After jumping in the pool a bunch of times this time last week with the RNLI and then drying off and grabbing a bit of late lunch, each of us four had to go into a quiet room where the film crew had set up their camera gear with a bunch of lights. We were then asked a bunch of questions which I guess will be used in the various videos that will be released in due course…………

And if there was one thing I was always going to do throughout last Monday with the RNLI was be completely honest and upfront about the whole fishing safety thing. If I was asked any difficult questions I was not going to shirk away from them because I can see no point in me doing what I am trying to do here if I can’t be honest with myself in the first place. I am guessing that the RNLI and the film crew got together beforehand to plan the shoot and also think about the sort of questions they were going to ask us, and you must bear in mind here that I don’t know what Mark, Ben and Richard were asked when they went in for their interviews and I won’t know what they spoke about until I get to see the videos.

Now I am a regular bloke who happens to thrive on being outdoors and around the sea especially. I have never functioned well when people tell me what to do and I guess I was one of those kids who needed to do it and find out rather than say yes and never question the actions and the consequences. I know my own mind, I am pretty black and white, I accept completely that the sort of fishing I live for doing comes with an inherent level of risk, but then so does a lot of fun stuff in life. As a father I passionately believe in the whole kids needing to fall over, bloody their knees and then pick themselves up instead of us rushing in to do so way of living because they need to find so much out for themselves without their parents endlessly fussing over their well being and suffocating their spirit of adventure and discovery and excitement.

And as an angler I am as guilty as most of us here of burying my head in the sand for far too many years and doing exactly what I try and teach my girls not to do. For sure my wife and I encourage them to go for it in life, but if for example they were massively keen on fishing from rocky ledges while the sea raged around them and they had no means of calling for help or floating the right way up for as long as possible if something went badly wrong, would I be a good parent if I wasn’t insisting that they carry and wear the correct safety equipment?

They love their sailing for example, and they belong to a local sailing club. When they head out sailing they must wear buoyancy aids and sailing helmets, and of course the club has safety boats out with them. They would not be allowed out on the water without this simple safety gear. Both girls have been hit in the head with the boom and knocked off the boat or capsized multiple times and so on, but never once have those experiences put them off going sailing. We have never worried for one second about them being out there and I love how they so love doing this sort of fun stuff that of course comes with a degree of risk - but then what doesn’t?

Their dad (me!) heads out there many, many times each year to do what he so loves doing, and for most of his fishing life he has successfully ignored how simple it is to give himself the best possible chance at surviving if something were to go wrong. There are of course many things that an angler can do to stay that bit safer, but I would suggest that above all our supposed knowledge and experience is the simple and unavoidable fact that a simple and not very expensive auto-inflate lifejacket is such a frigging no-brainer for what so many of us love to do I very much expecting the day when my two bright and awesome girls turn the tables on me at supper and ask me the question “Dad, why have you ignored the whole lifejacket thing for so many years?”. They are now asking me if I will be wearing a lifejacket when I head out fishing, but it’s the why wasn’t I for so long that’s coming for sure.

I will be completely honest with them and talk them through my burying my head in the sand for far too long for any number of reasons and the fact that I would not expect them to behave as stupidly as their dad has done for so long. As for the whole boyfriend thing though, well let’s just say that’s not up for discussion! I have a big chainsaw and I know how to use it……………….

Or am I just a hopeless case? Call it cabin fever or perhaps owning a few too many bass lures (what, me?), but it has happened to me a few times now - for whatever lure addicted reason I take a punt on a “new to me” lure, that punt then pays off when a bunch of bass jump on the end of it, but because my head is constantly awash with looking out for stuff I then sort of forget about that particular lure until for whatever reason I “rediscover” it and get all excited about using it once again………..

It happened to me with the OSP DoLive Stick for example. I can remember hearing about a local angler catching a double figure bass on one, and at the time I had never even heard of the thing. I tracked them down, I bought some, I took the things with me to Ireland and I caught a bunch of fish on them, but this beauty of a soft plastic then fell out of favour with me for no particular reason other than I was most likely trying other stuff out. I then switched back onto the DoLive Stick in a big way when I became aware of a very good angler I know smashing a load of bass over in Kerry on it. I went digging for my original supply and now look at me - I find it hard not to bass fish with one! I own a few as well.

I am going to point you to a blog post I wrote back in May 2013 - I dropped in to see my mate Mark who was working in the Art of Fishing tackle shop in Plymouth (that shop is now closed and he is working in the Wadebridge Art of Fishing shop) and I remember seeing these “new to me” soft plastics on the shelf that I gave in and bought. I was heading over to Ireland on a fishing trip and these Fish Arrow Flash-J 5’’ lures caught me a bunch of bass, and on a few occasions I remember outfishing a couple of local anglers who I would class as far better bass anglers than I will ever be. I put it down to the lure and not my skill levels!

I know it makes no sense when you catch some fish on a new lure but that lure for whatever daft reason ends up sitting in a storage box while you sort of forget about it and stumble onto something else. Now whilst I absolutely love messing around with “new to me” lures, just because they are new doesn’t make the older stuff any less deadly. Over time I have learnt to implicitly trust the DoLive Stick in so many different situations, and along those lines I sometimes wonder why I am not using that killer Maria Chase BW in holo silver that I used to use so much - ok, the fact that this lure casts like a bit of a dog and is no longer actually made is probably why, but you get my drift.

The Fish Arrow Split SW 5'' rigged on a belly-weighted 5/0 VMC 7329DD hook

So Mark, Ben and I were on our way up to the RNLI last Monday in my epic Berlingo, and because the two of them are a pair of tits who know all about my lure related issues and weaknesses, “as if by magic” they procure a new soft plastic that I have never seen - the Fish Arrow Split SW 5’’ and SW 7’’, and to be fair to those procurers of filth, they kindly gave me one of each to have a go with. And I have done. And they look rather bloody lovely in the water as you wind them back nice and slowish and they do that slalom which I think is the reason why that Fish Arrow Flash-J 5’’ worked so well. They also look nice on a quicker, “twitch and slash” sort of action as well.

So when I get home I start digging through my lure storage box (ok, multiple boxes!) and I come across a few of the original Fish Arrow Flash-J 5’’ lures that I had bought back in 2013. Memories came flooding back of exactly where I had first caught bass on these lures, indeed I can distinctly remember nearly jumping out of my skin when a bass nearly ate my rod tip it was so keen to grab the lure. And then I start wondering why on earth I have not been carrying these lures with me and I start thinking about where they might work all over again with that shallow-swimming, gentle slalom kind of action that just does it for me and obviously the bass.

And because back in 2013 I was not night fishing for bass with lures, I am wondering if these Fish Arrow lures might do some serious harm when the regular people are tucked up in bed. I really fancy the new and slightly heavier Fish Arrow Split 5’’ working as the sort of soft plastic you can twitch around rigged weedless and weightless and also be able to slalom it on a slow straight retrieve, and of course I am sure it can be fished in any number of different ways that I haven’t come across yet - I have some VMC dropshot hooks here (VMC 7342SH Spin Shot Wide Gape 5/0) that I reckon could be interesting with this lure as I work it across a shallow, reefy bottom, and so on and so on. Yep, my brain is frying big time!

And because I am an addict and I just can’t resist, I rang Mark in the Art of Fishing yesterday and ordered a new packet of Fish Arrow Flash-J 5’’ soft plastics. If the DoLive Stick is my go-to weedless soft plastic (and if you are looking for them, the killer 6’’ Wakasagi colour is back in stock here - and as usual, please, please buy these lures elsewhere if you are actually looking for some but are uncomfortable with me alerting you to the fact), I can’t get away from how that subtle, shallow, slalom kind of action seems to so do it for the bass. I do like having a few different options. The cycle continues of brain-frying early mornings as my head goes into overdrive while the rest of my family sleeps as indeed normal people do………………..

Disclosure - if you buy anything using links found in this blog post or around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

Whilst I don’t hold out a huge amount of hope for nailing a few bass on lures at this time of year down here, it is Cornwall, the water doesn’t feel too cold, and if conditions come good then a bit of a go has to be worth it. In reality though it’s the time of year for me when I start to literally feel sick with excitement and anticipation at the season to come - around where I live was very up and down on the bass in 2017, but you never know how each season as such will pan out, and as ever I have a bunch of plans and ideas to shake my fishing up a bit and see what happens…………

Every year is very different and I don’t know when your local bass fishing tends to switch on around you, but if I include January at least as part of the bass season down here, then I landed my first bass of the 2017 season on April 11th last year, as per the fish above. When might things switch on this season? My mate Mark who is kindly holding my bass above had a nice fish on March 12th a few years ago, and I would still love to know if that was a bass which had stuck around or was it a bass that had just come in?

I know that John Quinlan often starts his bass guiding season over in Kerry towards the end of March, and he fully expects his clients to catch fish or else he simply wouldn’t be taking their money. I keep hearing rumblings of some good, very early season bass fishing on lures in the deepest, darkest parts of Cornwall, and of course this sort of stuff makes my brain rattle around in my head when it’s early February, it feels like it’s been raining for two months solid, we’re burning a lot of wood to keep the stoves going, and my youngest girl is still wearing shorts to school but dad here isn’t as brave as he used to be and is waiting for warmer weather to get the shorts out.

I know things are different that far south and west, but are too many of us perhaps a bit guilty of doing the same things at the same times and not thinking out of the box a bit more? I am as guilty as the next angler of often defaulting to what you tend to know the best on your local patch, but with how up and down the bass fishing was around here last year I am determined to shake things up a bit. If there is one thing I don’t mind doing it’s taking a punt and risking a few blanks, because if I don’t try new places and techniques and stuff like that then I can get stale and lose a bit of the buzz.

One thing I didn’t manage to do last year was spend nearly enough time over in Ireland on my own fishing and photography. I consider myself incredibly lucky to spend what tends to be about a month in Kerry spread over a couple of guiding trips, but for various reasons I only managed the one Ireland trip where I got to fish myself and take a bunch of photos etc. We had some awesome fishing around Dungarvan last September, but if things go more to plan this year then I will be getting back to my usual quota of time over in Ireland, my favourite country on earth.

And of course it’s that epic time of the year when the Six Nations starts again. It might not be an epic time for bass fishing, but I can’t wait for the Six Nations and I reckon it’s going to be one hell of an interesting tournament with so many injuries for all the sides and with how strong Ireland and Scotland are looking. You all have a good weekend and may spring arrive pretty damn soon please……..

OK, so it’s not as if early February is exactly the finest time of the year to head out and see if you can find a few bass, but if you don’t try then I would suggest you will never know. Down here in Cornwall I do believe that if we get some decent conditions then there’s at least a chance, and whilst that chance might well be slim, sometimes just getting out on the coast and working those lures feels mighty fine indeed………

Mark and I found some very good looking water on Saturday morning, and if nothing else it was a good excuse to keep on playing with a stunning new lure rod (more to come) and also check out how some new, cabin fever related lure purchases looked in the water (more to come). After the rubbish water clarity we have had around here for what seems like an eternity now, to have a bit of green fizz and virtually no weed on a nice big tide gives you the hope that there might just be something lurking around the big reef we were fishing.

