seem to be very thin on the ground. Even if current conservation measures are effective, this will surely be a situation that takes some time to remedy as bass are such slow-growing fish. I do think, in an ideal world, these strictures (providing they are successful of course) would be worth the sacrifice as proper bass are great sport fish and do brighten up shore fishing as a whole. Having said that, any resurgence in stocks will have to be backed up with suitable restrictions regarding exploitation, if such revivals are to have real lasting effects.
In the last year or so, I’ve occasionally thought to myself that I would like to have a proper go at catching some nice bass again. These intentions have yet to materialise into purposeful action but I think, over time, I am becoming more and more interested in bass again as an angling proposition. Holding a sizeable well-conditioned bass and admiring its pleasing proportions and glistening armoured flanks is a treat that I haven’t experienced for a good while now. However, unlike the majority of the good bass I’ve caught in the past, I’ve reached a tacit agreement with myself that I will not kill and eat any that I catch in the future. After some thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that these fish are probably worth more to sea angling alive than they are to me as my dinner, although this is only my personal view and I wouldn’t try to force it on other anglers. Truth be told, I don’t particularly rate bass as an eating fish anyhow.
As for the method by which I will try to catch these fish, I will give the lure fishing a good go but I am pragmatic about my chances of success. The fact that I’ve not caught a good bass plugging suggests to me that it is not really my strong suit and I’d be better off investing more time in some nocturnal beach fishing trips with heavier weaponry. I’ve never really dedicated serious time to the ‘whole squid/side of mackerel in close’ type of bass fishing that seems to score well for autumnal fish. I think as a ploy for enticing a wily old silver-sides on to the hooks, this will be a frontline tactic for me. Probably my aim for the lure fishing should be something more realistic like catching a bass of comfortably over 4lbs on the method. This would represent a minor victory for me and perhaps go some way to soothing the sting of remembering all the decent fish that disdainfully rejected my Rapalas back in the day.
As for me, due to the recent arrival of my wife and I’s first child and the lead up to her birth, my fishing diet has been a bit restricted lately. That hasn’t troubled me too much though as mullet fishing has still been on the cards and that’s what I’ve been into most for the last couple of months. However, I’ve also been occasionally taking the opportunity to get out and have little sessions lure fishing for bass. I must admit that compared to most of the fanatics of this facet of shore fishing my approach is crude, but I usually seem to catch them whenever I try and I am fortunate enough to have a few marks within walking distance of my house that I know pretty well. Although the fish I’ve been tangling with have been small, I’ve enjoyed catching them and they have provided a nice change of pace from the easy-to-get-lost-in world of maddies and mullet spinning. A couple of times I’ve even wondered if lure fishing for bass is something that I could start to take a bit more seriously and put some time into. I did do a lot of plugging for bass in my teens when every man and his dog was walking around with a blue and silver Rapala J13 permanently tied to the end of their line, but I was pretty unsuccessful and I’ve only sporadically fished lures for bass since. In fact, it’s been a long time since I’ve fished any method for bass with the same fervour that I’ve chased fish like ray, cod and giltheads in recent years.
Bass are an odd species for me. When I first took up sea angling at the age of 12, many of the anglers that I knew and routinely saw out fishing would be guys who valued bass as the highest sea fish you could aspire to and showed little to no interest in anything other than bass and mackerel. This impression naturally rubbed off on me and I spent a fair bit of time through my teenage years struggling to catch a good bass and being more or less oblivious to the wealth of good fishing for other species that I was missing out on. In this respect, when I got serious about expanding my sea fishing in my mid-twenties, I think I resented bass for a while as they had taken up so much of my focus when there were plenty of other equally worthy species out there to fish for. I suppose my years of struggling to catch a good bass were repaid in full when I caught a 14 pounder beach fishing for ray one night in October 2012, and that has kind of established the pattern by which I have caught most of my better bass: i.e. fishing for something else! Usually this has been beach fishing with a large fish bait aimed primarily at ray, indeed one of my most memorable sessions happened like this. The south westerly was blasting into the bay and blowing the rods off the rest (although the surf was quite small), and I caught half-a-dozen small-eyed ray in the 4-6bs category and four bass, with three over 5lbs and the best over 7lbs. I remember that night vividly because I felt very little resistance from any of those bass until they beached themselves. They were literally hooking themselves against the lead and then running full pelt at me whilst I scrambled backwards up the beach trying to keep in contact with them. I would suddenly feel the jolt as the fish beached then walk down to the water’s edge looking for the open mouth of the bass.
