Autumn bass fishing
Autumn is an excellent season for bass fishing, particularly sight fishing, and perhaps the best. Lower air and water temperatures encourage fish to feed more regularly and actively. Big bass come out more often and are sometimes a little less observant. The weather can be capricious, but it's precisely these more often-charged waters and the lower light levels that make sea bass less selective, even if they remain a predator that is always wary and very well adapted to its environment.
I take advantage of a last-minute cancellation to do two sessions on two very different estuaries to try different approaches and get out of my "comfort" zone.
Sight fishing around oyster beds
Oyster beds are very good fishing areas, as they offer food and shelter. Indeed, these structures provide areas that sea bass appreciate for their security, while also hosting a wide variety of food: green crabs, shrimps, sea fleas, gobies, small flatfish and fry live around the tables thanks to the richness of the environment.
Each oyster park or concession area is different and can be more or less attractive to fish, but in most cases, sea bass frequently pass through to feed at some point during the tide. It's often at the end of the ebb and the beginning of the flood that sea bass come to hunt under the tables, and they are very opportunistic and active.
Since this year, I've been going to this area from time to time, especially when the coefficients are favorable and keep a little water under the tables. This allows the bass to maraud for nearly two hours. It's often more interesting on the way up, but today it's just the opposite!
Barely had we arrived at the berth when bass and mullet began to appear here and there. Tails, waves and small chases break out. I'm on the alert and ready to fire. With my green crab imitation between my fingers and a small reserve of silk to cast as fast as I can on a fish passing between the rows, or on a hunt flush with the tables, I skirt the tables.
I love the tension and concentration required for this type of fishing. You need all your senses to be alert to visually spot a shadow creeping under the pens, or detect a movement of water, or hear the characteristic suction of bass as they gobble shrimp or fry flush with the pockets. Like Lucky Luke, you have to shoot faster than your shadow and be able to dispatch your fly in less than 3 seconds to intercept these fast-moving bass.
The light is good and the wind light. Even though the sun is lower in the sky at this time of year, I can see the clear sandy bottom quite well, providing good contrast for spotting a marauding sea bass. Before long, there's one making a discreet move from one row to the next. Just before he slips out of my sight, my crab lands flush with the park. Barely missing him, the bar turns around and snatches the silk out of my hands, heading back under the tables. I run in his direction to avoid as much friction as possible, but this time my 30° won't last! 1-0 to the bar! It's not always easy to come out on top! Most of the time, you have to try and catch them when they're on the outside of the tables. But that's not always the case, and it's hard to resist the temptation.
While I'm reeling in a crab, my favorite fly even when the sea bass are hunting in the shrimp, a few chases break out a little further on. I pick up the pace and head for the area where a group of bass are causing trouble. As soon as I've finished tying the knot, I send my crab in three false casts flush with the last row just outside. Same action. My crab descends and barely reaches the bottom when a bass pops up and stretches out my leader. The line is reeled in, and I immediately try to angle my rod towards the outside of the structures, but nothing happens. This time I'd rigged my rod with 14 lbs (32°) and by positioning myself in line with the table I avoid as much friction as possible. Once I'd calmed down, I brought my line back firmly, turning my rod right then left to get it out. It holds and I see it appear. A superb sea bass in great shape that will soon go into the landing net!
It's a real sport, and it's a real adrenaline rush! I love these thrills! Fishing is a real hard drug!
Difficult conditions
Strangely enough, on the way up, the fish are no longer active, because on this spot it's often the best time! It's a good thing I arrived earlier and was there at the very end of the descent. I take up position in a wider alleyway, where I can fight the fish more calmly, but there's still no hunting and no sea bass looking for crabs.
Then, in the distance, I make out a wave moving straight ahead under a row of tables. Mullets behave very differently from sea bass. They tend to change direction often, and to be noisier and more visible, whereas sea bass, also known as wolves in the south and in Spain and Italy, are very discreet predators.
This nervous water, as it's called in exotic sea fishing jargon, intrigued me and I decided to throw my crab 1 meter ahead just in case. My instincts were right, as a sea bass bursts out of the table and grabs my crab without the slightest hesitation. After a lightning strike, I leap towards the middle of the row to put pressure on him and try as best I can to counter his start.
With practice, you manage to increase your percentage of success in these parks, but unfortunately you don't win every time! This time, it was me who outsmarted him, and I quickly managed to bring him to the surface and "drown" him, then lure him as quickly as possible into my landing net, which comes in very handy when fishing in the parks to shorten the fights, which are very violent and intense and must be as short as possible.
It's a slightly smaller bass, but as always in these sizes, very lively and combative. It's very round and well nourished. My crab is pitted on the edge of its lips. That was close!
The rest of the climb will be very quiet. I'll mop between the rows but won't see or hear any hunting. I'm an angler who fishes mostly by sight, and I like blind fishing less and less, but I'll still cast a floating shrimp imitation called a pop-shrimp that imitates a fleeing shrimp jumping to the surface. Swimming these surface-working flies is another way to fish visually even when casting blind. But it's fun to watch these surface flies "popper" and hope every time you cast that a bass will come and grab it violently in a big spray of water! It won't happen this time, or even later once the water is just above the parks. Not a flush or a wave and my gurgler (surface fly) won't interest anyone, much to my dismay.
I'm off to another cove where the tide is going to rise gradually, and which is fishing at just the right time once the water is above the parks I've just fished. Unfortunately, for the past few days, thick foam has covered the surface of virtually all the estuaries in the area on the rising tide, making sight-fishing quite difficult. I'm on an edge I've never fished before and I'll find a few fish, but in these conditions of visibility, it's very difficult to fish properly, which will put an end to this rather nice and fun first session!