A while back I made sure to always have a long-range sprat imitation lure in whatever lure boxes I take out with me - because it does pay off……….

Okay, so in reality my long range sprat imitation lure is a white Savage Gear Surf Seeker or regular Seeker, and to be honest I always have at least one or two 28g, 30g or 35g Seekers sitting in any lure box I might take out bass fishing. You most likely carry some kind of simple metal lure or lures with you for those times when they just work. For me it’s the Seeker and it has little to do with my working with Savage Gear. Look at the photo below and tell me that a white Seeker isn’t a pretty bloody good imitation of a sprat…………..

Which my mate Mark and I saw the other day being harassed by loads of birds from above and what turned out to be bass from below. For a second I had a horrible feeling that I didn’t have a white Seeker with me because my lure boxes were in a bit of a different state after my guiding work over in Ireland. I was a few hundred yards away from Mark and looking the opposite direction when he radioed me to say that a load of birds had suddenly started working on baitfish. I turned around, saw the birds, and I could also see splashes in the water which to me is a good sign that it’s most likely bass and not mackerel driving the poor baitfish to the surface. We know it was sprats because over the course of our session we found a bunch of them washed up on the beach.

“Run Forest Run!” Nobody could ever accuse Mark and I of being athletes and I have no idea where my youngest girl gets her obsession with distance running from - but damn were the two of us running up and down the beach and rocks and what have you as we chased the shoal of bass the other morning! If you had seen us you might have mistaken us for a couple of finely tuned lads out training for a marathon but weirdly dressed in waders and waterproof jackets to do so. But no, it was Mark and I out bass fishing. When Mark first spotted the birds I was straight on the radio and asking him if they were actually bass as he launched his lure out there and hooked up. They were, we filled our boots, and I had about as much fun as fishing can possibly be.

Like a young gazelle I ran to my rucksack and grabbed it, and while I was running towards Mark and the feeding birds I was also rummaging around in my two washable lure boxes and hoping that I hadn’t been a complete tit and forgotten to put a Seeker or two back in there. But I had. I clipped it on, whacked it out, and hooked up straight away. I could easily reach the birds and the splashes on the surface from feeding bass. We didn’t land a bass over about 3lbs and I dread to think how many fish we ended up releasing over the course of the session, but every single fish was a blast because how often do we find bass feeding like this? A few times the bass were obviously driving the sprat in much closer because I was able to reach them with a white Gravity Stick Paddletail rigged on the 6/0 belly-weight hook. When the fish moved further out again I would then clip on a Seeker and keep catching.

I usually like to play around with different lures when there are loads of bass around, and I did catch a couple of fish on some surface lures I am sampling here. To be honest though I didn’t feel remotely comfortable putting a surface lure rigged with treble hooks out amongst so many birds so I took it off and stuck to the Seeker or the Paddletail. I like my Seekers rigged with single hooks but for some reason the only one I had with me had a treble on which of course had the barbs crushed so I was okay with it albeit I know I drop more fish on this lure when it has a treble instead of a 3/0 single on the end of it. I also had a couple of sample hard lures with me which need some water time, but again, I didn’t clip them on because I didn’t want to be messing with a couple of sets of trebles in amongst so many fish and birds.

I can’t remember the last time we found bass visibly feeding on baitfish like this, but that hour or two of running up and down the beach will live with me for a long time. I go fishing because I love it. The bass we caught weren’t particularly big but who cares a single bit when you’re racing around on the hunt for feeding fish that are moving around all the time? Poor old sprats! The bass are killing them from beneath, the birds are swooping down from on high, and then to add fuel to the fire you’ve got a couple of shore based athletes putting lures into the mix and giggling like a couple of kids. Would you have it any other way? You all have a good weekend, enjoy the autumn internationals which are looking pretty damn tasty, catch you next week………….

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