Such a confidence boost when a good bass turns up on a new mark which you are just starting to fish, throws up various questions as well
A part of me accepts that I have missed a good bit of open coast fishing this year, but I set myself the goal to try and open up my estuary fishing and estuary based knowledge a good bit more than where it was currently at (not good enough to be perfectly honest!). Why you might ask? Plain and simple because I want options. When I can go fishing, ideally I’d like to be able to go, and if I don’t have an ever growing “portfolio” of bass marks which can be fished in a variety of winds and conditions and so on, then my options to go are more limited. And I don’t like that. Hence me getting my thinking cap on the other day to try and come up with an estuary spot where I could fish the creature baits in tight when the wind was howling from those autumnal directions we were suddenly hit with…………
I am sure that with a lot more time spent around this particular area, bass will come out at very close quarters on the creature bait stuff especially, but in fact this area is fishing a bit differently to how I envisaged when I was checking it out on Google Earth. Which proves yet again that as good as internet based fishing research can be, nothing beats feet on the ground and checking an area out in real life. A nice bit of current over relatively shallow water and what seems to be a pretty rough bottom obviously holds a few bass when that water is moving, and if there is one thing I do love in bass fishing, it’s bumping lures in flow. I love how different it is to say banging out a Seeker in a big surf. I love the finesse required in flow, and I seriously love those hits. Every single hit has to be analysed and reacted to literally on the spot, and when that rod goes over it’s awesome.
The XLayer doing its thing over in Ireland
So the other day I wandered off a bit to see how far up into the current line I could get. Second cast and I snagged and lost the only 10cm Savage Gear Dragon Tail Slug I had with me, so I thought what the hell, why not bump a creature bait down what was a decent bit of water moving through. I was fishing with a 7g cheb weight and it felt good as it trundled on down, so I dug around in that fantastic little HTO Double Latch 20.5cm lure box I carry with me all the time now when I am estuary fishing like that, and came up with one of the Z-Man Turbo CrawZ 4’’. I went for this because those 10cm Savage Gear Dragon Tail Slugs have a rattle in them and they have done really well for me recently. When we used to fish the regular 4’5’’ MegaBass XLayers over in Ireland (these lures also have a rattle inside them) in some strong estuary currents, over a lot of time and fish, a few of us came to the conclusion that the sound of the rattle did make a difference as the lure was bumping along the bottom down the current.
Check this blog post here for my current approach to this creature bait fishing.
Remember when I talked about that rather clever little Z-Man Rattle-Snaker tool? When I want to get a rattle into a soft plastic, this is what I use, and I picked out that Z-Man Turbo CrawZ 4’’ because I had previously put a rattle inside it. I rigged up again after my snag-up, and cast the lure up into the current. It hit the bottom and I was having to gently bump it along with the current to try and avoid the snags, then I got one of those gentle but totally unmistakable bass hits. I gave it a second to feel the hit again, then I set the hook home. The bass felt solid from the off, but it required no line from my reel and I was really pleased to see a proper autumn bruiser sliding up the bladderwrack in no time at all. I rarely measure or weigh any of my bass, but this thing was so chunky I was interested to see how long it was.
My mate Andy kindly held this 68cm bass for me so I could get a few shots in some filthy weather, but the photos I got do no justice to what incredible shape this bass was in. Somewhat different in colour and around the shoulders from what I would expect to see out on the open coast, it sometimes feels like the bigger estuary and open coast bass are almost like different species of fish. A very new location to me which is fishing a bit differently to how I imagined it might, and when a bass like this turns up so early into my experience with this area? Big confidence boost to keep on fishing it and learning about the place, and as I do so it’s throwing up a number of questions to which I have few answers to yet……………
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