Hooked on Bass !!!

[Manxman]

On the beach tonight plugging and the Bass were biting. The fifth fish of the evening I had on a towel to unhook, kneeling beside it it took a big flap and landed on my left calf.

Me wearing shorts to, so guess where the treble ended up, what a bloody job literally, being connected to a bass by two hooks of a treble. It took some contortions and time to unhook the bass and a lot longer to pull the hooks out of me leg even tho' I pretty much flatten the barbs.

For revenge I knocked it on the head and will have it for dinner tomorrow.

[***Simon***]

went spinning tonight and blanked. dad has a few friday nite but a mate blanked this morning aswell.

 

as for the hook in the leg, i got one in the finger. was so deep went way past the curve, had to go to hospital lol

 

[ 17. July 2005, 11:45 PM: Message edited by: ***Simon*** ]

[Manxman]

Have you tried plugging for bass Simom? I use a popper all of the time these days with good results, especially over rough ground where its so easy to lose spinners.

[Sharkbyte]

I was in an almost identical predicament last summer in the States. We were fishing for stripped bass on lures and whilst unhooking one from a pontoon it managed to flap free of my grip and sink a size 1/0 treble into the palm of my hand up to the shank, upon which point it went ape.

My next problem was that seeing as I had left the forceps up top, I had to climb a dock wall ladder, not and easy task getting back up with rod and reel (braid, couldn't bite through it) and a seriously ****** striper attached via lure to my palm.

After throwing the rod and reel javelin style, I eventually got back up, freed the fish and started to walk back to my brother and the rest of our gear.

Looking closer and after a few failed attempts at pulling the hook out it was pretty clear the only option was to try and pull the hook through the palm and cut the point and barb off.

Surgery was well and truly underway now with my brother on the Leathermans and me pushing the tented skin down onto the point. After taking a few sweaty sitdown breathers in between the hook came through.

I found a novel way of cleaning out one of these hook wounds was to up end a bottle of Evian over one of the puncture holes and squeeze. I wish I had taken a photo of the 3ft fountain appearing from my palm.

The Long Island locals thought we were nuts, not only at what they had seen but the fact I replaced the treble retied my lure and gone back to my favourite spot on the pontoon (with the forceps in my pocket this time).

We caught over 50 bass and Bluefish that evening some into double figures, having no time to waste before we flew home back to what Great Britain has to offer.

[***Simon***]

poppers? i just used lures 2nite

[maidstonemike]

Why don't you use barbless hooks?

[Snatcher]

Hi Manxman,so it was like a butchers shop then

Been there got the t-shirt,I can laugh about it now.

 

Was up the van over the weekend and had a few plugging sessions. There was nowt about John. Freddie took a squad to the SH area and he only managed one fish. It is still hit and miss at the mo.Fished with oorwullie88 and tack4 in Loch Ryan v early Sat morn,not a touch. The highlight of the day was watching tack4 go in up to his neck

 

True to form had packed in fishing and was walking down the path to the Ship with wor lass at dusk and seen balls of sandeels being ripped apart by bass just off the beach typical.

Back up a week on Friday for 10 days,hope to meet up John.

[Grant]

Manxman- what are your tips on how you work the popeers? I use walk the dog style lures (Lucky Craft Sammy's being my favourite) as not had much luck with the poppers.

[Manxman]

Grant, the aile Mag and yo-zuri are identical walk the dog style poppers. I use the 18 gram attached to 3 foot of flouro then a small swivel to 20Lb braid.

Over the years I've tried all sorts and have ammassed quite a collection, but now use aile mag or the yo-zuri exclusivley.

I get them from the USA when my sister visits her daughter there. Far cheaper than the UK.

 

I usually cast 45 degrees from the beach uptide and work the lure back with the tide taking 4/5 turns of the handle and stop for a few seconds. If a fish has a go and misses the lure I stop for about 30 seconds which seems an eternity when you know there's a fish under your lure. Usually after this stop when starting to retrieve you'll get another take.

Last night one fish (I presume)had five goes at the lure before hooking itself a rods length from my feet.

 

On some occassions when the takes are only half hearted and the above doesn't seem to work, retrieving the lure as fast as you can produces some explosive takes.

Most of the bigger fish seem to like the faster retrieve.

 

Most of my fishing is in shallow water with lots of floating weed and a rough bottom hence the use of a lure that doesn't dive.

I suppose other people have thier own methods but this way seems to bring the fish for me.

[Manxman]

Not many fish about then John, we're up on the night of the 29th. and will start a new thread tonight to see if we can arrange a meeting with anyone else who'll be up there