Snap judgement

To allow quick and easy changing of lures, I use a clip or snap link on all but the smallest of lures.  The principal advantage of using a snap is that you can keep rotating your lures without retying knots. In theory they also give the lure the greatest amount of freedom to move, as some anglers believe that tying a line directly to the lure hinders its action.

Sometimes lure manufacturers will add a split ring to their lures, especially to small plugs.  This is really a poor man's snap, as tying directly to a split ring is asking for trouble.  Knots such as blood knots can "slip" easily around the square form of the ring and the ends of the split ring are often poorly finished and can be sharp.  If your knot slips round to the part of the split ring that has one of the two ends and rubs against it, for example when a fish is twisting and getting tangled up, then it can cut the line.

It's far better to take the split ring off the lure (if there is one) and replace it with the correctly sized snap.  I'll review a selection below, though please note I'm not saying these are the best snaps available; everyone has their favourites, but there are some designs that I really don't like and I'll give my reasons why.

There are basically three types of snap mechanism: simple hook, cross locks and wind ons.  You can also choose whether the snap is included as part of a swivel.  I personally never bother with swivels for the simple reason that they don't work under tension, which is when you need them to work!  If you don't believe me try tying a 200-500g weight on a short length of line, then a swivel, then another short length of line.  Hold the last length of line up, spin the weight and watch to see if top part of the swivel stays still while the bottom rotates.  It won't.  Swivels are pretty much pointless.

Snaps on the other hand, are useful.  They allow you to rapidly change your lure; if they fail in this one basic function, the snap is next useless in my opinion.  You may as well employ the Rapala knot or simple loop direct to the lure.  The strongest style of snap is definitely the cross lock style.  Unfortunately that strength comes at a price: cross locks tend to be the fiddiliest to attach to a lure.  Whichever you choose, beware of choosing a wire gauge that's too light for the style of fish you're after.  Stainless steel wire is strong, but if a fish gets tangled up it can put strain on a snap in directions they are not designed for and when that happens they quickly get bent out of shape and break.

First up on today's review is the bizarrely named Owner Cross Lock Snap Swivel in size #1.  Bizarrely named, as there is no swivel on this snap!

OK, it's a daft name, but it's a very strong snap, one of the strongest for its size I've come across.  It is can be a bit fiddly to attach, but it's bombproof once it's on.

Next up is Savage Gear's Egg Snap in medium.  This is a black-finished stainless steel egg snap in the style of the original Decoy Egg Snaps.  

Again this is a strong snap for its size.  However, it's not as well designed as the Owner model (see below, click photo to view text), and it's frankly a nightmare to attach to lures with cold hands in driving rain.  

The above shot shows the Owner snap open next to the Savage Gear.  Small differences make a difference here.  The Savage Gear snap when open remains "trapped" behind the wire of the clip.  In fact, on one I opened it actually clipped to the main wire of the inner loop and was difficult to get off.  You really don't need any extra hassle when you're fishing, so while the egg snap here is strong enough and a good size, it's just too awkward to attach for me to recommend it.  The Owner snap is much easier, but it'll never be as easy as the simple hook or wind on styles below:

The first snap on the right is the Owner cross link snap I included just to compare its heavier wire gauge.  The middle snap is a free one that was given away by Monster when you placed an order with them last year.  This particular one is a pretty typical, nasty, cheaply constructed snap that has failed on me numerous times and I don't recommend using this style of snap.  Both Quantum and Spro produce snaps in this style, as do Yo-Zuri.

Their biggest advantage is that they are the easiest style snap to open and change a lure.  The number 2 size by Yo-Zuri is about right for UK sea bass fishing, but the lighter wire ones can twist out of shape after a fish or two.  I once found a cheap one had opened by itself after a dozen casts!  Despite being the easiest to attach a lure to, I no longer use this style of snap as I just don't trust them.  Their overall strength and the hook that latches the snap isn't anything like as secure as a cross lock.

