Fishing commenced around 8.30am, with the tide pushing out and opening up some beautiful,feature filled ground.

Rob motored on and Iain bumbled (lol) with nothing much happening until 11am (low tide) As Iain and Rob caught up with each other, Rob had observed a shoal of fish moving about the surface and had hooked into ‘something’, but Rob was unsure what they were (such was the distance and visability)

As the tide turned Iain experienced a neat follow and nearly hooked into the fish, but it wasn’t playing ball. He covered the same ground again, slowing down with deft touches to entice a strike and BANG! Thank You ! A Fish at last!!

First catch of the day!

Not a bass, but a decent size wrasse over 3lb all the same.

Rob headed back and Iain followed, albeit slowly and surely.

Rob was hunting down Bass; Iain wasn’t much bothered, but the incoming tide showed absolutely no sign of bass racing in for the first spoils of an incoming tide!

On the way back Iain played a couple of wrasse using the Megabass Spindle Worm 5″ VIOS baits – Iain observed, “Thought I had a bass on for a moment or two, hooked into a four and a half pound Wrasse in the shallows over rough ground and it didn’t dart down deep – it ran left, then right, just until the end when it must have noticed a decent crevice and dived down deep, just a few feet in front of me – swallowed 5 inches of soft plastic to boot, good fun.”

Iain's getting bored of Savage Sandeels! He reckons the Megabass Spindle Worms work better and offer more value for money!

It takes a decent effort (and a decent size fish) to swallow 5 inches of soft plastics!

More exercise – fair weather and another few fish ! Can’t be bad!

Lures Used:

Savage Sandeel (Colour Sandeel)

Megabass Spindle Worm 5 inch VIOS Mineral Bait

This little fella really punched above it's weight (estimated around 2lb)

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A very respectable size pollack from the shore on lure!

Nothing much more going on here, so bacon rolls and a cup of tea, then off to mark number 2. Fished the bay for half hour but the N/E wind started picking up so we moved around to the next bay, slightly sheltered by a huge cliff but still nothing showing.

We discussed various options for the next mark, arrived at chosen location but completely blown out and un-fishable! Doh! Thinking cap back on, then off to our final mark of the day. Arrived at 4pm, started fishing the flood when half hour later I hooked into my Bass. Measured 53cm on the ruler, but when weighed on Steve’s digital scales the fish took it down to 4lb 14oz happy days, biggest of the year so far!

Hooked it on the Duo MOAB (mother of all baits) – 120 MA32

Arnies best of the year so far!

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The first mark made it impossible to actually fish for bass properly, so the decision was made to move around to a small cove we found back in November. It had produced bass up to 5lb and on our previous visit, we hadn’t had enough time to fully explore all the ground.

This next mark proved to be more productive, but not in the way we had envisaged. It started producing fish almost immediately, but there was no sign of any bass whatsoever!!

But the Wrasse! OMG!!

They were hitting everyone left, right and centre, providing a lot of fun and sport!

We were all using the Savage Sandeels 16cm – White Pearl and Sandeel. We did also test out the Megabass VIOS Spindle Worm 5 inch and they worked fine too!

Some 21 fish were caught by 3 people in a solid 3 hour session – 5 pollack up to 1lb and 15 wrasse up to 5lb. We don’t believe any wrasse weighed under two and a half pounds, with most weighing between 3-4lb. At this size, on soft plastics, they don’t half go!

But who would think you would be catching so many wrasse in January?!

With the mild weather continuing and the sea temperature 11 degrees C – it’s clear to us – our lure fishing is not likely to end anytime soon! How wicked is that?

This was about the best of the 5 pollack we had!

Cheesey Grin Time!

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Arrived at crantock on Sunday at 12.15, low tide at 10.10, started fishing at 12.40. The wind was fairly strong blowing NW, with the swell around 4ft but blown out and messy-white water everywhere.

