Heavy surf conditions, full of bass, amazing how easily they find lures, can colour possibly make a difference?
I am going to give all credit here to my mate Mark because on Friday he went out to have a look, found green water which I doubted he might with the current state of the weather, and then he kindly gave me a shout here at home to say it was looking seriously good for some surf fishing. Into my side-bag went my box of surf fishing lures, into my waterproof rucksack went my Sony A7IV camera plus a couple of lenses, into my waders went I, into my Epic Berlingo went Storm and me, and off to the beach we went. With rod and spinning reel strapped to the rod racks of course…………..
How does one best describe “heavy surf conditions”? It would have been useless for surfing but it wasn’t one of those really choppy, short seas rolling in which I also really like. Great big tables of white water were strafing the beach, and I guess a good way to describe it is that one moment you are knee-deep in foaming water, and then a wall of white water is coming at you and you are trying to jump up a bit but the water’s still coming up to at least top of stomach level. Time it wrong and you’re getting wet. I love it. The clarity was great, there was no weed around, but with all that foam and churning and turbulence and sand it never ceases to amaze me how easily bass can find a lure.
Because they did, and whilst there was no great size to the fish Mark and I caught save for one almighty thump I got at range which didn’t connect so you never quite know, we hammered them. Literally any bass in heavy surf like that gives one hell of a scrap, indeed a couple of fish I caught around say 2.5lbs I would have sworn were at least 5lbs+ if they had come off. We both had a number of missed takes and I often wonder whether in such heavy conditions the bass go for the lure but sometimes mistime their hit in all that turbulence. I like all the different ways to catch bass on lures, but that jolt in the surf does it for me in a serious way.
I have always used the rather excellent Simms neoprene belt (lasts for years) to hold whatever lure bag I am using around my waist (in conjunction with a shoulder strap), but even with that belt done up nice and tight over the top of my wading jacket to try and stop any water getting in and underneath the jacket and down into my waders, I still got a bit wet with the power of the waves rolling in. It’s all part and parcel of surf fishing though, and I also know full well that my spinning reel is getting a regular soaking when I am fishing like this.
I can obviously get access to any of “my” Savage Gear SGS5 and SGS8 lure rods, but my go-to rod for surf fishing is the cheaper SGS5 9’6’’ 12-46g. It’s a cannon, and I think its slightly less subtle tip than on the equivalent and more expensive SGS8 rod works perfectly in surf and wind. I would usually strap a Penn Slammer IV 3500 spinning reel to this rod, but I am struggling to stop fishing with the sublime and not remotely cheap Penn Authority 3500. The Slammer is more than enough reel, and the Authority is way more than enough reel for our bass fishing, but I do like knowing that all the water flying around is doing no harm to my gear. I am also really, really liking this sub-£20 Berkley Sick braid which I am using in the 24lb breaking strain. It’s smooth, it feels plenty thin enough, it’s strong as hell, and it casts like a dream.
Now I mentioned lure colour in the title of this blog post. When Mark kindly rang me to say that the water looked good, I suddenly remembered to put a 28g SG Seeker in that “Fluo UV red/black” colour into my surf lure box (mainly full of metals!). I am always carrying at least the white and black 30g, 35g and 40g (needs a powerful rod to really get it out there) Surf Seekers when I go surf fishing, but I have seen and heard about the red/black regular Seeker catching bass too many times now over in Kerry to not at least give it some proper water time myself. I knew I had one red/black Seeker here at home but I can’t remember having ever used it in the surf.
I don’t know how one would scientifically go about trying to compare how different lure colours might work better or worse than others, but when I got down to the beach I’d have usually clipped the white SG Surf Seeker on with water and light conditions like we had - and I’d have felt supremely confident doing so as well. I thought what the hell though and clipped on the red/black 28g regular Seeker, and in no time at all I was into bass. I don’t count my fish and I have no idea how many bass I caught in the surf on Friday - bear in mind also that I was taking photos for a fair while while Mark was fishing and catching bass - plus I am not in the least bit competitive with my fishing, but Mark reckons I caught a bunch more bass than him with that red/black Seeker (he was fishing mainly with the white 30g Surf Seeker).
So it’s not remotely scientific, but at one point I asked Mark to fish with my rod and reel so I could get some shots of the Penn Authority 3500 being used in surf conditions, and straight away he hooked up on the red/black Seeker. To be fair I did chop and change lures a bit because it was pretty obvious there were a lot of bass around. I caught fish on the white 30g and 35g Surf Seeker, and also on the white Sandeel Pencil 125 with a 7.5g Balls Clip On weight secured onto the middle of the lure (where you could put a second hook but I don’t bother on a lure of this size). Without a doubt though on Friday afternoon the red/black Seeker was doing more harm. I can’t prove anything of course, and I still wonder how on earth bass find lures so easily in that turbulence, but can lure colour possibly make any kind of difference at all when it’s bouncing like that? Who really knows, but it’s got me thinking, damn it was fun, and I also came away with a good bunch of photos. I then went out in the surf again with my mate Andy on Saturday afternoon, but I will tell you about that sometime soon. Wow………….
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