Hello All, my first post here. I'm really hoping you folks can help me to achieve my ambition this year: to catch a bass from the north Cumbria coast.

Yes, I live in Cumbria. Is there a coastal county in the UK with worse sea fishing? Probably not.

First, anyone here fished the north Cumbria coast for bass? They get caught, you occasionally read about them in the local press. I've tried without success.

The coastline is fairly daunting in that when the tide goes out it goes out for literally miles. When it comes in you are fishing in just a few feet of water at maximum casting range. How do you choose where to fish? Does the water depth matter? What state of tide is best?

Lots more questions to follow.....

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try some estury beaches with lug,follow tide in,watch u dont get cut off thou,look for gullies or areas they might forage for food,the normaly follow the tide in hunting,they might be under your feet so keep your eyes open always,the beaches we fish in south west scotland are pretty similar this works for us,after a while you get to know best bits,a good sea helps nothing to drastic mind you ,try just bout 3 or 4 breakers out ,long flowing trace helps dont be scared of big hooks these things have bucket gubs,3/0,4/0

[ 23. June 2004, 08:56 PM: Message edited by: goldenballs ]

mike
the places you mentioned sound like perfect bass beaches,
try fishing in a onshore wind so to put plenty of white horses on the surface

dont worry about the depth of water i catch bass in as little as 6" of water
as for baits try what ever food stuff is locally found on the beach were you fish be it ragworm,lug worm,razorfish but u cant beat a big fresh peeler crab
as G.B said i tend to favour long flowing traces for bass as they can be very quick biters and will drop a bait at the slightest hint of resistance
try to locate any gulleys or holes in the beach which fish could hunt for food in.
dont be afraid to fish very,VERY short
i have seen bass around my feet when wading in the surf.

hope this helps

let us know how u get on

macky

This is all GOOD STUFF! I think maybe I've been trying when the weather has been too calm, and maybe casting blindly out too far. I'll try to use a bit more intelligence about where I put my baits. The beaches are pretty featureless, just thousands of acres of flat sand and mud interspersed with rocky patches, but there are some very 'low profile' gullies here and there.

Lug (very small) and rag are available to dig locally, but I think I'll try to get peeler crab from the rocky bits. When lug digging you also find huge clams with big leathery 'tubes' sticking out of them - are these any good for bait?

Would you start fishing at low water and fish all the way up the tide? Would there be a preference for small or big tides? Big tides in the Solway often bring massive amounts of weed which makes fishing difficult. Is it worth fishing any part of the ebb? Better at night?

The questions keep coming.....

i always find bass fishing is better in the late evening and tends to go quiet after dark although i have caught after dark.

the patches of rock you mention would seem to be obvious bass holding features as they will hunt around there for crabs and shrimps

i catch bass on all size tides but find the mid range ones more productive

would you fish a gulley rather than flat beach?

Gully = pred highway.
Flat = lawn/meadow/picnic area.

Travel is nicer on the highway but the occasional detour onto a lawn or meadow for a snack.

I prefer to fish the highways unless conditions have caused most of the fish to wander into the Meadow.

nice. you ok newt?

any decent shrinks out there?

i understood newt

so did i macky