A late start to the bass season followed by high winds in October resulted in a short season but some great lure fishing in Chichester Harbour.

We started the season in late May with lots of shad jigging trips targeting bass feeding near the bottom in fast tidal rips.  By August we started finding large shoals of smaller bass over shallow sandbars and right up to the beach which we targeted with surface lures and shallow divers.  The jigging was still very productive for big bass but the hard lure fishing was so much more fun that it ended up as the focus for all of August and September.

It’s going to be another long winter as we eagerly wait for May 2014 when the bass should start chasing lures again.  I’m sure a few more shore based trips will be arranged in 2013, maybe some boat trips if the wind stops and with some luck I’ll be fishing Chichester Harbour with soft worm lures during the early spring ragworm spawning blitz.

The biggest lure caught bass of 2013.