It looks like the bass are finally showing with a few people having reasonable catches (there have been a few decent fish as well as the first run of smaller school bass).
Good buddy Joe has had a few fish too (take a look on his blog here).
As soon as the guys start catching consistently I'm going to jump a plane for at least a weekend trip (or maybe even two) before fishing starts proper for me in July (I need to get out there bad!).
Enough for now - time for me to order a few new lures (may the force be with my credit card!)
So exactly what is the Ayu pattern & why does it work for us?
If you do a little research, its easy to see why a pattern such as Ayu would work for the Japanese & fishermen in East Asia.
The Ayu is in fact a fish (also known as the sweet fish), which is incredibly territorial (theres even a Japanese fishing method called " ayu-no-tomozuri" which involves using a live Ayu to trigger the territorial instincts of other Ayu to attack it).
Wikipedias Ayu (links to Wikipedia)
With the Ayu being so territorial its easy to see why it would be a killer pattern in Japan or other areas that the Ayu inhabit.
The Ayu is easily recognised by its greenish / gold "hot spot" on its flanks just behind the gill cover.
What I'm calling a hot spot is essentially a false eye which could perhaps confuse a predator or represent an eye (hence protecting the fishes real eyes which a predator may try to attack).
A selection of "Ayu" lures.
So why does Ayu work so well for us in Europe?
Good question and something we will never know for sure, but I have my suspicions that it may well have something to do with "the hot spot" the Ayu has on its flanks, (this probably isn't the only factor though).
Hot spots on lures seem to give predatory fish "something to aim for" - you might notice that when fishing lures with hot spots that the lure is often taken on the hook closest to the spot (you can apply this to both hard & softbaits - some people I know have had a lot of fish on softbaits with a hot spot they have created by allowing plastics to bleed onto each other).
Plenty of non Ayu patterns have a false eye too.
You can make your own conclusions about just how important eyes might be on lures :)
For those interested some information on Ayu fishing can be found here.
Ive just booked 3 weeks in Wales in July for a spot of fishing (and family holiday). I cant wait to get down to Pembrokeshire again (one of my favourite places to visit & fish).
Everything a bass plugger needs.
As usual, I hope to catch up with my buddies down that way again this year (Steve, Pete , Jeff, Simon & Mark especially) - see you lot soon I hope!
A few hundred miles of coast to plug.....so little time.
A plump bass from the Pembrokeshire coast.
Anyway time to start looking for a few new plugs for that trip (have my eye on a few little secret lures that I will post about soon)
Better late than never-a quick report from my last trip.
As Adrian and Graham have both done reports on theweekend (they can be found here & here) - I will keep it brief.
InFebruary I managed to squeeze a quick trip in to Northern Spain with the guys (Adrian , Graham, Mark & Stuart)in the hope of an early bass - our destination was Asturias which we found to be impressive to say the least.
The rugged Asturian coast
On arrival the first thing to strike us (apart from Joe not being able to drive or navigate lol) was the sheer size of the cliffs there, and after someinitial exploring just how difficult it can be to reach the water.The firstafternoon was spent checking out a few marks for the next day)
The first day was spent on a fantastic mark not far from where we were staying & Adrian managed to bag a decent fish followed by a schoolie which Mark landed.
The rough stuff!
A wet Adrian (just lost his Maui Jims to a dodgy wave - grrrrr)
Fortunatelythe next daywe were able to meet up with a couple of great local guys (Manel & Dario) who are both very accomplished bass anglers and were kind enough to take us out on their home ground. You can find Manels blog here. Oh and Manels report in Spanish can be found here.
Our first cliff descent with the guys was (luckily for us) in the dark, & turned out to be down a fewhundred feet of almost vertical rock face taking us to some spectacular rough ground. Itdidn’t take long for us to realise that the bass fishing in Asturias is quite different to how we usually fish and that perhaps we were"a bit under gunned". Swell was up (waves to 20 feet outside the reefs) and to be honest I was shocked when I heard Dario mention to Manel that it was looking a bit calm but was worth a go!
Perfect conditions!
The Spanish guys were using long rods & large lures - really banging the bait way out and fishing it back shallow with the rod high (this takes somedoing as there are lots of shallow reefs and the swell to contend with), the fishdidn’t show but we had a fantastic time with Manel & Dario (a great exchange of tips and tactics took place & I think we all learnt something from each other).
Thenext day was also without fish, but we managed to covera lot of ground & got to see some spectacular marks.
The following video should give some idea of the surf wewere up against (the last few seconds of this video give you some idea of the wave size).
A bit too much of the good stuff
So how on earth do you fish conditions like this? Well the locals love the surf & fizz, and will use "Chibos" (spelling?).
A 75g. goat hair Chibo.
Now the Chibo may be low-tech but its perfect for the big surf conditionsasit’s a great caster (this will get you out in the big rollers) and has the weight to "get down there" while being inexpensive.
Tired pluggers
Dunno whats wrong with them after the cliff climb!
Amway - a message of thanks to the very friendly people of Asturias & especially to Manel & Dario for all the laughs and the time they gave us(we really hope to be able to return the favour!).
Just had to post these pics of a couple of mulloway Omar had a couple of years ago In Australia...
"Finally struck the honey pot. 24kg & 30kg. 2 years I've been trying to catch one of these monsters, now 2 in the same hour. The bigger one took 45 mins to land and dragged me 1 km down the beach. Nearly killed me carrying it back to the quad. It had a 3kg salmon in its stomach, whole......
Its about this time of year that the bass angler starts to get nervous - where are the fish - when will they hit the beaches & rock marks?
Well the fish are starting to show in the UK although catches on artificial baits haven't been great - there is a rumour of a 14lber being caught (on bait) in the last few days in SW Wales so that's a good sign. I'm reliably informed that some boats are doing well on the inshore wrecks (so it wont be long now).
Being as I'm a bit snowed under with work I will have to wait till its really firing over there & jump a plane for the weekend .........(the waitings a killer eh?)
Well I seem to be getting my head around this blog thing so time for a first post.........
This blog will be mainly (but not only) about Bass fishing on lures & hopefully I will be able to post regular updates of my & friends fishing catches (well lets see how it goes).
For the next few weeks I'm unfortunately going to be a bit of a keyboard warrior as I have heavy work commitments, but hope to be able to share some catch reports from July onwards.
So back to the keyboard - posts with content to follow......watch this space!