We tried again on Sunday morning, not a sniff, but the light went off big time!

Anyway, so we’re working the parts of the reef we tend to target, and although neither of us are exactly expecting a bunch of bass to launch into our lures, this is Cornwall and there is a chance. A hat, thermal buff and gloves is hardly my regular bass fishing attire, but a cold north west wind in February ain’t exactly warm, albeit it continues to amaze me how modern fishing clothing is so efficient and easy to wear compared to what we used to wear back in the day. Anybody remember those wooly bear suits?

It’s when that tide starts to ebb that I feel most confident on this mark, but neither of us have had a sniff, and Mark wanders off a bit. I can’t wade out to a certain rock that I like to stand on quite yet because the big tide means it’s a too deep to get out there - I can get at some of the ground by hanging back a bit and putting some long casts in, but the problem with fishing from that particular spot is that if you go and hook a fish your braid is essentially running over the top of a very sharp ledge, plus if it’s a decent fish that wants to run, you’ve got big rocks sticking out of the water left and right. I have landed fish from there before, but I have also lost them. Logic says don’t fish from there, but I want to get at that ground, and like with lure fishing in February, if you don’t give it a go then you will never know.

I have written about it on here a few times now, and with how a couple of north Cornwall lads I know and respect often fish their shallow reefs, I clipped on a Fiiish Black Minnow - I happened to have a black coloured one with me in the 120mm body/12g Shore Head size that I wanted, so out it went. It’s not very deep where I was fishing, so I let the lure hit the bottom, and because it’s so bloody snaggy and I know that a controlled sort of sink and draw along the bottom sort of retrieve tends to snag up a fair bit, instead I slowly retrieve the lure with my rod tip up, maintaining as much contact with the snaggy bottom as I can, so of course the rod tip is banging away as the lure bangs on the bottom.

It’s bloody typical isn’t it? First cast with the Black Minnow and not very far out from that horrible ledge that I am trying to pretend isn’t really there and something bangs my rod tip down hard. Holy frigging cow if it isn’t a fish, so I strike hard, my stunning new rod bends right over, I think I might have yelped with excitement, and then as quick as you like my braid snapped nice and clean over that sodding ledge. I have decided to go back to some heavier and more robust mainlines for shallow and very rocky, reefy marks especially, so even though my spinning reel was loaded up with the strong as rope and so nice to fish with 26lb/0.18mm Sufix 832 braid, it wasn’t going to make much of a difference with where the fish hit me and how my braid was over that bastard sharp ledge. Tight braid and knife like edges ain’t exactly the best of friends.

So I’m a bit gutted to say the least! You could of course say that I should not have been fishing where I was if the chances of landing a fish are that dicey, but I have landed plenty of bass from there before, I really like that section of the reef on the early ebb, and it’s bloody hard to be out in February and not at least fish exactly where you feel the most confidence.

And I also accept that what I hooked might have been a wrasse, but I can’t recall having caught a wrasse from this location at this time of year before, the way it hit so hard and there was no messing around with the lure like wrasse so often do, and the simple fact that I never saw the fish which of course steers your head in the direction of the species of fish you wanted it to have been, well it wrecks my head. I know that wrasse love Black Minnows, but I have lost a donkey of a bass in the dark from that same spot, fishing a Black Minnow the same way, and because I will never know for sure and it’s early February and it’s Cornwall and there always seems to be a chance that a bass is hanging around, damn right this is all playing around my brain!

As much as I keep thinking about what might have been, at least the opening Six Nations weekend has helped towards a better headspace though. I had a suspicion that Scotland away from home weren’t going to be as good as they thought they had become, but I didn’t see Wales doing them quite like they did. Should be one hell of a game next weekend when England take on Wales at Twickenham, but with how ruthlessly we put Italy away I am feeling really confident. How good is that Farrell/Ford combination? How scary fast is Sam Simmonds? Even with all the injuries we have it’s still one hell of a team. All credit to Italy as well, and I fancy them to turn over a team or two this Six Nations. That France Ireland game wasn’t exactly a highlight save for that typical, out of nowhere French try, and then that sublime Sexton drop goal deep into injury time. Was it a bass or a wrasse though, that’s what is churning around my head………….

Disclosure - if you buy anything using links found in this blog post or around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

Depending on the weather and water conditions we tend to have a decent chance at bass on lures until well into January, but if we get long spells of really bad weather and/or we get into February and the prospect of at least a couple of months until the confidence is really bubbling again, well that for me is when the cabin fever starts to rage - and one of the ways in which it manifests itself in me is the uncontrollable urge to go looking for new lures.

But do I need any new lures? Go on, have a free guess on me! I am also going to assume that many of you reading this have a good number of bass fishing lures which are most likely covering as good as all the different situations you might come across and locations you might fish - but where’s the fun in admitting that? Be as cynical as you like and snort into your coffee or whatever, but lure fishing for bass especially is my addiction, and when the cabin fever starts to properly bite I go a looking. I enjoy it, and I sure as hell ain’t going to apologise for it either.

I like having a look around and then buying a few things that float my boat. I am not looking for the latest and greatest guaranteed bass catcher because we all know it’s so much about where and when, but lures fascinate me, and I do enjoy looking for variations on what I already have, plus if I can find a type of lure that I don’t have and it looks worth trying then I really like that as well. Like any of you here I am tend to default to types of lures that have worked the best for me in the past, but on the other hand I am always up for a bit of a gamble to see if some different stuff might work.

I’m going to detail a number of different lures that have somehow found their way to me recently, and most links here will be of the affiliate variety with a disclaimer at the bottom as per usual. I enjoy yapping about lures, cabin fever is raging, and I am trusting you to understand that none of the lures below have been proven by me (yet) to be out and out bass slayers. I hope you take this post in the spirit in which it is intended - I will show you mine and I’d sure appreciate it if you’d show me yours by letting me know if I need to check some other stuff out. Bloody cabin fever. The grizzled old me (who is 45 today, surely this can’t be right?) thinks I am above it these days, but as ever I have succumbed……...

IMA Kosuke 110F (110mm, 17g) - Isn’t this a thing of beauty? When I saw that horrible person who owns Bass Lures posting this exact colour Kosuke on Facebook the other day, I resisted for all of about five minutes before heading to the Bass Lures website. I did actually own an IMA Kosuke 110F a year or so ago, but I snagged it up and lost it not long after hooking and dropping a bass on it. I am guessing the name Kosuke is a riff on the Komomo and Sasuke, and it really gets out there, looks like it dives a little shallower than the Sasuke but not as shallow as the Komomo SF-125, and it’s really grippy with a very intense action. I really fancied a bright chartreuse lure and I blame the persuasive power of Facebook for this one. I like bright lures in bright conditions, but I am also wondering if this colour might do me some good in a bit of coloured water.

APIA Ailed'Ore 115F (115mm, 18g) - I actually got this last year and also nailed a few bass on it as well. Because of where I do a lot of my bass fishing, I lean towards lures that don’t dive too deep, and I have a serious thing for the hard lures that swim really shallow - this APIA Ailed'Ore 115F absolutely frigging flies and with that small bib and substantial profile it’s got a subtle kind of action that I know works because it’s caught me fish.

IMA Yoichi 99 Light (99mm, 23g, and there’s a heavier 28g version which I haven’t seen) - I haven’t spent nearly enough bass related fishing time with what I think are called lipless minnows or sinking pencils or whatever, but when I saw a video of this stunning little IMA Yoichi 99 Light doing it’s thing in the water I had to get one. Why? Because I’ve got issues of course, but I do have a bit of a thing for smaller bass lures, and this 23g IMA Yoichi 99 Light really gets out there and swims nice and subtly as per the video below. I’ve got a few ideas where this lure might work and I’m going to enjoy finding out if my hunches are proved right.

Shimano Exsence Responder 109F (109mm, 15g) - Did you know that Shimano Japan have a big range of bass fishing lures? I have been looking at them online for a fair while now, but this is actually the first Shimano bass lure I have ever owned - and if the rest are anything like this Shimano Exsence Responder 109F then I need to track a bunch more down. Holy cow this is every single thing that I want from a very shallow diving hard lure. I love the size and chunky profile, it’s outrageous how well it casts, and with little effort as well, the colours and details on the one I have here are stunning, you know the sort of stunning wiggle action it’s going to have from that shape of bib and then the video below, and I so need to track some more down. I cannot wait to get this Shimano Exsence Responder 109F in front of some bass, because I am so looking forward to seeing if it smashes them as hard as I think it will.

Blue Blue Bloowin! 140S (140mm, 23g) - My go to lure in bouncier conditions has been the IMA Hound 125F Glide for a few years now because I trust it so much to get out there and grip in and catch me some fish, but I enjoy looking around to see if I can find something along the same lines. I like the DUO Tide Minnows and the MegaBass X140SW etc., and this Blue Blue Bloowin! 140S is an interesting addition to this group of lures. It casts very well, it seems to be incredibly grippy with that big bib, and the lure feels like it’s doing a lot in the water.

Shimano Exsence COO 100F (100mm 10g) - I think this type of hard lure might be called a floating pencil in some parts of the world, but I stand very much to be corrected on this (floating lipless minnow perhaps?). What I am sure about is that I haven’t owned a hard lure like this before, but I absolutely love what this little thing does. I don’t know how Shimano Japan can get a little 100mm long lure that weighs only 10g to cast so well, but it’s pretty incredible. Get it out there and it floats like most surface lures, but now start the retrieve and this Shimano Exsence COO 100F slips just under the surface and comes back with the most delightfully subtle action that kind of makes me think of it as a hard soft plastic. Kind of like a slim profile, nice and subtle very shallow diving hard lure, but with no bib. Did I mention that I need to get my hands on some more Shimano hard lures?

Disclosure - if you buy anything using links found in this blog post or around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

I am not sure what the definition of insomnia actually is, but this can’t be right. I stopped reading my book just before 10.30pm last night, I tend to get to sleep easily enough, but at 2.45am this morning I woke up with my brain in whirring overdrive about how utterly delightful DoLive Sticks and Salt Skimmers are on this new lure rod I went and bought because I am beyond hope (more to come), and of course the monster rugby match tomorrow afternoon that is England v Wales. Can this possibly be right?

I don’t know Wales at all well as a country, but I drive through it plenty on my way to the ferry at Fishguard - and I sure am hoping that on my multiple journeys through this rather good looking country that I get to sit there in my epic Berlingo, secure in the knowledge and ever so slightly smug that we smashed the Welsh in the Six Nations.

Anybody into English rugby must surely be excited about what is going on with our national team, but what was really bouncing around my brain at 2.45am this morning was this growing feeling that as good as we can sometimes be and how we are learning to win both ugly and pretty, I don’t think we have properly clicked yet - and if and when we do click, my hope is that it’s woe betide the team we are up against when it all comes together in a glorious eighty minutes of balletic brutality.