The final snap on the right in the group of snaps in the previous photo is the Delalande Agrafe Rapide Inox No. 6, as recommended by Henry Gilbey.  This is supposed to be the easiest style of snap to attach to a lure.  I personally don't like them, I find they're no easier than a standard snap to be honest, and I've again had this lure fail on me after a few fish, as you can see below:

A mangled Delande Agrafe Rapide No. 6 - bit lightweight if you're landing a lot of fish.

Luckily I saw the lure was behaving oddly in the water and retrieved it to check out what was wrong.  But you don't want this to happen to you in the middle of an amazing session when the fish are going mad.  I've decided to replace all my Delande snaps with stronger cross links - you may find you like the wind-on style, and in a heavier gauge than the No. 6 that Mr. Gilbey recommends they might be more reliable.

So there you have it.  Owner Cross Lock Snap Swivel #1 wins for me but only by a narrow margin.  

Though I'm generally a big fan of snaps there are some snaps out there that should be avoided.  Snaps are there to make life easier when it comes to changing lures.  They should never make your fishing more difficult, neither should they jeopardise catching a fish by threatening to break or twist out shape.  There's more than meets the eye to snap design, and I think Owner have clearly put some thought into their snaps.  Granted they're not the easiest to put on but they're still far easier than a knot, and I'd rather lose a little convenience in the knowledge that my snap was reliable.

Tight lines.

Savage Gear Hang Lure Bag: a decent lure bag for kayakers?

Some of you will have seen my review of the ill-fated and badly designed Sukara Lure Bag from last year.  The Sakura bag was designed for boat fishing, so it is less than ideal for kayaking, sitting a bit too high on the deck making hard to secure the bag to the deck in the event of capsize and which might impede trying to get back onto the kayak after such an event.  So less than ideal, but the Sakura bag scored low in several other areas.

Despite being advertised as a "lure wash bag", the Sakura bag failed to get lures dry after rinsing the salt off.  Plugs stayed wet for days unless the clear plastic tubes were physically taken out of the bag and left somewhere the air could circulate through them.  The bag also had some annoyances, such as a lack of space for soft lures, no dedicated small pockets for clips etc, and nowhere for items like the pliers.  The mesh bag on top was difficult to access and exposed to sea water.

However, I lived with these issues, using the bag all last season.  What rendered the bag unusable was that even with rinsing, all the zips corroded and eventually broke off.  Leaving me with a useless piece of junk that lasted less than a single season.  Not impressive.  So, a new lure bag needed for the kayak.

Before I begin, I must state that in all honesty, I have hunted widely across the internet and I've yet to find a purpose-designed lure bag for saltwater fishing from the yak.  One that allows easy access for both soft and hard lures, that prevents lure tangles, has exterior pockets for small items like clips and pliers, and most importantly of all, allows easy rinsing and drying of those expensive lures.  It goes without saying that it should be completely saltwater proof.  Which generally means no zips.  It would help if the manufacturer also provided something to fix or tie the bag onto the kayak - but now I'm really asking too much, so let's see what I found instead!

Savage Gear Hang Lure Bag - first impressions
The bag's a nice colour for freshwater fishing though for sea fishing I generally prefer something more visible.  The size looks like a reasonable compromise, this is not the bag to store racks of 200mm butterfly jigs or pirks, but it should take most hard lures up to 175mm.  Anything longer than that can still be stored in the separate plastic lure box that comes with the bag (see below).  The bag comes with a shoulder strap not shown in the photographs.  I'm afraid I can't report how comfortable it would be to wear over any distance, as the first thing I did was remove the shoulder strap!  But I'd be surprised if it was great.  At the end of the day, it's a big square box banging against your hip, so it's never going to be particularly comfortable.

The bag has a single Velcro fastening.  While I generally approve of Velcro in saltwater environments, the design of this "flap" does mean that you can't get a really tight closure on the bag.  In theory it should be fine for larger lures, and I don't see anyone using the lure tubes for anything other than lures over 65mm.  Smaller than this and you probably want to store them in the box, as there is a slight gap when you pick up the bag (especially by the handle, less so if you use the shoulder strap) between the lid and the top of the tubes.

