In the UK over more recent times I have noticed restaurant menus refer to this fish called the Sea Bass. Now if it were serving up Bream, I could understand the need to differentiate between the fresh water Bream and the Sea Bream, but for some reason Sea Bass has become a very popular term in the UK

We only have one sort of Bass here in all the UK waters and that fish lives in the sea, so the Sea Bass and Bass are the same species

If you would like to read some more articles here on the fishing blog about UK SEA BASS fishing have a look below

• Bass fishing tips
• Lures for Bass
• Live Baiting for Bass
• Spinning for Bass over sand
• My best Bass
• Bass Trolling in the UK
• Bass fishing book recommendation

I hope that answers the question and I hope you find some useful advice from the links I have posted here. Please comment on the post with your own questions or ideas and subscribe here for free to the RSS feed from this blog to get the latest Bass fishing tips straight into your inbox.

If you are having success with Bass in a particular area, then please let us know. Methods and times would be good. Actual locations are not to important, we want to keep those good marks to ourselves!!!

Happy Bassing!!!

I have not been told of the exact marks, so off you go, get the chart, look for inshore features and bag your self a few Bass. Consider the use of lures, generally metal ones of differing styles. Fish hard to the marks and enjoy!

Let us know how many Bass you get.

Fridays, over the next few weeks would be best for me. Come on lets get at least 5 yaks out there. The pollock and Wrasse fishing is great!!! and sea fishing beginners are very welcome!

I must say in this daft age of litigation – the sea fishing blog, its users or contributors will not be held liabable should any accident or injury occur and all participants join in and take part at thier own risk. This is not an orgaisned event, just a meeting of like minded people and by taking part in this trip you are happy to sign an agreement as stated above.

Further to the above – If you are interested in increasing your kayak safety knowledge and learning how to sea kayak with a degree of proficiency then please contact the fishing blog here as I am looking to organise some deals with local instructors.

At the time of writing this the sunshine is here! And the fish are moving in. Summer species are being caught, Mackerel, Bass and Mullet are moving around. Sand eels are growing in their population, but how do I know this you ask? Well, I ware shades!

If you come from a game fishing background then you will be used to stalking fish. To allow you better sight of the creature you will have a peaked hat and polarized sun glasses. The polarized lens takes the reflection off the water and allows you to see clearly into the water in most conditions.

What’s the advantage in wearing Sunglasses?

You may not be able to see the fish every time, but it again allows you to better understand the sea bed. Gullies, snags, weed beds and prey fish all suddenly stand out like never before. You can match you lure to the bait fish you can see swimming around. You can work you lure into the gullies and along rock ledges you didn’t know existed and see if you interest a fish.

Wearing a pair of Polaroid sunglasses will improve you fishing no end. You will be surprised at how many fish you can see and the greater insight you have into how to fish a mark. Your catch rate will go up and your headaches will go down. The Missus might even think you are becoming cool!

If you want to buy some look here POLAROID SUNGLASSES

The hardest thing to master, if you are new to sea angling or new to your location is finding good marks that produce and the easiest way to get this information is by joining your local club. There will be a vast wealth of knowledge amongst its members and once you have proven your-self and gained trust they will be willing to take you out on fishing sessions and give you valuable advice.

Not only will the club members share marks, it’s also a good source of cheap tackle and sometimes the chance to get out on a boat and share the cost amongst you all.

If you are a member of a club and you would like it to get some coverage on this site please send in the clubs details using our contact form. We get people every day landing here looking for Sea angling clubs and I would love to provide them with some great information.

Remember it was written a few years ago and times have changed, but the contents will point you in the right direction and help you to increase your own catch rate. The principles are simple to follow and very well explained.

This book, together with operation sea angler really opens up your possible methods to improve your sea angling. I could go on for ages about the value of having this book on your shelf at home (as long as you read it) It’s well written, easy to read, very informative and full of passion. It allows you to express your self and gives you the opportunity to experiment, try and test old proven ways to catch Bass, as well as develop your own system.

The contents is logical and basic making you think “Why didn’t I think of that!” and if you apply it fully to your Bass fishing you will see improved results.

