Email to a friend
Print versionPowerball Bassing
All forms of fishing throw up problems from time to time that need to be solved. None more so than bass fishing.
In the late 80's, I found a rough ground beach where bass pushed sandeels in tight to a small reef over high water. The problem was that the exact spot they repeatedly chose to ball up the sandeels was a long cast out, even when using chest waders, and the water depth was less than 6.
Standard spoon spinners lacked the weight in any sort of wind to reach the fish, and changing to DIY 10mm chromed tube type spinners to get the weight also failed, as I figured it might, because of the heavy splash created as the spinner hit the water. This frightened the bass off. In any event, the spinners would sink too deep too quickly and snag. I had doubts also, that the fish would take the spinners anyway, when they were so preoccupied by the sandeels.
 |
THE LEARNING CURVE
I thought about, but discarded the Jif lemon trick of filling a Jif lemon container with candle wax for use as a weight, again because of the excessive splash down, but also because of it's size which spooks the bigger fish and the massive wake it creates during retrieve.
I'd been using bubble floats for another type of fishing and started to experiment with these. The catch rate improved a little, but the bubble floats have plastic attachment eyes which kept breaking through the persistent casting.
THE SOLUTION
It wasn't until 1992 that I found the answer. I was waiting in a car park for my wife to finish shopping and watched some kids playing with small rubber balls. Their game was too see how far these balls would bounce when thrown at a wall.
Subsequent investigations revealed that these balls, rapidly becoming the in thing amongst primary school kids, were called Power Balls and were made from a dense rubber compound, tough but workable, and heavy enough to cast with to a fair range.
I was concerned that a bass seeing the ball pass by might shy away from the following lure, but past experiences told me that when bass are in a hungry mood and have frightened sandeel bottled up, there's little that will put them off the feed, especially in shallow well aerated water providing the lure you're using closely resembles the sandeel.
MODIFYING THE POWER BALL
The rubber proved tougher than I'd first thought. I wanted to get a length of 18 gauge stainless steel wire right through the centre which I managed, but this caused the wall where the wire punctured through to split (this can be repaired though, with super glue) and I ended up having to drill partially through in stages because the rubber obviously kept melting over the drill head.
I used a 1/16 drill and then passed through the length of stainless wire and formed an eye at each end to take the reel line and hook length.
When you make the eyes, keep them as close to the ball as possible and also ensure that the two eyes are in line with each other and that you don't have one more sideways than the other as this causes the ball to twist and turn more when retrieved through the water.
BACK TO THE BEACH
I deliberately waited until I knew conditions on the beach were prefect and that the bass would be working the sandeels. Sure enough, as soon as I hit the waterline I could see splashes and bulges in the water tight to the reef as the bass made hungry runs in to the panic stricken sandeels.
I elected to wade out slightly uptide of the feeding zone casting beyond the bass and then use the tide run to work the ball and small white sandeel round behind them and then directly through the middle of the heaving mass.
I was fishing an 11 foot spinning rod, small fixed spool and 8lb line. The first cast went out about 60yds landing maybe 15yds further out than the bass. I let line continue to spill from the reel until the ball and lure were almost in line with the shoal, then started a steady retrieve keeping the rod tip touching the water.
The sandeel passed through the shoal, but just as it was about to leave the killing zone that familiar sudden weight on the hook end and the dragging over of the rod tip told me that I'd found the solution.
Some modifications to hook lengths were needed. Short 3 feet traces caught okay, but when the water was very settled and clear I needed to use longer ones to maintain the catch rate. I found I could cast up to 6 feet traces by pushing the hook point in to the ball a fraction which released as the ball and eel hit the water, and if the hook length ever did get tangled through early release in flight, then the movement of the ball through the water freed the eel to work properly.
MOVING ON
I started to think about other situations where the power balls would score over more standard techniques.
Again, bass working sandeels in estuaries try to herd the sandeels up against fast flowing currents that are created by bottlenecks in the estuary channels. This usually occurs a couple of hours either side of high water as the flow starts to slowly ease.
Now weed can be a real problem in many estuaries, and if you fish a normal redgill rig using a three way swivel and bomb, then the bomb sinks deep too quick and the water borne weed accumulates en mass on your line, and worse, on the redgill destroying it's fish appeal.
