End of season bass fishing

So, what a splendid year it's been for me, with some incredible fish (my personal best cod at somewhere between 15-16lb), some very hairy moments (coming back over those standing waves round the back of Filey Brigg in a big swell) and finally ending up with a lovely mellow September, which allowed us plenty of time to go bass fishing, even if my own work commitments weren't quite so forgiving!

In previous years I used to waste parts of my summer messing about for bass too early in the year. These days I know better and don't even head towards the bass grounds until at least August, but more usually September / October.  There is a risk with this strategy, in that in bad years you might only get one or two chances to go.  But in most years, you'll get three or four chances, and that's easily enough to get my yearly quota of bass for the freezer (generally around 10-15 fish).

This year, September was frankly a bit of nightmare work-wise, with barely a free weekend, which meant the few opportunities I did get I was straight out there catching fish.  Not much has really come on the scene this year with regard to new lures.  Yes, a couple of late additions to what have become de facto weedless type minnows and sandeel lures have come along from Sidewinder and RedGill, but they've both arrived a little too late in the year to get a thorough testing.  So once again I was down to the perennial favourites the 120 Fiiish Black Minnow (shore) in various guises and the 125 SavageGear Sandeel.   There's been a fair bit of 'ummming' and 'ahhhing' over which of these is the best lure.  The SavageGear is slightly cheaper, but the hook is exposed so you lose a lot more in the thick kelp that infests our marks.  But which catches more fish?

Well they both work, there's no doubt about that.  Casting from the kayak isn't an issue, so doesn't concern us here.  The resilience of the BM 120 is possibly a bit better, but I've had half a dozen fish on one SG sandeel without it getting totally wrecked, so they're probably about equal.  True, you can't really fish through the kelp with the SG eels, but provided you go gently over the top you won't loose too many of them.

Click to enlarge

Another engulfed SG sandeel

There is one thing I have noticed with the SG eels, and that is the fish tend to engulf them deep into their throats.  I don't know if this means the fish really believe they are sandeels or not. The SG sandeel has livelier action than the BM 120, it really waggles its tail and wobbles from side to side, and it did outfish a friend who was fishing exclusively with the BM 120 alongside me, but there are many factors at play also, such as depth, speed and type of retrieve, all of which might have played a part. As I say, both lures catch fish. But you can see how often the fish swallow the SG eel whole in the two photos either side. If you like to return your bass, this might be an issue for you. Fish hooked on the BM are generally mouth hooked.

The fishing this year has been steady rather than spectacular.  No red letter days of catching 20-30 bass or anything like that.  Instead it seems to be all single fish in small patches of water.  But over 5 or 6 hours, picking up a fish an hour gradually starts to add up.  It doesn't make for a wildly exciting day's fishing, but at least it's not a total blank.  My three sessions this year:

The largest fish in the last session was around 25", so about the 63cm mark.  A long lean fish, it gave a far better scrap than you would think given its condition, and took me about five minutes before I could get it anywhere near the surface, and this was in about 12 feet of water!

In terms of new tackle, the two recent entrants to the weedless category of soft plastics I spoke of earlier do seem to have come a bit late in the year, no idea why companies can't get their production sorted out during the winter months to have stock ready for the summer months.  What is the point of bringing a new lure to the market in late September? True the world's a big place, and it's not all about the UK, but for a company like Redgill I would have thought its main market was here and that the company would have wanted to test and try out the lures early in the season, so that they could be recommended to others for the rest of the summer!

30g Sidewinder Weedless Super Minnow in Pearl

The Sidewinder weedless minnow looks good, though the head is a bit heavy for fishing the shallow waters we favour for sea bass.  The hook has a long shank, which means it really extends right down the length of the body - this is generally a good thing, as it means you get those fish that like to nip the tail of the lures.  Choice of colours is a bit limited, and it has the feel of not really being made to target sea bass in particular, but the pearl colour is always good colour where we fish and I think this lure will do ok, particularly when the sea kicks up a bit in strong winds and you need to keep it below the waves.

The Redgill Evo Stix sandeels are a more interesting addition.  Redgills have always been a staple in the boat angler's lure box and I think this is possibly the first time they've done a weedless variant of their famous sandeel which is known to every sea bass angler that has probably ever lived.  But their high point of fame was probably back in the 1980s, when many good bass were taken on the lure. Since then, the soft plastic lure scene has exploded, particularly in the last decade and Redgill gradually lost their way amongst the plethora of Japanese and American imports.

So what does their latest soft lure, the Evo Stix offer?  And I must say it looks good and it's a good price too.  The soft plastic used is the very tough type, you can really feel it gripping the hook, so I'm quite hopeful they'll outlast even the SG eels.  The hooks seem slightly on the short side, but one good thing about them is that they are a standard worm style hook.  Unlike lures like SavageGear's 4play, that require the company's own, slightly odd hook, as standard hooks tend rip through the noses much sooner. One nice feature is that the Redgills come with a variety of weights for the same lure. The weights are simply hollow cones that slide up the line.  Sometimes this type of weight can wear on the line, particularly around the hook knot, so it's worth checking them to see if there are any rough edges on the leads that could damage or fray your line. The 10g weight in particular looks perfect for skipping the lure along the top of the kelp beds.

Mounted Redgill Evo Stix 145mm in mackerel, shown with the three included weights of 5gm, 10gm & 15gm

The kit contains 3 weights, 2 Mustard hooks and 5 bodies, which is great value for £7, particularly when you compare it with a pack of rigged Black Minnows at £6.50 that contains just a single head and two bodies. My only doubt about the design is that the hook is mounted quite a long way up towards the head, but bass generally strike at the head of the lure anyway, so we'll have to see if this is a factor in missing the odd strike (though you could say that the weight forms part of the body, so in fact the hook extends further than it looks).  I'm looking forward to testing these.  I like their simplicity and I hope they do well.

All we need now is one last spell of calm weather before the season comes to an end and I can test them out and report back!  Until then I'll leave you with another new item of tackle, my Penn Spinfisher.  This sealed reel is only in its first season, so it's a bit early to say but so far so good.  It has survived a couple of dunkings in the brine, the drag is lovely and smooth (it needs to be, there's no backwind) and it feels as smooth as when I bought it (which Penn critics will say isn't much, but it's smooth enough!).  If I'm still doing the blog, I'll report back before start of the coming year, which is when any ingress of sea water will have done it's damage.

Until next time, tight lines!