On one side of the bag is a large open pouch made from a hook-proof mesh / netting material.  This pouch looks like it'll be great for items like pliers or a priest, as it can be accessed quickly and easily.  But if you do capsize, anything that's in there will end up decorating the sea bed.

  

On either end of the bag are smaller pockets. At first I thought these might be handy for pliers, as one of these will face me when fishing. Unfortunately they are an odd shape, quite narrow with one of them obscured by the shoulder strap fitting, a pair of pliers "disappears" out of reach, so probably not particularly useful.

Inside the box, there are the standard lure tubes.  This time with heavier duty plastic than with the Sakura bag, with both square and large triangle tubes.  This seems to be the only solution anyone has come up with storing long hard lures.  However, hanging lures vertically isn't great for access.  Savage Gear, to be fair, have cut some of the tubes at angles to try and let you see a bit more of lure, but the solution is still a poor one.  In addition to this, tubes are hopeless if the bag is dropped or banged, as half of them fall to the bottom of the tubes.  One solution to this by American manufacturers is to cut "v" grooves into the top of the tubes, so the hooks will rest in there and not swing around the tubes quite so much.  Savage Gear haven't bothered, in my drop test, most of the lures ended up at the bottom of their tubes.  Another issue with big tubes is the waste of space, which encourages you to try and put two lures to a tube.  Tangled treble hooks await.  But what can a man do with 30 or 40 hard lures to store?

One feature I do like is the inclusion of the traditional lure box.  This is much better than having just tubes - gives you somewhere to put soft baits and other small terminal items.

The lure box is well made, with removable partitions inside, giving you quite a bit of flexibility.  I put loose items and shook and dropped the box.  No damage and no "migration" of even small items, like clips and split rings to other compartments.  Good strong box that I suspect is pretty waterproof at least against splashes and I'm pleased to see this included in a hang bag.

With the box out, you can see the mesh used for the body of the bag.  Like the Sakura bag, I guess the idea is rinse your lures in the bag.  My experience with this is not a happy one; lures just don't dry out.  But the mesh on the Savage Gear Lure Hang Bag does look like it will let the air flow better, so we'll have to see.  

One thing I don't like about the lack of a stiff partition between the section of the bag is that once you take the box out, the bag loses all rigidity and the lure tubes are prone to falling over.  This is certainly going to be a nuisance on the kayak, where things need to stay put.  Just a little stiffening of the central partition would have made all the difference here.  You really don't need anything that can make life complicated on a kayak, and if the tubes fall over in rough weather while you're trying to find a lure in the box, well, you can guess the rest...

The large triangular tubes are good for grouping lures of a similar type together, there seems to be enough space to separate them as this little shoal of Megabass Zonks demonstrates...

The square tubes cut at an angle don't permit sharing so comfortably, and this looks like a tangle waiting to happen.  If there were "V" notches cut into the tops of the tubes, it would help hold the lures in place.

The underside of the bag shows how the strap passes underneath the section carrying the box - something to bear in mind if you take everything out of the bag after a rinsing (i.e. don't put the tubes in that partition).  The strap is probably the best place to try and sew a couple of loops on so that the bag can be secured to the kayak.  However, the lack of fastening points on this bag, coupled with the lack of rigid sides, are perhaps the two weakest features of the bag for kayak fishing.  The whole bag goes a bit floppy when the box is removed.

Verdict
Without doubt the Savage Gear Lure Hang Bag is an improvement of the Sakura Lure Bag for kayak fishing.  It pretty much beats it in every compartment, though perhaps that isn't such a great compliment given how badly the Sakura Lure Bag dealt with a salt environment.  However, the Savage Gear bag is far from perfect for kayak fishing and it has one or two areas that could be improved.