Started with a big tide minnow 200 and surf 150 but they were still getting beaten up quite bad due to the conditions. I needed to get deeper to present the lure a bit more naturally, so on with the 28g megabass bubble header.

5 casts later I hook into this beauty at 1.10.

Slow steady retrieve to stay deeper, with random lifts to create an upwards darting action, and brief pauses afterwards to enable the lure to flutter back down.

Although the bass are still on the small side (still) we are all still seeing a lot of life in the rock pools and absolutely tons of white bait in the water.

Anyone fancy a dip?! It’s surely still warm enough. LOL

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“I arrived early at 10 o’clock, high tide was around 10.30. Wind was fairly strong, westerly with gusts up to around 25mph, swell was about 3-4ft. Started fishing pretty much bang on high tide, wasn’t expecting much but couldn’t wait to get going. Didn’t get a touch until 12 when this little beauty showed up.”

It’s clear that the size of the bass being caught are still relatively small, begging the question: When will the bigger bass show, if at all?

There is still a lot of life in the rock pools (a good sign) and the number of lance in the water is normally quite high this time of year. With continued mild weather Bass of all sizes can happily thrive. It is unclear whether a cold snap is due anytime soon (as this can sometimes encourage the bigger bass in)

In Rob Taylors’ words: “Just keep fishing, there is bass there to be caught right now, so get out when you can”.

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Our chosen destination on the north coast was too dangerous on the day, so Rob decided to head to the South Coast to a mark he fished a few times last year; producing healthy numbers of bass up to three and a half pounds.

The conditions today were not what you would call ‘bassey’ but everyone in the group was happy just to get out and get some exercise.

For anyone who doesn’t know Rob Taylor, he likes to walk! Today, he was being very constrained, but still managed to give the rest of the group a good work out! I would say we covered a good couple of miles of rough ground, plus a mile walk to the mark. It’s amazing just how many calories you burn off when you are rock hopping. I know there will be a few tired legs today for sure!!

Although the rain kept falling, there were only 1 or 2 heavy showers and everyone was geared up in waterproof waders, so it didn’t affect the fishing at all. There was little ground swell, but the ground was perfect for Bass.

4 Fish were caught on the day, between 5 people – 3 Bass up to 2lb and 1 Wrasse around a pound and a half.

It was a great day out and although conditions were far from perfect, everyone enjoyed the exercise.

With the sea temperature currently 11C and not likely to drop anytime soon, we are predicting a more active Winter period, possibly the best we have seen in a long time.

Watch this space!

Mark produced the first Bass of the day - off the surface

More pics to follow . . . .

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“It was great fishing, as soon as I cast out my first lure, the Bass were hitting hard – I lost just as many as I caught, I could have had 20″.

Rob returned to the same spot a few days later and the results were not quite the same.

“Hit a nice Bass (estimated around 6lb) which cleared the water several times and went on a few runs through gullies, but I just couldn’t bring it in”.

Sounds like a real fighter Rob had there and although he couldn’t bring it in, he had a lot of fun trying!

It goes to show that even the most experienced anglers can’t always bring in those fish that hit above their weight (Rob’s got the record for doubles at Bass Masters on Lures and Bait)

And what was Rob’s weapon of choice?

“You’ve got to have those Savage Sandeels, they are proving lethal for Bass right now”.

Savage Sandeels

Pics to follow . . . .

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With this week producing some colder weather up around Ireland  – we hope the Bass will work themselves back down through the channel, around some of our favourite marks. The only issue will be wind and ground swell, which have been unstable for several weeks now, giving us small windows of opportunity to get out. The problem with that is, conditions can drop to such a point, it’s pointless targeting Bass, as the conditions just aren’t right to encourage them close to shore.

The name of the game on rock marks will be targeting those days when ground swell is between 3- 5 foot and winds around 10-12 with gusts up to 20mph. If you can get out on the building tides too, you are increasing your chances of hitting decent size Bass this side of Christmas.