Did Scotland play so badly that they flattered the Welsh efforts last weekend, or have all those Welsh injuries in some strange way helped them rediscover how they love to play? Are England good enough to not worry about this for one second and instead stamp their authority on the game for a full eighty minutes? I am feeling very good about an English win, but is everything about to click and we go on an awesome rampage that leaves the rest of the world quaking in their rugby boots? Or is my lack of sleep playing with my head and giving me false hope?

Roll on tomorrow afternoon. You all have a good weekend and let’s reconvene on Monday after a mighty England win. Bring on New Zealand in the autumn? Why the hell not………...

Doing my guiding work with John Quinlan over in Kerry, SW Ireland has taught me many things over the last few years, and there is one thing that stands out because it’s so damn simple yet I wonder how many bass anglers don’t even bother - how many of you stash a couple of “metals” away in your lure box for those times when a serious bit of distance based (shock horror) “spinning” or jigging could do the trick? I guess the words “spinning” and “spinner” are beset with a bit of an image issue these days, so let’s refer to them as “metals”!

I have never seen John without a bunch of metals in his lure box that he can get his clients using if required, indeed when there’s a bit of surf running they can be essential. Whack ‘em out and wind ‘em in, just like with the discontinued Bass Bullet or the just the same but available Westin Kongetobis, plus the increasingly interesting and effective Savage Gear Line Thru Sandeel. Seriously, just chuck them out and wind them straight back in? Damn right, but isn’t it just spinning?! And of course you can jig/fastish sink and draw with the more jig like metals, and so on.

I have heard from a few different people recently about how slow-jigging is becoming more and more popular on the boats and indeed from the shore. Hell, I have got my first ever light shore jigging rod here on test, the rather impressive Major Craft Triple Cross TCX-942SSJ 15-40g Shore Jigging Rod that feels like it’s a peach with metals (come on Henry, spinners!) as well as the regular sort of bass lures we might use - full review to come in due course, but this rod has the most sublime tip on it that I guess is designed to work those metals rather damn well.

There’s a session we had over on the south coast of Ireland last year that really sticks in my head, but it’s not because of the stack of bass we caught, rather it’s the one fish I caught when nobody else did that rams home to me how having that one metal (actually a casting jig I believe) in my box got me that fish. Come on, you know me by now, I am not remotely interested in boasting about the fish I catch and don’t catch, but I want to use that single bass to illustrate my point.

As the tide ebbs we tend to push right out on the edge of a big tide rip, and when this place fishes well it can be electric - a modest, say 4lb bass in that run of current is an epic scrap. For the most part we’re bumping various soft plastics along the bottom and trying to match the weight of jig head to the current so that the lure trundles on down the current without any help from us anglers. And yes, other methods catch bass at times, but you know as well as I do how easy it is to almost default to what has worked so well before. I tend to have a metal or two in my lure box these days, and even if they don’t often come out, I know they are there if needs be……….

So we’re blanking away when the terns that are working on what I presume are sandeels start to occasionally come a little closer. Sod this bumping plastics for a laugh because it’s just not working, so I clip on a casting jig I have actually had for a few years now but hardly used it and I think is actually discontinued - the DUO Press Bait Fusion Slim which weighs 35g and absolutely frigging flies. I was using that ridiculously good HTO Nebula 9’ 7-35g lure rod and because of where the birds were I was absolutely leathering that 35g lure and not worrying for one second if the rod broke because it isn’t technically mine - but of course the rod didn’t break, indeed it’s such a damn good rod it gets a 35g casting jig out there like a frigging missile.

Anyway, I digress. On goes my casting jig and I am just about reaching the feeding birds that were only occasionally coming within any kind of casting range. I’m whacking the lure out, snapping the bale arm over, and then fishing with a sink and draw as the lure flies down the current, and a few casts in I get that unmistakable hit on the drop and I end up landing a nice bass. No other fish were landed out there and because it was just the one bass it’s ended up really sticking in my head as one of those times when having a simple metal or two sitting in my lure box paid off. I don’t know about you, but it’s often the individual fish that come when the fishing is tough which I often remember more than catching a heap of them.

Now as much as I like that particular, discontinued DUO casting jig, and I accept completely that technical bass fishing lures cost what they do for a reason, there’s a part of me that can’t help thinking that many metals are quite simply metals and perhaps don’t need to cost too much. I am really interested in seeing how some of those specialist slow jigs for shore fishing might work, but after catching that single bass on that DUO lure last year, I went looking for a cheaper alternative. I don’t own any yet, but the not very expensive at all Savage Gear Seeker ISP metal looks very similar to me with that lumpy bit on the end, and I reckon it can be straight retrieved (come on, it’s spinning!) or fished like a casting jig etc. Not a very sexy bass lure I grant you, but I for one will be keeping a metal or two in my box this year. We did have another session on that Ireland south coast trip where we smashed a load of not very big bass where distance was the absolute key and we could only reach those fish with spinners. Damn, I meant metals, it sounds far more technical and grown up!

Oh, and well done England! Best not mention the TMO. Onwards and upwards.

Disclosure - if you buy anything using links found in this blog post or around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

I guess a lot of us are in the same boat here as regards our lure fishing especially - we’re continuously looking for all manner of information for any number of reasons, and whilst for the most part this website and blog of mine are the thoughts and opinions of one obsessed angler, I guess that in some ways this is a resource. And this resource is not more right or wrong or better or worse than other fishing resources out there, but of course I am really pleased and also rather honoured that a lot of people spend time on here……………

I don’t know how many of you remember my previous website, but when I chose to migrate over to the Squarespace platform that you are reading this on, I was debating whether it was worthwhile migrating the Fishing Tackle pages over. It was going to take a fair amount of time to do so, and whilst they are merely fishing gear information pages that are hardly going to set the world alight with excitement, I am glad I did take that time and I continue to add to them - a high percentage of people spending time on my website spend time on the Fishing Tackle pages.

Which proves one thing to me again and again - as anglers we are looking for information and help. I am the same as you, but I happen to put information out there into the public domain and it seems to help a number of anglers out. I don’t try to cater to experts because experts know it all anyway, and if there is one thing I do with lure fishing it is remember how bloody confusing it can all be at times - and especially when you’re getting into it and us anglers throw technical terms around like confetti and expect that everybody else knows what we are talking about.  

Anyway, I am in danger of digressing - what I meant to say was that by virtue of me being absolutely fascinated with lure fishing tackle especially, of course those various pages within the Fishing Tackle section of this website continue to grow. Some of the lure pages are getting really quite lengthy, and whilst I do try and think of ways to better break down the various categories to make the information more easily digestible, I don’t want to simply remove information because some of the pages are getting quite long and/or some items of fishing tackle are of course discontinued. As I said, the information contained on these pages is merely my opinions, but it’s acting as a resource and I’d like to keep it going for those anglers who are interested.

So I got to thinking how I might go about summarising some of the Fishing Tackle information in a way that was shorter and to the point and perhaps better appeals to a modern generation that prefers bite size chunks that don’t take much time to digest. I woke up early one morning as I tend to do and started to put together a couple of new pages called “My go-to bass fishing lures” and “My go-to bass fishing rods, reels and lines”. I hope they might prove useful to some of you here.

I will do my best to keep these go-to pages updated. As much as I like messing around with different bass fishing lures though, over time we naturally default to a few different lures that we know and trust to help catch us fish in various situations - hence this “My go-to bass fishing lures” page. Of course I often take different lures out fishing with me than what are listed there, but that page is what I reckon I take out and fish with the most, and if over time some particular lures start taking over for me more than what is listed there then I will change the page to reflect this.

The rods, reels and lines page is perhaps a little different because I am so often messing around with new lure rods especially. What I have done is think about the lure rods I enjoy fishing with the most and which rods cover my bass fishing needs. Say I’ve got a week of my own fishing and photography over in Ireland and I tend to default to a rod or two that I really, really like and trust and know that it’s going to help me deal with different locations and lures and techniques as we move around. The same with spinning reels that over time I know that I like fishing with the most, and then with lines I know the ones I like and trust the most etc.

As above, as and when these choices of mine might change, I will reflect that by changing the information on the page. As an example, I have been fishing on and off with a particular lure rod now for about a year and a half and it’s just stunningly good and adept at so much of the bass fishing I might do - but it’s not on the market yet and I have been asked not to talk about it on here until it is. When that rod goes on sale I will tell you all about it and then amend the go-to page and so on and so on. Crumbs, sorry, this morning’s blog post ended up being a lot longer than I intended! Hope the new Fishing Tackle pages prove useful………...

Call it a serious indulgence that I am not even going to try and justify, but you only live once and all that, and for a fair while now I have been itching to see how good the top of the range Shimano Japan Exsence bass lure rods might be. My interest was then piqued plenty more when an Irish bass angler I know kindly let me have a few waggles with his 3-piece 9’6’’ Shimano Exsence which felt so nice I nearly did a runner with it, and then a while back somebody kindly left a very detailed comment/review right here of a couple of the brand new Shimano Exsence Infinity range of (sea) bass rods that he had bought (a big thank you by the way if you end up reading this, and I blame some of me now owning this rod on you!). My brain went into overdrive…………….

I obviously get to play with a load of different rods via my blog and what I do but I have never bought a bass lure rod outside the UK - when it comes to lure rods especially I firmly believe in buying from UK sources if you can for a number of reasons. But with Shimano UK not exactly going hell for leather into the bass fishing world (when of course they so frustratingly could with all that good looking gear Shimano have got over in Japan) and me having a growing suspicion that some of their Exsence range of bass rods might suit me, my mind was nearly made up. I ummed and aahed for a while because the idea of importing a fishing rod and taking such a punt on something that I had never even seen worried the hell out of me, but one morning my finger “by mistake” clicked on buy and then I rather nervously waited for the thing to arrive.

Before I get into what the rod is like, I am not remotely going to try and justify what I spent on it or whether I actually need it or not (obvious really), and I am going to review a rod here that you will most likely never even see unless Shimano UK one day get their bass fishing act together or you choose to go down the road I have here. Lure fishing is obviously my thing, I love fishing tackle, I saved up, and that’s it really. Naturally I was a little worried in case the research I had done into this rod and with all the language problems that I might end up with something I didn’t really like, but I couldn’t find a way around that.

When the comparatively little tube arrived and I somewhat apprehensively but also very excitedly pulled my brand new Shimano Exsence Infinity S900ML/RF 9’ 5-32g lure rod from within (and there is also a 9’6’’ 5-32g version, as well as a more powerful 9’6’’ 6-38g), let’s just say that my heart was a fluttering as I put it together and had a few waggles, and yes, it’s very light at a quoted 122g. First impressions? Rather interesting but not quite sure about the tip, and within no time at all a reel was strapped to the new rod and out I went to take Storm for a walk and have a bunch of casts on my local estuary. The reel I put on the rod could only be my increasingly beloved Shimano Twin Power XD C3000HG, and yes, I am fully aware that there is a brand new and not bloody cheap, stealthy looking black (ninja?) Shimano Exsence 3000 spinning reel out there that I am sure would sit perfectly on this Exsence rod. Be still my beating heart and man the turrets against the ever present fishing demon in my head telling me that I need it!