Particularly for the kayak angler, I'd like to see the whole bag a bit more rigid with the addition of some fastening points on the bottom  of the bag to let it be securely attached to the surface of the kayak.  I'll obviously end up creating my own solution for this as I did with the Sakura Lure Bag, but for example,just a simple loop (or doubled section) on the carrying strap that goes under the bag would let you tie it to the kayak to prevent it getting washed overboard.  This is an important consideration; after all, these lure bags can easily contain several hundred pounds worth of lures and it would be nice to see manufacturers think more about the different contexts in which lure bags might be used.

Of course, if your kayak has a large central hatch, none of this matters and the Savage Gear Lure Hang Bag is probably a good choice.  For example, it fits perfectly into the front hatch of my new Stealth Pro Fisha 575 kayak.  These days I have replaced the triangular lure hangs with another box for my softs, but the bag itself is a good size for that hatch.

The good:

• versatile combination of lure tubes and a quality lure box (excellent for soft lures)
• zip-less design, therefore presumably salt proof
• good size for kayak fishing
• mesh netting should let air pass through bag to dry lures after rinsing (not tested)
• large mesh panel on side will be handy for quick access to things like camera, pliers, etc.

The bad:

• no fastening points on base of bag to attach to kayak
• no stiffener between partitions means bag loses rigidity when box is removed, in fact the bag is something of a liability without the box in it
• lure tubes lack "V" notches to help lures stay in place
• slight gap between lid and top of tubes when lifted by the handle

I'll be updating this review at the end of the 2012 season to let you know how the bag performed, until then, tight lines to all those fishing!

Duo teaser!

It's that time of year when my sponsor dips generously into their pockets and sends me a mysterious box.  I always love seeing this box arrive at the main desk, with quizzical looks from all around, especially when I pick it up and shake it to hear those tungsten weights rattle!!

This time I put in some special requests for both sea and freshwater lures, and sure enough there was a pile of beautiful fishing jewels wrapped in newspaper for me!  I quickly got my phone out, put a few on my desk and started snapping pictures...

Starting with the incredible Spearhead Ryuki in 45S and 50S.   I intended to use these for trout up in the dales, but when I saw that Ayu pattern, I have a feeling these will be dynamite for bass on those hot days when nothing seems to work!

You can really feel how compact these are in the palm of your hand.

Micro-popping PocoPoco for sea bass?  How about miniature Ikakko squid?  These are tiny (35-45mm), and the white model glows in the dark - nice!

Got some very exciting colours to compare in the LD models.  I've been wanting a dark lure to pitch against a silver one for sunny clear days for some time.  Should be an interesting trial.

Of course, you can't always get out in kayak.  For those days when you're dreaming of the distant horizon, you need the Tide Minnow Advanced line.  145mm of lure bullet!

There'll be opportunity to do a comparison between body shapes and lure lengths, as this overhead shot of the Tide Minnows LD and SLD-F show.

Finally, I borrowed another lure from Duo's freshwater collection, Deep Feat.  This is going to be one of several trolling lures behind the kayak that I'll test this year - it can be an invaluable way to find the fish.  It goes deep, as you can see by that huge bib.  Fitting with some saltwater trebles, I'm sure this will be a killer for pollack and bass in the deeper water.

So this season is some way off, but that gives me plenty of time to get a large bag of split rings and treble hooks, and pair of decent split ring pliers, and get to work fitting these up in preparation for some field tests.

Bring on those summer bass months!

Last year's winners and this year's hopefuls

Well, better late than never.  I did promise I'd do a review of what worked for me last year, and as this is that time of year when lure fishermen start to browse wistfully through catalogues of shiny bits of plastic, I thought I'd list some perhaps surprising winners from last year.

