Innholdsfortegnelse for #6 Lure Fishing i Sea Angler Guides

1. Savage Gear SGS5 9ft 9-35g, 9ft 6in 9-35g, 9ft 6in 12-46g – Yes I had a big hand in developing these rods, but I genuinely have not fished with better lure rods for under £200. 2. Savage Gear SGS8 9ft 2in 9-42g – ‘The’ lure rod I use for the bulk of my lure fishing because we did so much work on it to make sure it could cope with almost all my bass fishing and the different lures I might use. 3. HTO Nebula 9ft 7-35g and 9ft 6in 7-35g – Brilliant rods for the money, they definitely changed my opinion on what a more budget lure rod could do. 4. Major Craft TripleCross EU Custom 9ft 10-30g and 9ft 6in 10-30g – MajorCraft make some amazing lure…

If you had looked in my lure boxes a few years ago, you would have mainly seen hard lures in there. Now I can assure you that it’s a very different picture. I wouldn’t go lure fishing for bass these days without soft plastic lures. Soft lures, soft plastics, call them what you will, but if there is anything within lure fishing for bass that has created more of an impact over the last few years then I am not aware of it. Soft plastics are changing how we target these magnificent fish, and while we have multiple hard lures which can do a lot for us, it’s soft plastics that help us to take the next step and really start covering a multitude of more bases. Imagine you’re fishing…

If being able to watch fish actually hit your lures and baits is about as exciting as it gets, then I’d put fishing in really lively conditions as being a pretty close second. There’s something about fishing rough conditions where the roar of the wind and waves is the soundtrack to you punching lures out into that heaving maelstrom. I used to love bait fishing a couple of cod spots in north Cornwall when the winter storms were raging and the codling were feeding like piranhas, and that love of turbulent seas has come with me to my obsession for lure fishing for bass. Not for one second do I want any of you to put yourself in any kind of danger when you are out fishing, but I can’t…

Iwould argue that that confidence is the single most important factor when targeting bass at night with lures. We can hardly see the lure so how can the fish? We are not fish though, and I believe that bass find our lures as easily at night as they do during the day. Night lure fishing for bass has opened up a whole new world of fishing to so many anglers, me included. Many of the open coast locations I fish don’t tend to work during daylight hours when there is no fizz on the sea. But that is no problem anymore because night fishing and calm conditions go together like bass and lack of sleep! I have only seriously got into chasing bass in the dead of night with lures…

How long you might target bass on lures each year depends on where you live or do most of your fishing, but even those with a long season find there is always a period of downtime when your lure fishing gear, clothing and various accessories are unused and unloved. Most people have spent hard-earned money on setting themselves up with fishing tackle and it is certainly a waste of your cash if you fail to look after your kit. The last thing we want is a casual dumping of gear in the corner of a shed where the evil saltwater residue can freely eat into rod rings and roller bearings and treble hooks and so on. At the very least we should keep our gear ready for the next session.…

For many years I only ever used metal jigs When fishing for big fish at deep water destinations such as Iceland and Norway. Certainly, metal jigs – or pirks, as they are widely known – are highly effective, though fishing them correctly is a very physical form of angling. You have to continually work these lures in order to impart the necessary action and convince the fish your lure is something tasty to eat and not simply a cold lump of painted lead. Added to which, almost all designs of metal jig work most efficiently when jigged in as near to a vertical line beneath the boat as possible, and when working deep water with anything other than the slowest of drifts this invariably means lots of reeling up as…

In shallow water locations, especially where the ability for bass to flee into nearby deep water does not exist, bright, overhead sunshine can prevent bass from venturing into very shallow water – say less than 1m in depth. During overcast days, or when the sun is lower on the horizon, bass seem more confident to move into very shallow areas. During darkness or before the sun appears over the horizon bass will move very close to shore indeed, no matter what the water depth just as long as they can push themselves through it. This makes fly fishing especially productive during these low light levels and most productive during the dark, though few anglers wish to head out at night on the rough ground suited to bass or indeed have…

The advent of LRF has opened up a world of fascinating mini species for lure anglers to target. What these diminutive fish lack in size they make up for in colour and character. Extremely sensitive tackle makes it easier to catch them, so go for a 7-8ft 1-8g LRF rod, either solid tipped or tubular tipped, with a fixed-spool reel (1000 to 3000 size). As the main methods involve fishing light jig heads, a fine diameter line is a must – I use PE0.4 or PE0.6 braid. Add a 3-5ft fluorocarbon leader for abrasion-resistance. Remember, bigger fish eat the smaller species, and discovering the predominant mini species can help you choose a lure to match what the larger ones eat. My main methods for catching these fish are using jig…

