Back to bass.

Last Friday I decided to go and have some fun hunting for bass down in East Lothian. The plan was to try dropshotting along the reef in the hope of maybe picking up bonus species as well as the local bass. I arrived at the mark at slack water just as it was beginning to flood and the conditions were quite calm although the sea was still very grey and cloudy.

I rigged up my LRF gear with a dropshot rig. This consisted of a three foot length of fluorocarbon leader, half way up I attached a #6 decoy mini offset hook via a palomar knot. This leaves a tag end of about 1.5' to which I attached a 7g dropshot lead. I rigged it with a whole medium pink Isome and began to cast around the reef, little jigs on the rod would have the lure hopping across the sea bed. This was interspersed with pauses whilst shaking the rod tip causing the Isome to wriggle and writhe in the current. I carried on fishing in this manner for at least a couple of hours but it was very quiet indeed! I began to fish rather mechanically and when I had a sudden single bite I wasn't ready for it and the culprit ripped the Isome of the hook and made off with it. I quickly re-baited and began to search the area, my senses much keener after some fish activity. A couple of casts later again the same thing happened, a very sharp quick bite resulting in the Isome being stolen. This happened a couple more times and try as I might I could not connect with the culprit, I have a feeling it could have been bream as the bites were so sharp and they really didn't feel like bass or wrasse. With the fishing so slow I decided to amuse myself in amongst the huge boulders by catching blennys, a dozen of the little blighters later I was ready to get back to searching for bass.

I decided to change tactics and rigged up my 9'6" Major Craft Crostage 15-42g rod with a Lunker City Ribster in Arkansas Shiner, mounted on a 10.5g #2/0 AGM football jighead. By now the tide had covered the reef so I began bouncing and twitching the lure back across the freshly submerged rock. It was about half an hour before I got a couple of bites but again I had fallen into the mechanical stupor again and missed it. I cast back to the same spot and again there was a couple of bumps on the lure before the fish grabbed it proper and this time I could set the hooks! It felt good to have a fish on at last and after a couple of little runs as the fish tried to make for deeper water it was quickly landed. It was a good fish about 43cm and I quickly released it. I then realised I had forgotten to take a picture, which was pretty annoying as it taken so long to catch. Oh well it was good to get off the mark and with that I carried on fishing the same area where the bass had come from. About ten minutes later another bass engulfed the lure and I had that happy feeling of a fish on the line. Another nice bass this one going to 42cm on The Lure Forum ruler.

The Lunker City Ribster claims yet another fish.

That fish signalled the end of the session and it was great to get back into some bass after a break away from them. Although there were no fish landed whilst dropshotting, the strange bites I was receiving have really got me thinking and I hope to discover what the culprits were soon!

Tight lines, Schogsky.