Ever caught crabs?

Ok clearly I know this is a lobster, a chunky full power male lobster. But if you have come to here via the link I posted at www.facebook.com/bassfishingtrips then you will have seen the clonking spider crab that the title perhaps better relates to.

What you may not be aware of is that as well as fishing trips we run crab fishing trips. We have taken the all time family favourite harbour side family holiday game to a new level and gone extreme (well at least epic) crab fishing. With baited nets the size of large bicycle wheels and a local shellfish covered reef to drop the nets down to, this is deep water crab fishing of a whole new world.

Its a game of endless excitement as a) you never know what is going to come up and b) its always a surprise when it does. From blennies to whelks and octopus to starfish just about anything and everything does come up. People get on with varying expectations for some its about the fun, for others its about the education and for many its about a shellfish dinner!

Whilst we are on shellfish dinners; of the beasties that are caught and can be taken (limits apply) are velvet crabs (the Spanish drool over these feisty critters, visit a tapas bar in Barcelona and you'll find them boiled, cracked and covered in deliciously garlicky extra virgin olive oil and chopped vine ripened tomatoes = lovely). Brown crabs are the Brits favourite but spider crabs are better as they are sweeter and full of white flaky meat and less rich. Eat them warm on sliced bruschetta with fresh basil and a squeeze of lemon. Or how about prawns? The wonderful humble British prawn. A pint pot full, a crusty brown loaf, good quality proper salty butter (hunt for some small scale produced local butter or think french) and some rocket leaves to nibble on = wow.

And then there is there is the beautiful, prehistoric and much sort after lobster. For me they are at their worst boiled. With lobster I advise you to look east, to south east asia to be specific. Wok fry them from blue in ground nut oil with fresh ginger, garlic, green chillis and coriander or half them and slap them on a grey coaled BBQ. Then drizzle with lime juice, fish sauce, chilli and sugar. The classic Thai flavours of sour, salty, spicy and sweet. You have not eaten lobster until you have eaten lobster cooked like this.

Ok enough. I didn't expect to reveal my love of preparing cooking and best of all eating the great British shellfish found on our coast. So come crab fishing this summer and you too could be going home with something very special. www.facebook.com/crabfishingtrips.

Up close and personal

One of the many wonderful things about 3 Fishes is the control I can place over her. And lets face it how many of us have any control over anything female! She is a fabulous boat and with her feminine lines and stunning good looks other vessels in the harbour are very much the ugly sisters! Although I'm happy to admit that we all love our own boat, dog, baby, intimate body parts etc!

Anyway back to the point- control. With the kind of control that I able to place over 3 Fishes I am able to put her in some real tight spots and its the real tight spots that often hold bass! I've learnt that her twin Suzuki's are both quiet and responsive allowing positive but near silent low rev manoeuvring and thus I can put her nearly anywhere.

Yesterday I took the excellent Australian lure caster Korg out on the lures. We caught, as those of you that follow my facebook page will have seen. And truth be told (and I always do; tell the truth) we didn't get the fish in the tight spots. The thing is we could have and we tried. I knew from the outset that I could not offer the fishing that Korg is able to enjoy in his 'land down under where women glow and men thunder' (are you old enough?). No there was no way in this world was I ever going to give him 20kg Spanish Mackerel, 40 kg Yellow Fin Tuna (note the T Shirt) etc.

But what I could give him was the most stunning of fishing surroundings. I think; no I will go further than that and state, I know that he was in awe of what he saw. The beautiful, stunning, dramatic Welsh coast line up close and so personal that at times he could have stepped off 3 Fishes and onto the rocks! I put him in places where no one has ever fished before (lie many of my clients have) but I tell you this for sure. No one, not modern man or ancient man will have ever stood let alone cast a lure to!

And that's the magic of 3 Fishes she can do time travel. Or at the very least she can take you to places to throw lures that are truly unexplored!

Lure hoarder?

Are you a lure collector? Has the online shopping bug bitten and your lure collection grown into new lure boxes after new lure boxes? It’s a compelling game and why not, it’s fun and can be very beneficial. After all you may just buy the perfect bass lure, the one that never fails, the one that will become ‘the one’ forever.

The likelihood is though that you will always have your favourites and those will simply be the ones that catch. The trick I believe is to boil your lure collection down to a proven few bass catchers and only ever take those out bassing. It is very easy to carry too many lures on a shore side outing and I suggest that this will have a seriously negative impact upon your lure fishing. For a start too many lures are clumber some and just more stuff to carry. These days if you are lure casting from the shore you really need your kit attached to you somewhere as movement along the ground whilst fishing is essential. Take a look at some of the belts, bum packs, belly packs and back packs that are designed for the job. This doesn’t apply to me aboard my wonderful bass lure casting boat 3 Fishes as I can pretty much carry what I like but you are unlikely to have the space and flexibility that a 9m Cat brings.

