Finding bars is not always easy
In the absence of activity, sea bass are not always easy to find. Indeed, these fish are constantly on the move to feed, but knowing the spots and, above all, the water depths that bass like at each station is a big advantage, even if sometimes they seem absent and not active at all.
You therefore need to have several spots to prospect throughout the day, depending on the time of the tide. With experience, and multiple outings in a given area, you'll come to know your fishing zone better. If the results are slow in coming, there's no point in insisting: it's better to change spots to find the active fish that follow the larder.
Sometimes birds (terns, cormorants and gulls) can be active and help us spot areas where fish are feeding, but this is not always the case.
On this outing, there was no sign of activity. No hunting, no birds in any of the corners we prospected. We'd have had to beat the bushes to hit the bull's-eye!
A quiet start to the session
No sooner had we started our session on a rocky point licked by a lovely current than I hooked a beautiful fish. The silk flies through the rings and it's impossible to lift the rod to set the hook and secure my catch. After a few seconds and 10 metres of line snatched from my hands, the fish came off! Was it a big bass? Another species? We'll never know. Sylvain, my fishing companion, and I came up with a few hypotheses. Bonito? Big sea bass? It's hard to know, and always very frustrating.
Then it's a complete vacuum. No touch. No sign of life. The color of the fly changes. Animation. More drifts, but no more taps on our flies.
At the far end of the bay, I'll take a mesh bass on an olive-back color, mounted on my intermediate line, but hits are rare. Apart from a few very hard to hook garfish, the bass are either absent or not active at all.
We change zones several times. After a bay, where this modest fish will allow me to open the ball, a rocky headland, we now skirt a large beach in search of bird activity, often biting into the forage fish. But not a single tern on the horizon, or on the sand. Nothing of interest. We try a sandy area dotted with patches of seagrass. No luck there either.
Spot after spot, still no activity apart from a tiny beach bass that came to munch on my streamer.
The bars are buzzing and we're enjoying it!
We eat quickly at slack water, watching the horizon and the birds, then attack again on a rocky point that juts out to form a plateau where the current will pass through and set up. Lure fishermen seem to be having as little success as we are!
In the return of the point, suddenly I catch a small sea bass, then a second one. Sylvain, with his tan streamer, also catches a fish at the end of the mouth, while my blue/green streamer is completely boxed in every time. We set the virtual anchor to stay on station and go on to catch several small bass that seem to be grouped in this spot. Insisting, I finally hit a nice fish that stopped my line dead in its tracks and then took off like a whirlwind. Sea bass are really combative in currents and I'm having trouble bridling it. The Sage R8 Salt #9 bends well but tires the fish, which is getting closer and will soon give in. He finally surfaces and we catch a glimpse of him. He's superb and in great shape. It's a pleasure to see him, and will perhaps help me forget the first fish of the day.
It enters the landing net. It's a superb sea bass, nearly 60 cm long and very fleshy.
Sylvain decides to steal one of my streamers as the color seems to make all the difference. He too quickly picks up a few small bass. We make two doubles, which is always great fun. Then the bites and follow-ups fade. The bass must have followed the rising tide and we resume our drift along the coast.
The wind picks up and makes casting more complicated. With fly fishing, it's always much more complex, if only to position the boat and cast while managing the electric motor, without which it would be quite simply impossible to fly-fish for bass from a boat.
The choice of fly and the animation are often decisive
The bass are active, but you have to find them. After 10/15 minutes without a bite, we landed on a small shoal and caught a few more bass. The color and size of the fly (10 cm) used with fast to very fast animations will be the keys to success once again.
It was Sylvain's turn to land a nice fish in the 50 cm range, which also gave him a hard time. As for me, the bass are having a field day, but nothing too big. Maybe a mesh, but who cares, it's always great to see some action and get some big taps. On the fly, the sensations are multiplied tenfold, and it's a real pleasure to fight these bass who fight so hard!
We ended the session with quite a few bass caught, including two nice ones and a big lost fish. By looking hard we found them, but for once, we had to change stations, flies and animation regularly to achieve a certain success! In any case, on the fly, these fish always offer great thrills, and we can't get enough of them!
