Sadly I am not as ninja-like as I thought I might be! Just couldn’t get into a good position to present a lure to a proper fish……….

I was out fishing yesterday with a thoroughly nice fishing tackle industry bloke I know who wanted to introduce me to the world of baitcasting setups and find out whether they might be any applications for my fishing. I wish I had been filming my first few casts with a baitcasting setup because they were bloody awful - straight hook left because I completely mistimed the cast with the shorter rod, creature bait went straight into the trees, it’s been far too long since I cast a multiplier type reel! Chris had brought along one of these brand new, hi-tech and very smart looking ABU Revo SX VoltiQ Low Profile (baitcaster) reel which makes THE most lovely sound as your lure flies out. Preferably not straight left into a tree though………..

Anyway, we were also out and about to see if we could put some lures in front of a few bass. We were tucked right out of the way at a location I have never seen another angler, but I haven’t fished it for a while so I wasn’t quite sure what we might or might not find. I said to Chris that we needed to hang right back from the water because sometimes there will be a few bass tucked right in against the bank and often under some trees as well. So we go into ninja mode, or what I like to think was ninja mode, and we made our way towards the water.

The three bass I saw initially were sitting right where the point of the arrow is. Swine fish!

I blogged about these fantastic Cocoons polarised fitover sunnies the other day, and without a doubt it’s the yellow lenses which I think work particularly well for seeing into the sort of water so many of us fish. The more I fish with them, the more I can’t do without them. We crouched down and right where I would hope to sometimes see a bass, I saw three of them lined up with their noses into the ebb current. Right in against the bank and under a tree with low-slung branches, the three fish were unmistakably bass and the rear fish especially was a cracker. The problem was that I simply could not present a lure to the fish in the position I was. No way to cast, too far back from the water to simply drop a lure in there, too many tree branches to negotiate, I needed to change position.

Which I knew could result in the bass spooking. But I had to try. Down on my knees, keeping as low as possible, the best way was to crawl very slightly upstream of the fish where there was a small gap in the branches and hope the fish didn’t see me. Pretty hard I grant you because as you might have guessed I am not exactly the smallest or most ninja-like angler who has ever been obsessed with bass fishing, but here we go. I feel plenty strong enough with my running and gym stuff to crawl around and not do myself any mischief, and I’m pretty sure I was holding my breath and crossing my fingers. Please don’t move fish, I want you at the back especially.

While I was crawling/shuffling, I was thinking about how to present my creature bait to the fish if I managed to get into position. I reckon I was also visualising hooking that big bass at the back and how I might land it amongst a good few obstacles. I had almost caught the fish in my head, but it all came crashing down when the three bass decided enough was enough and they spooked. Not in a big rush as I might have expected, rather they somewhat nonchalantly eased out into deeper water as if to say nice try ninja, but you really need to sharpen up your skills. Swine fish! At least I started to kinda get to grips with the baitcasting setup over the next few hours, until that is I got a bit sure of myself and spectacularly cracked off a brand new Seeker which I really wound up and let fly. Or rather the Seeker flew away unaccompanied by any mainline……………..