So, what exactly is lure fishing then? In its most basic form lure fishing is based around the use of artificial lures to try and fool fish into eating them. Indeed, lure fishing in my view is very similar to fly fishing in that regard. Within UK and Irish saltwater sport fishing we target a lot of our fish with bait and lures – together with a bit of saltwater fly fishing – and while there’s no getting away from the simple fact that bait fishing gives you a far greater chance at some of our larger species such as conger, huss and rays, over the last few years the whole lure fishing scene has really opened many anglers’ eyes to what can be caught and where. If bass, cod…

As we have already discovered, lure fishing is so exciting largely due to the simple fact that you are always doing something. But it’s that constantly doing something which is also so hard on your lure fishing tackle. It’s not the size of the fish we might catch on lures that is putting so much strain on our gear; It’s the style of fishing. Think about a typical lure fishing session. Think about how many times you might open the bale arm on your reel, cast, snap the bale arm back over, and then turn the reel handle continuously as you retrieve your lure. Think about how much the reel is actually being used by doing all this, plus it can get covered by saltwater from time to time which…

First light rears its head over the most perfect shallow, rocky, weed-strewn ground you can imagine for bass fishing. The water is calm and clear and the hunch you can’t ignore is that this is exactly the right situation for fishing with soft plastics, rigged weedless and weightless; the quiet, more subtle, approach to go with location and conditions. I clip my lure on, launch it out there, and start to deftly fish it back with a simple twitch, twitch, pause, style of retrieve. A few casts later there is very suddenly a hard tap on your rod tip. You twitch the weedless and weightless rigged soft plastic once more and then everything goes delightfully tight and your rod tip slams around. Bass on! But how do you cast a…

Iknow, I know, you want to hear all about the lures and techniques for fishing with lures at night, but in reality, all that stuff is pretty simple and we will cover it in due course. The biggest challenge for you is still that leap of faith that is required to truly believe that bass will hit lures in the pitch black. It’s nice and easy when you can see what’s going on. Doing it all in the dark though? This is not bait fishing at range for species such as rays and cod. You are fishing for a species of fish that can come in remarkably close to the shoreline under cover of darkness. First things first, let’s use the absolute minimal amount of light possible. I used to…

Obviously, we have to talk about lures and their various components, whether that be treble hooks, single weedless hooks, and split rings. I wash my lures down in their washable lure boxes after a fishing session, but I still get some rust on my hooks and split rings. I try my best to prolong the life of hooks especially, but saltwater does its thing and sometimes these components need to be replaced. When though? You know as well as I do when a hook should be replaced. Indeed, I think back to a January lure session a couple of years ago when a friend of mine dropped two really good bass hits because the trebles on his lure were in a shocking condition and as blunt as you like. Based…

Can you catch bass on a fly? Aren’t bass usually out of range to get them with a fly rod? You can only catch the smaller bass when fly fishing, can’t you? It can be difficult enough to catch bass from the shore so why bother making it more difficulty by trying to catch them on the fly rod? In the past I often heard questions like these while fishing and though it still happens, it happens less often now than it used to. In contrast, during almost 35 years that I have fly fished the east coast of America, such comments have been rare whether I be fishing in Miami or Maine. It became apparent to me that there was a much greater general acceptance of saltwater fly fishing…

It may seem remarkably obvious to tell you how important a fishing rod is for fishing, but if there is one thing that has struck me about the lure fishing scene, it’s how much that lightweight lure rod you carry around with you is going to be so much easier, efficient, and just downright nicer to fish with, if it is feels more like an extension to yourself rather than a stiff stick which ends up working against you. Coming from the bait fishing it can feel very strange when you pick up a 9ft lure rod rated to cast in the region of 10-30g, as opposed to something that may be 13ft, or longer, and rated to cast 6oz, but it will make sense; I promise you. So, what…

If there is one question that seems to confuse a lot of anglers who are looking at getting into the lure fishing it’s ‘what lures do I need for bass fishing?’. If it’s any help, I remember cutting out the lure details from the packaging that a new lure is sold in and then putting them into my lure box to remind myself of the lure name, how much it weighs, and at what depth it is likely to swim. Believe me, I know how confusing lure fishing can be, which in turn is why I am so keen to help make it approachable, easy to understand, and easy to get into. Let’s break this down into what hard lures we might need. WHAT ARE HARD LURES? In my opinion…

