Lure fishing for Bass

Another day, another session after a few bass, this time accompanied by Tony and Graham. Well the forecast wasn’t right today, the warmer weather and light breeze had been replaced with a cold wind made even worse by the lack of any sun, I shouldn’t of left that fleece in the car. But the conditions looked fishy and despite a sea that was building the clarity of the day before was still there.

It was tricky today, this is rough ground and at certain states of the tide casting needs to be precise to avoid smashing your lure into a boulder or getting it snagged, the wind didn’t help and I suppose with only one loss and we did OK. I think it was a bit rough for the shallower areas to produce any fish but when we got the chance to push out a bit and access some deeper water I connected with a bass, you guessed it the Gataride Yoro-Yoro, PM Rainbow Pearl did the business again.

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So with the knowledge that there were some bass about I was keen to get the Gataride back out and this is where the obvious down side of the Gataride’s design comes in, the hinged lip design that in down position gives it that great action and in the up position allows it to fly through the air with even greater distance than a standard Zonk snapped clean off, I didn’t even really get it snagged, I just felt some resistance, I guess some weed and instinctively applied a bit more pressure on the rod tip to bring it through and instantly noticed the action was gone.

Anyway Graham and I moved on along the rocks whilst Tony stayed and pushed out even further where we were to be rewarded with a follow from a decent bass but no hook up. After a few casts at the new spot I got a soft hit and on lifting the rod tip had a fish on, the fish instantly came to the surface and despite being a way out looked like it may be a good fish, initially it didn’t put up much of a fight but once I got it closer to the rocks it took line on a few occasions, it was only then we realised it was a Sea Trout and a decent size too. This wasn’t the easiest fish to land, waves where coming in and the Sea Trout still had a lot of fight, but aided by Graham who already had his camera ready we had her.

You may wonder why Graham is holding the Sea Trout in the photo, well he had grabbed the fish and his camera was right there so I took a photo with it. The photo just doesn’t do it justice, which I had noticed, it’s tail bent away from the camera, just as I was going to shoot another frame it literally jumped out of Graham’s hand, landed in the water having managed to throw the grip of the Berkley and the hooks and powered back out to sea. I’m no expert when it comes to Sea Trout or Salmon fishing, I believe the preferred method is to grab them by the stem of the tail all I can say is the Berkley 8″ Pistol Grip isn’t up to the job and despite the fairly low price, certainly compared to the Boga grip, it seems to be a flawed device, the jaws have a tendency to twist and I think in the future I’m going to either do without a grip or invest in a Boga.

The Duo Tide Minnow Slim 140 Flyer is a big old lure for a sea trout to go for, but then again it was a fair old size, obviously we didn’t get a chance to weigh the fish but we both guessed at over 5lbs it’s tail was enormous, who cares in the end it was a beautiful fish. It’s a shame the bass weren’t in the mood today, we certainly all witnessed some decent sized bass following our lures right in, they just weren’t on the feed, I’ll be back soon to see if they are a bit more amenable as soon as possible.