Perhaps the most surprising revelation, and a dirt cheap lure into the bargain, is the Savage Gear Sandeel.  I have never done great on the smaller size, but for me the 42g is king from the kayak.  I had several good fish last year on the natural sandeel colour:

It can be fished on a continuous retrieve, or bumping along the bottom in a sink-and-draw style.  It saved me a blank on more than one occasion and took this nice early bass:

You can see how they really try and swallow the lure deep.  This year I'm branching out into some new colours, but I might as well use it to move onto another great lure.  This time, an old favourite:

The Daiwa Saltiga Minnow comes in two lengths: 120 and 140.  They're both excellent lures for the money, the Saltiga 120 can be had for just £12 delivered from monstertackle.  I had an absolutely storming afternoon, when it seemed every bass in the sea was after that minnow.  Great lure, with just two extra strong hooks which makes unhooking much quicker and reduces damage to the fish from stray trebles, an increasing problem I'm finding with many high end Japanese lures that use three fine wire trebles on all their lures over 100mm.

After this, we get to my old favourites that keep on going year after year, mostly because when you get desperate in the search for fish, you have confidence in their fish catching abilities so they keep getting used instead of the newer, flashier plugs!  The first, and still one of the cheapest, toughest plugs around, a plug that was practically made for kayak fishing:

The Rapala X-Rap SRX10 in blue mackerel.  This is by far and away my most successful colour, tried all the others but this one is tops for me in Yorkshire waters.  We do on occasion get hordes of tiny mackerel on certain stretches of the coast, and I reckon this is the bite-size morsel that no bass can resist!  Second on the all time list has to be the Megabass Zonk 120:

French pearl does for me.  Yes, I wish the silly hinged lip didn't keep breaking off, and I don't like all those trebles, and on more than one occasion I've seen this zonk spook fish.  But all these failings aside, this lure still catches too often to leave it out of my box.  Last year I also had a lot of (smaller?) fish on the baby zonk 77:

Lovely looking lure, but I'll probably stick to the 120 versions in future.  Finally, from Duo I got chance to try a couple of tide minnows that both worked nicely:

Both of these caught, possibly with the paler version being the better of the two in some of the murkier conditions we had to suffer in the first half of the season last year:

But I didn't get the lures until late in the year and wasn't able to test one of my theories that dark lures work better in hot sunny conditions, if any lure works at all!

What about for the coming season?  I'm very keen on trying out two more Duo lures:

The Terrif series comes in two lengths, both look good and reminiscent of other near top water lures, such as the Feedshallow or Komomo II, neither of which I had much success on last year.  But I'll be doing a full test of these near top water lures in the coming season, so watch this space!

Tight lines to those fishing.

Zombie lures?

Well, I for one had some of the best Christmas crackers I've ever seen this year.  And guess what, inside my cracker our guests had put a Japanese bass plug!  But wait... what is this?

My only experience with Ryobi in the past was with a fixed spool reel around the age of 13.  It fell to bits within weeks, and I moved onto Abu Garcia and that was that.  Fast forward 20 years and I was cajoled into buying a cordless Ryobi Hedge Trimmer and Strimmer.  Despite my previous bad experience and suspicious nature, I relented and we bought it.  It turned out to be a hopelessly underpowered piece of kit. I still have it.  The hedge trimmer will just about tackle a few feet of winter flowering jasmine before giving up in despair at the clematis.  So, you can imagine my foreboding when a gift in the form of a "Japanese" Ryobi sea bass plug fell out of my Christmas cracker!  Still mustn't judge a book by its cover, or look a gift horse in the mouth, etc. etc...

On first appearances, the plug looks like a straight copy of something familiar, such as the IMA Komomo II, a Feedshallow or the Duo Terrif. But on closer inspection it seems to be a strange mix of all of them.

Then on an even closer look at the packaging, the outward appearance to be Japanese is discretely defined as "Designed and engineered in Japan" with "Japanese Owner" hooks.  I'd love to believe even that, but I don't:

I've certainly never seen rust on a brand new Owner treble hook before, and I can't imagine it lasting in salt water long. But there's a first for everything - who knows, it might yet turn out to be a killer sea bass plug.
;-)

Anyone out there have experience of this plug?

Tight lines for those fishing.

