My deliberate choices have probably resulted in less bass for me this year, but I have learnt SO much and I have had so much fun

From time to time I come across an angler who likes their bass fishing, but for some reason believes that the only “true/kult” way to catch these amazing fish is out on the open coast. Each to their own and all that, but it’s not enough for me. My wife and I have been raising our two girls to be open-minded, interested in the world around them, and kind. Values which I believe in, and which I try to bring across to my fishing and my work in fishing…………..

As I have said before on here, if lure fishing for bass was only about flinging shallow-diving hard lures, surface lures and various soft plastics across shallow reefs on the open coast I don’t think I would still be obsessing so much about the one species of fish. It simply isn’t enough for me. They ain’t the biggest fish in the world, and there are many fish way more powerful than our bass - but I would put our amazing bass right up there as one of the most adaptable and fascinating fish we can target with lures, bait or flies. Why on earth would any angler want to close themselves off to the skill and learning it takes to target this one species in all their glory?

I am not perfect though! I admit that the idea of chasing bass from a boat doesn’t interest me nearly as much as chasing them from the shore does. Boat fishing is no more or less skillful than shore fishing of course, it’s nothing to do with that, even if I do joke from time to time that any bass from the boat is worth half of one from the shore (please do not take this seriously!). It’s the being tied down to a boat that doesn’t float my boat as such. I want (and need) the walking, wading, clambering, climbing and various physical demands that some of my shore fishing places upon me. I want the variety of photographic options that shore fishing gives me when compared to the restrictions of taking photos on a boat. I know virtually nothing about boat handling so I would be relying upon somebody else’s skills to help me catch bass from the boat, whereas with my shore fishing it’s me and my decisions which produce fish or not.

Rightly or wrongly I made a conscious decision earlier this year to really go for it with the whole finesse-style, mainly estuary based bass fishing. I have got a lot of open coast stuff all around me and I continue to love it as much as ever, and if you have been following this blog for a while then you will have noticed that I have always done a lot of estuary based bass fishing anyway. But I haven’t gone at them like I have done for a lot of this year, and bloody hell it’s been a blast. I know I’d have caught greater numbers of bass if I had done more of what I think I know much better, but I am obsessed with trying to get better as an angler. I am nowhere near the finished article when it comes to open coast bass fishing of course, but I feel fairly comfortable in a number of different situations I guess.

But there is SO much more to this bass fishing adventure/journey than I ever could have realised. Just a few days ago a mate had an experience with a good sized bass in ultra-shallow (estuary) water that has got us thinking even more about what might be possible with a bit more leftfield thinking. Then a couple of days ago he had another (estuary) experience with a good bass which has really gone and fried my brain! For sure the open coast stuff gets me thinking all the time, but the more of this lighter estuary fishing I do, the more excited I get. It’s nearly mid-December and a few years ago I wouldn’t have even entertained the thought of lure fishing for bass in the regular estuaries at this time of year - and yes, there is a reason for using the word “regular” here (if you know, you know) - but what’s to stop me keeping at it and seeing what happens?

I have learnt so much more this year, but the more I learn about the generally more finesse and often very close-quarters bass fishing, the more I realise how little I actually know - which in turn drives me onwards. I know what I know now if that makes sense, but the more of this style of bass fishing I do, the increase there is in my questioning of where to go looking and how to refine my approaches. I love a lovely creature bait as you know, but bass aren’t just feeding head-down on crabs in an estuary system for example.

I don’t count how many bass I might catch and I very rarely ever measure or weigh a particular fish. It’s no criticism of other anglers who do by the way, but it has to be a bit of a male thing that we obsess so much about catching say a 68cm bass or a 6lb bass and so on. I might not measure or weigh many fish I catch, but when I go running I want to measure how far I run and how long it takes me. I ran 150kms last month which is the furthest I have ever run in a calendar month, so why do I obsess about running statistics and not fish statistics? I might add that a lot of my obsessing about running is because I want to try and keep as fit as possible for my fishing, and if I was to get into boat fishing (which I used to do a good bit of) then I am lessening the amount of exercise I take. Which I don’t want.

Sorry, a bit of a tangent. What I was getting at is that I know I have caught less bass this year than I caught the year before, but it’s the nature of so much of the style of fishing I have been doing. It just doesn’t tend to be a numbers game - which isn’t my thing anyway. Every single bass I have caught or lost or seen or spooked with this lighter side of estuary fishing has taught me something I can take forward. As indeed does every bass I might catch on the open coast, but it’s this closer-contact with this style of estuary fishing that is teaching me so much more about these amazing fish. I also know that I have caught a few specific bass on the open coast this year which I don’t think I’d have caught previously, mainly because I (naturally?) tend to hang back and fish away from the water’s edge to start with in certain situations. It is literally frying my brain at how many more places I have got marked down to take a look at and start fishing. The further I am off the beaten track, the greater my chances, that is one unavoidable thing I have learnt this year………………