BASS HEAVEN
You plan is to avoid the hordes and pick your way out across the rocks and around the headland to a stunning little beach that you identified on Google Earth during your enforced break from fishing.
You can picture yourself leaping across a rocky ravine and stepping down on to a plinth of rock that leads to somewhere you have dreamed of being. The tide has retreated far enough for to you take a shortcut through a narrow gully under the cliffs, where prawns and gobies scatter frantically and a red-eyed crab menacingly displays its claws. This is it, the sort of beach where nobody is likely to be bathing or swimming as, other than a five-metre section of cobbles, all that lies beneath is a myriad of boulders, bladderwrack, rock pools and green, slimy weed that has been delicately deposited on the flat rocks as the tide had ebbed.
Next you imagine yourself standing on top of one of the nearby boulders. By utilising your Polaroids, you can make out every inch of the subterranean environment, including the outer edge of this extended reef for around 30 metres in the gin-clear water, which is only six feet deep, at the most. Of course, you realise this wouldn’t be a good idea because you would probably scare off any bass that were in the vicinity, but you just couldn’t resist. Never mind, it’s done now.
The tide is about to commence flooding and you imagine that a shoal, or even something more substantial, will soon be investigating every nook and cranny of this ‘bass heaven’.
CORRECT CHOICE
During your enforced time at home, every one of the older lures in your expansive and expensive collection has had its split rings and hooks replaced, and you’ve secretly accumulated a collection of new, very shiny hard lures in an equally new lure box.
Various surface lures from Xorus, Tackle House and Savage Gear, and beautiful harddiving minnows from IMA, Daiwa and Shimano are glistening away and just begging to be used. Here is the dilemma – what lure should you attach to your line in these bright and calm conditions?
You remember something that might be more suitable could be lurking in your fishing kit. After an extensive rummage at the bottom of your rucksack you find a packet of OSP DoLive Sticks and a few ‘rubber worms’ and a packet of size 5/0 Owner
Ballan wrasse – partial to a senko too
Weedless Twistlock hooks. On a previous outing (a blank) you had rigged one up, chucked it into a large rock pool and marvelled at its lifelike action.
Following those all too brief minutes of casting and retrieving it at the end of your final session last season, you’d forgotten all about them. If ever there was a situation to attach such a lure that isn’t splashing, wriggling and knocking, this is one.
It’s not impossible that a bass (probably a small one) wouldn’t grab a hard lure if it was waiting to ambush some prey, but if you really want to enhance your chances then clip on something that looks and acts far more naturally. Your choice should be soft and subtle.
Of course, I’d go for hard lures if there is white water crashing or being pumped or funnelled around the rocky outcrops, if there’s a fierce run of tide or some deep water within casting range. Likewise, I’d choose the same for those short interludes of twilight at the start and end of the day, in addition to darkness (my favourite). But if it is tranquil, very bright and with zero movement in the water, then a weightless, weedless Senko will definitely form my initial approach.