More importantly though too many lures equals too much choice and too much choice in turn weakens’ focus. The mantra of, ‘I’ll give this one a go now’, is all wrong when lure casting for bass. A small, well chosen, selection of lures will bring many more results. So what do you need? Well here follows my honest, no holds barred and no secrets; top tips for a strong lure selection to take on any general outing.

Two surface sliders and one small surface popper. The sliders should be of similar type but differing sizes. One at around 100mm and the other at 120mm, (yes size matters). To be specific I would look at the Luckycraft Sammy as my go to slider and a small Storm Chug Bug as my popper. Only fish the chug bug if you are facing one of either of these two scenarios when you reach the water:  1. The sea is too rough to fish a slider on the surface; or 2. You have found bass on the feed! Surface lures have two clear colour options. In the daylight think bright; whites, chartreuse or silvers and in the dark think black.

Next you will need three shallow running divers that run back at three varying depths; strong options here are the IMA Komono for just below the surface work, the Luckycraft Flash Minnow to get you 1m down and the Rapala Xrap as your deeper water selection. These lures are all proven bass catchers and will work any ground that you may find in front of you. As for colour think natural (silvers, browns, greens and blues). 

And finally I would suggest a pack of softies. For me the breadwinner, season after season has been the Slug Go 7.5 inch. Its casts, is incredible in the water and catches. What more reasons could you possibly need! That is it; that is your session lures in a nutshell, or more specifically in a nice small lure box that fits tidy onto you somewhere. Take anymore and they are just more to carry and more to distract you.

Keep in mind though that this small selection does need to be radically altered if the environmental conditions you are facing are not ideal or if it is dark. In the dark, think dark colours. In dirty water think either hot bright colours or dark colours (the jury is out on which works best) although for me, I favour shiny silvers in cloudy or dirty water.

The final point I’d make on lure collections is, if you aren’t using it, sell it. Lures that sit in boxes that you pick up and look at but never leave home should be sold. They take your energy and focus and fill you with indecision. Sell them and buy ones that you will take bassing, after all that is what they are made for; fishing.

The bass are here...

Yes they arrived this week. Well truth be told I had a first serious crack at them this week and hey presto up they pop. Not the biggest you have ever seen photographed but very welcome non the less. Indeed Colin and Jason were well chuffed to get a couple (four in total) in a fairly quick session at that. We simply headed out to a local mark and found them. Its easy when its easy. I then debated whether to stay where I was or go hunting more and better. In the end I moved away and tried two more spots but found nothing so headed back to the original location and they were still there. It can be a devilishly hard game being a bass guru!

What did we catch on....? Hard plastics for all and the Rapala took the trophy with both the xrap and the max rap doing the business. As always the colour Ayu seemed to be the favourite.

We then got the LRF kit out and tried for some reef fish. Ace sport with little pollack hammering Maryuku worms like plastic is going out of stock. The new Tronix Rockfish revolution LRF rods came out and I'll blog more about this fun trend in sea fishing soon again. Here's a teaser pic below. Fish on!

Why can't I catch some fish?

What is more disappointing than catching a stone? Well catching nothing! And truth be told this is not exactly a stone, as its a stone with sea anemone attached and it is the creature of the deep that got caught. He (or she) just decided to bring its stone home up with him (or her).

It is however a picture that better describes the fishing at the moment than I can do with words. In short the fishing is hard (and not just because of stones). We are at the seasonal change point; the time that the winter species head off to new pastures and the summer species arrive. So what is going on and what if anything can we learn from it?

All fish migrate to a greater or lesser extent but lets concentrate on bass for a moment (after all they are the things that most 'float my boat'). We all know that bass move steadily up the coast of the UK as the summer progresses - moving from their winter spawning grounds in the southern channel. Both lengthening days and warming water encourage the fish to move northwards. They are a warm water species and though comfortable tolerating cold water they prefer warmer water. Indeed they will bask in it. It is classic to suggest that bass will work up the foreshore as the tide floods hunting food items that have been stranded and possibly died, as they were beached by the previous ebb. What is little understood is the fact that they will do this deliberately to seek warmer water. A hot sunny day here on the west coast of Wales (yes it does happen and with global warming it happens more frequently than ever now) is a trigger to hunt fish in the warm margins. If the tidal sequence produces a big spring LW tide during a warm day and then gently floods into the evening - I'm interested. Target the newly flooded warm shallows! These pockets of warm water can be small and isolated - it is worth the hunt. Remember swimming in the sea as a child? We used to joke that someone had pee'd because suddenly the water felt degrees warmer. That is actually a warm pocket of water and their you can find bass.

