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Bass fishing


roadkill
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Just coming over from the shooting side of the forum for some Newbie advice. 

Done a bit of carp and recreational fishing in the past so not a total novice,  but really want to have a crack at sea bass fishing.. so any info on laws, licenses,  best uk places, beach set up or boat, charter boat prices and kit for a beginner would be great.  Also any YouTube recommendations?

Cheers all Jamie 

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1 hour ago, roadkill said:

Just coming over from the shooting side of the forum for some Newbie advice. 

Done a bit of carp and recreational fishing in the past so not a total novice,  but really want to have a crack at sea bass fishing.. so any info on laws, licenses,  best uk places, beach set up or boat, charter boat prices and kit for a beginner would be great.  Also any YouTube recommendations?

Cheers all Jamie 

Wow, that's a question and a half! There's a lot in there. I'll start with the easier one to get rid of: Charters are expensive but vary across the country usually starting at a minimum of £40 ish for a 4 hour trip and that 4 hours includes travel time to and from the mark. You're at the mercy of the weather and the skipper's decision, so you could rock up and it all get cancelled!

The bass season is as Old boggy says and restrictions are 2 bass of 42cm per angler per day can be kept During Jan, Feb and Dec you can fish for them, but not for the table. HOWEVER there are local rules that supersede these, meaning you can't even target them. Cornwall, for example has designated bass nurseries where you cannot even target bass and certain baits are banned as being too likely to catch them (sandeel for one) and the authorities do check.

The best time in the UK is now onwards really. Generally the fishing gets worse as you go North, with the best stuff being around the south coast, but also areas where there are fast currents sand plenty of surf for them to hunt down disoriented fish. Chesil Beach has a good reputation, as have Devon and Cornwall and the Lleyn Peninsula in Wales.

In terms of tackle? Lure fishing is the cheapest entry point. A 10-30g 8-9ft reel and a 3-4000 reel are the benchmarks. Designated Bass lures are EXPENSIVE: £20 for single lures is the norm, but you can catch them on imitation sand eels, soft plastics and your classic metal spoons. The advice I was given was get two or three high quality bass lures, then add in other types to give you a good range of colours, styles and retrieve speeds to supplement them, which I think is a good way to start. 

Bait fishing isn't my strong point for bass. But beach rods for bass tend to be lighter, shorter and more sensitive than ordinary beach rods. Bass are targeted in the warmer months when they're coming in close, so you don't need the range but do need fast bite recognition. they're a sucker for livebaits, but they will eat almost anything. 

As to Youtube, Rob's channel 'Cornish Shore and Kayak fisherman' is a good place to start. He's targeted bass from the kayak and the shore, spinning, with bait and on fly in various videos. The Fish Locker's also worth going to.

 

Hope all that helps!

Oh on the subject of price.  You don't need to spend 100's, although you'd be amazed at the weight and responsiveness of the mega-bucks bass rods. You can get a decent bass lure rod for £60. Salt's a killer for reels, though, so I'd spend a bit more on that to get a decent one. And then clean it well after each use! Load it up with 20-30lb braid, Fluoro leader and you're good to go! It's frustrating at first and some of the bass lures take a lot of practice to get working really well, but nothing beats the water exploding as one hits a surface lure in the crepuscular hours. Great sport.

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Regarding bait for bass, I always found that ragworm was the best bait. Digging for rag isn't easy but well worth the effort.

However, my favourite when I had a boat was on a calm day midsummer, to look for the gulls feeding on the whitebait which the school bass were chasing to the surface. We then motored uptide and drifted through the school with a light spinning rod and Toby lure. The size limit then was 14 1/2 inches, if I recall, and we then only took a maximum of four each. Wonderful sport and happy days.

Unfortunately it's the commercial fishing that has since decimated stocks, hence the 2 fish limit now imposed on the line fisherman.

I have always referred to them as 'Bass' , not 'Sea Bass' as seems the norm amongst these TV chefs. I am unaware that we have any other bass living in our waters, so the adding of the word 'sea', to my mind is superfluous, but then again I am a bit of a pedant ???.

OB

 

 

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2 hours ago, Old Boggy said:

Regarding bait for bass, I always found that ragworm was the best bait. Digging for rag isn't easy but well worth the effort.

However, my favourite when I had a boat was on a calm day midsummer, to look for the gulls feeding on the whitebait which the school bass were chasing to the surface. We then motored uptide and drifted through the school with a light spinning rod and Toby lure. The size limit then was 14 1/2 inches, if I recall, and we then only took a maximum of four each. Wonderful sport and happy days.

Unfortunately it's the commercial fishing that has since decimated stocks, hence the 2 fish limit now imposed on the line fisherman.

I have always referred to them as 'Bass' , not 'Sea Bass' as seems the norm amongst these TV chefs. I am unaware that we have any other bass living in our waters, so the adding of the word 'sea', to my mind is superfluous, but then again I am a bit of a pedant ???.

OB

 

 

Have you not caught any sea cod or sea plaice....

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1 hour ago, panoma1 said:

European Bass are what are caught off our coast.....there are many other species of Bass caught in waters off other countries, these are generically called Sea Bass!.....but ours are just Bass!

And some are renamed to make them taste better
image.png.4f89d33268106add4b8acf5721b3cbb1.png

The Patagonian Toothfish. Doesn't sound very tasty, but a chap in 1977 wanted to open up the American market, so decided a name change would help. So he called it Chilean Sea bass and wham, tasteful enough even to make it into Jurassic Park on the lunch menu 

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Just now, chrisjpainter said:

And some are renamed to make them taste better
image.png.4f89d33268106add4b8acf5721b3cbb1.png

The Patagonian Toothfish. Doesn't sound very tasty, but a chap in 1977 wanted to open up the American market, so decided a name change would help. So he called it Chilean Sea bass and wham, tasteful enough even to make it into Jurassic Park on the lunch menu 

Along with dog fish 

rock salmon 😂

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Bass fishing can become a bit gear obsessive and expensive like the carp side of fishing, with silly money being spent on fancy Japanese lures. I did buy a £15 lure once, thinking it would be the answer to my lack of success,only to see it disappear over the horizon first cast due to a poorly tied knot.

I'd say time of day is paramount, with early morning best, and knowing what tide your mark fishes best on (or if you have small children, whenever you can get away).

Pack light, and enjoy covering ground from rock to rock rather than setting up camp.

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I used to fish a beach on Barry island, north side of the bristol Channel, there was a car park behind the beach and a local told me to fish right by the car park attendants hut, 80 yards out on peeler crab and squid, the wife and I used to get some cracking bass from there, sadly all I have now is the Norfolk coast, but there are always a few dabs and one or two school bass, too small but good sport.

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