help catching bass

Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:58 pm

Hey lads,
is there anyone out there willing to give me some advice on catching bass over clean ground, ie, rigs, tide state, drifting, at anchor, uptide, downtide, longtide or freeline, what baits, even what I should be seeing on the sounder would all be very helpful and appreciated.
im saying over clean ground based on the signs you see on the road that suggest that you can pick up the "occasional" bass from certain marks, other than that all I can do is to put in the hours and give it a try. thanks in advance for any replies.

Re: help cathing bass

Mon Jan 07, 2019 10:22 am

Hi RMG83

Can we take it that your in a boat and trying for them around the North West?

You will find that bass fishing is very location specific, with tactics in one mark required that will be completely different from the tactics and even baits required elsewhere.

Can you give the people on the forum some idea of the marks that you intend to fish?

Is it a beach, estuary, one of the big loughs?
Is it clean, mixed, rocky, weedy?
Is there a big current or tide flowing through the mark?

That will help with suggestions as to what might work best for you...

HTH

Re: help cathing bass

Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:10 am

i couldnt recommend black lug enough from the shore anyway, its serious bait for them this time of the year until the peelers come. 2 hook flapper. 15 to 20 lb snoods.
strong tides casting just after the breaking wave normally 1 hour before and hour after HW in my spots anyway. i like to see at least 3 swelling waves for perfect conditions. let me know if your in Clare.

This is what i do anyway. Hope it helps.

Re: help cathing bass

Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:14 am

Keep track of your conditions from the very start, swell, moon phase, wind, tide and bait, even barometric pressuree if you want to go OTT!

Also i wish you buckets of good luck. You will get one if you put in the time. They are slacker this time of year highly recommend asking the locals.

Re: help cathing bass

Tue Jan 08, 2019 1:26 am

Hi Kieran,
thanks for the reply and yes I will be fishing from a boat.
I have about 6 different marks I'm looking to try between Lough swilly and Lough foyle. As far as seabed goes, it ranges (on land) between flat sand and fist sized, to a little over, stones, although I'm not sure what it's like beyond the shoreline. Tide wise, I don't think it's overly powerful either. Sorry for being so vague, but I haven't fished these marks from the boat before, I got my own boat August 2018, and am now keen to explore a bit.

Re: help cathing bass

Tue Jan 08, 2019 1:33 am

Hi woulfec,
Thanks for your advice and I will definitely try and get hold of some black lug. There seems to be a lot of factors involved in catching a bass, and with that in mind I've got myself a diary to record all outings to compare when I hopefully do start catching a couple of bass.

Re: help catching bass

Tue Jan 08, 2019 10:16 am

One of the better tactics to use from a boat is to anchor up in a decent current and freeline whole sandeels back into the eddies and holes where bass will lie waiting for food to be wafted past. Over the years I've seen countless tricks and ideas used in this, including iadding floaty beads or even inserting tiny floats inside the baits, all designed to give it more life and move it around more in the current. If you have live sandeels, a circle hook behind a bubble float would be ideal, but the big issue tends to be the depth at which you fish them. You will have to experiment as it is mark specific - and use a fluorocarbon leader irrespective of the clarity or murkiness of the water. HTH

Re: help catching bass

Thu Jan 10, 2019 1:47 am

Thanks again Kieran, I will have to keep an eye out for these strong tide/current areas and give that a try. If fishing for Pollock with spinners and lures, if there's any bass around, should I pick them up on the same gear?