If I don’t catch a bass in these conditions I’m selling my gear and giving up fishing

For some weird reason I always say this to myself when I get out there and see the sort of incredible sea conditions I saw last Thursday. I am obviously not going to sell my gear and give up fishing if I do end up blanking, but it’s one of those things which the little bastard on my shoulder suggests into my brain whenever I come across open coast bass fishing conditions so perfect I want to wrap them up, take them home, and somehow translate across to other anglers how much I love fishing when it’s like this…………………

We are anglers so it’s rarely perfect for us out there - we usually have something conditions wise to moan about - but Thursday morning was like the fishing gods had decided Henry was due a little dose of perfection. An ideal tide size for where we were thinking about fishing, the wind strength and direction was spot on, the swell was still pretty big but the actual swell period was considerably less than the day before and I far prefer this (which I blogged about last week), the water was almost too clear, we found out that there was literally no weed, and hell, a couple of times the light even went loopy so my camera gear got a good workout as well.

And there were plenty of bass around which means I don’t need to give up fishing and sell all my gear. Phew. With every single fish in heavy surf being worth double how they scrap I will take any bass I am lucky enough to hook like this. Mark and I had a few chunkier fish from time to time but we also had a number of small bass which I take as a good sign I guess. There seems to be a good bit of bait around and I am looking forward to the run up to Christmas for the bass fishing if we can get the right conditions. I can’t complain about the forecast for the rest of this week with where we are in the year, but every single day I check the wind and swell forecasts and try to make plans for where I think might be worth a go if the conditions do go my way. I absolutely love this time of year.

I did have a couple of bass on an interesting hard lure I picked up, the BlueBlue Scarnash 120F (120mm, 18g). I am guessing it’s at least inspired by the frigging lethal IMA Sasuke 120, but if anything this Scarnash 120F grips in a touch more and the action feels very strong on a straight retrieve. It casts seriously well and I had a couple of bass smash the lure good and proper when I cast it directly in front of a very visible rip current and wound it fairly slow with my rod tip up (inspired by a couple of very good Irish bass anglers I know who fish the Sasuke 120 like this and smash bass). I really like lures around the 120mm size and if anything this BlueBlue Scarnash 120F reminds me of the IMA Sasuke 120 combined with a bit of what makes the IMA Hound 125F Glide so good. I love catching on a brand new lure so now I am on the hunt for a couple more colours because this bloody lure fishing is a sickness which knows no bounds!

I reviewed what could be called a more “budget” lure rod the other day, but because I was guiding and not fishing in Ireland I hadn’t picked it up for a few weeks and it was really satisfying to take the rod out again over a few days last week and hammer a bunch of fish on it in heavy conditions. You have a pretty good idea how many different lure rods I have fished with and get to play around with, so whilst fishing rods are incredibly personal things, I love it when a cheaper rod feels like it should cost a whole lot more with how awesome it is. You also know that I do paid work with Savage Gear and Pure Fishing, but I hope you can trust me by now and you notice that I don’t always fish with their gear when either they don’t make something I need or if I know of something that I think is a bit better.

Somebody like me and what I do always has the potential to be deemed surplus to requirements to tackle companies when they need to cut costs and so on. I have been moved on before and I will be moved on again at some point in the future I am sure, but it’s going to take a very special rod or rods to prise me away from the roughly £150 or under Savage Gear SGS5 9’6’’ 12-46g or 10’ 12-46g lure rods for when it gets hectic out there and I am banging stuff into big waves especially. These two rods will definitely not be returned if I am deemed surplus to requirements one day - lost in the post! - and I bloody love them with either the Penn Slammer IV 2500 or 3500 or Penn Authority 2500 or 3500 spinning reels on them. The heavier Savage Gear 40g Surf Seeker needs a bit of rod to really get it flying, and both these two rods can absolutely animalise that specific lure to cover so much water and/or punch into stronger headwinds. Sorry to bang on about these rods but I think they are incredible lure rods for when conditions get hectic - whatever the price. I was fishing with the 10’ 12-46g a good bit last week and it sits in my rod rack with one of those reels on, ready for times of the year like this.

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