Didn’t think I’d find myself underhand casting for bass!

The actual bass fishing around here might be tough at the moment, indeed I found February to be a more productive month than March, but the tea leaves seem to be pointing towards things picking back up again pretty soon. I was out a couple of days ago and the wind was way fresher than the forecast, so we had to tuck away from it and fish a spot which wasn’t in my initial plans………….

Didn’t remotely cover ourselves in glory I might add, but I ended up there at a state of tide I haven’t previously given much thought to on this spot. It was looking so good as the water stripped right out and it got really shallow. You could see all the potential bass-holding features and a few decent mullet moving about gave the old heart a few flutters. As per my blog post from Monday, I was trying a much longer and lighter leader. All worked out fine, but that FG knot going through all the guides definitely prefers very smooth casting and less power - which is just fine for the majority of this lighter side of estuary fishing I so enjoy.

I was hanging right back from the water and the potential bass-holding features were either right on the edge of the shoreline - clumps of bladderwrack etc. - or only a few yards out. I didn’t need any long casts and in fact I often find myself turning to a very simple underhand cast to get my lure out there. A shorter lure rod definitely helps with this. I can’t pretend that when I first started firing shallow-diving hard lures out over Irish reefs that one day I’d also be underhand casting for the same species of fish, but that range of required “skills” is surely one of the many appeals to this style of fishing? Many thanks to Dave from Labrax Mafia for the use of his photos today.