From the surf, it will come down to whether you can safely fish in behind the first few waves (Bass are very often caught on plugs and soft plastics behind the 1st, 2nd and 3rd waves) whether from the rocks or from the beach.

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“There’s a bar of silver at the end of that rainbow”, says Phil “and it’s got my name on it”. Now that is confidence for you I thought.

I had met Phil at 7am and from the boot of my Jeep gone through a quick appraisal of the hard lures in my armoury. Surface, sub- surface and diving . Floating and sinking.  Today we would concentrate on fishing the tide from low to high from rocks fishing over gullies with sandy bottoms.

Phil had joined me for a guiding session. Phil had fished a little before but considered himself a novice, particularly with lures. I don’t think I have met anybody as keen to catch a bass as this man. No pressure there then!  In anticipation, Phil had kitted himself out in brand new Snowbee waders, jacket and the all important floatation vest. That’s keen!

I armed Phil with a Bushwaker lure rod and Shimano Technium 4000. We were good to go.

Out on the rocks Phil got into a bit of casting practice in fantastic conditions.

Not long and Phil was into a fish. He managed to get it near the rocks but it was then caught by a wave and was gone. A good fish of perhaps 5lb. Phils face said it all. He was gutted. I know that feeling. I wanted to give him a man hug, but…………..!

I was now determined to get Phil into a fish.  As the tide flooded in we changed from surface to subsurface lures. Different patterns, colours. Just need to believe in the rainbow I thought.

“Nick, Nick, I’ve got one on”. I turned around to see Phils rod bent and playing a fish like he’d been at it for years. This one’s definitely not getting way I thought. He will go in after it if he has too. I don’t know who was more happy. Phil or me.

When we had come back down to earth we decided it was time for lunch. Lots of fishy talk over food and a drink and back out for more. This time Phil is armed with my Tenryu Injection and Shimano Rarenium. Phil now applied what he had learnt that morning and it payed off. Another fish.

We fished the surf on the way back but, alas, no more fish for this day.

I take great pleasure in guiding but this day was quite special. Phil was desperate for a bass and he caught two. Doesn’t get much better for me.

WELL DONE MATE.

Bass Lures

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So, there we have it. My job was to put John on the bass so he could be sure if he does finally relocate, he can enjoy some good sport in the waters around South Devon. SIMPLES!!

So checked tides, moon, and forecast and Thursday evening was looking great. Two out of three ain’t bad I suppose. Tide waits for no man, and the moon is always in the sky, the Met Office on the other hand is a very different thing. We met at 6pm by which time the forecast 14mph Westerly had increased to 22mph with gust up to 30mph and now with more than a hint of southerly involved. Casting practice was fun!

We made our way out across the rocks and began to feel the full force of the brewing storm. The swell was picking up and looked good enough to bottle and drink but the bloody wind was threatening our guiding session big style . Fair play to John though, he fronted both wind and waves as we worked our way through a session of lure enlightenment, always listening and attentive and within an hour or so he had settled into a good casting distance with about as much accuracy as anyone could have achieved given the conditions.

Despite amazing sea state the wind was causing us problems. The tide was dropping and I knew the schoolies would be in on the beach gorging on sandeel on the edge of the rip tide. So we made our way back in. As we did so my good mate Andrew Walker accompanied by gorgeous Sarah, put in a surprise appearance and with Johns OK, they joined us for the last hour.

I explained to John the rip tide and the channels in the sand out of site below the waves so he could get a mental picture of the seabed and the current. And boy did he get it quick. He was casting into exactly the same places I would have and the result was ……………………..  A BASS!  He actually had a few but set them free before I could get the camera out. Ok not the biggest in the world, but given the conditions he did exceptionally well to cast , let alone catch.

Well done John mate. You really earned that one.

Lots of fishy chat at the bar, a few beers and then home to bed.

The best thing about guiding is the people I meet. John has kept in touch and we email regularly. If he does relocate I feel certain we will be doing a lot of fishing together.

John, it was my pleasure.

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