You obviously go fishing feeling confident, but I didn’t think I’d catch a 76cm bass from the shore in March!
In many respects I am most satisfied because I made the right call yesterday, but in reality it was only last week when I landed my first ever few bass from the shore in the UK in March. So does that actually mean that all my previous attempts at doing so were the wrong calls? Or can I allow myself to feel better about my many failures because the bass simply weren’t there yet? Whatever the case we went out fishing yesterday with a good bit of confidence because of the few small fish we saw last week, but I can’t pretend that I started covering the water yesterday and I’d end up catching a bass like this………………
When I was up at the Glasgow Angling Centre show the other day, a friend showed me a new Savage Gear freshwater lure that I knew nothing about. He only had the one with him so I couldn’t exactly nick it, but when I got home I asked the grownups if I could please get a few to try for bass. A few packets arrived here on Monday afternoon so I rigged one up on a 6/0 belly-weight weedless hook so I could at least give it a few chucks when Andy and I headed out fishing yesterday. Called the “Craft Bleak” (coming into stock in the next few days if that is any help), what I liked about it when I saw it was how it gives me a different profile and shape to the two paddletails I turn to the most for swimming on weedless hooks and cheb rigs - the Gravity Stick Paddletail and the Slender Scoop Shad. Do I need three different types of paddletail for fishing like this? The delusions of an addled brain, let’s call it that!
So we found some good looking conditions yesterday morning. The rocks were slippery as hell and even with studs in my boots I was very gingerly making my way across to where I wanted to start fishing. Because it’s the way my head works, I was itching to see what the 12cm Savage Gear Craft Bleak paddletail would do in a bit of bouncy water. I went for the White Pearl Flash colour because the water looked pretty clear and the light was pretty bright. I was going to give this new lure a quick go and then turn to something else which I know and trust, to come back to the Craft Bleak at another time if I liked the look of it.
First cast and I was shocked at how well the lure casts on a 6/0, 6g belly-weight weedless hook. All types of paddletails cast a bit differently, with the shape and material I believe directly affecting how well or how badly they get out there. Damn this 12cm Craft Bleak flies with how I had rigged it, but it’s obviously early days and now that I know the lure works for (big) bass I will be giving them a lot more water time. Sorry, I got ahead of myself there. On about my fifth cast of the morning I got one of those unmistakable bangs on the rod tip and instinctively I set the (barbless) hook home. I’d love to tell you how hard the bass fought, but in truth the fish didn’t do much at all. It felt like a decent fish and I fish with a tight drag as you know, but even then I was in no danger of any line coming off my reel. The bass did a bit of thrashing around, and the moment I saw it I was on the radio to Andy to say please get over so I could get a few photos of it if I landed it.
Which I did. I got down as close to the water as I could, grabbed the leader, and gently pulled the fish over the smooth rocks into a handy rockpool. Crumbs, or various words to that effect! Andy kindly got into the rockpool and I snapped a few photos of the fish, then he quickly measured it at just over 76cms. The bass was in fantastic condition and I reckon it was around the 9lbs mark, but to be honest it was the fact that one of us had caught a bass like this in March which really did it for me. We obviously knew that this year was a little different with the few small bass we caught last week, but a 76cm bass, in March, from the open coast, in the UK? Yesterday it was me who got lucky, and the main thing is that it’s given me a great big dollop of incentive to get the hell out there now as much as conditions and tides allow. I shot a bit of simple video of myself with the bass and then returned her. She swam off strongly.
Of course we fished on and on, plus I covered a lot of ground and different bits of interesting looking water. I am SO enjoying being fitter than I ever have been because it makes it SO much easier to put the extra work in to cover more ground. For sure it has taken a lot of hard work to get here and now maintain/improve upon it, but it’s so worth it. When you know that a bass like that has been mooching around, every single cast of the whole session feels that bit more full of potential, but between us we didn’t get another sniff of a bass for the few hours we were there. I obviously wasn’t remotely bothered because I was so fortunate to land a bass like this. At any time of the year it’s a bass to be incredibly pleased with, but because it’s March I feel even better about the whole experience. Hell, I even managed not to do any damage to my heart with all the excitement! I pushed the hell out of my heart rehab session in the gym last night with the extra buzz of that bass to motivate me even more, then bloody woke up at 3.15am this morning because I was still so excited………………..
If you are interested, this is the gear I was using when I hooked that fish:
Rod: Sample we have been working on, all will be revealed in due course
Reel: Penn Slammer IV 2500
Braid: Berkeley Sick X8
Leader: Sufix Advance 20lb fluorocarbon leader, really liking this stuff
Lure clip: HTO Mini Link
Lure and hook: as I talked about above
Disclosure - If you buy anything using links found around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you anymore to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.