Bass Lure Fishing in the Surf

Recently we have been trying different tactics to great effect. Not different to bass fishermen in the past but different because we have not really done much of it within the last few years. So picture this, a beach with 2-4 ft waves, surfers in the swell catching waves and families jumping in the surf. A beach which you would normally fish at? In the past I would avoid it like the plague but not this year. It really started at the end of May but properly at the beginning of June. The weather if you remember was hot, the sea was warming up lovely and my son wanted to go to the beach with his friends and the wife was busy so he asked if I could take him. Of course, I said yes and I just threw my rod and a couple of small surf lures into my bag for a bit of fun while he played with his mates.  A few people I knew down the beach saw me with my rod and said when they were out paddle boarding they saw loads of bass. I was interested to see if I could see any. I made sure he was safe and I ventured over to some structure and started to fish the tide in from a very low spring tide. The clarity of water was crystal clear and I could see at least 20 yards ahead of me. Firstly I thought that the sea was very warm for May/June and secondly, I thought there was no way I would even see a bass because of people in the water but I was so wrong. At low I was flicking out everything I had to give me distance. Every metal in my bag was flying out in the surf but nothing was interested. As soon as the tide started to flood it was clear what the paddleboarders were talking about. The bass were swimming with the flood tide searching for sandeels. They were big also some 50+ but they were not out deep in the surf they were swimming in and around my feet in 2 ft of water. I stopped blasting out my metals immediately and put on anything that looked like a sandeel that could swim effectively in shallow water and started to cast sideways and not straight out. Soft plastics were not cutting it, I thought to myself as it was a sunny day I would use something that flashed silver and had a great swimming action and ....Wallop first cast straight in a 52cm bass. I got it in after screaming out to sea and took a routine pic and then sent him back out to see. This fortune continued for the next 2 hours being one of the best days I've had fishing in a long while. Surfers and swimmers were either side of me but this weirdly did not put off the bass while they were in hunting mode. It's their natural habitat so a few people in the water won't put them off I thought to myself. They kept on attacking my small shallow diving lure and I kept returning them back to sea with a photo or video or both. After the first two hours of the flood passed the fishing just turned off like a light switch. I had a wonderful afternoon that day and more importantly my son loved it too. 

LURE: 105mm Shallow Diver

So what we are saying is don't assume that bass won't be there on a busy beach. Always take your rod when you go to the beach "You've got to be in it to win it" so take a chance, teach your kids how to fish or just break off and try your luck. You never know what the day might produce even in bright sunlight on a packed sandy beach.