BIG SEA BASS HUNTING IN SHALLOW WATER.



Big Sea Bass in shallow water

This photo was taken of a large sea bass over 10lbs hunting in water only two feet deep so the next time you go bass fishing always cast near you first as the bass aren't that far out. Remember their food is at your feet so they have to come into shallow water.

SEA BASS FISHING SCENERY.

THE BEST TIME TO CATCH BIG SEA BASS

Amazingly most of my big bass were caught in the November / December time when you can only ever fish one tide with the lack of daylight hours. The bass were much chunkier and well fed up compared to those in summer especially after spawning in May / June. The bass in the sea bass scenery video was caught in the end of November on a spoon bait close in ( less than ten yards out ) as i saw her first  and then cast to her she took the spoon on the drop just before i could spin it. The bass took off at high speed and straight into the kelp but being used to this i always use 20lbs heavy guage mono shock leader especially for its abrasion qualities and pulled the bass out easily.Fishing with braid you can feel every move and turn of the fish as it doesn't stretch like mono and i played out the fish fast as not to tire it out too much because the big fish take longer to recover after a fight. The bass weighed over 14lbs and was rested for ten minutes before releasing it. You can hold a bass easily in water with a boga grip until it recovers without harming either you or the fish, that's why i love using the boga because you don't even have to touch the fish just a flick with the disgorger and your fish is released unharmed.

1. Early morning tide just as dawn breaks, low light conditions.

2. Fish close in and keep an eye on the water around you for moving fish.

3.Spoon baits, they always work.

4.Cover a 180 degree arc, starting from your left shoulder right around to your right shoulder.

5.You may only get one take make it count.

6. Heavy clear 20lb mono tippet.

7. Sharpen your hooks after every session as they become blunt after hitting rocks etc.

8. I cover my spoon baits with yacht varnish it stops the colour fading / chipping.

Big Bass on Lures

BIG STOCKY BASS

Big Bass on Lures

This is the size of bass that i like to catch, they are a stocky powerful fish and can be caught around Cork harbour. The best time to catch fish of this size is when the herring are in, normally around November, December. My best days fishing for quantity and quality were both in December, one just inside Cork harbour and the other in Garretstown. The big bass was caught on the fly on the 9th of December on a dirty wet morning and there were loads of mullet being pushed up into the shallows.I used a mullet pattern surf candy fly which has an epoxy head on it and i find them easier to cast in bad weather because they rarely wrap-up when fishing. The bass took the fly and about eighty yards of backing on the first run, i thought i had hooked the bass by the tail because i couldn't stop it.The next few runs took more line and i must have had about 150yds of line out so i walked along the shoreline to retrieve as much backing as i could and to get a different angle on the fish. Eventually i got the bass in and put the boga grip on her mouth but i couldn't lift her because the boga grip started to tear the fishes mouth. I had to lift the fish by the tail and the boga just to get it out of the water, i weighed the fish and it surpassed my scales of 20lbs easily so i don't have an exact weight but it was well into early twenties. I took over ten minutes sitting with the fish before she was able to swim away strongly on her own and i thought to myself that she must have been over thirty years old, that is the biggest bass that i will ever catch in my lifetime. If i had killed the fish it would have been the biggest bass ever caught on fly but i'm into catch and release and get more enjoyment on seeing fish swim away to fight another day.