Q& A LURE FISHING
Q What are your tactics for bass fishing when the water is really coloured?
HG says: If there is one thing in bass fishing that I am not really a fan of, it’s coloured water. This is a lot to do with a bit of a lack of confidence though. The open coast around me colours up with a strong onshore blow, resulting in the water tending to fill up with weed. It’s a double-edged sword, but in winter there is far less weed around and I have managed to catch a few bass by dedicating myself to trying to get better at dealing with coloured water.
Aside from using brighter lures (white and chartreuse, for example), and either choosing lures with a decent rattle or adding a glass rattle to soft plastics, there seems to be a general theory that when the water is coloured it can help by fishing your lures close to or on the bottom. There are a few thoughts around this and it seems to make a lot of sense. However, if the water is full of weed then you can’t really fish it in any easy way.
Bearing in mind that my experience of catching bass from more coloured water is not extensive, I do often find myself turning to some sort of paddletail. I like how that tail literally “thumps” in the water, and I also like the variety these lures can give me. Take a paddletail on a jig head, like the
Fiiish Black Minnow or the Savage Gear Savage Minnow, and now you have a soft plastic which you can successfully work along the bottom. Bump it, sink and draw with it, swim it nice and slow and deep; I really fancy all those vibrations from the tail to help draw bass in when the visibility is reduced.
I have tried a fair bit with very ‘splashy’ surface lures in more coloured water, but my success rates have not been good. It makes logical sense to me to fish like this, but I feel far more confident fishing with white soft plastics or paddletails which I can then work at different depths. Another technique starting to gain traction as a way for combatting coloured water in estuaries is to fish with creature baits which are essentially imitating crabs. Bass obviously love eating crabs, so watch this space!
Q I’ve started trying out Cheb weights; what are the best hooks to use with them?
CARL KNIGHT, WEST SUSSEX
HG says: I really like the flexibility that Cheb weights give me for swimming soft plastics such as the Savage Gear Slender Scoop Shad, plus, of course, the ability to change weights to work a lure along the bottom or deal with heavier seas or faster currents. Logic says that conventional weedless, offset or Texas hooks work the best with how a Cheb weight is designed to be rigged – the way the eye sits suits a Cheb weight – but I really like the swimbait style of weedless hooks because that corkscrew makes it so easy to rig lures and it helps them last longer as well.
However, the angle of the eye on a swimbait hook now presents a problem with how a Cheb weight sits. I asked around on my Facebook page and somebody kindly suggested I clip a split ring onto the eye of my swimbait hook – problem solved! Now I can use my favourite hooks with these really handy weights and everything sits in line.
Q What do I need to look for in a good bass mark?
GARY DAVIS, WILTSHIRE
HG says: The million-dollar question! One thing I have learnt so much about bass fishing, compared to when I started, is how incredibly widespread they are; for this reason there can’t really be a typical bass mark, as such. I had no idea how varied it could be when you target bass on lures. But if we are going to generalise a bit then you want to be looking for rough, shallow ground out on the open coast. Use your local knowledge with a mix of Google Maps. Avoid really deep water and instead look for big patches of rocks, boulders and reefs. Bass are incredible predators and they are very adept at using shallow water to hunt for food. Don’t be put off by rocks and weed sticking out of the water, indeed the more cover and rough ground there is the better. Look for channels and gullies which the bass can use to ambush their prey. Shallow reefs, though, are only one of the many types of bass marks you can go looking for. An open mind is essential.