Bass Fishing Bude Breakwater

Big Bass, Little Bass

Bude Breakwater, Bude, Cornwall. UK

Bude Breakwater

I was looking forward to this week away in Cornwall, for many reasons! from cream teas, BBQs, and fine food to be sampled, and then walked off over miles of the most beautiful coastlines in the UK. This place is absolutely stunning! But from a fishing point of view I was coming back a second time, more prepared and hopefully with the weather on my side. Last time Cornwall beat me up, and taught me a lesson, with 1 Dogfish to show for which I had fished in gale force winds, horizontal rain, got soaked in the surf, and impaled myself on a hook, it wasn't my finest hour,"Beach Fishing Widemouth Bay" But like I said, I was a little more experienced this time and looking forward to round 2. I kept my tackle to a minimum, just my Vercelli Sypra Fiamma continental 14" rod for beach casting and my Snowbee Sea Bass Special rod for spinning. Both light rods, which pack away into short sections and perfect for keeping in the boot of the car. For tackle again I kept it simple and light, 5 lures, a few packets of feathers, just enough terminal tackle to make up any rigs I may need, a couple of floats and a small selection of leads. The only thing I took that was annoyingly big and bulky was my tripod, a must for bait fishing on hard rock, and an ideal sand spike would of been too restricted.

Sand Eel Ready To Cast

I had a whole week in Cornwall, but had agreed to have a designated day where I could fish, of course this didn't stop me taking my spinning rod with me everywhere and having a few chucks here and there when time permitted, I even had a small 1 lb Bass on a Fiiish Black Minnow on Wanson beach, I even sneaked out after dark for a few hours and revisited my old nemesis Widemouth Beach, although no dramas this time, the outcome was the same, just a lonesome Dogfish which managed to hook himself on a large circle hook whilst playing with the Mackerel head bait which was bigger than his!!! I had formed the opinion that I would fish for a different species than I could catch at home, Rays or maybe Bream, but the reality is you only catch whats in front of you, and after some thought I realised that this is prime Bass territory, and very quickly my attention turned to them. I had decided to spend my day fishing at the Breakwater at Bude, a concrete wall sloping steeply onto a sandy bottom with a deeper gully where the River Neat and Bude canal flowed into the bay, all surrounded by big jagged rocks providing a vast array of features to fish, it screamed Bass! I had collected some bait and gained some valuable intel from the local tackle shop, and it was just a waiting game now till the day came.

Best Bass Of The Year At 4lb 4oz

It was now time, the weather was fair, no rain and quite breezy with a big swell, the only downside was the preceding days heavy rain had been running into the bay causing the water to be coloured, although this would make lure fishing more of a challenge it actually suited bait fishing better, and added an extra array of features as you could see clear and muddy water mixing in different places during the different tide state. I decided to fish Sand Eel on a clipped down rig, although distance wasn't really an issue, it allowed me to keep well up on the rocks out of the way of them pesky surging waves that come out of nowhere, and cast parallel with the breakwater to the side of the rocks at the end of it, this area interested me as I could see a big eddy of clear water covered with foaming white water as it surged around and over the rocks into the bay, and gave the added bonus of allowing me to fish up tide and get a good grip with the lead in the strong flow. On the third cast I caught my rod tip bouncing around violently, I picked up the rod and lifted into a fish, The fight was short lived as the tide bought the fish straight at me and I then slide him gently onto the breakwater, I chinned the fish and he flapped around furiously still full of energy, Yes! a beautiful Cornish Bass weighting 4lb 4oz and between you and me, I would have been dancing around like a loony except for the watchful small crowd of tourists, and now it didn't matter that this was my only bite of the day.

Gully Caught Flounder 

But fate had given me a chance to return a few days later, a kindly payback for sober nights and a hell of a lot of driving around sight seeing, and even better was the tackle shop just had a delivery of fresh Ragworm. This time the water was gin clear, the sky was blue, and the wind was but a gentle breeze, whilst waiting for the tide to come in and cover the sand, I fish the outside of the breakwater onto a shallow sandy strip edged by large rocks, as good as it looked, I never had a bite. but the tide was moving quickly, and now the inside had water to fish, remembering where the gully was, I launched a 1 up and 1 down rig baited with Ragworm out into the bay to fish in gully. The tide seemed a lot stronger today but I let the rig slowly work its way along the bottom. A fairly large bite revealed a greedy Flounder that had taken both baits on the rigs.

When Angler Becomes The Bait

As the bay filled with water I returned to the same tactics that I had caught the Bass earlier on, casting to the same area, but to no avail, I did pick up the odd tiny 6" Bass though, Changing tactics again, I used my spinning rod with a 2 hook flapper baited with small Ragworm and dropped it onto the sand at the foot of the Breakwater, immediately tiny rattles on the rod tip which resulted in a lot of missed bites and stripped hooks, I dropped the hook and bait size down from a 2/0 to a size 2 and then I started to catch the bait robbers, tiny little Common blennies, there must of been hundreds of them close in. One even decided to bite my finger in revenge for dragging him out the sea, oh my God!, they got a strong bite for a little fish, and he didn't want to let go either!!

As Small As They Come

I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed fishing the Breakwater at Bude, again very different to the beaches I'm used to fishing in Kent, but for a small area the vast array of features and how it changed during the tide and even from day to day kept me interested and constantly searching for fish, trying to second guess their routes into the bay and intercept them with the right bait and rig, It had rewarded me with my biggest and smallest Bass of the year, a new species of Blenny and a sizable Flounder, I'd made a fishing friend, and when that sun is out and the water is turquoise blue, and the surfers are bobbing around waiting for that next big wave, its easy to imagine your a million miles away from home, Cornwall is such a beautiful place, and definitely not the last time I will visit!

