Sometimes the one, rather modest size bass means everything (plus initial impressions of the new £199.99 Greys Tital BCWs)

Nope, I haven’t broken my creature bait virginity yet, mainly because I have been concentrating on the open coast recently. I was standing in the surf on my own for about 5.30am on Wednesday morning, excited to be doing so of course, but actually somewhat surprised that the sea wasn’t nearly as hectic as I thought it would be. One small bass on my regular 30g Surf Seeker and I had hatched a plan to head out later on and see if I could crack a specific section of local coastline that had been on my mind for a while………………

So I didn’t really get the conditions I hoped for in the surf, but with the time of the tides I managed to get home, grab some breakfast, clear a bit of work - emails and so on - change lure boxes over, and head back out. I knew the sea conditions would be good for the top of the tide over rocks and boulders, indeed the location I wanted to fish is beset with plenty of glorious looking boulders and rocks sticking out of the water and so on. Close quarters lure fishing. It’s a bit of an effort to access this ground and I had done a hectic gym based heart rehab session the evening before, plus been up and down the cliffs already for my early morning surf session, but wow this fitness work pays off. I cannot tell you how much easier and enjoyable it is to cover more ground these days.

Anyway, you know when you’ve got a specific bit of ground which is playing on your mind? You really like the look of it but you need to catch fish there to fully trust that it’s worth persevering with it. Everything looks good and I believe that a few good fish have come from the mark over the years (rumours, rumours!), but you need to do it yourself to feel confident. The sea was looking really good when I got to the specific bit of coastline, but what became very apparent was the strong crosswind making it very awkward to properly present a lure where I thought the bass might be - right in amongst the boulders.

I don’t mind losing the odd lure when I am working stuff out, but what I don’t really want to do is be catching my mainline around the rocks which are sticking out of the water. Any potential nicks and cuts to my mainline freaks me out because of the potential consequences. The crosswind was that strong it was pretty difficult to get control of my mainline during the cast and when I tightened up to the lure, but the actual sea was stunning and I was determined to find a fish or two. We all know that a hard lure like the IMA Hound 125F Glide can “grip” into almost anything, but I didn’t fancy smashing the one I had with me against the numerous rocks, plus I reckoned I’d snag it up pretty quickly because the water was shallow.

Logic said to me that I needed to turn to the soft plastics I had with me which I could rig weedless on heavier belly-weight hooks (those really nice OMTD Big Swimbait Weighted ones I talked about here the other day). For me those lures are most often going to be the Savage Gear Gravity Sticks or Slender Scoop Shads, and for you they might well be something different. In some spots I could fish with this setup okay, but where I had a bunch of rocks sticking out of the water I was struggling to control my lure with that belly of mainline constantly getting pulled left to right across me with the wind. I needed something heavier with the weight at the front of the lure to give me that control.

So I turned to a lure which always lives in my various lure boxes. Again it might be something different for you and there are any number of paddletail bodies you can sit behind weighted jig heads. I don’t personally want to be running an exposed J-hook through that kind of ground AND trying to get the (exposed hook) lure back in amongst all those exposed rocks and wind and turbulence. I clipped on the heavier of the two Savage Gear Sandeel V2 Weedless lures, the 13.5cm/33g version in the Lemon Back colour, and without a doubt that extra bit of weight sitting right at the front of the lure gave me the sort of control I was after for the specific conditions I faced.

You can probably imagine the yelp of excitement I let out when I got slammed a bit later. By pure chance I had my Sony stills camera on a mini-tripod set back on the rocks to get some shots of me casting a sample lure rod we are working on, but in between those casting shots I was of course fishing away. I managed to trigger the remote control when I got slammed by that bass and I ended up with a chunky but modest size bass plus a few photos which I am pretty pleased with (I tend to fish on my own a good bit these days so I have had to get better at shooting myself as such). I didn’t have much choice but to lift the bass out of the water on the rod with where I was standing, but it’s no bad way to test the strength of a rod I guess. I was over the moon to nail my first bass from a spot which looks so interesting, so the learning journey has begun with regards to this mark. I got one more hard hit which didn’t connect before making the decent trek back to my Epic Berlingo.

Together with my brief surf session that morning, it was the first time out fishing with these new, “budget” Greys Tital breathable chest waders (BCWs). I hesitate to call a £199.99 pair of BCWs “budget”, but with how much most BCWs cost I believe it’s the correct word to use. My go-to BCWs for less money have been the excellent Vision Koski for a good while now, but they are creeping up nearer the £300 mark and I have been on the lookout for a £200 pair of UK-available BCWs. Greys is part of Pure Fishing which bought Savage Gear a while back, but nobody told me about these new Greys Tital waders and I stumbled across them online then got to see them in the flesh when I was at the Glasgow Angling Centre show a while back. Yes I could get hold of a pair for nothing because of my work, but I thought it might be interesting to give them a thrashing and keep you posted with how I am getting on with them.

I am your classic UK XL size with clothing these days, and especially after losing a good bit of weight when perhaps I had convinced myself I was still an XL when in fact it was nearer an XXL. So I asked for a pair of the Greys Tital waders in XL and they fit me perfectly, indeed for the £199.99 price I am genuinely surprised by how well cut these things are. They aren’t great big voluminous things which are rubbish to move around in. I don’t know how long these particular BCWs might last with what I put BCWs through, but the cut is good, they are easy to move around in, the neoprene socks feel good and seem to be the right sort of thickness, the stretchy neoprene belt works well around your waist and even sits at the right height in the belt loops on the waders, the shoulder straps are nice and light and comfortable, and you get your typical front pocket in which I put a pair of cheap reading glasses and my hook sharpener (don’t get older if you can help it!). For sure the material of the waders themselves doesn’t feel quite as substantial as you might find on a pair of much more expensive BCWs, but £199.99 is definitely pretty “cheap” for BCWs. Let’s see how I get on with them. You all have a good weekend and I hope you get to yelp with excitement when a particularly pleasing fish nails your lure, bait or fly……………….

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