Bass Fishing

[Jethro Tull 4]

I'm looking for some advice for shore fishing for bass. I intend fishing on the South Devon coast with a spinning rod, reel loaded with braid, and some artificial sand-eel lures. I need to know when is the best time to fish - ebb or flow? I also intend to wade with chest waders, but I'm unsure about landing any fish caught. I could use a trout net, or is it best to beach them? Any advice would be welcome, as I have been told September is the best month for them. Cheers.

[white van man 3,297]

We have just been around the Torquay area with a group off here kayak fishing. Had a good haul of fish and the lads had a few bass. Where abouts are you going to be fishing??

[Jethro Tull 4]

Cheers for replying, WVM. I am hoping to fish at Dawlish or Teignmouth. Our place is about 8 miles from both locations.

[white van man 3,297]

No probs. we fished Dawlish/Exmouth on the weekend and have fished Tmouth a few times. The back beach there is good using live sandeel on light gear and just let it do it's own thing. There is a guy there you can call and get the eels from 07980 111367 call him to make sure he has them in. Let me know when your going as we might be down there. Drop me a PM.

Edited September 10, 2014 by white van man

[Jethro Tull 4]

Thanks mate. I'll probably be going down there the week after next. I'll send you a PM then. Cheers!

[jonah. 775]

You'll not go far wrong taking advice from white van man, I was with him and newkid last weekend along with another 2, we all caught bass plus pout,doggies,wrasse,mackerel and pollack, me bro had a cracking bass 3.5 pound using the set up above.

Can't wait to get back down, good luck and tight lines!

 

Edited to add, nearly all caught bass, 1 of the five came very close with a mass on the sunday, lol.

Edited September 10, 2014 by jonah.

[white van man 3,297]

Ha ha. It was about letting you guys pull in the bass......that's why I only fished with mackerel feathers!!!!! The quest for the bass continues!!

[jonah. 775]

Ha ha. It was about letting you guys pull in the bass......that's why I only fished with mackerel feathers!!!!! The quest for the bass continues!!

 

it was a nice mass to be fair, yeah, none of us could wrestle those mackerel feathers from your grasp !!!! lol

[NEWKID 27,086]

Definetly the best month mate, and there are a few about, as geth( white van man) said, try and use live eels off of teingmouth back beach, or walk out into the spit at the mouth of the river at low tide, fish with the braid and a 3ft leader ( fluro carbon is best 6-10lb breaking strain) attach the leader with a swivel and free line the eel in the current. It'll fish up and down the tide, but you need it moving, look for creases in the tide, back eddys, boiling water you get an idea if where's to run it through after a few tries. Keep the eel moving with the tide ( like running a float through on a river). Don't strike at bites, you feel the take when the rod arches round just lift into it... Then it's game on.

The lads on the back beach can be a bit unreliable so phone them first as Geth said. If you can't get eels small Sandeel imitations are best, the favourite this year has been the savage lure in lemon back colour ( ask geth he had 5 on that lure last week!!)..

 

Good luck mate and we might see you down there.

[NEWKID 27,086]

Oh and landing fish, I tend to beach them, although a net maybe useful from time to time. I always wade out too, you can get better control of the eel as it's running through the tide when your out in the water.

My lad out in the water on the back beach

[Jethro Tull 4]

Thank you all for the advice. I did Thursday and today at Teignmouth, but with no success. I was using an artificial sand eel, and I cast it out whilst wading, and let it swing round in the current. I used braid with a fluoro leader as suggested. The only time I saw an angler catch was on Thursday, and he was using liveys. The next time I go, I think I'll try them.

[NEWKID 27,086]

Lives are by far the best at teingmouth mate.

Fish some of the rock marks towards Torquay, hopesnose, berry head, ansteys cove or meadfoot with the artificials you may have more success, or mare rocks at Exmouth, fish 2hrs down to low water and 2hrs up.. Early morning or evening tides are best..

Try the live eels late into the evening and into dark on either estuary.

Keep at it they'll come

Edited September 27, 2014 by NEWKID

[leary420 12]

kind of off topic but anyone use waveworms for bass i had nice bass to 11lb over here with them this year,my new favourite soft plastic i think

[NEWKID 27,086]

kind of off topic but anyone use waveworms for bass i had nice bass to 11lb over here with them this year,my new favourite soft plastic i think

Not used them mate, but that is a cracking bass..!!

[Tiercel 6,986]

Too right that is a good bass The biggest bass I have ever seen was caught on a bubble float and a small redgill Just over 14lb when weighed in. But, if you want to catch big bass consistently forget redgills, use live mackerel. Boat or shore it does pick out the bigger fish. There are always big fish caught on a variety of baits every year, but these fish are the exception rather than the rule.

 

It has always been my way to try and match the bait to the size of fish you are fishing for feed on, it does not always pay off, but I believe it puts the odds in your favour. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I remember one day in November many years ago, the bass were on the small whiting, and we were using Fisk-fags on them, 6 on a trace and often you would get six bass at a time on them. We were off the Gower just off of Falls bay between the Helwick bank and the coast in about 200ft of water, the birds were working well and there were a lot of bass in the area feeding on the whiting. The way it worked was you would watch for birds and as soon as they started picking you would drop your fags over and jig.

 

This day the bass were about 1.5 kilo size good fish, you would see the birds working get up tide of them and hope that the fish were still there as you drifted over where the birds had been working. This particular drift we went uptide of the birds and as we drifted into the birds my crew's rod bent double as soon as he dropped the fags in, 4 out of the six fags held good fish of around the 3lb mark, by the time I had stopped the engine and picked up my rod he had the fish at the gunnel's, I dropped over expecting the bump straight away and nothing, as the string dropped in the water I thought I had gone deeper than the fish were so started winding in for the next drop as soon as I did I had a take it must have been about 40ft down. The rod bent double so I thought I had a full house so shouted to my mate they have gone deeper and told him to get his line down there.. he was still getting his fish in the boat. There is a good way with bass to quickly unhook them without getting spiked. You grab hold of the hook and swing the bass up under your armpit (I should say it does pay to wear a thick top) squeeze the fish with your arm and take the hook out and just lift your arm to drop the fish on the deck.

 

Anyhow my 'full string' was not behaving as it should instead of the rod jerking about as it should with many fish going in different directions there were just powerful dives and runs. It was at this time I thought I had hooked a tope as the fish began to take line off the tight clutch on the reel. Then it surfaced and it looked like the biggest bass I had ever hooked. I shouted to get the net as it was a dam good fish, problem was though was the string of hooks, lets just say it was frought getting that fish into the net. Ended up 93/4lb my biggest on the rod.

 

I have had bigger on the long lines but never broken the 10lb barrier on a rod.

 

TC