I spent a not inconsiderable amount of dosh on taking a gamble with this rod, but I would be perfectly honest - if a bit sad of course - and admit whether my gamble had not paid off and I didn’t really like the rod. It felt very “together” when I had those first few waggles, but you and I both know that a few oohs and aahs mean very little until you get it out fishing and run through the different lures and techniques you might use. So now that I have used the rod a decent number of times, what do I think of it? Did I mess up by taking a punt on it, or is this brand new 9’ long bit of technical Japanese engineering going to make my life a whole lot better?

Put it this way, and it’s a big phew as well - I have never, ever fished with a 9’ lure rod that has done it for me as much as this Shimano. The rod just feels totally “whole” - the feeling of tension and control when you pick it up and fish with it is unlike any other lure rod I have ever used. It’s very steely but not remotely too poker like, and the tip blends so seamlessly into the mid-section which then blends so seamlessly into the butt section and it all works so beautifully well together that when I cast and fish with this rod it feels like the most natural thing possible. Cast after cast is so stupidly effortless and precise, it recovers ridiculously quickly, and you are not going to get the best from this rod by thrashing the living daylights out of it - nice and easy does it and holy cow those lures fly out there. Bring it through as smoothly as possible like a proper fly angler might turn their loops over and this Exsence Infinity responds so well that I find myself purring as I am fishing with it. Seriously. There is not an ounce of strain when you load the rod up and send your lure out there, and whilst I accept completely that casting is merely a means to an end of getting your lures out there, I enjoy the actual casting with this rod so damn much I could do it all day.

And then I get to retrieving my lures with this rod. Note that I wasn’t quite sure about the tip when I first waggled my brand new Japanese gamble - but oh how those waggles divulged virtually nothing! I knew for example that from the first waggle with the considerably cheaper HTO Nebula 9’ 7-35g lure rod that I was going to really like it - you either love that sort of lightning quick, poky sort of feel or you don’t (I do). It’s a hell of a lot of rod for not nearly enough money and what you see is what you get - and yes, I like that very much.

But this Shimano Exsence Infinity S900ML/RF 9’ 5-32g lure rod is very different. It so, so needs to be fished with for a while to fully appreciate how utterly sublime it is. I haven’t drunk since I was 18 and I never liked wine anyway, but it’s a bit like a decent bottle of red needing to breathe for a while before drinking so that it can be properly appreciated and understood. Sure, the rod’s nice and fast, but there is just so much to it that has opened up to me over time. If I was a little apprehensive about the tip on this Exsence from those first few waggles then those worries if you like flew away as scarily easily as my money did to Japan to buy the thing.

I am not a technical person when it comes to rods and reels so I don’t know how Shimano Japan have achieved this, but I’ve never fished with a lure rod where the tip feels so natural and correct and such a perfect and seamless part of the overall rod. You can bend it perfectly easily if you pull on it - which indeed it should - but when you actually fish with it I can’t stop purring at how frigging amazing it is. Perfection? Well I have never fished with a 9’ lure rod that I like more, put it that way. I have loved the Major Craft Truzer 9’ 10-30g for a fair while now, but for me this incredible Exsence Infinity is a serious step up. Chalk and cheese………..

Rung with Fuji Torzite guides and an overall handle design which I like so much that when I now turn to a different rod I am left wondering why on earth all butt grips especially aren’t like on this Shimano one, it seems to be the case that a lot of of money can sometimes buy you a rod which never seems to be remotely trying or overexerting itself whatever you throw at it within its casting ratings. That APIA Foojin'AD Flow Hunt 810ML 8'10'' 7-32g (review here) falls into this category, as does the properly stunning Tailwalk Hi-Tide TZ S90ML 9’ 7-24g (oh how I want you!). This outrageously talented Shimano Exsence Infinity breathes that sort of rarified air, and then some.

Now I didn’t buy a 9’ rod like this to bang something like the Xorus Patchinko all day long, but the ease with which that lure gets out there is amazing, and working it is a doddle. An IMA Salt Skimmer on this Shimano rod is an absolute disgrace it feels so good, and there is just no need to lash the lure at all. Bumping the Fiiish Black Minnow around over a shallow reef is great, and putting various hard lures out and bringing them back in feels about as good as any rod I can think of that I have ever fished with. I gambled on this lure rod and went for the 9’ version because it’s my favourite lure rod length, and I wanted a really high end rod that might cover the bulk of my regular bass fishing when I know that I am not going to be faced with those hectic kind of bouncing conditions which tends to call for a different approach anyway.

And of course what I was really, really hoping for was that this Shimano Exsence Infinity S900ML/RF 9’ 5-32g lure rod might be a bit of a peach when I am fishing with soft plastics such as the 6’’ long OSP DoLive Stick especially. I fish with soft plastics so much these days that of course it influences the rods I err towards. I was hoping, but of course I didn’t quite know how it might turn out……...

Well this rod is so good with soft plastics like the DoLive Stick that it’s kinda cured me of my longing for the ultimate lighter lure rod. Don’t get me wrong, I do love dropping down a notch and fishing that smidgen lighter for bass when I feel I can, but this Shimano Exsence Infinity has turned out to be so ridiculously able and responsive and direct with the soft plastics and various other lighter lures that it’s now covering all those bases for me - when I need it to feel like a lighter rod in calmer conditions it does so, but when I need to step things up a bit and say bang a Patchinko or Hound Glide out, the rod feels just as good. This rod honestly feels as good fishing a small soft plastic such as the baby 4.5’’ OSP DoLive Stick as it does casting and then retrieving the 27g Patchinko II at the amazing range you can get this lure out there. It’s just not breaking a sweat whatever you throw at it within its generous and I think very accurate casting range of 5-32g.

As an example, I was standing on a rock the other day, hoping for a depths of winter bass and fishing with the little 4.5’’ OSP DoLive Stick which weighs about 8.5g when rigged on a 3/0 weedless hook, and also bear in mind that I had the strong as frigging rope 26lb/0.18mm Sufix 832 braid on my reel - that small soft plastic absolutely flies out with the merest flick of the rod, and working the lure back gets me purring again it’s such a delight. I then changed to a 30g Fiiish Black Minnow (20g Shore Head meant for the 140mm body, used with a 120mm Black Minnow body which weighs about 10g), cast it out there, and this outrageous Shimano Exsence Infinity S900ML/RF 9’ 5-32g lure rod felt as easy casting that 30g lure as it had the 8g lure a moment before. It’s just not breaking a sweat. Bumping/swimming that Black Minnow across a very rocky bottom is as easy as twitching a little 4.5’’ DoLive Stick around. And so on. Try as I might I just can’t trip this rod up. I have used a lot of good lure rods over the years, but I haven’t yet come across one that feels as effortless and in complete control of so many different lures, lure weights and techniques as this particular Shimano rod. I don’t know anything about how Shimano Japan have made a lure rod this accomplished, but holy frigging cow they must know their stuff.

The feeling of responsiveness and control really is quite something - yet again it strikes me how the whole rod is working together. There’s enough give in the tip - but not too much which as I said I don’t like - yet it doesn’t feel like it’s just the tip doing the work with you when you are actively working your lures. The overall tension if you like through the whole rod just feels perfect when you actually animate a lure instead of simply winding it in, and I seriously can’t think of another lure rod that has ever felt quite the same. As I said at the start, this rod was a present to myself that I obviously don’t actually need, but I am on the way towards justifying it in my head because it seems to so perfectly be a few different rods rolled into one and therefore money is in fact being saved! Or so my twisted logic goes. Holy cow am I now trying so hard to resist buying the longer and slightly more powerful 9’6’’ 6-38g Shimano Exsence Infinity lure rod to add to this beauty for those times when I need to step things up a bit. I’ll get my coat……….

Disclosure - if you buy anything using links found in this blog post or around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

I have been away on the Isle of Wight for a few days with my family, but I saw the sad news of another angler who was out fishing on the north coast of Cornwall over the weekend at night, somehow ended up in the sea, and sadly died. Another angler who went out night fishing like so many of us do or have done, never for one second expecting anything to go so tragically wrong, and another family torn to pieces with grief.

From the Port Isaac RNLI Facebook page: “Port Isaac RNLI were paged at 12.43am today (Sunday 18th February) to reports of a fisherman in the water to the eastern side of Castle Beach at Tintagel. The casualty had been reported by members of the group he was fishing with. The inshore lifeboat launched at 12.55am and, with sea and weather conditions being fair, arrived on scene at 1.11am along with Maritime and Coastguard Agency helicopter Rescue 924. By this time the casualty had been in the water for approximately 40 minutes. The lifeboat and helicopter both began a search of the area with the helicopter using its searchlight. On the first sweep of the search pattern, volunteer lifeboat crew member Mark Grills spotted the casualty in the water about 80 feet from the base of the cliff. The casualty was brought on board the boat and volunteer crew administered first aid. The decision was quickly taken to transfer to Rescue 924 which airlifted the casualty to hospital. Owing to poor weather conditions at Newquay, they made their way to Derriford hospital. Sadly the casualty was pronounced dead on arrival. Our thoughts are with their family and friends at this time.”

I thought that a calm and peaceful photo was most relevant today

I know no more than the above, but I do know for a fact that the angler who died was not wearing a lifejacket. Considering that I have successfully spent at least 99.9% of my fishing life studiously avoiding the whole lifejacket thing, I sure as shit am not about to hand out any blame here - fishing on the rocks at any time of day or night is what it is. You spend time by the sea and things can so easily go wrong, and whilst I am not out there bait fishing so much at night like I used to, you know and I know that the angler who so sadly died at the weekend could just as easily have been you or I. Anybody who fishes and believes that it will never happen to them is both deluded and a bloody liar, end of.

I can’t sit here writing this and tell you that if the angler who died had been wearing a lifejacket then they would still be alive this morning, but then I can’t get away from what I have been learning about lifejackets. The angler who went in “with sea and weather conditions being fair” (albeit pretty damn cold) was in the water for “approximately 40 minutes”, and whilst I dread to think how terrifying that was, correctly wearing an auto-inflate lifejacket is going to help buy you more time until you hopefully get rescued. There are never any guarantees and I am assuming that an angler out on the rocks at night in the middle of February knows what they are doing, but it’s the sea and as well as we think we know her, she is mightily unpredictable.

When they are ready I will be able to show you the short films from that tank test day we did with the RNLI, and by no means am I even remotely trying to compare jumping into a not that cold tank with safety divers all around us to that poor angler who ended up in the sea at night in the middle of February and died - but even from our very safe experiences in that tank I can tell you how nasty it is when you’re trying to stay afloat and choppy water keeps trying to flood your airways. I am going to quote from my RNLI day blog post I wrote: “let me tell you how bloody horrible it is when you are in the water and now you’ve got water breaking into your face and in no time at all you start spluttering and gagging and spitting and you can’t get enough air in your lungs before getting water in your face again and then as safe as you are in the tank you’re already getting tired trying to stop water getting in your face and down your throat and in no time at all you’re not thinking straight and you want the hell out of there and I went for one of the ropes at the side of the pool because it was so bloody horrible.”