Hythe Beach Casting

Mixed Bag Of Suprises

Hythe, Kent. UK

Hythe at night

With Winter approaching the lure of getting out the heavy hitting rods and smashing big leads and baits into a stormy brown coloured sea for Cod is proving too alluring, well its not quiet time yet, but you have to have a line in the water to catch, and at the very least test the rigs and tackle and make sure its up too the job for when things get going. Well, early in the year as it may be, reports of a few Codling were already known, in anticipation, I had some pulley pennels and live bait rigs made up, also a freezer full of frozen lug, squid, blueys and a few crabs. Only work was getting in the way, I'd worked 13 days straight many of which were 24 hours shifts, but with a full day of strong SW winds dying off into the night, and a night time high tide at midnight, It didn't take me long well a nano second if I'm honest to decide that as tired as I was, this was a window that I wasn't gonna miss.

My Cod special

In my mind I had decided to go to Dungeness, because it fishes well after SW winds, but whilst talking to my friend Keith who at short notice was accompanying me on this late night venture had another plan, with some family camping at Hythe he had secured some fresh lugworm which we would pick up on the way, and rather than drive back along the coast to Dungeness, we decided to stay and fish at Hythe, We arrived at Princes Parade and parked randomly along the beach where we could see a gap big enough to fish comfortably without interfering with the fisherman either side. A little later than expected but we were set up and baits were in the water 30mins before high water. I wasn't messing about tonight, big baits and big hooks for Cod, 1 rod cast to the horizon with a live bait rig, a rig with 2 hooks, a small baited hook to catch a whiting (live bait) and a larger hook further up the snod designed to catch a Cod that takes the whiting. and on the second rod a more conventional 6/0 and 5/0 pulley pennal rig baited with lug and a squid head a successful combo I used last year.

Tub Gurnard, A New Species

It wasn't long before both rods were tapping away with the tell tale knocks of whiting, I left the live bait rod out confident the whiting was still on, and reeled in Whiting 2 at a time on the pennel rig, I was off the mark, and the tide had just started to recede, I decided to try a different bait and sent a bluey on a small hook pennel out as far as I could cast. At range the Whiting seemed more sparse, and the rod tip stayed still for a whole 4 minutes longer that at closer range, as the rod tip rattled away, I reeled in what I expected to be a Whiting, but to my surprise I had just landed my first ever Tub Gurnard, known as the butterfly of the sea, it was a beautiful fish, terracotta in colour with a massive head and extremely large pectoral fins, well I didn't expect that! that alone made this session for me, but things were going to get a bit more interesting. Having messed about a bit, I decided to change again whilst Keith was catching Whiting and Pouting on a size 2/0 flapper rig, I decided to have 2 live bait rigs out and use them plentiful Whiting as bait in the hope of a large Cod.

First Cod Of The Winter Season

Keith's First Ever Cod "SMILE!"

I had only just recast the 1st rod at range, and was still baiting up the second rod, when the rod tip made a quick rattle rattle like a Whiting bite but a lot bigger, then went slack line, by the time I had put my second rod down, the line was well down tide, I picked the rod up and lifted into a fish, I wasn't sure what it might be, as the bite wasn't a conventional Cod bite, I thought maybe Bass, but it was putting up quite a fight with a lot of knocking felt down the rod, I beached the fish and to my joy it was the target fish, a lovely 52cm 2lb 15oz Codling, The fish had taken the small lugworm intended for the Whiting but with its bucket sized mouth was hooked by the large 6/0 hook I was over the moon by now, and Keith wasn't going to be left behind and quickly landed himself 50cm 2lb 6 Codling himself on a size 2 hook, Unfortunately this was as many Cod as we were going to catch tonight, but the Whiting and Pouting kept us very busy.

Thorny Suprise

I was getting a bit tired of the Whiting, and whilst keeping a live bait rod out decided to fish the other with very small hooks close in and see if any Dover sole were around, they weren't just hundreds of micro Pouting and Whiting, by now I was just plain exhausted, to give me a rest I decided to try and advoid the Whiting, I decide to put a Bluey bait at far range, as earlier this seemed to avoid most the Whiting. It did, my rod stayed still for at least 5 minutes. as I watched the rod tips the bluey rod tip was slowly dipping and going straightening again, Keith also pointed out my rod tip was moving, not constantly but every 40 seconds or so, presumably I said that's a Ray, I'll wait for it to eat the bait and take off resulting in a big pull down or slack liner, it never happened, and I curiously wondered weather a plastic bag was just wrapped around my line and moving the rod tip or maybe a Dogfish was just sitting there doing nothing as they do, I lost patience after about 10 minutes, I reeled in the rod, something was heavy on the end, I kind of expected to see a Dogfish but when I dragged a small 2lb 8oz Thornback ray up the beach I was ecstatic!!

We had been fishing for 4 hours it was very early morning and now Keith was snoring away, I decided that it was time to call it a night before I felt the same with a long drive home I woke him up to pack up. This session had been full of surprises, normally you target a species and catch a few others, and if your lucky get your target fish, not only had we caught a target fish each, tonight left me never knowing what I was going to pull in next, considering Bass and Dover Sole were also on the cards and a good possibility of catching them, The decision to fish Hythe had payed off, between us we had caught over 60 fish and 9 species in 4 hours, we each had one keeper for the pot, Keith had caught his first Cod and I had caught my first Tub Gurnard. Tonight was a special trip that I will remember for while, not only was the fishing good, the company was also good, and even the rain stayed away. happy days!

6/0 Pennel Good For Two Whiting At A Time