Are we close to being able to call our bass a legitimate all year round target species, on lures, from the shore?

This is entirely subjective and of course just contemplating the chasing of these magnificent creatures on lures from the shore for twelve months of the year depends on many different factors - location, weather, time, effort, conditions etc. - but if you are of a stubborn nature and you love targeting bass, how close are we to legitimately calling them an all year round target species? As in you go fishing for them and you stand a good chance of catching them………………

I have been living here in SE Cornwall for more than 15 years now (in the SW since I was 19), and I particularly love the open coast fishing from say October through to the middle of January. If I can get fishable conditions on either the north or south (open) coasts of Cornwall then I feel confident of some good bass fishing on lures. But I think back to a winter not that long ago when November and December were completely unfishable on any open coast bass marks I know of due to incessant storms and filthy brown water full of weed all over the place. Of course I tried, but it was a waste of time. You roll with it because as saltwater anglers we are totally beholden to weather and tides and so on, but it doesn’t stop you getting massively frustrated!

Then I think back to one of the most enjoyable open coast bass sessions of last year - which was on New Year’s Eve. “Perfect conditions” is very different to us all with where we tend to do most of our fishing, but last winter threw up a good bit of what I tend to look for on different parts of the open coast. I like to think I have a fairly good handle on the bass fishing I tend to do out on the coast, and whilst I will blank as much as the next angler, I think I know enough about what to look for with conditions and tides when the weather gets colder. I accept that I might live in a part of the UK where we can get some good winter bass fishing at times, but I chose to make this part of the world my home many moons ago because fishing is such a huge part of my life. I am mightily stubborn by nature and my wife and I continue to work hard to keep our heads above water and live somewhere we both adore.

So I know that if you give me the “right” conditions, I can get some good lure fishing for bass out on the coast at times of the year when perhaps a number of other bass anglers’ gear is gathering dust with the wait for spring…………………

But is the open coast where the most potential is for targeting bass all year round on lures? That winter when I completely lost November and December to awful open coast conditions, well I know that I didn’t once even think of targeting any of the estuaries in Devon or Cornwall. November and December in the estuaries, for bass, on lures? Winter flounder fishing was never my thing when I was bait fishing, so my knowledge of some of the well known estuaries for that species is limited at best, but I think it’s been proved beyond doubt by a few forward-thinking and highly skilled bass anglers (if you are reading this then you know who you are) that in some of the rather more “unique waterways”, there is definitely the chance to legitimately target bass on lures all year round. If you get the conditions.

Every winter I hear of big bass coming to say cod or flounder anglers in an estuary system such as the massive River Tamar, but up until relatively recently I didn’t really think that it was feasible to chase bass like this on lures during the colder months. A north coast skipper I used to know landed a 12lb+ bass on flounder gear in the depths of winter a good few years ago from a well known estuary, but I didn’t really think of connecting a fish like that with the lure fishing methods I was using.

You know where this is going I guess, but more so than simply saying “fish creature baits” during the colder months, isn’t it a case that we can learn and adapt? Surely we need to analyse and recognise that if we want to be stubborn and try to catch bass on lures when it was previously thought impossible, we need to modify our tactics to target fish which more than likely are not behaving like they might be right now when there’s a good chance your local estuary is full of bait and the bass are chasing them. I had a stack of bass the other day on my own and they ranged from about a pound to maybe 3.5lbs. You know me, I am not remotely trying to boast, rather that when an estuary mark I know produces bass fishing like that, I know there is a lot of bait around - and there most likely isn’t going to be in the depths of winter. So if I am going to keep on trying to catch bass year round, surely I’d be a bit daft NOT to modify my tactics and indeed locations and try to find those bass which might be slowly mooching around on the hunt for a year round food source such as crabs or small flatfish? What I do know for sure is that it’s going to be eternally interesting trying to find out what is actually possible………………..

Check this blog post here for how I am rigging my creature baits at the moment