A couple of years ago I’d never have caught the two bass I landed yesterday. But how do you know these things Henry?

Firstly because a couple of years ago there’s no way I’d have been lure fishing for bass in early February where I fished yesterday, and secondly, even if I had somehow found myself there, I’d have walked away and gone elsewhere because of the dirty water. You can teach a middle-aged dog new tricks……………

Only a few years ago I was so pleased because I managed to catch my last estuary bass of the “season” on 4th December, then when a mate suggested that we try fishing the same estuary in early April of the next “season”, I was distinctly unimpressed! I know that a certain waterway has the reputation for staying clear nearly all the time and also producing bass all year around if you know its secrets - I very much don’t - but I am particularly fascinated in taking these creature bait/lighter approach tactics into more regular estuaries and seeing if I can unprove to myself what I previously thought was “fact”.

I like where we chose to fish yesterday, but I wasn’t much liking the admittedly forecasted increasing strength of wind in our face. We were targeting some shallow water and the wind was right at us and really starting to colour the water up. There has obviously been silly amounts of rain recently, but actually the water in some areas isn’t too bad, with all things being relative of course. The colour we were fishing into yesterday was caused quite simply by the onshore wind stirring things up in front of us. As I said at the top - I’d never have fished a mark like this a couple of years ago in early February, and my head has been almost pre-conditioned to walk away from water that coloured and look for somewhere else a good bit cleaner.

Thanks to a birthday voucher from our youngest girl, I was out for a delicious Sunday lunch yesterday with my wife, and my mate had missed a bass just before I got out fishing. So I rigged up and started fishing. It feels weird to feel kinda hopeful that you might actually see a fish in such shallow but coloured estuary water at this time of year, but I guess you either do what you have always done in life, or else you embrace a decent bit of change and enjoy the never stop learning process.

The exact setup as described below

So I’m fishing away with what has become one of my go-to setups for this kind of bass fishing - one of those little BKK Fast Snap-41 size 1 20lb lure clips, a knot protector which I think definitely cuts down on weed hassles, a Berkley Fusion cheb weight somewhere from 5-10g depending on depth and current and wind etc., a 3/0 Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp L12 Weedless hook (the cheaper 2/0 or 3/0 Seadra T120 Weedless worm hook also works well, but I do like the lure grabber thing on the Eagle Claw), and a Nikko Craw 3.2’’ creature bait. If you’re going to put yourself out there trying to catch bass at this time of year in areas which you might know well but which are somewhat alien at this time of year, I do need to be feeling very confident with my offerings.

The exact lure/setup that caught those bass for me yesterday, described below

But that water was getting more and more coloured as it got even shallower and the wind kept freshening into our faces. I stood back and had a bit of a think. Time to try a creature bait with a rattle in it, to see if a bit more “come and get me” noise to the lure might help in all that colour. I love that Nikko Craw 3.2’’ lure, but I also really like some of the Z-Man creature baits as well, and I find it particularly easy to get a small glass rattle into the Z-Man ProCrawZ 3.5'' with that rather clever Z-Man Rattle-Snaker tool (check here on this blog). So I clipped one of those Z-Man ProCrawZ 3.5'' on because I’ve always got a few of them with and without rattles inside living in my lure box.

A few casts later and not very far out I get that unmistakable tap, but then the fish swims towards me. I keep in touch for maybe a couple of yards then wait for the pull away again, and now I set the hook. To say a huge smile sat across my middle-aged face as a chunky, maybe 4lb bass came to hand is an understatement. I was absolutely over the frigging moon! The day after my 53rd birthday and a fantastic start to the Six Nations, so I’m calling it a birthday bass.

Mark momentarily hooked but dropped a bass a little while later, then once again on that killer Z-Man ProCrawZ 3.5'' I got a tap, tap, move away hard, can’t really miss it kind of hit. And I didn’t miss it! Another fat bass that again might again have nudged 4lb came to hand pretty swiftly, and Mark kindly held the fish in a few different ways so I could snap a bunch of photos. I can’t prove that changing over to a creature bait with a rattle made all the difference yesterday, not at this time of year with what I presume is less bass around than in late spring or summer, and not with the fact that Mark had a couple of hits which didn’t result in bass - but on another day might well have. I had two hits which happened to result in two bass landed, both on a creature bait with a rattle in it. Whatever is or isn’t actually the case, the whole thing continues to absolutely fascinate me with how much more there can be to this one amazing species of fish if you are prepared to open up your mind and try different things………………

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