We have lost so many good fish this year due to the bass outsmarting us. This has been done in an estuary and on the open coast using weed, kelp, and rocks. The larger the bass generally the smarter they are as they have been around for a long time and are wise to being caught. As soon as they are hooked, and they know that they have been caught they will look for any structure they can to dive into for protection. As an example, a few days ago, I hooked into a good fish in the estuary. We are talking only a few feet of water, but it swam straight into a weed bed. I knew it was heading straight for the weed, but I could not stop it as it was a good size. The line went solid and then there was a stand off for about 4-5 minutes. I let some line out and let it go slack but the line was still solid when I tightened it, so I pulled it through the weed and the lure came in with a load of weed and no fish. It seemed that the fish had placed itself in between the weed and the hooks bedded into the weed in place of the fish.
Another example is out off the rocks on the open coastline where once again I hooked into a good bass. I knew this was a good fish as my drag was tight and it still took a few yards of line. Once again it headed straight for structure once it knew it was hooked and it just sat flush with the rock and didn’t move. I didn’t want to pull on the line as the leader was rubbing the rocks. It was once again a standoff, but I noticed that there was a swell coming so I tried to use the swell/wave to pull the bass over the rocks but as soon as I did the hook pulled on the top of the rock and the fish swam away.
Is there a solution to this? I could increase the line strength and leader and bully the larger fish out of these situations but you risk loosing good fish to forcing the situation. Maybe using a longer rod might help but I do like to keep my gear as light as possible. Do you just accept that the bigger fish just win now and again and its all a part of fishing.
What I have done recently is increased my line strength to 23lb braid and 20lb flouro and it seems to have increased my catch rate, but I do think going lighter on the flouro does catch more fish especially in the river. You are dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t. I don’t think you will ever get it just right, but I find it very interesting what everyone else thinks?
5 comments
Bass Lures UK
Thanks for all your comments. Pleased to hear that the shallow divers are working for you Matt.
matthew lingard
Thanks for this article. I don’t think I’ve had any bass that go for cover , here in Sussex they run in, out or parallel to the beach when hooked. Unlike wrasse and pollack large bass tend to head for open water it’s like they think “I’m getting the hell out of here” my biggest fear is braid over the top of a rock although bass fight well they don’t go deep and hide at least in my experience.
I do wonder that now so many people are catch and release if local populations (around piers and jettys and especially bass nursery areas inside rivers ) are more cautious of lures ?
Such a magnificent species . I have been filming them from drones and noticing that there are sections of identical looking reef they just don’t go on! Where as on the other reef 20m away there is always bass? Such a Habitual fish . Tight lines keep up the good work your1m divers being very useful this season
Simon
Yep..the. Big fish are smart and know just what to do…take you left and then right around a known rock and do it a few times. It also took me through the narrowest gap between 2 rocks .I drew a sktech of the path it took and it was like a heap of spagetti left riggt back again straight out ..headed straight in etc Yep longer rod def helped me to just outsmart my first double but it was touch and go for a bit and did involve a bit of gentle line rasping to pull the fish back around the final rock. Think once they have done you at an acute angle riund acrick you cant lift line for you only option is to take it slow and gently as alot of pressure means cut off straight away.
Gary
I fish low tide rock kelp’y marks the fish do go to ground but what i do is let line out and the tide run creates a bow in the line fooling the fish
When they make a move bang fish on
The only time we lose fish is when they just swim straight on shore by the time the slack line is in bang there gone
Re Fluoro/braid
I use 22ib braid 20ib Fc leader
Now I use 17ib Fc the catch rate seems to be better the downside is I lose more lures on snags with the Fc snapping at the uni
on lure clip
So I’ve just started to use the uni again but this time I make a loop pass that thru the clip and tie a uni as normal
The line never snaps at the braid/flouro Fg knot
Geoffrey Martin Wykes
Any large fish that has been hooked and released,or hooked more than once obviously knows what’s up,and will look for structure to escape you’ve just got to be smarter than the fish if possible 😉