Recently had a session lure fishing for Bass, long story short the fishing was dead so took a few photos instead. Tried to be all ‘arty farty’ but didn’t quite work, still turned out ok considering it’s just a dinky digi cam I use.

Now I’m out plugging for Bass quite often, I only live 1.5 miles from the coast so it’s easy for me to get out whenever I like. However my mate Marc lives in south Yorkshire so Bass fishing isn’t something he gets to do that often, so he didn’t need asking twice when offered the chance to land a Yorkshire Bass.

Marc arrived at my house after his 1.5hr drive, moved his gear over to my van and we were off. It wasn’t long before we were at our venue of choice, so waders on, bags/rods packed and off down the cliff we went.

The plan was to fish the last 4hrs of the flood and the first few hours of the ebb. Conditions looked pretty much spot on, crystal clear sea, overcast sky and the wind coming off our backs. Confidence was high! For the next 5 hours or so we chucked a range of lures and fished various areas but just couldn’t find the Bass, nothing was showing anywhere so we were left scratching our heads wondering what to do.

We had a welcome snack break to recharge the batteries and be fish the ebb refreshed in hope of a few of those elusive Bass. It wasn’t until 2 hours into the ebb where I connected with my first fish of the session, a nice little pristine schoolie took my Bomber A-Salt near the end of the retrieve. OK not a massive fish but most welcome after 5hrs of nothing, the wee fella was quickly unhooked and returned safely. It was a good confidence booster so Marc had high hopes of finding his first Yorkshire Bass.

First Bass of the day

We were pleased and relieved to of finally found a Bass so fingers crossed we’d find a few of the schoolie’s mates hunting in the same large gulley. 10mins after I had the little schoolie a good Salmon of maybe 12-15lb jumped out over the shallow scarr next the gulley we were fishing, hmm, wonder if we could tempt him with a few lures. We both cast around the area for a few minutes when I felt a hard knock, had I tempted the Salmon? Short answer, no! After a spirited fight a nice 3lb-4lb Bass appeared through the surf.

The bigger of the two Bass

Unhooked, quick photo and back it went to fight another day. We fished for a further few hours but couldn’t find anymore Bass and more disappointing was the fact Marc went home empty handed, he did hook into a fish but lost it. He tried to make himself feel better by claiming it probably wasn’t a Bass but a Billet, bless him for trying though

A few Bass have started to appear on our coast during the last few weeks, it was a windy day but the sea was relatively clear so an evening’s lure fishing for Bass was arranged. We arrived at our usual Bass mark 4 hours before high tide so we still had plenty of flood left to fish, most of the area is shallow scarr so shallow crankbaits were the order of the day.

The fishing was slow with nothing showing at all during the first 2 hours, however when the water reached a certain depth a few fish moved in. I had the first take of the session quite close in resulting in a nice little schollie of about 1.75lb, not to long after I hooked into a better fish from further out. It put up a spirited fight and a nice 3lber appeared through the surf, Bass really are beautiful fish and this one was in excellent condition. Quickly unhooked and slipped her back into the surf.

3lber taken on a Hawg Seekers Bassnatcher

We continued fishing and I hooked into two more fish but unfortunately they slipped the hook half way in but I was happy with the two I had caught earlier. Matty had a few fish as well to 2.5lb or so on a shallow crankbait but he didn’t land any until after high tide, he also lost a few as well so we both had a relatively productive session so the climb back up the cliff seemed just that little bit easier

Nice little Bass, result!

I had a few hours to spare and with the wind being to strong for kayak fishing I figured it would be a good chance to do a spot of plugging for Bass from the shore. Being early June it is still a little early in the session for Bass but with reports of the odd one or two being caught I felt reasonably confident of something showing, made my way down the cliff to my chosen fishing mark to find the sea a bit choppy but clear.

Watch out for those waves :)

The ground close in is mainly shallow scarr so shallow divers were the choice of the day, working the lure down to 3ft max. Long story short, I blanked! I fished for 4 hours with not so much has a knock, I fished several lures that I know work but nothing showing It was nice to be out fishing though, even though the heavy rain showers made it a little less comfortable than preferred

Here comes the rain!

North Yorkshire Bassin

Well with this nice weather we’ve been having lately I figured it was about time I dusted off the Bass fishing gear and have an evening session. Bass don’t normally appear on the North Yorkshire coast until late May/early June but it’s always worth having a go during April/May just in case one or two are about.

We arrived at one of our Bass marks to find there was still a bit of colour from the previous few days swell, we probably only had about 2ft visibility so not exactly ideal conditions but not impossible so made our way down the cliff. Apart from the sea still holding colour the weather was spot on, a sunny evening with a small surface ripple. The lures came out first with shallow sub-surfaces lures being the main choice with the surface poppers making an appearance when we fancied a bit more noise/commotion. After a while we felt that the combination of coloured water and being early in the season meant we were probably flogging a dead horse, so out came the bait rods!

We fished Ragworm & Squid about 100yds out at the entrance to the gulley in the hope that if there was any Bass about that they would be in the deeper water, the plus point of fishing bait of course is that you stand the chance of catching other species which could save us from a blank! Well you guessed it, we blanked big style! The only things that took a liking to our baits were the resident crab population

Rods cast out, just waiting for that first bite.

We switched back to lures at dusk as a last ditch attempt but it wasn’t to be, the fishing was poor (as kind of expected) but it was great to be back out in search of Bass again. I hope to be out every week from now on, ok, there will no doubt be a few more blanks yet but it won’t be long before those Bass appear.

The sun sets on the Yorkshire coast.