Can you imagine how horrendously scary it was for that poor angler over the weekend, when it’s for real and you are fighting for your life? I try to but I can’t, and to be honest it breaks my bloody heart that another angler has died doing what they love, and another family is broken. I can’t tell you what to do here, but I can say this because it’s my blog and I have done a complete turnaround with regards to my ignoring the bleeding obvious - stop being a macho idiot who reckons it’s never going to happen to them (this was me not long ago at all) and start wearing a lifejacket when you are out on the rocks especially. They don’t cost much but they could end up saving your life. I will be doing some reviews of a few that I have been trying out in due course. They are not expensive and they are so damn easy to wear.

And as I said earlier, this is absolutely nothing to do with me blaming anybody or anything here. I spent many, many years fishing all manner of rocks marks in the middle of the night and in all kinds of conditions, not even knowing anything at all about lifejackets and how they might work for me. I can tell you a bit about lifejackets now because I have been learning plenty about them from some very knowledgeable people, but I wonder how many anglers out there know the first thing about modern, easy to wear lifejackets and how they could save your life? It’s not enough to simply say wear a lifejacket - anglers need to know about them and how much good they can do.

And please, please, please do not for one second rely on a floatation suit. You will see my mate Mark’s experience of wearing one in that RNLI tank in due course, and I can’t believe I used to wear a floatation suit for some of my winter fishing especially, feeling kinda safe in the very mistaken belief that if I ended up in the sea it would save my life. Sure they are nice and warm, but they are categorically not a lifejacket, indeed my understanding is that they are actually meant to be worn together with a lifejacket - but how many floatation suit companies do you see telling you this? I will be writing more about this when the short films are finished from our testing day, but I am mentioning this here because I was alerted to the fact that a ‘fishing expert’ from the Cornish Federation of Sea Anglers said that a floatation suit is as good as a lifejacket on Radio Cornwall I believe, of course referencing back to the tragic events from the weekend.

Yet again I take my hat off to those brave people from the RNLI. Think about that crew who got that angler out of the sea at the weekend in the middle of the night. Think about how it must affect them to deal with death like that. So damn sad for too many people……….

I can’t ever remember worrying for one second about using headlamps when I spent all my time bait fishing, but now that bass fishing on lures consumes me so completely, I tend to do all I can to keep any light source off the water when I am night fishing, and when I change lures or do something that requires a bit of light I will use the (pretty dim) red LED on my headlamp if at all possible.

I do all this for two main reasons - firstly my head tells me that keeping light off the water at night has to be a good thing with regards to not spooking bass which are coming in so close under cover of darkness, and secondly because so many anglers who fish for bass at night say that it’s a good thing to do as well. But is it? I was asking some questions on Facebook the other day and a number of people said that in their experience it didn’t make a blind bit of difference whether you turned a headlamp and used the white light settings and so on……….

So what’s the truth here? I bought a new flashgun for my Fuji X-T2 camera last year and I wanted to give it a quick test in the middle of the night and see if it could properly illuminate my mate Mark when we were fishing. Now it’s obviously not a very exciting photograph, but I would suggest that chucking a lot of bright light from a flashgun in order to illuminate a subject like an angler is what it is - artistically lacking!

It serves a basic purpose though, but the point here is that we had decided to head home because things had been very quiet for a while. I asked Mark if he would mind carrying on fishing for a little bit while I tested the new flashgun out and I remember saying that me chucking a load of very bright and intense flash out across the water and into the night sky would sure as hell scare the hell out of any bass that might still be hanging around. I shot a few photos and then the very next minute and after all that flashgun light had been pumped out there, Mark got hit hard by a bass when things had been so dead for a while. Go figure?

Do any of you here have any thoughts or experiences of all this night time light on the water stuff for bass fishing? I can’t get away from the logic attached to night fishing and not suddenly shining light on the water, but does it really make any difference? Like ninjas we creep around the coastline at night, doing our utmost to keep any headlamp use to an absolute minimum, building up as much night vision as possible, trying not to trip the hell over and rent the night sky asunder when you smash your shin into a sodding boulder, but could we just make life a lot easier and in fact use our headlamps more?

And what do you know about how red and white lights might affect fish or not? A part of me thinks that using a dim red light to change lures or whatever has to be a good thing because perhaps it isn’t spooking the fish, but perhaps more importantly it’s not messing up my night vision. So as impressive as so many of these modern LED headlamps are these days (and this rather amazing little Fenix HL60R that I have here to test has got five different white light brightness settings for example, from pretty dim but easy to move around up to so incredibly bright that I reckon I could be seen from space), would an LED headlamp that has a bunch of different red LED brightness settings as well as the traditional white LED settings be pretty damn useful for our night fishing and not messing up our night vision? Would it be possible to do all you need to do at night purely on a red coloured LED and different brightness levels?

Or am I barking up the wrong tree because a bit of white light suddenly shining across an inky black sea in the middle of the night doesn’t make a blind bit of difference to the bass anyway? I can’t help but think it does, but then I can’t get away from some saying that it doesn’t, or that them shining torches around on night dives doesn’t scare bass away at all and so on. Not only do we consume ourselves with trying to think like fish and convincing those demons in our heads that a new rod or reel or lure purchase is purely because the bass would prefer it (what, me?), but wow wouldn’t it be nice to be able to see what fish do actually see? Surely science can tell us so much but in fact we can never completely know because try as we might we will still never be fish?

Well this is a first, and if you’d have asked me even half way through last year whether I could imagine myself sitting down to write a blog review of a lifejacket I’d have most likely laughed at you - yet here we are. I hope that I am proof enough that leopards can indeed change their spots…….

Before we get going, you need to know a few things - as you might have guessed, I am categorically not an expert on lifejackets, indeed much of my previous experience of wearing them has been having to grab one off a rack and wear one when out on a lake photographing fly fishing. I recall not liking the experience very much because they felt like they were getting in the way and I could feel a bit of bulk around my neck area especially. I had to wear them so I did, but I can’t recall coming away and thinking wow, that was nice and easy.

And it’s thanks to my contacts at the RNLI that I have a few different lifejackets here to wear and test and see how I get on with. I have been using this Spinlock Deckvest Lite lifejacket for a while now, plus a couple of Crewsaver models (an auto-inflate and a manual-inflate version), and a modified Mullion lifejacket arrived a couple of days ago. As with testing and reviewing any of the gear on this blog, I obviously don’t get paid to do so and I will tell it how it is. I can’t control whether you believe me or not and as ever any thoughts and opinions are mine and mine only, and there’s a part of me that feels somewhat hesitant trying to review such an important, potentially life saving bit of fishing tackle such as a lifejacket. Oh, and yes, me calling a lifejacket an item of fishing tackle is entirely deliberate.

OK, so what’s this Spinlock Deckvest Lite lifejacket like? And for ease of my typing, I am going to refer to it as the Deckvest Lite for the rest of this review. Well if this is what a modern lifejacket is like then I am all over it - talk about easy to wear, and as much as one of these things could end up saving our lives one day, they sure as shit ain’t got a chance at doing just that if we aren’t wearing one in the first place. If we as anglers are incredibly resistant to this safety related stuff but for whatever reason choose to become a bit more receptive, then it isn’t going to go much further if what we need to wear is a pain in the backside. I for one am not going to yap about wearing lifejackets if I don’t find it easy to wear one myself.

And this Deckvest Lite is a breeze to wear. As I said, I don’t have much experience with lifejackets so far, but from the moment I put this thing on I was amazed at just how easy and comfortable it is, indeed my disliking older lifejackets which used to get in my way and bug the hell out of me seems like a distant memory now. My understanding is that this very much engineered to be light and comfortable Deckvest Lite is targeted towards sea users like us. I have grabbed this from the Spinlock website: “This ultra lightweight lifejacket is streamlined for ultimate comfort and agility”, and I have to agree.

Crumbs!

When you put this Deckvest Lite on, make sure to put it on top of everything else (as per my blog post here), and then it is absolutely vital that you secure the crotch strap - take it from the back of the lifejacket, down between your legs and up your front, and then clip it into the front of the lifejacket. This is an auto-inflate lifejacket, as in if you end up in the drink then that immersion in the water will set the gas cylinder off which very quickly inflates the actual bladder/floatation part of the lifejacket which is rather cleverly folded away into the actual lifejacket itself that you can see here in the various photos and screenshots. I did jump into the RNLI tank with a Deckvest Lite lifejacket on, and like any auto-inflate lifejacket, it inflates quickly and powerfully, and if you don’t secure that crotch strap then there is every chance it will be forced up and over your head from the power of the gas powered inflation, and this of course then takes away from how a lifejacket works. Unlike a PFD or buoyancy aid, a lifejacket is designed to keep you upright and with your head out of the water - which it can’t do if you haven’t secured that crotch strap and it ends up and over your head.

Wear a lifejacket or don’t wear one, it’s entirely up to you, but at least I can tell you here that for the price of a decent spinning reel, an HTO Nebula lure rod, or about thirty DoLive Sticks (5 packets, and as much as I love ‘em, they are not going to even potentially save my life), you can buy this Deckvest Lite lifejacket which is genuinely so damn easy to wear that when I asked my mate Mark how his first experience of wearing a lifejacket for shore fishing was going last year, he had actually forgotten he was wearing it (this has to beg the obvious question - why not wear one?). Do exactly what you want, but one thing you can’t do anymore is argue that a lifejacket is a pain in the butt to wear for shore fishing because it’s so heavy and bulky and constrictive and expensive, not with how easy this Spinlock Deckvest Lite lifejacket is to wear.

And if you are thinking that an auto-inflate system might not work for you in certain situations (wading out in an estuary or on the beach perhaps?), then you can buy a Spinlock Manual Conversion Kit. I have one here but I haven’t used it yet, and what it does is essentially block water getting to the gas cylinder to set it off. If you were to end up in the drink then you pull the Manual Activation Handle which is of course part of the lifejacket, but for the most part I would suggest that the auto-inflate way is going to be the most applicable to how many of us fish from rocks etc. You can also buy add on lights and spray hoods (more to come on this). There is also a Deckvest Lite + version which I haven’t seen, but I think it adds a couple of lifting straps.

Don’t go worrying about heavy rain or a bit of spray suddenly setting off the auto-inflate mechanism, because they are designed to go off via immersion in the water. This is the info from the Spinlock website: “UML Mk5 Inflator. This is a water sensitive activation system that uses a compressed paper capsule which dissolves when wet which then releases a spring to puncture the CO2 cylinder. The cap is designed so that only water flowing upwards through the unit will cause it to activate. Water, spray and rain running down the jacket will not cause activation.” You can buy replacement cylinders and you do need to keep an eye on them and replace as needs be. When I learn more about this, you will read it on here.  

