It’s such fun helping and watching anglers smash plenty of bass on surface lures (easily as fun as doing the fishing yourself)

We had an absolute blast on the last two mornings with our first group when we found a heap of bass which were intent on smashing surface lures. And I mean intent, as in we chopped and changed lures to see if we could catch more fish sub-surface, but the bass were having none of it. There was bait around, the bass were hungry, and they wanted it on top. The two mornings were subtly different to each other though, and I found it really interesting………….

I cannot tell you how much fun it is to really get amongst the bass and not actually fish yourself but instead help and watch other anglers catch them. The amount of laughing and giggling together with a bit of effing and blinding at the odd missed take or non-committal from a bass, I absolutely love it, indeed I would argue that it’s easily as fun as doing the actual fishing yourself. On both mornings the bass weren’t of any great size, but damn it was a blast. I took very few photos because firstly the fishing was too hectic, and secondly it was absolutely pissing it down on the second morning, to the point I dared not even get my camera gear out.

John Quinlan made another good call on the second to last morning. It was really foggy and when we rocked up I told one of the lads how much I liked bass fishing in the fog. I don’t quite know what it is about fog and bass fishing, but when I can fish in foggy conditions at home I tend to do well. We got the lads down to the water’s edge and we were into bass almost straight away. There was a lovely chop on the water with a bit of swell rolling in, and because John and I completely trust these lures in those conditions, we made sure at least two or three of the lads were fishing with the Savage Gear Slap Walker 125 and 135 surface lures. It was also very much Patchinko kind of conditions as well I might add, but I am not carrying them out here. I hope you trust me to be completely honest - one of our lads (a seriously good bass angler) was experimenting with a bunch of different surface lures, but the Slap Walkers were definitely outfishing them.

The lads caught plenty of bass so it gets extra hectic with John and I helping to unhook and release fish and suggest where to cast and how to work specific lures and so on. How could anybody with any interest in fishing not love this sort of work? Fishing out here makes people happy and it’s a huge buzz to be a part of it. The not fishing myself part doesn’t bother me for a single second, but then I used to take fishing photos all around the world when I rarely fished and it didn’t bother me then. I get to be around fishing for a lot of my work and I could not be happier.

On the second morning we decided to return to the same mark to see if the bass were still around. There had been some very heavy rain overnight and it was still peeing it down when we rocked up, but the sea had flattened right off and there was more colour to the water from the various streams and rivers pouring flood water into the bay. With the calmer feel to the water I suggested a smaller and subtler surface lure, one which I have really fallen for, indeed the tail and flank of one specific estuary bass which turned over it one morning still haunts me. The little Savage Gear Pop Walker 2.0 9cm/11g does not leave my lure box these days when I am fishing estuaries or I am out on the coast and the conditions are calmer and more controlled. For its size it frigging flies, and although you can obviously only catch on whatever lure you are using at the time, I trust this little Pop Walker 2.0 implicitly. The bass were on it from almost the very first cast and it was about as much fun as fishing gets.

One of the lads was doing well on the lure, so I suggested a lure change to see what happened. Duncan was up for it so we clipped on the Savage Gear Gravity Popper in the 9cm/13.5g size. For years now I have gravitated towards WTD-style surface lures for my bass fishing, but a friend of mine at home has done really well the last couple of seasons on this particular lure. I have had a few bass on it and I had one in my box to clip on for Duncan. It would have been such fun to be filming the take he got - proper smash and grab out of nowhere, couldn’t have missed it if he had tried - and also our reaction. I know that I yelped which I think nearly caused Duncan to fall off his rock, and we almost collapsed with laughter at how badly that bass wanted to kill that lure.

By the time you read this we will be out fishing with our second group. Our first lot left on Thursday morning so we were all catching up on stuff for most of the day. I ran my fastest 5k since my heart attack first thing in the morning at an average heart rate which my physiologist wants me to keep to at the moment - and it felt so good. I am running slightly faster times each 5k I do, and my average heart rate is around the same number so I guess this means I am getting my fitness back and recovering properly. I also sort of went fishing on the early flood for a quick session - researching for the second group! - and I landed a bass on that Pop Walker 2.0 9cm/11g and dropped one on the Savage Gear Slap Walker 125 at range (it flies). To be honest I left the fishing alone once I found that there were some fish around because no more “research” was required. You all have a good weekend and I hope you enjoy what are going to be some epic quarter-finals in the Rugby World Cup. Ireland v New Zealand and France v South Africa are the big, big standouts for me, and especially with the turgid crap England are churning out at the moment.

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