For a couple of years I did quite a bit of bass fishing in the classic style; touch legering in the surf. If I had to pick, I’d say that this is still my favourite way to fish for bass as it has a tactile, stealthy quality to it that really sharpens the senses, especially at night. I think it is also a style of fishing that encourages and improves watercraft which can only have beneficial crossover effects on general angling. I rarely fish like this nowadays and I think the reason for this is that I’ve found other techniques and species to fish for that scratch a similar itch but offer much better odds of big rewards. The fishing that I do for giltheads from the open shore is a good example; the chances of me catching an undersized gilt that isn’t big enough to fight or be enjoyable to catch is very slim. Surf fishing for bass, I can virtually guarantee that unless the bait is pornographically large, I am going to catch a great deal of small bass with comparatively few over the minimum size limit, never mind fish of decent proportions.
What does concern me when I stop to think about it is how much fishing I do in good bass conditions when I am after giltheads on the north coast and how few decent bass I catch doing it. Admittedly, I am using smaller baits than are ideal when targeting larger bass, but I am often fishing some pretty tasty morsels on my hooks at highly-rated bass marks and still only occasionally getting reasonable ones. Usually when I fish for giltheads, I’ll spin for bass in the quiet spells. This is sometimes quite productive and I pick up bonus fish, but again, rarely are these of any size. I should probably admit at this point that, although I’ve caught hundreds of bass on lures, I’ve never caught a good one spinning. I wouldn’t have thought that (to date) I’ve had one any better than 4lbs on a lure, despite having fished with lures a lot when plugging was all the rage in the mid ‘90s. It’s frustrating to me now to look back to when the only plug I had was the old Rapala J13, and a lot of the time when I fished, I would see good bass in the 4-6lbs category following the wriggling lure but never trying to eat it. If only I’d had Savage Gear eels back then, I am 100% certain that I would have caught some of those fish.
Savage Gear eels have been something of a revelation for me, as I’m sure they have for a lot of other anglers. I seem to get far more takes and hook-ups vs. follows with these lures than I ever did using the hard plugs of my youth (even the more effective ones like the little Duel Aile Magnet minnows). What is shocking to me though, using these highly effective lures in current times as opposed to the mid ‘90s, is the almost complete lack of the medium-sized bass that used to routinely follow my J13s and drive me insane with their seeming uncatchable-ness. Fish of these year classes seem to be disproportionately absent now, both in the reported catches of lure anglers and those using bait. It would seem logical that there would be far more of this stamp of fish than there would be those in the 7-8lbs+ category but as far as I can tell, this doesn’t seem to be true at all. This is a real shame as, in my opinion at least, the relative absence of bass in the 3-6lbs class really hurts bass fishing as a whole. For me, catching nothing but small bass with only a very slim chance of a better one is a real turn-off and probably the main reason why I have largely abandoned the bass fishing I used to do on the north coast. A proper bass of 4lbs or over is a handsome fish and one that I am always very pleased to catch. If there was a better chance of at least seeing some evidence of these fish being present, never mind catching them, I don’t think I would have lost so much interest in serious bass fishing and it might still be something I did regularly.
As far as I can see, from the evidence of my own observations as well as from the reports of other anglers, the ongoing concern for bass as a species in jeopardy is well-founded. Although there seems to be no shortage of very small fish, the mature bass that I used to at least see frequently (if not actually catch) some twenty years ago now seem to be very thin on the ground. Even if current conservation measures are effective, this will surely be a situation that takes some time to remedy as bass are such slow-growing fish. I do think, in an ideal world, these strictures (providing they are successful of course) would be worth the sacrifice as proper bass are great sport fish and do brighten up shore fishing as a whole. Having said that, any resurgence in stocks will have to be backed up with suitable restrictions regarding exploitation, if such revivals are to have real lasting effects.
In the last year or so, I’ve occasionally thought to myself that I would like to have a proper go at catching some nice bass again. These intentions have yet to materialise into purposeful action but I think, over time, I am becoming more and more interested in bass again as an angling proposition. Holding a sizeable well-conditioned bass and admiring its pleasing proportions and glistening armoured flanks is a treat that I haven’t experienced for a good while now. However, unlike the majority of the good bass I’ve caught in the past, I’ve reached a tacit agreement with myself that I will not kill and eat any that I catch in the future. After some thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that these fish are probably worth more to sea angling alive than they are to me as my dinner, although this is only my personal view and I wouldn’t try to force it on other anglers. Truth be told, I don’t particularly rate bass as an eating fish anyhow.
As for the method by which I will try to catch these fish, I will give the lure fishing a good go but I am pragmatic about my chances of success. The fact that I’ve not caught a good bass plugging suggests to me that it is not really my strong suit and I’d be better off investing more time in some nocturnal beach fishing trips with heavier weaponry. I’ve never really dedicated serious time to the ‘whole squid/side of mackerel in close’ type of bass fishing that seems to score well for autumnal fish. I think as a ploy for enticing a wily old silver-sides on to the hooks, this will be a frontline tactic for me. Probably my aim for the lure fishing should be something more realistic like catching a bass of comfortably over 4lbs on the method. This would represent a minor victory for me and perhaps go some way to soothing the sting of remembering all the decent fish that disdainfully rejected my Rapalas back in the day.