If you think I am going over the top have a look at the reviews other gave it on Amazon – Hooked on Bass

Tight lines

www.fishing-blog.co.uk

How to detect a bite

There are many factors that effect your bite detection when you are sea fishing and they can all effect one another to give you a misleading picture about what is happening under the water. The ways of detecting a bite are as follows,

• Rod movement
• Line movement
• Indicator movement (eg float)

Detecting the bite

The basic key to this is practice and vigilance. Watching the rod, line and/or indicator for any movement, not in time with the sea or wind. Looking for a jerking motion on the rod tip or line, a bobbing on a float, even a rattle. Trout fishermen are always watching the line to detect that sneaky take. You will notice the line move without being able to feel it!

Holding the fishing line and rod is best practice. It will focus you and allow you to feel the rhythms that are going on under the sea. You will be able to tell the type of sea bed with a little practice. It can be hard work and tiring holding a rod while stood in the surf waiting for that Bass to bite, but its worth it.

Use the factors below to consider what might be happening. The are many variables and patients and practice will teach you how to assimilate all those knocks and taps and detect the bite you have been waiting for.

Primary bite detection factors

Species – The type of fish you are targeting will play a massive part in your bite detection technique. Getting the right balance of tackle, to species, to conditions is the aim. Sole and Mullet are known for very gentle almost un-detected takes. Bass and Eel can pull your rod out of the rest. Wrasse can be felt by sharp tugs, flounder and plaice vibrate a rod tip.

Tackle – Balancing your tackle to the species and the conditions / environment is very important to accurately detect bites. Light gear in heavy seas, or trying to hold bottom in a fast current full of weed will over stretch the light gear causing the rod to lock up, not showing by rod tip movement the action your terminal tackle is getting. The type of fishing line is also important, braid has very little stretch offering great detection qualities, mono has a lot of stretch, softening bites indications.

Tide action – As the flood starts to speed up the resistance of your line to the current will lower bite detection at the rod tip. The positive side is a fish will generally swim down tide after taking your bait and the tide will help to magnify this.

Wind conditions – The wind will have a massive effect on your bite detection ability. It can cause your line to belly creating a large amount of slack in the line, reducing the effect of a taking fish on the rod tip. Guests can cause a fake bite, tugging the line causing a false detection.

Sea state – this can have a negative impact in larger seas. Huge surges and swells can lift your tackle and move it yards across the sea bed. Calm days allow for better contact with your end gear.

Secondary bite detection Factors

Sea weed – High build levels will give you false bites and reduced sensitivity in most types of fishing applications.

Skill – When you have been fishing for a while you will start to recognise the species mouthing your bait. This ability will come in time and increase your catch rate as you can tune your fishing to match interested species.

Sea bed – The types of sea bed offer a subtle contrast to each other. Sand softens takes where pebbles give a lot of false bites.

Bait – A bass hitting a live sand eel is normally a very sudden thing, best described as an explosion. However, when they take a dead bait thy can give a very gentle slack line bite, very hard to detect.

Available light – Even with tip lights night fishing takes on a new challenge. Subtle bites go missed, heavy bites seem like your eyes are playing tricks on you. In the dark fishing takes on a whole new aspect.

Your mind set – There you are freezing your nuts off. No bites, can’t be bothered anymore, and wallop you get, and miss your first and only take of the fishing session. Stay focused and positive all the time. When your eye is off the ball the action will happen.

A lot of species are feeding hard in the last of the warmer summer water ready to migrate away from the shore line and this feeding frenzy makes for good fishing.

Bass fishing tips

There are lots of articles here about shore fishing for Bass but remember these points,

1. Fish shallow rocky shores
2. Fish tight to all the features, rocks, weed, gullies
3. Take only your basic tackle so your can move easily
4. Wear Polaroids and look for the fish
5. Sea fish early or late
6. Use your eyes and nose and think like a Bass
7. Wear stout shoes
8. Take a camera (just incase)
9. Cast the same place 2 or 3 times then move
10. Fish all the depths

I am asked this question a lot and only having owned 3 in my time I would like your opinion as too which spinning rod you consider most suited to Bass fishing and why.

Looking at the hits this website gets there are a lot of other people looking for an answer to this question.

I look forward to reading the results of this.

This is just typical, when you get the chance to go fishing all the other factors play against you and spoil your chance. Anyway I have had some Fishing-blog.co.uk stickers made up for my Kayak, so its been a chance to get them in place and my brother has used this time to source and develop more Kayak fishing modsfor his YAK. As soon as hes sends me the ideas via email I will be posting them here.

