This is without doubt one of our favourite months for bass fishing. Some of our biggest bass have been caught in October and we cannot wait. In a snapshot, we talk about tides in this blog and the movement of water mass. You will see birds working a lot more in estuaries and bass, in general, becoming more aggressive as they can feel the change in weather and think they need to eat big before it all vanishes. As we have already discussed a lot about estuaries we will first discuss that matter before we move onto the open coastline.
Estuaries: What we have found over September is the higher the low the better fishing has been especially on either side of the neaps. We look at this highest low as our new high tide in an estuary as this means ultimately you have more water to fish in over high and low if that makes any sense? It completely depends on what side of the estuary you generally fish but normally the bass swim with the tide and will use the current to help swim and collect food as they travel up the river. Using that theory, you would be able to discover whether your mark you fish in the estuary fishes better on the incoming tide or the outgoing tide. Snap a shot of google earth of the estuary you fish and work out what time you think the bass would arrive at your fishing spot and fish an hour on either side of that tide and see how you go. Try it and see if it works. We have found that anything that's weedless works so well in river systems and they have been our go-to lures day and night for bass in September.
Our best lures recently have been: (anything weedless with a tail)
Supersoft Paddletails
T-Tails
Spindle Worms
6" Cornish Worms
6” Handmade Cornish Sticks
Coast Line and Beaches:
We have started to shift out to the beach towards the end of the month of September as we know the bigger bass will be lurking closer to the shore and they will be typically a bigger size especially during springs. The bigger the tide generally the better the fishing due to the volume of movement in the sea. All the small bass seem to disappear in October and the big girls start to turn up. We will be using our shallow divers along the beaches and deep divers on deeper rock marks. Throw your hard lures into the wash and white water of the waves and hopefully, a nice bass will be there ready to pounce. Take care at night if you are fishing large tides and try and go with a friend if possible. Generally, the bigger the lure on the coast means bigger fish as they will be attacking larger bait fish but... that's not always the case.
Soft Plastics at Night:
Shallow Divers:
Sub-Surface Medium & Small
Shallow Diving "Day" & "Night"
Shallow Diving Runners
