THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Where there are still a few bass left, they can be caught on everything from plugs, surface poppers,
shads, and soft plastics, through to crab from the shore when the major moults are under-way,
lugworms, and live-baits further offshore. All have the potential to catch well on their day. But if I had
to single out just one, particularly from the shore, it would have to be soft plastic lures.
Not a technique I regularly use myself as I'm primarily a boat angler, more of which later. However,
chatting to Irish bass guide John Quinlan with the voice recorder running really brought home the degree
of difference these lures can make in a variety of shapes and colours, some with paddle tails and others
not, but always fished with the hook tip buried inside the lure to avoid snags, and presented on a jig
head or belly weighted for casting.
Fished this way, this huge range of patterns offer the ability to safely fish the kinds of shallow, snaggy
areas bass will frequent, but which were previously ruled out of bounds using other tactics. What's
more, they can also be twitched back in so slowly as to be barely moving, persuading fish which may
well not be feeding to hit them anyway.
In terms of terrain preference, bass enter harbours and estuaries, move in close along surf beaches,
frequent offshore banks and reefs, and will visit wrecks. In short, there isn't anywhere under the right
conditions where they won't go, and as I've said, few baits, lures or tactics they can't be tempted by.
So much so that it would take a complete book to work through everything useful there is to know on
the subject of catching them, which is way beyond the scope of what I am I aiming to do here.
That being the case, rather than deal with some baits or tactics while leaving out others, my only angling
references will be to personal experiences, with the key piece of advice of not trying to be a generalist
and soak up everything.
Either choose a tactic that suits you, or allow local circumstances to dictate one for you, and initially at
least, work on mastering that. And to help in that regard, there is a vast wealth of information already
out there on each, including a number of audio
interviews I have done with bass specialists on a
wide range of topics, which as ever I will reference
at the end of this discussion.
The main thing these days is not to build your hopes
up too high. This is a species in crisis. That said, the
American striped bass was even further down the
road to extinction not so long ago, and look at the
situation there now. In a generation, they've turned
it around into a world class recreational fishery. So
with the will it can be done.
Unfortunately, the American striped bass example,
which while it has some home waters parallels, is
very different to that facing the European bass.
Similar in the fact that like the European Union, the
USA has a federal system of states each making
some of their own laws, but different in that the
European federation is a collection of separate
countries with different economies, electorates, and
national identities, in which the largest and strongest
member states, despite them saying otherwise, have
a disproportionately bigger say in what happens.
Mike Turner tagged Bass, Walney Island
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