This is how an inflated lifejacket is designed to fit around you and keep your head out of the water

The Deckvest Lite I have here provides 170N of buoyancy and weighs a measly 860g - it easily kept me afloat in a choppy RNLI tank with my chest waders on, and I am not exactly wasting away here with my relaxed muscles and a figure that was born to wear tight compression gear! Now you can pretty easily find these Spinlock Deckvest Lite lifejackets online, but I am really, really pleased to see that a specialist lure fishing shop and website has taken the plunge so to speak and are now stocking these rather outstanding items of fishing tackle - check out the Lure Heaven website here, and give them a shout if you have any questions. If we as anglers are looking to increase our own fishing safety then we can all help each other by sourcing as much of this safety gear from fishing tackle shops which will then encourage these shops to stock more of it. I would also suggest that if the lifejacket manufacturers start to see anglers buying lifejackets then we stand a better chance of getting this safety gear made even better for our specific needs.

I bet if you had a look at one hundred bass lure anglers you would find at least fifty different ways of carrying your lures when you are out fishing, from rucksacks full of far too many boxes down to a handful of whatever lures stuffed in a jacket pocket, plus anything in between. I can distinctly remember where I was fishing a few years ago now when I made up my mind that how I was currently carrying my lures around simply wasn’t working properly and I had to find a logical solution…………..

Which via a bit of trial and error led me to the simple but effective HPA Chest pack which sits around my waist on an old and battered Simms neoprene wading belt, and secured to that HPA lure bag is an old camera strap which works perfectly as a shoulder strap and makes carrying this bag completely effortless (and I believe the HPA Chest Pack is about to be available here in the UK again, check here, yippee!). Clipped to my HPA bag on a coiled spring type lanyard is one of those small size plastic Fish Grip things, and when I deem it necessary I secure a landing net to the bag as well. On that old Simms wading belt is also my pair of horribly expensive but genuinely as good after more than four years of use Van Staal titanium pliers, plus now an HPA rescue knife which is for a very specific purpose and I hope I never need to use it - more to come on this.

I have tried a few alternatives to this HPA chest pack over the years, including some rather nice looking Japanese lure bags that look somewhat snazzier, but I still can’t find a way to carry my lures that works better for me than what I have described. I am right handed and it feels the most natural to have the HPA chest pack sitting on the left side of my waist, and to change a lure I can easily secure my lure rod in my right armpit, unclip the lure and grab the Breakaway Mini Link lure clip in my teeth, unzip the bag one handed, get to my two lure boxes, change lures, put the lure box  or boxes back, and zip it back up again. When I am carrying my HPA 40 litre waterproof rucksack, the way my HPA chest pack lure bag thing doesn’t get in the way at all - and because I am always carrying camera gear, a sling bag style lure carrying system doesn’t work for me. I don’t like them anyway, but you might, and that’s great.

Anyway, because I have settled on this way of carrying my lures when I am out fishing, I know that this HPA chest pack fits two specific lure boxes in - which in turn means that I take no more lures with me than can fit in those two lure boxes. I don’t sneak a bunch of extra lures into my rucksack and I know my lure carrying system well enough to know how to fit a bunch of different hard and soft lures in there, and especially if we are out and about say for a long day or night over in Ireland and the ground we are covering could call for any number of different approaches.

OK, so I know that I can get two of those clever and so damn logical, smaller sizes of washable lure boxes in my HPA chest pack (the 20 x 15 x 4.5cms size of plastic, washable lure boxes) - and because of the size of the HPA bag I use, the best way to fit a couple of these lure boxes in is to have one sitting horizontally, and the other one upright, as per the photo above. If there is one thing I can’t stand it’s trying to pick a lure out of a tangled up mess of treble and single hooks, so these washable lures boxes that have the lures in separate compartments to me make so much sense. Have a look around and you can find a few different makes of washable lure boxes which I am sure come out of the same factories in China, but I have gravitated to the Snowbee versions for a while now because they are well made, a good price, last for ages, and easily available.

Anybody who knows these 20 x 15 x 4.5cms size of washable lure boxes knows that you can’t get a lure longer than 140mm into them, and even then not all 140mm lures will fit in them - the MegaBass X140SW for example won’t quite fit in, but the Xorus Patchinko II will. As I said earlier, I have been using this lure carrying system for a while now! I know that in some of the compartments I can sneak a couple of particular hard lures into a single compartment etc. Should I get my coat?

And of course I also carry more and more soft plastics these days, or what if I want to carry a hard lure or two that is over that 140mm size, say the 27g Savage Gear Line Thru Sandeel? I think it might have been Ben from the Art of Fishing tackle shop who introduced me to the Snowbee Small/Long lure washable lure box above, and I remain eternally grateful. So bloody simple, so logical (note the lure compartments running lengthways instead of across), so perfect for me and my soft plastics especially, and yes, in case you were wondering why the lure box above is so clean and new-looking, damn right I have got a brand new spare Snowbee Small/Long lure box here to go with the older one I have been using for years now. When I find something as indispensable as this I tend to get a spare because I then start worrying that one day they will become unavailable and I will be cursing my not having at least a couple!

There isn’t a lure that I have yet taken bass fishing that won’t fit in that Snowbee Small/Long lure box, but for me it’s even more the case that I really like carrying my rigged soft plastics like this. If I can fit the two lure boxes of this size into my HPA chest pack and one sits horizontally and one sits vertically, then I like my soft plastics to remain flat because it keeps them nice and straight, hence it’s this Small/Long lure box that sits horizontally or across when in my HPA chest pack lure bag thing, and the regular Snowbee Small box that sits upright. You might have worked out that I have a bit of a thing (?!) for the OSP DoLive Stick, and I can fit a bunch of these soft plastics in there, plus a range of say the Fiiish Black Minnows with some different jig head weights for my favourite 120mm size, and so on. And sorry, this blog post was meant to be purely a review of a simple but so damn logical and useful lure box, but it made more sense to get to why I so like this particular Snowbee Small/Long lure box via describing how I carry my lures and therefore why I can’t do without this plastic box. Hell, I tease my wife about the amount of tupperware I find stuffed away in the kitchen (“it’s so useful”), but am I any better?!

Disclosure - if you buy anything using links found in this blog post or around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

If there is one thing cabin fever does besides costing me a fortune, it’s getting me thinking about my lure fishing to come this year and how I might go about changing a few things up to see if I can catch more or better fish - and plans are afoot to spend more time in our local estuaries, where a more measured, lighter and subtler approach I am convinced will help at times. Looking for bass mooching around in weed beds for example ain’t exactly going to go that well if I start chucking some great big noisy lure at them and also wade around without a care in the world.

So when I manage to get a new tip for that rather stunning light lure rod Favorite Skyline SKY-862M 8’6’’ 6-21g, it will sit rigged up in my rod rack here at home, together with a small spinning reel loaded up with say 0.10mm/14lb Sufix Performance Pro 8 braid, and a light, most likely 10lb or 12lb Sufix Invisiline fluorocarbon leader. This is some setup and it will be coming out to play when I fish my local estuaries especially - and I’ve begun thinking about lure clips………….

Which I grant you are not exactly the most exciting items of fishing tackle on earth, and to be honest I already use my perfect lure clip anyway, the very clever, easy to use and has never let me down in over two years of use Breakaway Mini Link. This lure clip works perfectly with all the bass lures I might use here in the UK and Ireland, but because winter ain’t frigging over yet my head gets to thinking about things, and I can’t get away from how a decent loop knot surely gives the most perfect presentation possible when you’re fishing a soft plastic such as the 4.5’’ and 6’’ long OSP DoLive Sticks which are fishing as much on the drop as they are on the retrieve. I grant you that the margins of presentation may well be slim to potentially non-existent, but there must be a reason why fly anglers use loop knots so much to secure their flies. And cabin fever rages as well.

The awesome Breakaway Mini Link lure clip

Anyway, as much as I love the Breakaway Mini Link lure clip, a loop knot does make a lot of sense for the lighter tackle approach especially. But I am going to want to change lures sometimes and I really don’t want to be having to endlessly cut and retie knots in my leader and then retie leaders because they have got too short due to me changing lures a bunch of times, not when I don’t think I need to. Does that make sense? So as much as the Breakaway Mini Link is my go-to lure clip, I went looking for a lure clip that worked that bit more like a loop knot might, but I wanted the lightest possible clip so there would be no impact on the movements of my lure - and yes, I might well be over-analysing this, but as I said, this is how cabin fever plays with my head, and regardless of that I do love messing around with stuff to see if I can improve things.

The Fiiish Perfect Link Fishing Snap, Medium size, this is a 25g Offshore Head on a 120mm Black Minnow

Now you can find any number of those snap like lure clips out there, indeed I know from experience that the Fiiish ones are really good (Fiiish Perfect Link Fishing Snaps). OK, so I struggle a bit to open them up, but I have used them plenty when we have been testing gear in the US especially, and they work well. The really small Medium (20lbs) Fiiish ones are good for our bass fishing if that helps, and they are nice and compact and are much easier to open if you’ve got decent thumb nails especially!

Owner Hyper Welded Quick Snap, size 1

Anyway, on my search for a lure clip that essentially works like a loop knot in your leader but gives me the ease of changing lures and not tying endless knots, I came across the Owner Hyper Welded Quick Snap online - and I was sure I had seen these clips before. They are a simple snap style of lure clip, but the wire is so damn thin and light compared to any other snap style clip I have come across, the quoted strength to size ratios are something else, and they are not cheap at all - and I went searching through my image library here because I know I’d seen these before (keywords are vital!). Good eh? I found the photo above which meant I had to have used them, so I went digging around in a box I have here and hey sodding presto I found a packet of them! I ran a search on my old emails and found that I had got them from Lurefishingforbass.co.uk which I see haven’t got them in stock at the moment, but hopefully they will get them back in at some point.

Now it’s some small and potentially insignificant margins as I said, but look at that photograph and you will get an idea how thin and light that Owner Hyper Welded Quick Snap is - bear in mind it’s the size 1 which has a quoted breaking strain of 33lbs! It’s very easy to open and close, it’s incredibly light and fine and like a loop knot, and they are not cheap, but if this little snap style clip weighs any more than a loop knot in your fluoro or affect my lures in any meaningful way then I would be very surprised. As much as the Breakaway Mini Link floats my boat, I do like the bigger loop style bit on this Owner Hyper Welded Quick Snap. One of these clips will be sitting on the end of my light fluoro leader on that light setup and I shall be giving them a proper go this season.

Disclosure - if you buy anything using links found in this blog post or around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

If there is one thing that has never made much sense to me, it’s how the bass fishing related UK tackle trade doesn’t seem to get involved much in the whole bass conservation thing - when the simple fact must surely be that if we have more and bigger bass to catch then we will spend more of our money chasing them. We may currently look across the pond in a state of incredulity a lot of the time these days, but one thing I can’t argue against is how politically active their sport fishing market is, and how involved so much of the fishing tackle trade is in this. More anglers equals a healthier and wealthier marketplace so it’s a win win situation all round………..

