[andy cottam]

Despite the prospect of a flat calm and hot sun, thought that i would go and fish the second half of the flood this afternoon, at a local mark.Arrived and was greeted with said falt calm and hot sun, conditions that i am not that confident in, but still i would be fishing. Thinking that a surface lure would be the way to go, clipped on a frosty and started fishing. Hadn't had too many casts when i had a swirl behind the lure, stopped it, twitched it, stopped it again, twitched it some more-nothing.Another few casts and the same thing-swirl, tweak, stop, tweak, tweak, stop, tweak-nothing again. Now this isn't the first time that i have had this happen, but still the outcome is the same-long on swirls, short on fish. Is it me or does this happen to others? Any advice appreciated.
Anyway after, toiling away in the sun for a couple of hours, tried an xlayer(ayu) and got a nice fish just over 2lb right on HW. View attachment 1903
Fish returned, good end to the day.

 

[trev richardson]

Well done Andy just shows that having a few SP's in the bag can save the day and even make it.....:-D:-D

 

[Keir Sims]

nice going andy, ive had the same problem when using surface lures. get a swirl but no take. like you say, stop, twitch but nothing. ive had more success when moving the popper at a constant twitch twitch. worth a go maybe? ive also just ordered myself some xlayers and cant wait to give them a go. well done with the result mate.

 

[Andrew Walker]

Short on experience with Bass but from my trout fishing days, sometimes speeding up after a missed take encourages the chase and they can end up taking it out of instinct! I would also try a sub surface (shallow one like the Feed Shallow) if topwater couldnt get a hook up.

 

[andy cottam]

Thanks for the suggestions, i'll try them out on my next trip. If that doesn't work i'm going to build a little stack of patchinko's, (it will be a little stack as i've only got two), set fire to it and boil a kettle for a pot of tea-might as well get some benefit from them!

 

[Mark Sleep]

I have had one or two sessions recently where the fish were there for sure, but were just swirling and not taking properly. Normally I would stop after the swirl, then twitch, as you have described above, but this was not working. I found the key to success on these occasions was to cover the area again where the fish had shown, and do a fast walk the dog back over it, ie lots of zig zag but not much distance covered. It seemed to either do nothing, or quite often trigger a very aggressive smash take which stops your heart for a second. Worth a try.

 

[andy cottam]

Thanks Mark, i'll give it a try.

 

[Dave Irving]

Andy,
Marks advice is spot on.
But this "stop" if you get a boil is (trying to think of a polite word for droppings!). No baitfish is going to say "Oh that bass nearly got me then, I had better wait right here!". Nope they are going to get the hell away-which is what the bass would exspect to see. Just keep the retrieve going.
There is one occasion when you should stop-the Tail slapper!! some bass will come up to the lure and smack with their tail. STOP the lure dead and WAIT, the bass will normally pick the lure up a few seconds later-if not give it a tiny twitch or shake the rod tip.
Don't burn those Patchinkos just yet!!

 

[Steve Lewis]

Well done Andy, great to catch on something new :-D