Tough conditions for Tide Minnows

A brief gap in the horrendous autumn gales we've been having allowed me to launch the kayak for a few precious hours last week.  I was hoping that I'd be able to test the two colours of my Duo Tide Minnow Slim, but while they got a dip in the sea the conditions weren't really good enough to draw any conclusions.

The day was so dark and overcast, and water looked like some horrible form of drinking chocolate close in, that my first thought was to put on a big noisy plug and to use a very slow retrieve, much as you would when fishing at night.  On went a Megabass Zonk Gataride (Hi Pitch) in French Pearl and sure enough, 3 fish in 3 drifts.  The Zonk Gataride has always been a good catcher but it has notoriously weak diving vane.  That third fish just wouldn't open its mouth, so I lifted it by getting hold of the top of the plug using my hand instead my lip gripper.  You can guess what happened next, the fish gave a powerful wriggle and snap!  Off came the thin clear plastic diving vane of the Gataride in my hand.  Grrr!!  Another £20 of useless plastic - I really don't know how they can manufacture such a fragile plug with getting more customer complaints. 

Luckily, I had my new Tide Minnow Slim 120 in colour KO2, which is very similar in colour to Megabass's French Pearl.  Although I've seen bass shy away from this colour when the water is crystal clear earlier in the season, I love this colour when there is a slight milky tinge to the water and even more so at this time of year when the bass are turning more aggressive. 

Despite the difficult conditions, and the water looking more like pea soup than having a slight milky tinge, my third cast resulted in a nice little bass:

Some spirited resistance...

but finally led to the side nice and quiet.

I would like to be able to say that I went on to catch a kayak full of fish, but I didn't!  After the first few drifts with a fish on each drift, I swapped over to the darker model (J222) to see if it could have similar success.  Nothing.  It seemed I had lost the fish, as even going back to the pale Tide Minnow Slim K02 couldn't get me a take.

In fact that was pretty much it for the next 4 hours.  I paddled from place to place trying every imaginable plug but I couldn't locate another fish anywhere.  Then the wind picked up and it became unsafe to stay out on the kayak, so I headed home.

First impressions on Duo's Tide Minnow Slim 120
While it's hard to draw conclusions from a single outing, particularly given the poor fishing conditions at sea, what I can say is that these plugs cast like bullets and have a great action.  For example, although lighter than the Megabass Zonk by 8g, the Tide Minnow Slim easily out cast it on my short kayak rod of 6ft 6".  On a longer, more powerful rod the Zonk might do better, but on the shorter rods typical for kayaks with limited casting power, the Tide Minnow Slim 120 goes an incredible distance given its weight of 13g.  Of course, there are the longer, heavier versions if you need more distance (but distance is one thing the kayaks are good at!).

The action of the plug through the water is a head roll and slight "S" type wiggle.  Although this looks understated, it is certainly effective.  When I got hit by the bass, they really hit the plug hard and given it has 3 trebles you're nearly certain of a good hook up.  The plug ran about 50-70cm on a slow retrieve.

Now the colour test.  My original plan was to look at the fish catching performance of these two plugs with respect to their colours.  One dark, the other light.  However, appearances can be deceptive.  Although the plugs look dark and light from the side view, underneath (which is where many bass attack from), it's less certain what the bass will see, as version J222 is actually translucent when held up to the light:

Which is darker plug?

When held up to the light, we can see that in fact the pale plug has the darkest outline.  In clear sunny conditions, this might well be a factor for bass that come up from deeper water to attack the lure.  The low visibility of the sea on this particularly day meant I couldn't test it.

Hopefully over the next fortnight the weather and sea conditions will improve and allow me to do a proper comparison of the Tide Minnow Slim 120 with what I think is its nearest competitor; the very keenly priced Daiwa Saltiga Minnow, which is nearly identical in both size and shape to the TMS 120.

Until then, tight lines!