So I can’t help but take my hat off to a company like Sidewinder Lures which has chosen to get right behind the rather fantastic work that the Save Our Sea Bass (SOS) group do to try and secure a better future for these fish we obsess about. For sure a lot of the work these kind souls do sadly goes unnoticed and unappreciated, but rest assured that there are a number of selfless anglers out there who do more than their bit on our behalf (and you have my eternal thanks) - and what a group like SOS could really do with is a whole lot more concerted effort from the fishing tackle trade.

I am quoting from the SOS website here, and it’s from the MD of Sidewinder Lures, Dave Kiddy: “Sidewinder lures are now delighted to be working closely with the lobby group Save Our Sea Bass, in order to pressure the government to re-think its policy regarding the public’s access to Sea bass stocks. Sidewinder lures are very disappointed in the huge difference between how the Government treats the commercial fishing sector as opposed to the Recreational Sea angling sector. From 2018 all Sidewinder products shall also carry the Save Our Sea Bass logo and we would encourage all individual Sea anglers with an interest in their sport to contact their MP as soon as possible to impress upon the Government how unhappy they are with the current situation.”

Can you imagine how good it would be to see these bass related campaigns that are waged on our behalf being properly backed by companies within the tackle trade? There is a story I heard a campaign to try and better protect a specific fishery for redfish over in the US, and a major fishing tackle company was approached to ask about getting involved, and they did - to the tune of handing over a cheque for $1,000,000 to help fight the campaign. Now even if the figures relayed to me were a bit of an exaggeration (but I was assured they were true), can you imagine going cap in hand to a UK fishing tackle company and asking for some funds to try and secure healthier bass stocks? I have a lot of respect for the fishing tackle trade as a whole, but I am not exactly seeing what Sidewinder Lures are doing being replicated very much by other businesses who stand to profit from the likes of you and I spending our money on going bass fishing. Are things slowly changing or will we be having the same conversations another few years down the line?

And I hope all you kind readers of this blog are doing ok as the Beast from the East ravages our fair isle and dumps such biblical amounts of snow that schools are forced to close (my girls are gutted!), businesses are affected, and of course the majority of drivers choose to collectively drive like a bunch of idiots because there’s this slippery white stuff on the roads which means they have to drive just as fast and as close to the person in front of them! We may be good at lots of things here in the UK, but I would suggest that when a bit of snow falls that we do get a little bit overexcited. And please note that I haven’t yet talked about the England Scotland rugby from last weekend because I am still trying to work out if getting thrashed like that will actually turn out to be a good thing in the long run. Complacency killer?

I would suggest that lure fishing with a good modern spinning reel and a good modern, smooth as you like 8-strand braid is a rather lovely experience, and especially compared to the early days of braid and spinning reels that were struggling to cope with these newer lines - albeit for the most part I was bait fishing with mono mainlines far more than I was with braid in those days…….

The other day I spooled a spinning reel up with a brand new, high tech mono mainline to see how it compared to braid because it’s so long since I fished with mono and I wanted to see what it was like - and to be honest it felt horrible. Apparently it’s one hell of a monofilament that I bet would be something else on a multiplier reel, but the mono going out through the rod rings didn’t feel great at all. I far, far prefer lure fishing with a good, modern braid, and even more so now we have a few seriously good 8-strand braids that are so much cheaper than braids like that used to cost.

Now I know that bass aren’t exactly dirty fighters like pollack and wrasse are, but the simple and unavoidable fact is that if you fish shallower rocky ground especially, you run the risk of your thin and lovely mainline being run over a sharp rock edge from time to time. Whilst I am always going to suggest that 99.9% of saltwater lure anglers here in the UK and Ireland could do with locating their drag knob on their spinning reel and learning which way it turns to apply more drag rather than less, it doesn’t take a running bass to cause your lovely, thin mainline to end up over a sharp edge of a rock if the hooked fish goes the wrong way as such. And as good as these modern braids are, they don’t like sharp rock edges.

Now to me this begs the obvious question that if we fish in amongst foul ground then must we expect to lose the odd fish like this? Is the odd lost fish due to broken mainlines simply an inevitable part and parcel of this style of fishing? I don’t know about you, but it’s not exactly a common occurrence, albeit I’d like to prevent losses like this if I could. I used to turn to heavier and thicker mono mainlines for bait fishing in amongst the worse ground, but even then you’d lose some fish because the line broke over the rocks, and I sure as hell don’t want to turn to say 0.50mm mono mainlines for my lure fishing.

I don’t know about you, and bearing in mind here that braid specs fluctuate wildly from brand to brand and country to country, but my go-to mainline tends to be say a decent 20lb 8-strand braid. I might vary that depending on where and how I am bass fishing, plus if I am actively testing out a specific braid and so on - and if you put a decent leader knot in these modern braids then I reckon they are incredibly strong, but an average braid for me tends to be around 20lbs or whatever PE number or diameter is claimed on the packaging. But this of course has nothing to do with a hooked fish causing the same (now nice and tight) mainline over a bastard little sharp edge on a rock………

With a fish that fights as stupidly dirty and powerfully as an angry GT then I can understand completely an angler using say 100lb braid to an even stronger leader - put potentially 100lbs plus of fast tropical fish near a load of coral bombies and you’ve got a lot working against you landing said fish. I get completely that a much thicker braid should in theory give you increased protection against getting cut off - and even then I believe a lot of GTs are still lost to cut lines - but for us and our bass fishing and the more modest sizes and power levels they have, is there a point where a thicker mainline is really going to make a meaningful difference in amongst the foul stuff?

How much thicker or tougher does a braid need to be to really help prevent sharp rock/reef based breakoffs? As I blogged about only the other day, my 26lb, strong as you like Sufix 832 broke with ease over a sharp rock with a fish on the end, and whilst I believe it would have been the same outcome with any decent braid around the breaking strains most of use, I wonder does there come a point where the thickness of a mainline does actually make a good bit of abrasion resistance difference when a fish runs you over a sharp rock edge? Or is the odd breakage inevitable and I should just accept it and move on? As you might have guessed though, I enjoy thinking about fishing problems and seeing if I might do things that bit different and perhaps better.

I can’t recall ever catching a bass at any meaningful range where I lost that fish I told you about the other day for example, and it’s not a place that can be fished in strong onshore conditions anyway - so that takes away the need for a really thin mainline to give me more range and “cutting through wind or current” abilities. Does this perhaps call for me loading up a reel with say 0.28mm/roughly 50lb Sufix 832 (or equivalent braid) and using it solely when I am close quarters lure fishing for bass over really rough and shallow ground? And would a mainline like that make much difference anyway? Note that I am asking the question because I don’t know the answer here, but I am open to trying stuff out. I accept as ever that cabin fever could be causing me to overthink things like this, but I would also suggest that we tend to stick with the same setups almost regardless of where we are doing our fishing and that perhaps it is worth thinking about……………

Disclosure - if you buy anything using links found in this blog post or around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

I like an uber smooth Japanese spinning reel as much as the next lure junkie, indeed I sometimes find myself kinda grinning with satisfaction when I’ve made a good cast and everything feels like it’s working together on the retrieve - but now take that light as a feather spinning reel out in the surf and put it through saltwater immersion as per the photo below and I bet you any money that the same reel a couple of days later feels like a bag of nails.

They just don’t like being dunked or repeatedly washed over with saltwater, and yes, I am taking into account the various sealing or prevention claims that different manufacturers make. I have no preference for Daiwa or Shimano, but the one surf based lure session above when I lent a reel to a client over in Ireland killed this Mag Sealed reel here, and as much as I am head over in heels in love with my sublime Shimano Twin Power XD C3000HG spinning reel (review here), I don’t have the guts to give it underwater time and see if Shimano’s so called “X Protect” does actually prevent saltwater getting in and killing it.

Mmmmmmmm............

Perhaps we are sometimes overly concerned with how ridiculously light our spinning reels need to be, but then a lot of the lure rods we use these days are as light as a feather - and I would argue that sometimes a reel can be that bit too light for a particular rod, but that’s another subject. I don’t know how many of you do fish heavier surf conditions for bass when you might need to wade out and punch various lures often a decent distance (and yes, I am obsessing over all kinds of metals at the moment, all hail cabin fever!), but the bit I have done myself and also helped with putting our clients over in Ireland onto this fishing, well I reckon it’s about as much fun as bass fishing gets. Sure, it’s not a finesse style of lure fishing, but hitting bass at range on a lonely surf beach is some buzz………..

It begs the question as to why we need a seriously light weight and smooth as butter Japanese spinning reel when you’re most likely going to be rigging up a powerful 9’6’’+ lure rod and potentially belting say 30g+ lures out as far as you can. I don’t want to be fishing with a setup that weighs a whole load more than I am used to, but at the same time I don’t want the odd surf session to end up in having to send my (often not bloody cheap) spinning reel off for a service because saltwater has got properly inside and started the killing process.

And yes, before you say Van Staal, I get why a bunch of the US striped bass anglers who fish heavy surf conditions use the sealed/waterproof Van Staal reels - but I just don’t like them, or at least I didn’t like the two I used to own (VSB 150 and 100), and of course I am looking forward to seeing their new and smaller and lighter VR50 which I believe is waterproof and actually has a line lay which is based in this century. Could be very interesting indeed.

So it’s thanks to a kind soul I know that I have a Penn Slammer III 3500 spinning reel here to try, and if there is one thing that strikes me straight away it’s how solid this thing feels. This is lifted from the Penn website: “The PENN Slammer III is back by popular demand. Built for heavy-duty fishing from either boat or shore, and trusted by charter captains all over the world. The Slammer III reels feature our new IPX6 Sealed System which keeps water out of the gear box and drag system (I like the sound of this if it’s true). We're also using our updated Slammer Drag System which now utilzes (good spell-checking Penn!) our proprietary Dura- Drag material.”

It’s got more drag than I would ever need on our side of the pond, out of the box it is nice and smooth, I love that handle (which is actually light as a feather, plus there is the Clash style handle in the box which you can change over to if you want), I can load it up fuller than I could with the Penn Clash (lovely reel, but you need to be very careful with not overfilling it), I have heard a lot of good things about this Penn Slammer III (or it 3?), and at 403g loaded with line it’s only 140g heavier than the now discontinued in the UK Shimano Exsence C14+ 4000XGS (used in the size comparison photo above) - and as lovely and light as this 4000 size Shimano reel is to fish with, it’s gone a bit grindy after not nearly enough use.

I took the dog for a walk that revolved around belting out some 40g GT Ice Cream lures into our local estuary with this Penn Slammer III 3500 - I put the reel on the awesome APIA Foojin’R Grand Swell 96MH 9’6’’ 7-42g (review here) and to be honest it feels like one hell of a setup. When you are casting and retrieving this Slammer feels great, and on a lure rod like that it doesn’t feel any heavier or off balance than any other reel I might have strapped to it in the past. Obviously I can’t give you any indication yet how this Penn Slammer III 3500 might workout longer term, but it’s here for me to use and abuse it, and yes, I will be deliberately doing what the Surfcasters’ Journal lads have done in the videos at the bottom of this post (but have I got the guts to bury it in the sand as well?). I love their style of reel testing and I like how these Slammer reels are meant to keep water out.

