September so far

Since returning to Cornwall I have been fortunate to be able to fish every day in the run up to term starting. The addition of a car has also allowed an exponential increase in trips to distant marks that would have previously been totally impractical to reach by foot alone. 

It’s been great exploring new areas in West Cornwall, in addition to revisiting marks I haven't fished for a while. Shortly before leaving for Tasmania I walked a decent stretch of the South West Coastal path. Whilst walking, I noted down likely looking spots and have really enjoyed fishing them hard these last few weeks to work out under which conditions they produce.

I’ve had pretty good success, catching about 70 bass since the beginning of September. Unfortunately, none of any real size, most averaging mid 40’s and a couple just over 50cm. I’m not sure why I can’t find any larger fish. As there are currently so many mackerel about, I wonder if the larger fish are just full and not bothering to chase lures as there’s so much bait around? I hope as Autumn progresses I’ll connect with some better fish. The thought often crosses my mind that the years and years of commercial pressure on the Cornish bass stock has left next to no large bass in the inshore waters, but I remain hopeful of finding one. 

A fin-perfect bass of about 50cm

Something I have recently realised is that I have become quite addicted to fishing surface lures over the past couple years, which has possibly limited my chances of catching fish. I used to think that if fish were present they would happily come up and take a top-water, and if I wasn’t getting any interest then the fish just weren’t there. Wanting to test this theory, I’ve been focusing a lot more on fishing the whole water column, starting at the top and working down before moving on. This new approach has resulted in me catching a lot of fish that I previously may have just walked on past when stubbornly fishing surface lures.

Well conditioned fish from a new mark

I have also spent more time focusing on using long casting lures to reach currents and other features. I enjoyed making the most of the last spring low tides to fish far out on some rocks that can’t be reached unless it’s a real low tide. The brisk onshore wind meant that surface lures couldn’t really reach a current line that I thought fish would be positioned in and metals would surely snag on the shallow kelp beds. Fortunately, I had a lure that could cast far and work close to the surface- the Westin Salty Pattegrisen 28g. It cuts through the wind and with the rod tip held high works just below the surface. For about 30 minutes it was almost a fish a cast, out in the current. Had 8 bass several garfish and a handful of mackerel. Once the current died down towards low water the fish moved on, but still managed to catch a couple more at the first of the flood before making a retreat to higher ground.

Long-range bass on the Westin Salty

The past week I had some friends and family visit and decided to camp further from home to save driving so much and explore some totally new ground. Was a very successful trip, managing 3 sessions per day on average and managed to put a good mate and my dad onto their first lure caught bass. Routine was pre-dawn to breakfast, then a midday trip, and finally an after dinner into darkness session, almost always on different marks. By the end of the week we were all exhausted, having been running on minimal sleep and food for a while. We caught bass at most places we fished, however it was often very hard to get through the mackerel. Almost any lure you put on at times would be taken by mackerel, I lost count of the amount I had on the big patch! The most successful tactic was larger soft plastics, fished below the mackerel. We also managed some alright Pollock on a couple of the evenings which made a nice change. I’m taking this weekend to rest up and reorganise some of my gear, ready to fish hard in the coming week before lectures start up again the following Monday!

A decent pollock from a deep water shore mark