Back to that seasonal change. I can read it happening right now by the fishing and the wildlife. In fishing terms the sea is devoid of mackerel, the whiting are getting smaller, the spurs have vanished and I'm still sitting on my hands where bass are concerned. They are not worth the effort - yet! In wildlife terms I've hardly seen a gannet and as exclusive hunters of pelagic fish (mackerel, launce, herring) they are a bloody good indicator that the warm water fish are here. Here in New Quay we get Dolphin sightings daily now. There are here to entertain tourists (I'm convinced that they do deliberately do just that, putting on evening displays close to the pier) but they are also here to feed. They arrived with regularity about three weeks ago and this I believe is because they too are awaiting the summer migration.

Cardigan bay is a flat shallow sea. Its nutrient rich as any wave action and all tidal action constantly churns the sea bed and releases nutrients. Nutrients = algae, algae = plankton and the food chain explodes upwards ending in Dolphins (nice but not very interesting) and Sshhhaaaarks (bloody interesting).

So when is it going to happen? When will it all start and the summer fishing take off. My records indicate 10th June. What do yours say?

What lure colour caught the most bass in season 2014?

I've written about lure colour before but the 'proof of the pudding' is in the eating as the saying goes. So here are two of my recent lure purchases. Fresh off the plane from the US and I Love Hard Bait Ebay store these babies are shaking with anticipation as they sit next to me on the office desk. I can't resist picking them up and giving them a wobble; they rattle and shine enticingly and I just know that they will catch.

That is because they are trendy. Bass like trends or seem to anyway as trendy lures catch plenty of bass. I only have to mention the patchinko and anyone who knows about them (and we all do now) knows that they catch. Or the slug go or the Fiish minnow, red rods or for that matter yellow rods (2015) etc etc. It boils down not to bass adapting their modus operandi - ok lads its 2014 now lets get into the next big thing - no its simply because a certain lure type or colour gets used more frequently. Photographs get taken and posted online or in angling mags. The pics then get talked about in online lure casting forums that are generally inhabited by people who don't or can't fish but believe they do or can and hey presto a trend is born. We all go out and buy them and we all use them - I will (or at least my clients will) this season.

The colour trend of 2014 is cotton candy (like these beauties) or its sometimes known as frost candy or anything candy. Get a lure in this colour now because I promise you this; no I'll go further than promise - I'll guarantee it - they will catch a shed load of bass this year. What are they? - Well gold star if you recognise them and if you don't just ask and I'll tell you. Hit the comment link as below....

So sure am I of this bass forecast that I will post more than 1 pic of bass with one of these lures in its mouth this season.

Fact: you have to hook 'em before you can unhook 'em

Ok; yes I said ok! I know I'm stating the bleeding obvious. Clearly you can not unhook a bass until you've caught a bass. So what is my point? My point is the points on your hooks - just how sharp are they? The thing is that getting a hook up on a bass is a rare thing (I see hundreds a season but when you factor in the time spent achieving each hook up it works out to a lot of time spent per fish landed). I'll tell you exactly how long if you ask by commenting below this blog. For those of you that only get out a few times a year to chase the wonderful sea bass then your chances of a hook up will be depressingly few.

And there is one thing more depressing than not getting a hook up and that is getting a hook up and then promptly losing the thing that you have just spent so long trying to hook up on. What's the answer? Well make sure your hooks are sharp. After every time you clip a stone, pull through sand, cast poorly and smack a lure into a dry barnacle clad rock (yes I do it too); stop and sharpen your hooks.

That's the easy answer - very difficult to do in practise though as we are out bassing and bassing is the action of trying to hook a bass. It is not stopping every five mins to sharpen a hook. There is then a better answer and that is arm your lures with good quality branded fine wire hooks and change them regularly.

Expensive but much more practical as this can be done at home on the comfort of the kitchen table, the sofa or the wifes' lap (or is that just me?). No lost fishing time and no missed hook ups. My tip here is to buy abroad. The UK's treble hook market place has become over priced and I now look East for my trebles. They may take a while to arrive but arrive they do and with a little pre planning - aka order in the winter - they are always ready to go. The only other essential item is some split ring pliers. For me anyway it seems that what I once did with finger nails and teeth is no longer possible. Both body parts (along with several other body parts) are no longer as strong as they once were. Oh and do use the wifes' lap as a handy equipment store but don't (ever) use her finger nails. The dog house will not be good enough if she breaks one.

Buy fine wire hooks. Bass are great, amazing, wonderful predators but they are not Barracuda and fine wire hooks are fine (pun). They will not bend and they will not break and they will puncture a bass mouth and give you a hook up. There is some silly thick wired stuff out there - get rid of them if you own then. A big bass eats hard shell crab. They crunch and munch shell, claw and all. A big cock velvet crab is armed with spines all around his carapace and yet he too will be munched. Big bass have mouths like the inside of scrap car crushers. Hard, steel hard.

So if you want to unhook a big bass use fine wire super sharp hooks. Its almost as easy as that!