Catching ‘off-season’
Cold-weather bassing can be a bit slow, so you need to intercept the shifting shoals
Mike Ladle’s advice for catching bass.
Ihave to admit that when it comes to fishing I’m a great one for playing the percentages. I’m not, by any stretch of the imagination, a ‘fair weather fisherman’, but when the rain is pouring down and the icy blasts are blowing from the north, catching bass is not the thing uppermost in my mind.
Some of my pals who spend more than half of the year (the part when the days are longer), as I do, hopping about the rocks with lure and fly-fishing gear, switch in winter to the more productive pursuit of beach casting to tempt cod, whiting, congers and dogfish from the pounding surf. Others, including myself, opt for the lessstrenuous, but equally exciting, business of catching pike, dace or grayling from local rivers.
It’s probably my traits of meanness and laziness coming out because, for me, the shift to freshwater species involves very little change in tactics. I don’t even need a different rod, reel and line for the pike fishing (my favourite winter activity) because the gear I use and the nature of the lures, the deadbaits and the livebaits, that I fish with, are more or less the same as those I employ to catch bass.
My only concession to landing a pike is to insert a length of knottable 20lb wire between the end of my nylon trace and the ‘weapon’ that adorns the end of the line. I reckon 20lb Whiplash braid is more than adequate for the biggest pike I’m likely to hook (which is a good deal larger than any bass I might hope for), and my 10-50g spinning rod copes perfectly well (just as it does at other times for salmon, carp, snook, jacks or what have you).
DIFFERENT APPROACH
However, my pal Bill Fagg has a different approach to the ‘off season’. He’s so keen on lure fishing for bass that he generally continues throughout the winter. I’m sure that Bill would be the first to admit that cold-weather bassing is a bit slower (or even a lot slower) than in the warmer months.
The reason for this is partly because many of the fish have swum off to the south west to be harassed by pair trawlers. Even the ones that remain around the South Coast, and there are quite a few, are probably a bit more lethargic and less likely to chase a lure in the colder water.
Of course, I would be the last one to suggest that a bass fishing ‘virgin’ should set out to catch fish in December, January or February unless they are dead set on it, but it’s worth taking a look at the possible approaches, just to see what can be done.
The first thing I would say is that there’s no point being silly about it. If conditions are truly unfishable or dangerous – don’t go. When the onshore wind flings your lures back in your face, or waves threaten to dislodge you from your rocky perch, pack in and do something else.
Apart from the weather, what’s the main difference between summer and winter bass fishing? Well, of course, it is basically the numbers of fish that are swimming about in the sea. In a nutshell, most bass leave their inshore feeding grounds in late autumn and early winter, migrating south and west for a short period of ‘rest’ in deeper water.
According to fishery scientist Alwyne Wheeler, the smaller fish leave last and return first. Dr Michael Kennedy, an Irish researcher,
reckoned the season to be February to November, with the smaller fish remaining in and around river mouths throughout the rest of the year.
During the offshore migration, the best chance of making a decent catch is to intercept the shifting shoals. Where I live in Dorset, for example, late November and early December often provide some of the most exciting fishing of the year, and some very large fish can be taken on lures if you get it right. No doubt, the further west you are the later into the season, your chance of success extends.
Not surprisingly, the best places to ambush the moving fish tend to be headlands projecting out to sea, places such as Portland or St Aldhelm’s Head here in Dorset.
Weather conditions can be important, and some of the finest catches have been made in extremely rough weather – a big blow when the sea is whipped into a sheet of white foam is often best.
When you latch into a big bass in the seething turmoil of water, it takes your breath away (if the wind hasn’t already done that). With a gale blowing over your shoulder, it is possible to cast even light lures great distances; simply flick them into the air and watch them sail away. The fish will often be extremely keen to feed and I’ve watched big bass breaching the waves as they chased buoyant plugs being dragged sideways across the surface of the sea by a huge bow in the line.
HOT SPELLS
As the big shoals return in early spring, they move north and east some distance from the shore. It’s in this phase that spawning takes place. As they travel up the English Channel, bass will peel off to spend the summer in their favoured localities. Once more, they may be intercepted as they pause to feed on young sandeels over rocky headlands.
In between these migratory ‘hot spells’, bass fishing is slower, but there always seem to be some fish in residence, and they may be caught in every month of the year. The further south and west you happen to be, the greater your chance. In lagoons, harbours and estuaries, numbers of schoolies, still too young to spawn, often hang about throughout the winter.
In contrast to these small, immature bass, which are not of much interest from an angling point of view, the open-coast fish tend to cover a wide range of sizes. These ‘hangers on’ are much more interesting, and if you catch one there is every chance of it being a near double. If you are prepared to sit it out with a large bait on the seabed, then the prize could be yours. Even in the depths of winter, an hour or two spent with your bait fished close in can pay off handsomely.
Of course, bait fishing in cold weather can be a thankless business, so I suppose it is probably more tempting for most of us to keep on the move with a lure rod. The fish are likely to be in the same sort of places that they inhabit in the summer, and exactly the same sort of lures will work. Shallow diving plugs, soft plastics both with free hooks and weedless, will all catch winter bass, the only difference being that you will probably have to wait much longer between bites. However, when you do feel that yank on the rod tip and the line begins to stream off the reel, it is extra-satisfying.
Anyway, failing all else, when the fish are particularly thin on the ground and your hands have frostbite, you can always stick on a wire trace and try to catch a pike.