Where should I go fishing and when should I fish there? If you ask me these are the two most important questions in saltwater fishing. Because there are so many factors involved in any kind of answer, they also happen to be the most difficult questions to get to grips with. We all want to catch more and bigger fish, and, of course, there is one simple way to go about this – pick a random spot and fish it. Who knows, you may be incredibly lucky and turn up at this mark and clean up with some outstanding fishing. However, you and I both know that the chances of this happening are slim to zero! The ‘where and when’ matters with all kinds of fishing all around the world,…

It’s all very well when every works out; the weather forecast is bang on, wind speed as per forecasted, the swell is doing what Magic Seaweed says it should be doing, and the bass come on the feed around when you’d expect them to. It happens from time to time, but what do we do when things don’t go to plan? If fishing is so much about dealing with the challenges that nature throws at you, then the anglers who adapt the best are going to be more successful. A lot of the weather we get here in the UK is not the easiest thing to accurately forecast, but how many times have you planned how you are going to fish because you reckon the weather and conditions will suit…

We are ready now to start talking about lures and techniques we might use at night for bass fishing. But what you will discover from reading this is that in reality this information is not remotely complicated. The one thing I would like you to hold onto and trust is “less is more”. Don’t ask me how bass are so adept at homing in on lures at night, but they are, and the more I lure fish like this, the more I believe that we simply don’t need lures that do a lot of waggling and jangling in the water. If you can trust me on this then let’s get started. SOFT PLASTICS Senkos, DoLive Sticks, Gravity Stick Pintails and Pulsetails –these soft plastic lures are essentially variations on a…

I like to think that I get a feel for how well a particular braid is lasting for me, and I get a bit spooked if I suddenly get a snap-off out of nowhere. It’s always sensible to check the guides on your rod for any signs of damage that can trash a mainline. Is your line roller spinning freely? For the most part, I rely on getting a lot of time out of a spool of braid. I will often reverse a braid at the end of a typical bass fishing season, indeed during the coronavirus lockdown I reversed the Sufix 131 braid on about four different spinning reels. There is often a lot of unused braid on a reel which I like to get at after a good…

Widely distributed around the coast of the British and Irish coastline, pollack are one of the hardest fighting species of fish the shore-based lure angler can target. There can be no disputing pollack provide superb sport and wandering remote and wild stretches of beautiful coastline with just a lure rod and a small selection of lures is one of the most enjoyable ways of fishing that I know. In my formative years as a lure angler, we didn’t have anything like the choice of lures anglers have today. In those days popular lures were either the Dexter Wedge or an ABU Toby, and who remembers the German Sprat? All of these could be cast long distances with ease, even when casting directly into the wind, with the additional advantage that…

In the beginning there was pirking, using 30lb or 40lb breaking strain mono fished off a poker of a rod, with a high-speed Penn Senator 4/0 or 6/0 reel. Hanging off the end of the line was usually a Norwegian-made, ‘silver banana’ weighing in at between 1-2lb, depending on the tide and depth of water, which was usually more than 200ft and sometimes more on a long trip. Believe me, the first six fish were fun, and after that you needed to go into training. Back in the 1960s and 1970s there was no such thing as super braid lines; even ‘light’ 30lb mono was between 0.45-0.55mm diameter, whereas today even a relatively low-quality 30lb super braid line will be almost half of that diameter. Which means, in practical fishing…

On first view it appears sensible to say that the more water you can cover with your bait or lure the more chance you have at success. If you consider this more deeply you then come to the view that the more water you can cover that contains bass the more success you may have. We all know that with fly fishing you are mostly confined to fishing within 30 metres of your rod top and further reduced perhaps 10 or 20 metres if conditions are bad, you are using very large flies or your casting ability has not yet been fully developed. The aim with fly fishing for bass is then to find shoreline that is likely to hold bass within your casting range. Luckily, one of the most…

Most soft plastics don’t cast very well, but out it goes, lands with a splash, and then I do nothing but let it drop to the rocky bottom, which in reality means it is ‘fishing’ as it sinks. Many anglers call it fishing ‘on the drop’ (OTD), but again, as with a lot of lure fishing, it is a confidence thing. I am thinking that any fish in the vicinity now know the lure is in their kill zone, but actually, am I kidding myself? Yet the Channel Islands lads I am fishing alongside, who are some of the most forward-looking anglers I know, steady my nerves. It is natural to want to twitch the lure, but on advice I leave it alone. The lure touches bottom. Logic says that…