Tight lines…… (I wish)

A Beach full of food

Recently I was writing about reconnaissance, ie checking marks out and looking for tell tale signs of where fish might be from reading the shoreline. Today I went to a local surf beach for a session on my surf board only to discover exactly what I had been talking about. I decided not to go surfing (it was messy anyway) but to capture some images to show you some good Indicators for good Beach casting, Spinning and Kayak fishing, with regard to targeting primarily the Bass.

On arriving at the beach I could see loads of decaying weed piled up, in fact to be truthful I could smell the weed before I could see it!! I had my trusty camera phone and I started rummaging through the bio mass. The weed had started to rot and was a sticky, smelly mess. I had lots of onlookers as I did a David Bellamy searching for critters.

Fish food everywhere

The first thing of note I found was a starfish. Now I do not know if many UK fish eat star fish or even scavenge on starfish but it was proof that this mass of weed held secrets and things of interest. Any dead beasts were being held in the weed, this could just of easily been a small pouting or sand eel. The fact here is not that starfish were in the weed but carrion was certainly on the menu.

I was hunting for the seaweed fly larva that I had mentioned before, but alas there were none. There were plenty of adult flies but for some reason no larva. I will have to research this and see if there was a logical reason why.

Food on the shore

Turning over large clumps of the seaweed produced a little beast that I know as “Sand Hoppers” (Talitrus saltator). These wee beasts live on rotting vegetation and they use powerful muscles in their abdomen to hop. These creatures spend much of their lives buried in the sand and are generally nocturnal, but the can be found under the weed in the moist, dark environment this creates. They can grow to about 2.5 cm in length.

As the surging tide engulfed the rotting weed you could see these beasts trying to escape, but many were being washed in. I could imagine the fish loving these protein packed snacks. They look like freshwater shrimp (Gammarus pulex) and there are a few fly patterns here that would suite the salt water fly fisherman.

Read the shore line

I carried on checking the beach for signs of life and ideas to prove to me that there were more tasty morsels here. I could see a lot of holes on the high tide mark, but digging them out by hand proved fruitless. I really tried hard to find you some seaweed flies, but still nothing, however another sign that the beach contained a sound food source was that of sea birds foot imprints. Now I know that we don’t go to the beach to catch Gulls and waders ( I have caught a few in my time by accident ), but its another part of the picture. The beach was littered with imprints of bird feet, meaning that either they roosted there over night or they were feeding heavily on a rich food source. By the way that I could follow imprints from one bunch of weed to another was a sure indicator that these birds were feeding, not resting. This was yet another sign that what was on the beach was well worth hanging around for and feeding on. Now I am sure that what the birds found tasty and worth hunting out; the local fish population would also agree. Just to confirm, this beach is not a dumping ground for “fish and Chips” or half eaten sandwiches so I am sure they were browsing on quality, organic, local marine produce.

Check the shoreline

I am sure you do this already, but when you go to the beach, look, smell and investigate to find out what it has to offer and what fish might be “looking for” to eat that evening. If there were Bass there you could be landing your rapala on there nose cast after cast, but if they are anything like trout, because they are feeding on thousands of sand hoppers they could not care less about your lure. Just a thought anyway!!!

Never give up. Just keep trying different different ideas, variations and baits. You never know your next idea could turn the tables.

Check the sea for food

You can clearly see here how the seaweed is being taken out washing the creatures and carrion from it. Beach casting in these conditions can be hard as you catch alot of weed, so you need to fish the edge. Fishing from your Kayak off the back, in the clear water just might produce fish. Cunning eh!

I would be delighted to hear you opinion on this post.

Edit: since I added this photo I have had a call from a friend who suggested we look like the Hair bear bunch and someone who wants to know where my brother got the “delightful” jumper from!!! – no comment -

The important factor here is two fold, first do be very careful around these currents as they can run along way out and take you with them but the second is consider them to be a conveyer belt of food for the local fish.

You can imagine that all the food stuffs get washed into the shore, but these currents then pull everything away from the shore and back out to sea, so they are laden with waste and prey for hunting fish and in my opinion they are a source of great fishing.