Bass live bait

I have had further discussions about the best Bass live bait with a few Devon and Cornwall Bass fishermen.

It seems that the current preferred bait has to be the live prawn. There are many ways as I have discussed before on how to catch these animals so I won’t go into much detail on this post about the methods and techniques used.

Leader length

To confirm my own thoughts on this subject when inshore drifting for Bass a long leader of fluro carbon or similar low vis material seems to be the best option. When I say long I mean about 10’ or as long as you can handle, if this is greater that 10’ then all the better.

Bass rods and Reels

The rods being used are generally about 8 – 10 ft spinning rods with fixed spool reels. The Shimano bait runner was a popular choice. The advantage of light weight rods is two fold, they make the fight more sporting and they show bites, including slack line bites more noticeable. (I will talk about slack line bites another day)

Bass Live Bait

The bait is kept alive in some form of aerated bait container. This can include a bucket fitted with a bait pump or a basket dipping the water attached to the side of the boat. There are many options available to you on the market these days.

Bait presentation for Bass

The most popular hooking method employed seems to be a treble with one of the hooks passing through the tail of the beast so it still looks lively and the prawn survives being hooked. This gives a very natural bait presentation which is important for clear water Bass fishing. A bubble float is often used to stop the bait swimming down and hiding in the rocks. The float would be attached at the end of the main line / start of the leader.

Bass Bites

The bite when fishing this method is often very strong and positive, however slack line bite can occur. Always allow the Bass a bit of time with its bait, giving it time to mouth the bait, then just wind into the fish, don’t be to concerned to strike.

In conclusion

This is not the only Bass fishing Live bait, but its one that seems to be very popular at the moment and it seems to be out fishing more of the usual techniques like Joey mackerel and the traditional live sand eel.

Related Posts B

1. Bass fishing livebait
2. Catching prawns for bait
3. Hi vis monofilament fishing line
4. Bass
5. sea fishing with carp rods