More bass on the creature baits, itching to experiment with different lures and presentations, feels like there needs to be more fish around for that

One thing I can’t do is complain about a lack of bass numbers in the middle of March in the UK, not when I am managing to snag a few from estuary waters in which I have tried but failed miserably at this time of year. The weather is that stunning at the moment I don’t want to be fishing the open coast anyway with no “life” to the sea to speak of, so even the slimmest of chances of connecting with a bass in an estuary in March is enough to get me excited. And you know how my head works with wanting to see if other lures and presentations/techniques might work as well or better than this admittedly very clever MegaBass Sleeper Craw lure………..

Which in turn lends itself to the argument - why bother changing things up if something is already working? I don’t work like that, that’s why. My head is full of questions which I enjoy trying to find some answers to. I did some thinking a couple of days ago to come up with a plan for an early morning ebb tide session, but when the wind got up after a while we literally changed sides of the estuary to tuck away out of it. I knew the ground where we started, but I obviously have a distinct lack of experience targeting this ground in the way that fishing these creature baits tends to demand - contact with the bottom, slow, lots of long pauses etc. Where we ended up is somewhere I haven’t fished for a couple of years and I don’t know the ground very well at all, but it’s way more interesting than I remember.

So I was obviously over the moon to nail a couple of bass at the first mark, if indeed you can actually call it a mark as such when there is so much ground to cover if you are prepared to walk. I have lived where we are for fifteen years now, and via a hell of a lot of dog walking and fishing I have never seen another person wandering around where we started fishing the other morning. Either it’s not great for bass fishing or more likely it’s a case of anglers not putting on a pair of welly boots and getting out there for a bloody good look around. Whatever the case, I do love quiet waters.

Both my bass came on that MegaBass Sleeper Craw lure. The first fish might have been say 2.5lbs I guess, with the second one being really rather small, but both bass required more than just your typical “feel the tap, set the hook”. I had to try and quickly gauge what was going on and then set the hook when it felt right. The actual first taps were unmistakable, indeed that is why we changed river sides, to get the wind off our backs because as much feel as you can get is obviously so important with this style of touchy, feely lure fishing. I actively go looking for the wind in my face when I fish the open coast, but not with this more finesse estuary stuff. I don’t know if it’s making any difference, but I have dropped down to a 14lb fluorocarbon leader for this creature bait fishing quite simply because it makes sense to me. As with anything that is new to me, it’s going to take time to find out what might work better or worse.

What I am itching to do is have a proper, extended play with a few different soft plastics and presentation methods. I have obviously messed around a bit so far, but there don’t seem to be lots of bass mooching around and I now feel very confident that if I fish the MegaBass Sleeper Craw in a likely looking area in the way that a few lads I know do so, then I am doing as much as possible correctly. I may well not catch a bass of course, but because I have been lucky enough to catch a few bass on these lures now, I have the confidence levels to at least know that it works for me.

Look closely and you can see my breath in front of me, it was cold first thing!

And I don’t yet have the required confidence levels to start changing things up and then stick with it. I am at the stage that if I blanked with something else, was it the something else which produced the blank? It is quite possible that the Sleeper Craw is THE best lure for this type of fishing of course, but I have my suspicions that at times there may well be more effective ways to skin the proverbial cat. What I need to be able to really start playing around is the knowledge that there are a good few fish around because I nail them on what I already know - then I can chop and change and see what happens. I did get to fish with a fascinating Tailwalk rod which I now have here at home for an extended test. I had never heard of this rod before, but it’s basically designed for this style of fishing. It didn’t pass the waggle test I must admit, but when I fished with it the thing seriously came alive. I’m going to enjoy getting to grips with this rod.

This is that interesting Tailwalk rod, plus Ben here is “wearing” a very handy, extendable Tailwalk net which I did consider running off with!

Whatever the case I am finding this all so interesting, and as much as I am loving this slide into spring and then summer, a part of me is already looking forward to the supposed doldrums into next winter and what might be possible with these techniques which are proving effective for bass which I believe might well be dialled into feeding head down on the available food sources for the time of year. You all have a good weekend, can’t wait for tomorrow in the Six Nations, how scary-good were France last weekend?

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