Rigging up the ball and eel as I did on the reef, I found that fishing the eel in the surface water due to the lack of lead didn't reduce the catch rate. And the takes were dramatic to say the least, with bass half broaching out of the water to hit the eel. What's more, the weed problem was reduced by 75% giving far more productive fishing time.
Then I stumbled across something else. One estuary channel had a small rocky finger jutting out into it. I'd tried freelining an artificial eel in to the tide before here with no success because the speed of the current brought the eel to the surface and made it splash and twist.
Allowing the ball to be pushed downtide by releasing line, then holding it for a moment for the line to tighten pulled the ball under the surface and holding it there made the eel appear to dip down from the surface as if wounded and confused. The bass loved it!
Most of my consistent bass marks are over rough ground in fairly shallow water, never more than 6 feet deep. You'll catch fish over this working spinners and plugs, but dense lifting weed does claim one heck of a a lot of lures. But the power ball method and artificial eel reduced losses to virtually nil.
I found I could lift or bounce the ball over the clumps of weed by lifting the rod tip and hopping the sandeel away from danger. Again catches improved. In fact, I was catching more fish than I'd ever done before on lures over this ground.
BALLS AND BAITS
 |
This had proved a good technique during periods of rougher weather when the bass fed over the ground. In calm, clear seas bass are more prone to leaving the seabed and taking sandeels and small fish in the surface water.
Problem was, that the Ragot floats weren't easy to locate and stockists were mainly in the Channel Islands. It was obvious that here was an alternative to these floats that did exactly the same job.
Make up of the power balls is the same with the wire through the centre and the two eyes formed at each end. A suitable length of hook trace is selected to fish the bait close to the seabed and it doesn't matter if the bait bangs into boulders etc, this makes the bait behave in a more natural manner.
At this point, you need to realise that the ball is not actually acting as a visual bite indicator. It's job is purely to act as a casting weight and to give buoyancy to suspend the bait. You need to hold the rod and watch for the line pulling suddenly tight which is the only bite indication you'll get.
Aim to cast along the beach at an uptide angle and let the line come around as the tide pushes the ball along. You can keep the float out at range by releasing line, but this disguises bites to a degree, so work a compromise letting the ball stay at range until it comes parallel with you, then put the reel in gear letting the line tighten and swing the ball and bait shorewards.
You'll get bites almost anywhere inside the casting arc, but the peak spot is when the line tightens just before the ball starts to swing inwards towards the beach. The bait then lifts and falls with the tide and the bass have both a scent lane to follow and a moving bait to see in the final stages of the take.
OTHER OPPORTUNITIES
This also works with frozen sandeel worked across the cleaner patches amongst the boulders, or down the edges of estuary channels. It also takes early season garfish that venture into estuary mouths taking small strips of mackerel fished on the trot. You'll also pick up odd sea trout (take these only if you have a licence) on the moving mackerel strip, too.
When the mackerel move onto the beaches in the summer, suspending your feathers below the ball and working them closer to the surface than if fished on a weight fills your bait bucket quicker and the mackerel don't care about the ball passing by.
Unlike conventional float gear with the float mounted on to the line, the wire through the ball is strong. If the hook trace is made from weaker line than the reel line tackle losses are minimal. Besides, the ball bounces off surface rocks and is steerable with the rod tip allowing you to fish baits in places where conventional tackle cannot reach without snagging.
This is a suggestive feature. You'll be able to adapt the power ball to many of the situations you find yourself in apart from the ones I've mentioned. I'm finding it equally good for working lures and baits from the dinghy in shallow water. But do give it a go, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
del.icio.us
Digg
Technorati
 Fishing Rods Fishing Reels Rod Rests Fishing Hooks Rig Components Accessories DVice & Leads |
Plugs, Lures Lines & Leaders Shore Fishing Rigs Feathers & Lure Rigs Luggage Clothing & Hats Deals |
BERKLEY FRENZIED POPPER £3.91 Each TIDEWATER LURE RIGS 83p Each 7" WSF Jelly Worms Get ready for the new Plugging Season, Buy 3 get one of them for free, Blue Pilchard Divers WSF NOW STOCKS SAKUMA HOOKS
SALTWATER FLIES FROM FULLING MILL FROM £1.25 BACK IN STOCK PENN CAPTIVA CV2 REELS BACK IN STOCK SALT / CAPTIVA SPINNING COMBO DEAL BACK IN STOCK ABU CARDINAL 304FD PRICE: £37.18 |
