Living by the coast, it would be a shame if I didn’t make the most of them, so, I have recently taken up sea fishing. There are a lot of places to fish in the local area such as Barton Beach, Highcliffe Beach, Lymington and Pennington Sea Wall, Hurst Shingle Bank, Steamer Point, Avon Beach, Mudeford Quay and many more. All of the listed marks are well known for producing bass, whether that be school fish or specimen bass of double figures. The Sea Wall and Mudeford Quay are great for children and people that are just starting angling and want a good and productive days fishing.

 

 

I have had to do a lot of learning when it comes to sea fishing as all of my angling is done on freshwater. However, I have had great success targeting the bass. I mainly fish a couple of the local beaches that are a short distance from my house and are easy to get to. I tend to fish off of the end of the groynes as the rocks provide shelter and are a  great food source for the smaller fish, which means that by placing my bait within ten yards of the end of the groyne puts you amongst the fish. I have been fishing light and letting the lead roll around in the tide which gives the bait a lot of movement in the water attracting the fish. I have been using a paternoster rig with a 2-3 oz  lead with a size 2 hook and a small ragworm. This method has caught me lots of fish to around the 2lb mark as well as the ubiquitous eel.

 

 

On the other hand, other anglers that have fished the same beaches as me have caught fish as well and have had better results. They have been using a range of baits and all different types of rigs. There have been several fish caught at Barton with the best going 7lb 5oz on the scales. This fish took a mackerel head using a pennel rig, so using bigger baits will single out the bigger fish in certain circumstances. There was also 10lb bass caught on mackerel locally from an underwater feature. If you can find the features, you will find the fish. A lot of smaller bass around the 5-6lb size have been caught on squid with a size 6 hook with a pop up bead for attraction. Additionally, there have also been great results spinning from the shore and from kayaks for the bass and that has produced some big fish. Some of the best lures to use are Dexter Wedges, HTO Artic Eels, Sidewinders, Tazer lures and the Black Minnow .

Everyone has their own bait preference but a bass will eat anything that they come across. I found that the best baits to use around here are mackerel, squid, rag worm, crabs and blueys. If you fish any of the beaches that I have spoken about I hope you have gained some knowledge on how to fish them and what tactics and baits work.

 

 

I hope you have the same luck as me, tight lines,

Bill.