When a good bass continues to refuse my offerings, I sometimes wonder whether seeing the fish I am chasing is good for my health!

I had a situation yesterday morning where I was about to pack up and make the long hike back to my Epic Berlingo to get back to work, but then I saw a nice bass around 6lbs+ literally sneaking along the shoreline as it moved upriver and seemed to be swirling on food in the shallows on the way. Bearing in mind that I wasn’t a million miles away from low water on a decent tide, I do think back to when my estuary fishing was based solely around bumping stuff in current around a mouth area and thinking that all the bass were clearing out during those last few hours of the ebb……………

This was earlier on in the session, you can see how there was so little wind - which picked up later on

So I quickly dumped my rucksack back down and went to cast at the bass. My heart rate has jumped right up the moment I saw the bass, but I reckon I can handle it! With the direction of the estuary, the bass was heading up into what had become a fairly fresh bit of breeze. I clipped on one of those MegaBass Sleeper Craw lures and whacked it a good bit ahead of the bass which I could see as clear as day doing its thing. I wasn’t breaking a natural horizon, I was dressed in dull coloured clothing, and I hoped that I was in fact blending into some trees behind me. I managed to twitch then pause the Sleeper Craw into a good position but the bass kept on moving.

If I want to catch this fish then I also need to keep moving whilst trying my best not to sink too much further into some fairly soft mud. Because my lure box sits at my side and is so easy to access - as per this recent blog post - it was very simple to change over to something completely different and keep an eye on the fish. I clipped on the Savage Gear Gravity Stick Paddletail 120 rigged on one of those rather lovely BKK Titan Rider Worm Hooks in size 5/0, as per the photo above. I’d have liked to go with a smaller paddletail and hook, but I knew I would not be able to get the lure ahead of the bass with the wind that was blowing smack into my face. The combination above absolutely flies.

But the bass wasn’t bloody interested. By now I am a true, mud-covered, ninja bass angler. Sod anything else that might be mooching around, because I’ve got this fish on my radar and it’s not getting away. I have managed not to spook the fish yet, and it still looks like the bass is sometimes turning on some kind of food source. I guess it has to be crabs or shrimps, so without taking my eyes off the fish I access my lure box and change over to the combination that has worked pretty well for me over the last few weeks, a Z-Man ProCrawZ 3.5'' creature bait/crab imitation on a BKK Silent Chaser EWG Round Head 3/0 7g jig head. I’d have gone with something smaller and lighter if I could have punched it ahead of the fish into the wind, but with me hanging back to try and not spook the fish, I didn’t want to mess a cast up and land on top of the bass.

And then I got that “tap” which was the bass turning on the lure and I guess perhaps flanking it with its gill plate before inhaling it? I was absolutely primed and ready to set the hook when it felt like I should strike. Let’s not talk about the speed at which my heart was racing but I wonder if I could access the data on my Apple Watch just for a laugh! I am a mature 52 year old man whose youngest daughter finished her A-Levels the day before. I guess I could call myself a grownup. Yet here I am, covered in mud, shaking like a leaf, ridiculously overexcited, and willing a single, rather lovely bass to fully commit to my soft plastic lure.

But it doesn’t. Off it suddenly sods upriver at a speed I can no longer chase, even if I am nearly a ninja. Somewhat dejected, I wander back to my bag, look around for any more fish, fail, then start the long walk back. I am finding this exploratory bass fishing so bloody interesting, but with that firm rejection yesterday I am left wondering if it’s much good for my mental and physical wellbeing to be seeing the odd bass to try and catch! If the wind hadn’t been up I’d have scaled down my approach and I wonder if that might have worked in what was some pretty clear water. Now it’s got me thinking about how I might better present some of the smaller creature baits and paddletails when I need to punch them into a bit of breeze and potentially get ahead of a moving bass. Swine fish!

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