The Song of the Solitary Bass Fisher

by James "Leakyboots" Batty

Overview

James Batty seldom ventures further than about 20 miles from his Cornish home, west of Penzance. He fishes from the rocks and beaches in a handful of places and this is quite enough for him. For his quarry - the European bass - is a challenging one and you need to know exactly how it behaves, what it is feeding on and where it is likely to be lurking if you are to stand a chance of catching it.


Batty is a thoughtful, intelligent, amusing angler who writes with clarity and refreshing insight.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781910723791
Publisher:	Merlin Unwin Books
Publication date:	11/01/2018
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Known to the many followers of his angling blog as 'Leakyboots', James Batty is regarded as the most experienced, wise, witty exponent of coastal angling.

Read an Excerpt

I've learned a lot from people giving me new ideas. I've picked up useful intelligence also from fishers who weren't catching anything, especially if I managed to help them find a bass or two. And I've seen a waterlogged waderful of reasons for those outings with no return. Of course avoiding these traps doesn't guarantee you'll never blank again. There are days when everything seems perfect - the wave, the time, the bait or fly or lure, the old magic trousers - and the fisher's in sparkling form. But things don't always work out, that's Murphy's Law Light. One reason it's called going fishing, not going catching, is the hand of chance. Napoleon liked his generals to be lucky, and there's a random element in a bass trip as well. There's not much to be done about that, but if you steer clear of the commonest acts of fishing folly, I hope most of your trips will be productive.

Fishing at the wrong time
A lot of the bass-fishers I meet are heading in the opposite direction. On beaches they're toddling up from the strand as I'm clambering into my waders, on fly and lure marks I'm going home as they're arriving. They might be missing a trick. Bass feed mostly in darkness, while the morning lure-jockeys are still duvet-bound. And I'm convinced they feed hardest at the end of the night, when the late evening bait-chuckers are snuggled up in pyjamas, cuddling their nightcap Ovaltines and whiskies (in separate vessels I trust). At dusk the fish seem to take their time. Towards dawn they're in the last chance saloon, stoke up now before the noisy beach-goers pitch up and the nocturnal creatures vanish. Or maybe they think breakfast is the most important meal of the day, who knows? As long as it works, who cares?
I wouldn't wish my own bad sleeping habits on anyone - I'm incapable of lying down for more than five hours at a stretch - but most folk don't go bass-fishing as often as I do. So if you're blanking too much, give it a bash: try hauling yourself from your cosy pit at stupid o'clock, see what happens.

I was on a moonlit beach when I saw a young seal in front of me. I moved along the sand, he came too. Fishing was a waste of time, he'd grab anything I caught, and I might snag him as well. So how to make a friendly cub move? I modified the Rolling Stones as I pondered: 'Hey-hey, you-you, get out of my wave' (Get off of my cloud, Decca Records, 1965). I chucked him a squid: big swirl.

Table of Contents

Author's Preface v

1 What to Expect 1

2 An Approach to Bass Fishing 11

3 Working Out How Bass Behave 23

4 Choosing Fishing Spots 59

5 Gear for the Bass Fisher 72

6 Rigs For Bass 89

7 Adapting to Conditions 94

8 Lessons from the Shore 119

9 Why People Blank 129

10 Chasing the Big Ones 149

11 A Week in September 163

12 A Future for Bass Fishing 171