I really look forward to this time of year for bass fishing, even if my first session back home was a big fat blank!

I guess it depends on where you live and fish in the UK or Ireland or indeed wherever you might be reading this blog from, but down here in Cornwall I really look forward to this time of year for bass fishing. I love summer as much as the next person for the warmer weather, but everything about autumn speaks of better fishing - IF we can get the conditions. The photos on here today are from previous autumns by the way.

And I had a cunning plan for the Friday morning I got back from Ireland to fish the surf on the first of the flood, but the wind was howling more than was forecast and the beach blew out pretty quickly so I gave up on that idea. We have got some friends staying who we haven’t seen for a long time, but I managed to get out fishing with the dog yesterday morning and wow did it feel good to put a couple of those washable boxes of lures into my side-pack and know that I was going to be clipping them onto my lure clip and actually fishing myself. Helping other anglers catch fish is a buzz like I had never imagined it could be, but I do love getting back to actually fishing myself when the work is done and I’m back home.

A while ago I blogged about seeing a bunch of rather interesting cheaper lure rods at the Art of Fishing tackle shop. Read that blog post here for why it was a touch embarrassing that I had never even seen some of these rods before, but when I was away in Ireland a parcel of rods finally arrived from Savage Gear and I am fascinated to start fishing with them and finding out how they work or do not work for me. One rod jumped out at me immediately from the hugely scientific waggle test so I took it out fishing with me yesterday morning - the sub-£100 Savage Gear SGS2 8’3’’ 20-60g rod which I am treating as a 10-40g lure rod with how it fishes. For sure I think it will chuck a 60g metal if you slow down, but it’s a far more useful rod than the 20-60g rating suggests and for how I fish I think 10-40g or so is more realistic.

Give me more time with it and I will report back, but I am kicking myself for not seeing a rod like this before because it’s a frigging cannon and it doesn’t bite back at all when you push the rod. From the Gravity Stick Mini (120mm) soft plastics through to a 40g casting jig, I fished the lot yesterday morning on my search for an autumn bass, but apart from one really hard hit which took me a bit by surprise, I remained resolutely fishless and loved every single second of being back at it. I have got a bunch of ideas about where and how to find clearer water as and when the coastline starts to colour, and like many of you here I am sure, roll on until Xmas at least and let’s hope the weather gods send us at least a whole heap of fishable days and nights…………..

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