Beat the clock
Big bass aren’t hard to catch... as long as you understand that every bass wears a watch
Float tactics for catching personal-best bass.
Some species are more predictable than others. Generally, when you find a pattern - a certain mark, depth, terrain and lure – it often becomes a trend that will last the whole tide or day, and can sometimes be repeated for several days.
Yet big bass can change their preferences daily, even hourly, and sometimes even during the hour. This is the challenge and the reason why bass anglers fish for them.
Some fish can be easier to catch if we consider their moods in terms of human behaviour. Bigger fish from more intelligent species, like bass, are certainly easier to catch when you realise that they have a clock – and they can tell the time. They sleep, work, eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and like to chill out.
Tide is the timepiece of the bass, but you need to understand two rules:
Rule 1 – you cannot catch bass that are asleep. There are times when you know they are there, but you’re not catching. They are probably full up and not interested in eating any more. Just like us, they are partial to a good snooze after a good feed too.
Rule 2 – it’s hard to catch bass when they are moving from place to place. These I call my one-hit wonder marks. Bass can travel many miles each day.
Bass marks that will fish for the whole tide are few and far between, and in most areas bass will move throughout the tide, using the tide as a clock, passing the same places at the same times/heights of tide each day, on similar conditions.
The key is to find out where and when they are feeding for long periods. If you want to target only big fish, one of the best ways is to find out where only mature adult fish lay up. All big bass have a place they like to go to get away from the juvenile school fish, or socialise with similar aged fish, in the same way that humans do.
THE DEEP GLIDE
There may be many places mature adult bass like to hang out with their peers, but I reckon a favourite is an area of deeper, slower-moving water in an estuary, just outside of the main run of current. From the days of my youth spent coarse fishing, I call it the ‘Deep Glide’.
In coarse fishing, a deep glide is where a
stretch of shallow, fast-moving water drops off into a deeper, slower-moving stretch of river. This is often the best place to target bigger species. Big fish just love to hang about in the deepest water. As I got into sea fishing in my early twenties, I noticed this tendency in many saltwater predators, particularly bass.
Many moons ago I heard a story about bass holding up under boats in a protected harbour. I soon found that during neap tides and periods of calm weather, lots of big bass would lay up in the deep-water, manmade harbour, over night high water. If I freelined or float-fished a live sandeel over their heads, silhouetted under the marina lights, it was almost a fish per chuck.
Keep in mind ‘overhead’ and ‘silhouette’ because I will come back to those in a minute.
Bass will feed from as deep as 40 metres right through the water column to the surface, even in a just few inches of water. They even navigate over drying rocks and sandbars using swells and surges, but when they want time out, big bass like nothing better than a bit of peace and quiet in an area of deeper, slower water not too far from the action.
Some areas of deep, slower-moving water worth checking out include dredged marinas, deep-water channels, bays and pools typically found around harbours and estuaries and their entrances.
If you find a sign anywhere saying ‘Danger Deep Water’…you’re almost certain to be on the money.
PROVOCATIVE BAITING
When it comes to weather, bass are again similar to us. On rough days they are just out there getting on with it, but on good days with blue skies, calm seas and clear water, they like to take advantage and move further inshore, similar to the way we head out to the beach or park.
On warm, calm days, while there is little run of tide and between feeding, bass will often be found dozing on the bottom, or basking on the surface, lazily cruising around and flanking in a courtshiplike manner. Mullet do this too, and it can often be
a good sign if you find both these species in the same area.
When bass are feeding hard they’ll hit anything, but on other days they will only accept bait that is natural to the area, or lures that closely represent them.
Catching big bass that are laid up is totally different; they need provoking, and the only way is to use the friskiest livebait or most provocative lure, and fish it right over their heads so that it is panicking and silhouetted above them.
In my early days guiding, 20 years ago, I kept meticulous diaries, and one thing that came through was, the milder, calmer and sunnier conditions the better. Tides in bright afternoon and evening sun fished best.
Noisy surface lures are great for provoking laid-up bass. Freelining a live sandeel back over them is another great tactic, but my favourite method is to float-fish a 9in live mackerel. Bass cannot resist the opportunity of taking a live mackerel that is panicking, and swimming around in circles, under an 8in cigar float. Needless to say, that when presenting any bait in bright conditions
“Bass cannot resist the opportunity of taking a live, panicking mackerel”
“Fighting big bass in a harbour is a whole new ball game, and fights can get dirty”
like this, a long, low-diameter fluorocarbon trace is a must.
While hosting Sea Angler’s Paul Fenech last year, he mentioned that his personal best bass was 5lb 3oz, caught from the shore. A nice fish, but I promised Paul one around 8lb, if conditions were sunny enough.
Two days later the forecast was for the sunniest, mildest, calmest day of the week, so, after a late start, I headed out with Paul to catch some livebaits.
Once we had enough mackerel in the tank, we headed back into the harbour and anchored just uptide of a deep pool where some fairly big bass usually lay up.
With the whole boat to himself, Paul could fish two rods, and no sooner was his second mackerel circling in position, tethered to the polystyrene cigar float, the clutch on his first rod screamed into action. Paul picked up his rod and struck on cue but, to be honest, this fish had hit his live mackerel so hard, and carried on going, that it was well hooked anyway.
SIX OF THE BEST
When fishing for bass out on the open coast and offshore, rarely do I lose a fish that is well hooked, because bass generally run for open water. Fighting big bass in a harbour is a whole new ball game. Pier piles, mooring ropes and boat propellers become dangers that fish seem to head for, and fights can often get dirty.
After 10 minutes of close calls with a swinging mooring rope, I slipped the net under Paul’s new personal best - a fine fish measuring 63cm, which I estimated around 6lb 8oz. No sooner had it hit the net, when Paul’s second rod was in action, and from then on, the rest of the afternoon turned into one of those red letter days where it was almost impossible to keep two rods in the water at any one time.
By the end of the session Paul had landed six bass and lost six, breaking his previous personal best six times in the process. The smallest one measured 59cm, estimated at 5lb 8oz, and we ended the session on a high note when Paul landed his biggest to date, a lump measuring 67cm, estimated to be around 7lb 14oz.
Warm, sunny, flat calm and loads of big bass… happy days indeed! Jim O’Donnell is a charter skipper and bass guide who operates from Courtmacsherry, Co Cork, Ireland. For guided bass fishing and holidays, contact Jim, tel: 00353 (0)87 3388626. Visit his website at: www.jimodonnell.ie