Scaling down and getting subtler to catch more and/or bigger bass?

I will never forget an Irish bass fishing “expert” banging on at me about various experty things, including the “fact” that to catch big bass you had to use big lures. Mmmm. I also completely get the argument that there are plenty of times when the bass are properly on it and they will most likely hit almost anything you present to them. I like to think that I kinda get a lot of things about bass fishing, whilst also being perfectly comfortable that I don’t have a lifetime of experience with fresh or saltwater lure fishing…………….

I do like to think that I possess one particular skill though which a lot of other anglers aren’t going to have, and it’s nothing to do with my angling ability or lack of. In some respects you could call me a little narrow-minded because when I go fishing I nearly always target bass on lures. I live in a quiet corner of Cornwall and I am very happy wandering around here a lot of the time. I don’t need to see a lot of people and I am very happy with my own company.

But I have a truly global fishing outlook which has come about via my work and my inquisitiveness. I might love targeting bass on lures myself, but I have experiences of all kinds of fishing all around the world, both through actually doing it myself and photographing/living it. I communicate with a lot of different anglers and I am fascinated in how people go about their fishing in different parts of the world. It can’t help but shape me and my brain. I have also lure-fished for our (sea) bass in a whole bunch of different areas - UK, Ireland, Morocco, France, Portugal - and by virtue of this I get to fish with a wide range of anglers who all do things a bit differently. The angler in France dropping big paddletails into scary swells from a RIB is targeting the same species of fish as the angler deftly presenting a two inch long soft plastic in 18 inches of clear water when shore fishing. The one amazing species of fish, but done very differently.

So how much value is there - sometimes of course - to scaling right down to catch potentially more and/or bigger bass? If you fish for bass on the rugged west coast of Portugal then I am going to suggest quite possibly not a lot, and likewise if the majority of your bass fishing happens to be chucking lures or indeed bait into hectic headwinds on hectic surf beaches. But these incredible fish frequent so many different areas and so many different anglers are able to target them.

I was out blanking the other morning in some calm, clear estuary water, and the only signs of potential bass food I actually saw were some pin sandeels. There were most likely plenty of crabs and other such bottom-dwelling food which I was never going to see, but for damn sure I wasn’t carrying anything with me that was anywhere near as small as a pin sandeel to present to any potential bass. Fly anglers fishing for wary wild brown trout would think nothing of scaling right down at times - both fly AND leader - and I cannot help but pick up on the fact that some bass anglers who are sharing their catches and tackle information are often catching on smaller lures than I would normally carry.

I look at it like the whole creature bait thing, or trying to target bass which seem to be feeding head-down. So easy to dismiss out of hand if one’s own bass fishing might never revolve around something like that, or if one happens to be a bit ignorant or resistant to change, but who says bass are always dialled in on bigger food sources? As I said at the top, I know there are times when these amazing fish will hit literally anything, but how many times have you chopped and changed different lures and still blanked? Did you fundamentally change the size of your lure and potentially leader though? I am merely thinking aloud here, but this one species of fish which perhaps I obsess about too much continues to fascinate me……………….