Autumn Silver

November, I managed to take a break from hunting Perch and decided to go after their silver sea faring cousins , Bass. I haven't really been that bothered about fishing for them this year as I have been enjoying the challenge of fishing for other species. Change is as good as a rest they say so when I found myself with a free morning before work I decided to hit the coast and try and bag some silver before work. As I only had a brief 2.5 hour window to fish I couldn't pick the best tide state or weather It was just a question of turning up and fishing the conditions I found before me.

Luckily for me conditions were perfect for the mark, calm with a rolling swell and a rising tide surely meant the Bass would be stalking the reef.

I was using my 9ft Shimano Yasei Red Dropshot rod, 20lb braid,18lb fluro leader and on the business end a 10.5g #2/0 jig head rigged with a 4.5" Sluggo in Arkansas shiner.

I was using a variety of techniques from a simple sink and draw, to dead sticking and hopping and twitching across the rocky bottom of the reef.

All these techniques produced bass and indeed the fishing for me at least was intensely good fun ,with Bass from 36cm to 48cm all desperate to hammer my little Sluggo. I caught fish after fish and by the time my little session came to a close I ended up with 24 bass. I had kept 3 for the table ,releasing the other 21 and feeling only slightly guilty for taking some fish for the table I headed into work with the cheesiest grin imaginable!

The first fish of an Intense session,brilliant!

It was about a week later when I found myself with a whole day available to devote to fishing and with no first mate available for the boat I decided to go for Bass again.

The conditions at the mark were a little rougher than my last session and I arrived as the big spring tide was starting to flood.

Armed with my trusty sluggo jig head combination I started to work the channels and slowly flooding gulleys of the reef. As I expected I was into fish quite quickly with a couple of Bass in quick succession, the fish were around the 40cm mark and whilst not massive put up a good fight in the strong swell. The fishing went quiet for an hour or so and I continued to work the Sluggo around the reef, there was a brief flurry of activity and I manged to hook, land and release another 3 Bass. Again the fish moved away and another hour or so passed without anymore action. As the tide got higher the fish started to push over the reef and I began to get more flurries of bass and by the end of the session I had landed 13 and kept another 3 for the table.

Another bass can't resist my subtly twitched Slug-Go.

Whilst not as insanely productive as the last session it was still very enjoyable with the majority of fish being over 40cm it certainly gave me some good sport. It was certainly easier than the perch fishing had been and it was great to feel that rather special excitement of constant action, something I had been missing from my previous loch sessions.

As things turned out that was to be my last bass session for the year and had taken my bass count back up to a respectable 50. Considering I had only targeted them about 6 times I was really pleased with the years final silver tally.

Now it's 2014 and I will be targeting the bass again over the next couple of months, I have some new lures to try out on them and if they are half as good as the sluggo then it should prove to be another fine season!

Tight Lines

Jake