And because I have been sent this reel to try, I will admit to simply assuming that it surely had to cost well north of £200 because of what you’re meant to be getting, but I have had a quick look around and I can find this 3500 size I have here for around the £150 mark here in the UK. I had a few kayak guys on my FB page saying that they are loving their Slammer III reels, and I reckon this one I have here will also make a fantastic heavier shore pollack reel for those times when you need to belt the bigger stuff out into really deep water. Some lads I know have used them hard over in Norway for some shore based lure fishing for coalfish especially, and they are loving them. I see no reason why I could not do a lot of boat based lure fishing with it if needs be, and as and when I head back to the US to go and chase some striped bass, this Penn Slammer III is coming with me for sure. Time will tell and of course I will report back, but my initial impressions of this thing are really good.

Now as much as I love Ireland, I am sorry to say that I am wishing them all kinds of ills this weekend in the Six Nations. Don’t spew into your cereal bowl, but here’s to hoping that Scotland turn them over, then we thrash France, and then it would come down to a proper Six Nations showdown at Twickenham next weekend, the day before I head up to the BASS AGM to give a talk on shore fishing safety and what I have been learning about it. Come on England, come on Scotland! Apologies.

This guy catches a few fish!

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My video output has been at best limited (see my YouTube channel here), but I have enjoyed the little bit of filming and editing work I have done myself, whilst also hoping that my two younger brothers who both work professionally in the world of feature films don’t see their elder brother’s distinctly amateur efforts! Most of the stuff I have played around with so far has either been to help promote the co-guiding work I do over in Ireland, or otherwise it’s been a few how-to do something and some very simple lure rod casting videos. It’s only a bit of fun and I would never lay claim to being any good at it by the way.

What continues to amaze me these days is how we all seem to have some way to film our fishing if we want to, whether it be a mobile phone, GoPro, or my pro stills photo gear also having the ability to shoot incredible quality - albeit it also needs somebody with proper filming and editing skills to make it look good! Almost anybody can shoot stuff and get it out to an audience, and whilst I have little interest in those unedited, stick a GoPro on your head videos that are all the same fisheye kind of angle for seemingly hours on end, there is also some really good fishing related stuff out there that I am sure you have all seen. Editing, editing, and more editing, and holy cow does editing take time. 

And I would continue to argue that lure fishing for our various saltwater species can look seriously impressive at times. Put the fish and locations and conditions together and I’d put the actual fishing experience up against anything when things come together - but if you are going to properly make a fist of putting together “short films” if I may be so grand as to call them that, how on earth do you go about protecting where you are fishing? To make a halfway interesting fishing film you’re going to need a mix of all kinds of shots to edit together, but by trying to do things properly you could end up ruining where you are fishing. Take a look at the fishing video above for example - I doubt it’s “blowing the mark” as such, but aside from a couple of (dead) big bass, to me it’s pretty boring to watch. One angle, bad sound, wonky horizon, as good as no editing, but on the flipside it must be bloody hard to try and film yourself fishing and also make it look visually appealing. 

So why the whole secrecy thing? Come on, you know as well as I do that there are any number of reasons for trying not to divulge where you are fishing to an increasingly prying world - I don’t need to preach the bleeding obvious here. You must surely be aware that many of those fishing and catch photos especially you post wherever online are most likely being poured over for clues to where those fish were caught. Look at the photo above as an example - it’s a place where a few of us really enjoy lure fishing. Sometimes it can be pretty good, and for the most part we know it’s not going to be crawling with other anglers. If I shoot further left or right of that angler then anybody who knows the coastline will know exactly where we are fishing. It’s not some highly secret mark that only throws up monster bass (I wish!), but we kinda like it how it is. Could that also me deemed selfish on our part? We live on an island with far too many people as it is, and I would always argue that being able to tuck away and fish in relative peace and quiet is part and parcel of going fishing.

So how on earth would you go about filming a place like that? When it’s on it can be a blast, and even with my limited filmmaking skills I reckon I could make at least an ok short bass fishing film there - but to do so you need a wide range of shots, from lovely, wide establishing shots through to rods bending, fish splashing etc. My urge to mess around with this filming lark is nothing financial by the way, rather it’s just me being increasingly interested in it all, and especially having been the bloke in front of the camera in the past when in fact I reckon it’s a lot more satisfying and indeed skillful creating the material and then putting it together. 

And before you say hang on Henry, why the short bass fishing film from our co-guiding work over in Kerry? Well John and I spoke about this before I ever did any filming work, and we both decided that with the amazing lack of other anglers we ever see over there (seriously, we can go days and days without seeing another angler) and the fact that John was comfortable with doing it, then why not? So why not film other parts of Ireland then Henry? Well I have been entrusted with a lot of bass fishing location based information over the years, and I take that trust very seriously. Even if for whatever reasons I don’t fish anymore with some of the anglers who have kindly divulged a lot of info to me, I will always do what I can not to divulge those locations - and if there is one thing that would divulge them it’s shooting proper video. And before you go shooting me down here, yes I take stills, but I am bloody careful about what I show in them, and I would fully expect anglers who know those exact locations to recognise where those photos were shot.

Very simple stuff, but deliberately put together by me so that it doesn't show where we are fishing - unless you know where it is of course!

But I don’t see a way around this with video work. I’d love to mess around with drones and multiple camera setups and what have you, but to make at least moderately interesting and exciting content I just don’t see how it’s possible to properly do so when you are having to so severely restrict your shooting angles. It is obviously no worries if you’re shooting somewhere so bloody remote like the outer atolls of the Seychelles where virtually nobody can get to anyway, but imagine all those lovely quiet places where you go lure fishing were suddenly splashed all over YouTube or whatever. With the numbers of anglers always looking for better places to go fishing (and we are all in the same boat here, however much of an expert you might be), I can’t work out a logical way to overcome these issues. Any ideas?

Please note as well that we are not talking about Saturday afternoon and the rugby events that took place. I have to say seriously well done Ireland and indeed France, but it’s worrying times…………...
 

I dread to think what the percentage is of my life that I spend thinking about fishing, and then because bass fishing has so utterly consumed me, a large part of my life is obviously spent obsessing about a single species of fish that firstly I used to catch by mistake and think little of it back in my mainly bait days, and secondly if you had told me even fifteen years ago that I’d be like I am now I would have refused to believe that this was possible………….

What the hell is it about bass then? It sure can’t be their sheer size when we have a number of saltwater species of fish that I would argue are somewhat easier to land in generally bigger sizes than a lot of bass we might catch, and as much as I love how bass often scrap, it’s not as if in our colder waters we are beset with plenty of species which might run us down to our backing with their sheer speed and power. So what on earth is it then? 

Well you can probably guess that I woke up nice and early this morning thinking about this, and my current thinking on this subject is that it’s an intoxicating mix of where and how that has allowed chasing bass to creep up on me to the point that I will often go for long periods of fishing for nothing else. 

Where and how, that’s the crux for me, and I wonder how many anglers are in a similar boat to me here - you know these fish are around, you sometimes catch them as a byproduct of chasing something else, but for whatever reason you start having a go at this whole lure fishing thing and then over time a whole new world of fishing opens up to you. Lure fishing in essence may well be simply putting artificial imitations in front of fish, but let’s be honest here and think back a bit in your fishing life and where lure fishing may have come into it - did you have even an inkling that there could be so much fun and interesting stuff involved in what at first looks like nothing more than chucking bits of plastic or metal out there?

Which in essence lure fishing is, but it’s how much there can be to it that I had no idea about when I first started to buzz about lure fishing for bass over in south east Ireland especially. Even if a few bass used to sometimes jump on my baits when I was targeting something else, I didn’t have a clue about how many different places you could go and target bass - and I am talking about different countries as well as different terrains here. I can distinctly remember being pretty amazed when I found out there bass fishing was big in countries such as France, Spain and Portugal for example, and I love thinking back to how we would chuck lures such as that killer Maria Chase BW from rock marks in south east Ireland, but change over to bait fishing when we targeted an estuary because we didn’t really know how to properly target that kind of water with lures.

Don’t get me wrong though, those times I spent running crab baits down an Irish estuary with Graham was some of the most glorious fishing I have ever been lucky enough to be a part of, but it was lure fishing that started to take over for me. I just had no idea that the one species of fish could demand such a variety of methods and techniques if you had an interest in targeting them from different locations and terrains (which I do) - and as much as I hope I have learnt a fair bit over the last few years about targeting bass on lures, what does it for me so much is how my brain is still buzzing with how much more stuff there is to learn and play around with.

If there is one thing that cabin fever does is it’s getting my brain ticking about how I might shake my own fishing up a bit, and then with the amount of often really good fishing “chat” online especially, how exciting it is to stumble upon different ways of doing things and then thinking about how you might incorporate such and such into your own fishing. I just love it. 

As a simple example, I can think of a few specific times last year when out and out distance did in fact pay off, and on a couple of occasions especially it was a simple metal (spinner, casting jig or whatever) that did the trick. Discussions get going online and because a lot of anglers are very generous with their own thoughts and info as regards techniques and methods, you can’t help but start thinking all over again about what a range of different metals could do for your fishing for example - I think about those technical slow jigs for example and how there are now a whole bunch now that are the right weights for shore fishing and I wonder if these might catch me some bass in certain situations where something else might not have in the past? And so on and so on.

As much as I like to think I have a lot of the bass fishing fairly well covered as such around where I live, in reality there is such a huge amount more to learn that I am left wondering where on earth the time is to do so. I think about such wonderful countries like Spain and Portugal and I know that I need to at least spend a little bit of time experiencing some of their bass fishing because it floats my boat so much to see different places, spend time with different anglers, and come away with new ideas and memories and plans - which in a way comes full circle with this species of fish we call bass. Isn’t it amazing how the one species can do all this to so many of us here? Can you imagine how much better it could be if we had a properly healthy fishery for bass as well?
 

Well here it is, the first short film to come from that amazing day we spent with the RNLI at their testing tank in Poole. There is so much more to talk about with regards to the whole fishing safety thing, but I wanted to let you see this short film and then in due course I will kinda take it apart a bit and talk about a few specifics that have come out via this video.

Over time there will be a bunch more short films coming out from that day with the RNLI, but the aim here was to give an overall picture of that day and obviously start trying to get the message home how an auto-inflate lifejacket could well end up saving your life. I will leave this video with you, and please, please leave comments below and give me your initial thoughts and opinions and let’s go from there. I am doing a fishing safety related talk for the BASS AGM on Sunday, so I hope to see some of you there. My apologies in advance to those of you who sat through my fishing photography talk at the BASS AGM last year, but it wasn’t my idea to have me back!

And of course it would be remiss of me not to mention that I am obviously hoping that Ireland stumble rather badly on their quest for the Grand Slam tomorrow, but on the other hand with how well Ireland are playing and how badly England are contesting the breakdown especially, I sense a hard to watch couple of hours coming up……………..