Automatically turning to heavier lures the rougher it gets isn’t always the best way

With the relentless onshore weather we’ve been getting for a few days around here, I got to thinking about a session we had not long before Christmas when my “logical approach” as such didn’t turn out to be the best approach. I am not sure if I’d have arrived at a better way to do things during that particular session if I hadn’t been fishing with a mate who started to pull a few bass in and I very much wasn’t, but once again it does bang home to me how a couple of anglers fishing differently often helps to provide a solution……………….

I had completely forgotten how well that fairly deep-diving, incredibly grippy and horribly expensive MegaBass Zonk 120SW hard lure had worked for my mate Andy the last time we fished this spot at least a year+ ago (why do we sometimes almost forget about a spot which tends to work in very specific conditions?). When we turned up again after far too long away, Andy pulls out a Zonk 120 and I don’t, mainly because I had forgotten all about it. It’s a fairly unique spot when compared to much of the open coast stuff I might do around here. The way the waves dump hard on the beach and how the bass like to hunt in the gutter that this sea action has obviously produced requires you to kinda hold and present your lure with some degree of finesse amongst all that turbulence. I have such a vivid memory of catching a good bass from here as a wave receded, when the fish hit my lure literally where I could have been easily standing to fish if the sea hadn’t been bouncing so much.

So Andy starts getting into a few bass on his MegaBass Zonk 120SW, and because it was rough and bouncy - the reason we had chosen to fish here - I had turned to the heavier and larger (J-hook) Savage Gear Sandeel V2 in the 15.5cm/46g size. This lure has done me proud at this spot before, but after a few bass for Andy and resolutely nowt for me, I had to have a bit of a rethink. I thought I had rather logically gone for the heavier jig head because the conditions seemed to demand it, but I was obviously doing something wrong. Banging metals out has never caught me anything here, and even something like that deadly IMA Hound 125F Glide wasn’t quite presenting correctly where you obviously need to be fishing if you choose to fish this spot in these kinds of conditions.

So I did something which kinda went against my head if you like. I clipped on the smaller and somewhat lighter Sandeel V2 in the 14cm/33g size, in the khaki colour you can see above. I could have gone heavier because of the bouncy conditions, but to be honest I don’t often carry a paddletail/jig head type soft plastic that is heavier than the (J-hook) 15.5cm/46g Sandeel V2. All I do know is that on my first cast with the lighter lure I went and caught a bass, and a few fish later with the same lure has stuck with me from that grey morning. Whatever I was doing with both lures was working better in those specific (bouncy) conditions with the lighter version of the same lure. I guess the depth at which the lighter lure was naturally swimming, then how the lure dropped and/or momentarily held as a wave receded was precisely where the bass that morning wanted to hit their prey. As ever I am many miles away from having all the answers, but the more I fish for these fine fish, the more I try to understand the ways in which different lures “present” in different conditions. I would like to add that England v Scotland on Saturday was not that great for the health of my heart!!! Lucky for sure, but a win is a win, and we sort of keep on moving forward……………

Disclosure - If you buy anything using links found around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you anymore to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.