Back on the bass

The freezer is getting close to capacity with the cod, pollack and mackerel we've been catching these last few weeks, so the time has come to start eating them and turning back to catching sea bass!  For Yorkshire the season is still just a little early for the best sessions to start.  The fish are there, as they are earlier in the year, but they don't shoal up and go into that fry feeding frenzy until late July / August.  The fish that are caught now tend to be solitary fish or one out of a small group.  The trick is finding a good mark that is getting plenty of visits from these wandering individuals or small groups of fish.

The week's swell and wind forecasts looked grim ahead, with the following day the only possibility for kayaking.  I decided it had to be done, even though my bass tackle wasn't fully prepared and I could really do with some new line and a decent coolbox for my catch.  Anyhow, after a slow start I got down to the sea in time to launch around 9am, just as the sun threatened to ruin the day by opening up a bright blue sky overhead.  Fortunately for me, the water wasn't crystal clear and by mid afternoon it began to cloud over, which really helped the fishing.

Sometimes, early in the season, I struggle with big noisy plugs such as Megabass Zonks.  They are dynamite later in the year, but this sort of plug can sometimes make fish shy away after following it to the side of the yak, and when that happens I usually try and go down a size and opt for something a bit quieter running, or even to use a soft plastic.  One plug I've found to be always reliable early in the year is the tried and trusted Rapala X-Rap SXR10 in  Silver Blue Mackerel:

Battered but much loved X-Raps SXR10 in Silver Blue Mackerel

Bass on our coastline love this plug, perhaps because there seem to be quite a few small mackerel in the same vicinity which are a perfect match colourwise.  The X-Rap SRX10 probably catches me more fish per year than any other (despite the influx of ridiculously expensive Japanese plugs that keep getting added to my tackle box!) and it catches in a wide variety of conditions.  They are cheap, easy to find (not always in the right colour) and tough as nails.  The plug's finish is mostly on the inside, so that expensive paintwork you see getting scratched off some plugs isn't an issue with the X-Rap.  This particular colour is the one that works best for me, I like the fact it's predominantly dark and of course striped, which I feel helps in bright clear conditions, but if you can't find it then the Sardine colour is good second best.

Fishing was slow due to the bright sun initially, but after a while I found a very bassy looking patch of ground.  My preference when fishing from the kayak is to be in about 10-15ft of water.  I like to be able to see the bottom.  Partly so I can judge what depth I'm fishing in, but also to be able to see what kind of cover I'm drifting over and how high up those kelp stalks are reaching!  Good ground for me is a mixture of bare, flat rock scars or ledges, seaweed and even a little sand.  The more varied the better, but sometimes drawing a plug over kelp forests covered by 6 foot or so of water can also bring results.  At this point in the article I had planned to post some photos of the various marks I drifted over, unfortunately without a polarised filter for the camera (rare for waterproof models!) you can't see anything but water glare.

After three or four small fish, I started to get one or two of a better size which I kept for the pot.  As the X-Rap was catching and I already had some fish to take home, I started to experiment with some of my other smaller plugs.  This year I've followed a policy of using two treble hook plugs where possible.  This results in a lot less incidental fish damage due to stray trebles hooking their eyes and gills, and also less fish lost due to them diving into heavy weed and hooking a free treble up against a snag.  My top baby lure for the day was the new Megabass Zonk 77 SW-HT SAYORI:

The bite-size Megabass Zonk 77 SW-HT SAYORI.  A great colour and really tight action.

This lure casts better than the longer X-Rap and has a really aggressive vibrating action, again similar to a tiny mackerel and the colouring is fantastic.  The lure has clear sides that reveal the moving weights inside and it's green back looks great in the water.  It wasn't long before I had a lunging take nearly pull the rod out of my hand and after an excellent tussle on my ultra-light plugging rod, I landed a nice bass around the 3-4lb mark:

I would have kept fishing for a while after this, but had to stop to go and pick up my little lad from nursery!  I ended the day with a tidy bag of four bass and a stray mackerel that picked up the baby zonk while I trolled it behind the kayak on the way back in.

