How to catch the bigger bass amoung the smaller ones

Hi lads, I have landed nearly thirty Bass this year and not one was over 40 cm so obviously I put them all back. Just wondering how to catch a few of the bigger Bass, its not to eat just to have a bit more fun. I have tried making my bait bigger by adding 3 and 4 worms but no luck. I have used pennel rigs, 2 hook flappers and running ledgers but its always schoolies and flounder on the other end. I am of course happy to be catching fish but I would like to catch a few more of the bigger ones. I use the tripod alot and was told its alot harder to catch big Bass on a tripod as you have to be very light handed with them. Any truth to this. Any tips lads id be grateful.

maybe there just isnt any bigger ones around at the moment?

why not scale down your tackle? light rod and reel, 8-10lb line, 30lb shock and 2-3 oz leads. could be fun with the smaller fellas and if a bigger fela comes along........

try get your hands on some soft back crabs put a fist size crab on a 6/0 on a running ledger with an 1 or 2oz ball weight then cast it into your nearest rock mark

I don't think it's the rig size or bait size... but rather the bait type and tactic used. You may get lucky and pick up a larger bass, but like I say it is mostly luck.

Larger bass are stronger, faster and have bigger appetite's so they do not spend their time nosing in the sand like flounder and schoolies. They are after live big baitfish.

I read a report of a 14lb bass caught in Cork on a live mackerel. My friend got a 6lb bass last year and in his stomach was 3 partially decomposed mackerel. In some cases even sandeels may be small for them.

If you think that big bait-fish like mackerel are their preferred food that they eat 90% of the time but they also will not pass up a nice lump of rag or razor if they come across it the other 10%, i.e if they stumble across it…. not necessarily searching out the scent etc.
Compare that to schoolies that search for lug, rag, razor, peeler etc. 100% of the time and you can see how it is statically more likely to catch a big fish 1 out of ten times you land a bass.
Furthermore given that a shoal may consist of 80% schoolies and 20% large bass your odds have decreased about 4 fold so 1 in 40 fish landed will be large and the rest will be schoolies…

Now this is the mind blowing part….

When I free dive or snorkel I almost never see schoolies or flounder… they are so rare!!
Almost all the fish I see are bass over 4lb (to 9lb) and mullet over 3lb (to 6lb)in LARGE quantities… they are far more common than the schoolies or small fish (which tend to stay in estuary's).
Its amazing reading the forums about all the small fish caught in east or west cork when I know for a fact that small fish are the minority of the population on these beaches… Anglers should be considered 'very' lucky to catch a small bass on east cork beaches as most of the fish there are monsters!
I can only imagine that the same or similar would be going on in Kerry as anytime I've been down there the bass are quite similar to Cork.

But…

If you lay out schoolie bait you will 'mostly' catch schoolies.

Yes from my memory of reading the 'Hooked on Bass' book by Mike Ladle and Alan Vaughan they speak of using large mackerel baits when trying to target the bigger fellas. I think they suggested freelining using mackerel head, or better - mackerel head with 'guts' still attached to the head. I have tried this a couple of times but never had any luck yet - although I never persisted for very long.

Now this is the mind blowing part….

When I free dive or snorkel I almost never see schoolies or flounder… they are so rare!!
Almost all the fish I see are Bass over 4lb (to 9lb) and mullet over 3lb (to 6lb)in LARGE quantities… they are far more common than the schoolies or small fish (which tend to stay in estuary's).
Its amazing reading the forums about all the small fish caught in east or west cork when I know for a fact that small fish are the minority of the population on these beaches… Anglers should be considered 'very' lucky to catch a small Bass on east cork beaches as most of the fish there are monsters!

what! janey I must get myself a snorkel this summer and take a look

great post there donnyboy it makes sense that a big fish is going to primarily seek out bigger dinners but still take pecks at smaller baits theres been some very big bass up to 14lb caught out this way on single lug baits if youve read arthurs predictable fishing thread youll see that the bigger fish can show at any time whereas the smaller fish tend to feed up on the bigger tides, i think the bigger fish have to be feeding nearly all the time to sustain themselves but as you know theres a huge element of luck/timing/conditions/location to get a big fella and then a greenhorn will come along and catch 2 in front you using cheese as bait

[Donnyboy1]

Actually statistically my point is reiterated here
http://corkharbouranglinghub.blogspot.com/2011/04/bass-catches-increase-dramatically.html
when they notice more bass are being caught by lure...
Big bass patrol the coast, and small bass stay mostly to estuaries... mostly.... there are always exceptions
As most of the bass fishing (in Cork anyway) has been on the coastal beaches for the last few months (where the big bass live) its no surprise that recent changes to lure's are resulting in more catches (as its more reflective of their normal diet).

If ya catch my drift? This winter was maybe an exception as the bass stayed and they were scavenging for anything they could find, now the shoals of baitfish are coming in they will be a lot more selective.

