Working the bottom is what did it, innit

Saturday evening into the dark's session is not going to set the bass fishing world alight, but you know how I like yapping about specific instances when something a bit different happens or something a bit different goes and works. I also believe in always giving credit to those anglers who particularly get me thinking and/or translate across to me say a specific technique, or how I might better fish a lure I am already fishing with and so on………………

So it was a couple of north Cornwall anglers I know who properly put me onto working paddletails rigged on jig heads along the bottom over rough ground. For a few years we had been doing really well on the (weedless) Fiiish Black Minnow over on the south coast of Ireland especially, but for the most part we were fishing them in current and letting that water movement do most of the work. I would also sometimes bang them out and fish them with a deliberate sink and draw at all kinds of depths over rough ground - for pollack and bass - but I don’t recall deliberately having swum/worked the Black Minnows tight to the bottom over reefs. Let them hit the bottom and retrieve them so they came up through the water column for sure, but deliberately fishing with a high rod tip and a very controlled retrieve speed to enable the lure to literally bump and bang across the bottom? It’s thanks to those couple of anglers who opened me up to it - and yes, you will lose the odd lures, but it’s surprising how few you do actually snag up if you keep it moving and learn how to almost “read” the signs through your rod.

So a mate and I headed out on Saturday evening and found the conditions I thought we would see based on the forecast. Nice bit of bounce, plenty of fizzy, green water, and we also saw a bunch of mullet feeding on what I presume were seaweed maggots released from a bit of rotting weed by the bigger tide and onshore conditions. I am sure you have all got your ways of approaching ground and conditions like these, and I went through a few different lures and did my best to hold stuff and fish it properly in all that loveliness. If there were bass around they were having none of it though.

So I turned to working the bottom. A few years ago it would have been the Fiiish Black Minnow, but I am supremely confident with our SG Savage Minnow Weedless in either of the two sizes depending on conditions and how I am fishing it. We did a lot of work on the design of the jig head for these lures, indeed I still think Mads is recovering from my pushing so hard for a jig head which would swim as effectively as it would bounce and bump along the bottom. He did it though. I know that in bouncy conditions when you’ve got the sea dumping pretty hard almost right on you, I can punch the larger 12.5cm/28g Savage Minnow Weedless out and it will get me down on the bottom in no time, on a controlled drop of course, in case you get hit as the lure is dropping. I can then swim/bump it along the bottom and I know I am fishing effectively. I also love the SG Sandeel V2 Weedless in both sizes, but when I am fishing like this along a snaggy sea bed I personally prefer the slightly wider profile on the Savage Minnow Weedless jig head. I think it resists snagging up a bit better.

I did say that our session wasn’t going to change the world of fishing for the better, but the only hit and (small) bass for a few hours of trying was when I changed over to working the bottom like that. Andy is a very good angler and I have watched him pull bass out when I haven’t on many occasions, but for some reason that soft plastic worked along the bottom did for the one fish on Saturday evening. Not exactly a scientific conclusion, I grant you that, but working the bottom like I was is a technique I like to have up my sleeve - with thanks to those Cornish lads for getting me thinking about it.

An Irish double figure bass taken on the Fiiish Black Minnow. Sadly my lone bass on Saturday evening wasn’t anywhere near this big……………!

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