While I always gut my fish at sea, I can never bring myself to cut the head off bass as I do with cod, probably as I like to bake them whole and they look a lot nicer presented like that to the table.  Cod just gets filleted before it goes in the freezer, so although it doesn't make for the prettiest photo opportunity at the end of a session, the heads can go to feed the crabs as far as I'm concerned, which in turn feed even more cod for us to catch!  Nothing goes to waste when fishing from a kayak, even if the gulls sometimes get the guts before the crabs have chance. 

Yet another fish-between-the-legs shot, must find a different angle to take the photos from!

The bass season is under way, and I'm hopeful better fish will be coming on board in the coming month.  Bring on those calm clear waters of summer!

Vibration lures - why aren't they used more over here?

Jed of Oriental Angling has pointed out that despite the huge popularity of vibration lures in Japan for sea bass, they do not seem to sell well to foreign anglers.  Other than a speculative post last year by Henry Gilbey and a few forum comments, there is very little information about using these vibration lures for European sea bass.  In Japan, these lures are the standard method for seeking out fish, particularly at new marks or when you don't know what depth fish are feeding at.  Vibration lures can either be metal or plastic.  Being denser, metal casts further of the two but sinks faster.  But in either material, vibration lures are generally heavy for their size and so cast well.  You can cover a lot of ground and pretty much fish them at whatever depth you like, bearing in mind that to fish very shallow areas you'll be better off with a slow or extra slow sinking type.

Sounds kind of useful, eh?  But then why have these lures just not caught on in the way that Japanese subsurface and surface lures have?  The reason might lie in the amount of accessible, relatively shallow ground that is productive for sea bass around the UK, which is easiest to fish with lures that operate in the 0-50cm range.  But among boat and kayak anglers, no such restrictions exist!  So there is no excuse for trying these out, the only problem is finding out a bit more about which models are good for which situations and what techniques we should use.

Realising that perhaps foreign anglers choose not to buy vibration lures due to a lack of information about them, Jed has produced a informative and entertaining video on how to use and choose vibration lures:

Following his suggestions, I started looking at some possible vibration lures for UK waters.  I settled on two with slightly different actions.  The first is the standard (i.e. best selling) vibration plug for Japanese lure sea bass anglers, the Bassday Range VIB 70ES in colour CH24:

This particular colour has "bite me" written all over it, hasn't it?!  The other thing I love about this lure is its diminutive size, it is incredibly small and thin.  At just 70mm it looks perfect for early season fishing before the bait fish have grown much in size.  Despite being tiny, this little lure packs 15g of castability behind it.  As you go up through the Bassday Range VIBs the weights increase rapidly, with 90mm = 28g and 100mm=35g.  That's over an ounce for a 100mm lure - pretty hefty and probably a good one to cast from the shore into wind, although at that weight it will sink quickly so watch out if you are fishing shallow ground.  If you look at vibration lures' thin profile, you can see why they sink so fast:

That thin, knife edge look is needed both to give them a fast, tight vibrating action, and to reduce the effort of hauling them back through the water.  Indeed, as they are quite an effort to retrieve, the most common way to fish them is with a sink-and-draw type retrieve which puts less strain on you and allows the lure to flutter or wobble down through the water column on the pause.

There are many variations on this theme, with specific vibration plugs being designed for straight retrieves or for sink-and-draw.  There are also hybrid lures, which vibrate and roll.  I thought for my second lure I'd choose one of this type and try something a little different:

This is the Tackle House Rolling Bait77 - PH Sardine.  Tackle House say the lure has a tight vibrating action with a rolling effect on the drop, and it has a different profile to the Bassday, being longer but quite chubby, especially towards the front of the lure.  

The weight is again 15g.  Notice the unusual design, with the lip on top of the lure. Tackle House do produce a more typical vibration plug called "Cruise Vibration", but I'm a sucker for trying something different!

I'm really looking forward to trying out these two little lures.  It's all part of a strategy I have for this year to scale down in size, and take advantage of the kayak's range to fish smaller, two treble lures at some distance from the shore.