[John Mason]

Fished the estuary this afternoon in a rising strong NW-erly with crab baits. Lots of knocks and a fair number of small schoolies landed but could not find any decent bass: either they're yet to be arrived or are so outnumbered by the undersized fish that they don't get chance to find the bait before the tiddlers have descended on it.

Fun afternoon though, despite the wind!

Cheers - John

 

[derby4life]

do you get any good sized bass up the estuary John ?......that was some where else i fished last august when it was to windy on the coast itself i caught quite a few little bass .......i fished just as you drive on to sand straight infront of you are there better places to fish like nearer to the sea or a bit further up ?
and do the bigger bass follow the high tide up the estuary or are they already there?
soz to pick your brains again John but as i said earlier local knowledge is worth so much and makes the difference between catching and blanking
cheers

 

[John Mason]

I used to get decent bass here (he says nostalgically).

That was over 10 years ago, though. There were far fewer immature fish back then and fish to 61/2lb were not that unusual.

The topic of Bass Nursery Areas has been debated for some time now by locals. Basically the place is regulated strictly and policed too, with two key rules:

1) No boat fishing for bass
2) No boat fishing using sandeel baits

i.e. deliberately target bass afloat by any method and you're in trouble! Gill-netting is also banned.

Some locals feel that this has led to a proliferation of little schoolies that mop up much of the food, so that the larger fish tend to avoid the area, or possibly are there but simply fail to get to your bait first.

Whether true or not would be interesting to debate, but one thing is certain: mature bass are becoming increasingly rare along this coastline, while immature ones are becoming increasingly common. I suspect that if the mature stocks hadn't been hammered so much by the pair trawlers down SW, these immature fish would grow to a decent size and we would be seeing a return to the good old days. Would be interested to hear views on this because some kind of pattern in terms of shore catches is definately emerging.

Cheers - John

 

[derby4life]

i can't really say Iv'e noticed any difference as regards fish stocks as Iv'e always been a coarse fishing man ....
Its only been in the last 2 years that i have got into sea fishing ....the next step is to learn the basics of normal fishing with peeler crabs and lug and rag worm.....where do you start ?

 

[viper525]

i tend to find the bigger bass in my area feed from low water upto around 1-2 hrs before high water,then go off the feed,thats when i notice the smaller bass feeding,then a couple of hrs after high(depending on wether it's neap or spring)they start to feed on the last legs of an outgoing tide,i've caught bass over the 5lb mark long after everyone else has gone.

 

[derby4life]

I'm going to have a bash at Borth tomorrow if any one else is going let me know and perhaps meet up ..........i think I'll start at the estuary and make my way down to the rocks under the monument at low tide
whats going to be the best time to fish there tomorrow judging that the high tide is 6.30 am ish and low tide just before 14.00 ?
cheers Andy