You should try the snorkel… you will see bass in as shallow water as 12inches to 3ft, water temp in those shallow will be about 16'C so you can go in a swimsuit for about 20minutes. Snorkel up gulleys where rock meets sand on well known bass beaches and you will be very surprised!! Everything looks 30% bigger through an underwater mask or goggles. Better yet take a non angler with you (preferably a skittish woman) and they will freak out at the monsters swimming amongst them on the beaches Most of the fish will be in the 4-6lb category with the odd tuna looking things in the 7-9lb category.

However you will need a 5mm wetsuit, gloves boots, weights and all the safety gear to stay in the water for 3 or 4 hours to fully explore bays and beaches and find the bass holding area's where shoals of 30-50 bass will swim around you Bass are a fairly shallow creature (except when they shoal) and for pollock, decent flatties, crabs, lobster, razor and scallops you'd need to hold your breath and dive to greater than 10m

Last edited by Donnyboy1 on Fri Apr 29, 2011 1:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

donnyboy - you posts above have just made a light bulb go off in my head, the penny has finnally dropped. all my biggest fish have been on moving big baits.
thank you for your insite.
dave

some good info there donnyboy will try some bigger mackeral baits over the summer.

cheers

Thanks donnyboy

I will start using big mackeral baits and see how I fair out.

Cheers

You should try the snorkel… you will see Bass in as shallow water as 12inches to 3ft, water temp in those shallow will be about 16'C so you can go in a swimsuit for about 20minutes. Snorkel up gulleys where rock meets sand on well known Bass beaches and you will be very surprised!! Everything looks 30% bigger through an underwater mask or goggles. Better yet take a non angler with you (preferably a skittish woman) and they will freak out at the monsters swimming amongst them on the beaches Most of the fish will be in the 4-6lb category with the odd tuna looking things in the 7-9lb category.

However you will need a 5mm wetsuit, gloves boots, weights and all the safety gear to stay in the water for 3 or 4 hours to fully explore bays and beaches and find the Bass holding area's where shoals of 30-50 Bass will swim around you Bass are a fairly shallow creature (except when they shoal) and for pollock, decent flatties, crabs, lobster, razor and scallops you'd need to hold your breath and dive to greater than 10m

Sounds brilliant, you must get a fantastic insight into where and when a shoal of bass will tend to appear on the Cork beaches. Personally I can't dive beyond a couple of feet as I had a collapsed lung a while back (not from diving), but shallow snorkelling should be OK I'd say.

Edit: sorry I wrote a long piece but don't want to derail this thread I'll PM you some info on free diving.

Actually statistically my point is reiterated here
http://corkharbouranglinghub.blogspot.c ... cally.html
when they notice more Bass are being caught by lure...

Hi Donnyboy,
some great points in your thread. For some reason your link above is not working, and I've tried posting the link and its not working for me either. If people want to look at the blog entry in question click here http://www.corkharbouranglinghub.blogspot.com/ and its the first entry.
Pat

Thank Pat!

I watched a couple of lads from Cork on you-tube catching Sea Bass on lures and the fly. They said they catch the big ones 10lb plus on the fly as the big fish move in closer to the shore.

However you will need a 5mm wetsuit, gloves boots, weights and all the safety gear to stay in the water for 3 or 4 hours to fully explore bays and beaches and find the Bass holding area's where shoals of 30-50 Bass will swim around you Bass are a fairly shallow creature (except when they shoal) and for pollock, decent flatties, crabs, lobster, razor and scallops you'd need to hold your breath and dive to greater than 10m

what safety gear would you need?

Depends on how far you are going out to sea?

My usual kit would include a 2 piece suit, socks, fins, gloves, mask snorkel, weights.

Safety extra's... Dive Knife on arm, backup knife on leg. Reel on weight belt (so I may drop it at depth and retrieve it later), Dive computer (tell me about my dives, descent / ascent rates, breathold duration, recovery time, depth and time alarms etc.), normal watch (time has a habit of running slow or fast under water), compass, underwater torch, dive buoy with alpha flag/dive flag (but a lot of water traffic don't understand what it is legally and drive out of their way to come over and investigate it!) and floating line, backup line, drink (its very dehydrating), chocolate bar (in case of shock), some simple first aid kit.....

Think that's it, maybe a bit exhaustive, but like I say is depends on where you are diving and whom with... just in the last few months a diver died in Dubai and Finland.

Although last week I just went out at a local surf beech with mask snorkel and knife in my swimming shorts for an hour. Dove to 5m and came back with a nice few spider crabs!

I'll probably be only diving around a
few rocks on the edge of a beach to search out areas for bass

Maybe diving to 3 or 4 metres, my ears wouldn't handle any deeper!haha

A lidl wetsuit and snorkel set would be fine for that.

You need to equalise your ears at 3.5m. Just squeeze your nose between your thumb and forefingers and push air through your upper palate, just like you do on a plane.

You'd be lucky to see bass any deeper than 1.5m to be honest!
This is what to expect... depth is usually less than 1m in the vids
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lwfxokWfhmA

Interesting thread on WSF also suggests larger baitfish baits.
They suggest, Mackeral, Scad, Herring, Put and small pollock.
Its suggestive of boat angling, but in the UK their bass are a lot deeper than ours... you can apply these tactics from the shore handily enough.
http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/s ... p?t=455843