I got my January bass, I’m coming for you February!

To be fair we do tend to catch a few bass around here in early to mid January if we can get the right conditions - and it’s been a big if this winter - but I always expect that it’s going to take a bit of extra effort to find fish. Last Friday I drove a good few miles and did a good bit of walking in what looked like some good conditions, but we never had a sniff and all I came away with was a few photos when the light went off a bit just before we left. Andy kindly grabbed the rod I was using - review to come, I need serious help! - and I shot a few photos of him fishing with it, as per below………………

I wasn’t planning to go out fishing on Saturday but I have made a conscious decision to stop worrying about water clarity so much and just get on with fishing if the sea state is okay. I know that weed will mess me up at various times of the year, but there is so little of it around on the open coast at the moment. I also plan to put proper time into dirtier water in the estuaries this year when I would more usually have walked away and gone somewhere else. I think it’s far too easy to get locked into specific ways of lure fishing for bass because they have worked for us in the past, but how about changing things up and approaching something like more coloured water with a different mindset and tactics? I have got various specific things I am going to try, and if there is one thing I never mind it’s blanking if I am learning and improving for the future. One of the biggest highlights of the job I do is getting to talk to and communicate with a range of different anglers with a range of different skill sets.

Anyway, so I headed out on my own on Saturday to go and see what I might find out there. Storm and I made our way down the mark and I was rather pleased to see a bit more swell rolling in than the forecast had suggested. Not remotely big, but there was enough white water to make it interesting, and I always note how John Quinlan who I work with in Kerry does like a tinge on the water when we are fishing certain marks with our clients. Does a bit of a tinge give the bass a bit more confidence when the sun is shining especially?

I clipped on a Savage Gear Sandeel V2 14cm/33g in the lemon back colour. Where I was fishing was not going to be about any distance work at all, indeed the makeup of the mark very much suggests close-quarters fishing. I very deliberately let my lure hit the bottom before starting my retrieve, and I did this in the relatively coloured water because enough anglers I trust and/or read about will often talk about getting your lure tight to the bottom when the water is more coloured. I was on my own so it wasn’t going to be a case of a couple of anglers trying a slightly different approach to see what might work, but I trust a lemon back colour in more coloured water, and I obviously trust the Sandeel V2 lures.

My second cast was deliberately placed just off a rock, and again I let the lure hit the bottom before retrieving it. A few turns into the retrieve and everything went delightfully solid, quickly followed by a couple of thumps which I quickly wound into. In a few seconds I was lifting a chunky looking bass around the 3.5lb+ mark up onto the rocks I was standing on, and because there was nobody else around I looked to Storm and beamed a smile. What on earth my dog thought of me is unknown, but at least she looked mildly quizzical!

I didn’t even try to get a photo of the bass in my hand or of me with the fish, not with where I was fishing and a lack of rockpools. I quickly unhooked the fish - SO easy with a barbless hook - and returned it straight away. Either I was in for a blinder of a session with it being only my second cast, or else that was going to be it for the session. A few hours later without a single sign of another bass and I now knew the answer, but that’s January up and running. I will be out and about on the hunt for a few more, and then we have February and March which are never going to be easy times at all………………..

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