[Nathan Taylor]

What do you guys look for, in locating new fishing marks...?

The most inportant thing for me has to be the ground its self i.e the sea bed!...if its not covered in rocks and weed, then iam not even interested. or why else would the bass even be there, as the smaller fish need cover to hide from the the bass and the bass are there to hunt the smaller fish.

Everyones marks are different, and some people fish and plug open beaches, now to me i still cant get my head around that, but yet.... they catch there...but why?

what do you guys look for?

 

[Simon Clapham]

This type of ground as much as possible....food everywhere :wackit:

 

[Nathan Taylor]

Ooooooo Yaaaaaa now thats what i am talking about!!!!!

 

[Keith White]

What do you guys look for, in locating new fishing marks...?

Lots of stuff Nath inc water.

But my no #1 item = "current".

 

[Nathan Taylor]

Current regardless of the ground type or condition? i know people pick two or three factors to make up there mark....i know you love the current m8, and believe u me i have taken that on board last year which well and truly banged my catch rate, right up!! Cheers for that..... :clap: :clap:

 

[Dave Irving]

I am a bit like you Nath, I like to see rocky broken ground, ideally with features that stick out and deflect the current (head lands, reefs, rocks) But I do fish some open sandy beaches. In fact one local to Saltiga and I, Is basically a flat sand beach, with a bit of gutter that works over the top third of the tide. Nothing to look at, BUT this beach turns up double figure bass (on bait) pretty much every year. I am slowly learning not to write off any beach out of hand. You just never know untill you have fished it a few times.

 

[Nathan Taylor]

yes mate i agree just look how well mark does on chesil, just a vast open beach with no features...very odd that one.

 

[Ben Field]

I do like it when there's an obvious bit of current. If there's not much tide running and the water's a bit 'dead', I do lose a lot of confidence. Although it's these times when I look at it as being more of a challenge, and it's probably at these times that I learn more. Figuring out how to make the most of a lifeless area definitely helps when somebody puts a few fish in front of you.

My ideal?.... I'd say that it wouldn't be toooooooo shallow, broken rock and sand with the odd rocky funnel to concentrate/move a bit of water around. You know I don't mind a bit of sand Nath! Although working out how to fish more in amongst the surf over cleaner sand is something I do want to crack.

 

[James Davis]

Exactly the same as you Nath, which is why I've been to quite a few marks in the last month at low water with my camera and notepad (sad b*st*rd), but I do also like to go back to watch the tide starting to flood to see how the current flows, although I'm not 100% confident with my knowledge on current.

As for an open beach with no features, just a great expanse of water.... well I'm a way away from attacking a mark like that. I wouldn't have any confidence. Unless there were gulleys or big kelp beds I knew about.

 

[Mike Kennard]

Food!!!!

It might sound obvious but if there is no food there is likely to be no bass. If there is food there what is it? If there are bass there what do they feed on, where and when? If you can work that out then the task is much easier. Is the food resident, tidal influenced, both? etc etc....
Sometimes it doesn't make sense, like Dave said above we have a beach that we fish that seems featureless, but as soon as it is rough there are bass there to be caught on bait. Lure fishing will likely pick out one or two bigger ones when we get to grips with it. The only resident bait is lugworm, white rag and a few sandeels but seasonal shoals of very small baitfish this year made fishing interesting. It is more than just the 'shape' and 'features' of the beach alone.

 

[Nathan Taylor]

Its really interesting to hear everyones take on this....as we are not to far away from each other on what we are looking for in a mark.....

 

[Dave Irving]

Nath,
If you want to know what really does my head in. On that clean sandy beach I mentioned I keep catching in one area (maybe 50' long on a beach of over a mile long). Now why there and not somewhere else??? Like I said it is flat and featureless. But that one little spot works???? Just wish I could work out why.

 

[Mick Ward]

A good fast food outlet nearby, that is crucial when bass fishing. Take that last comment any way you want!! :muttley:

OK, so what makes a good fast food outlet, currant and a feature. So thats where I like to fish.

I think on marks such as straight beaches etc it all comes back down to your beach fishing skills. Many of us know that no beach is featureless, it may look it but if you were a fish covering that beach with your eyes basically an inch or two off the bottom, you would definately know its far from featureless. Even Marks Chesil beach although looking perfectly straight and featureless does have features under the water and slight curves in it. I only know this because Mark, Mike and Nath have told me so, but it makes perfect sence that if you can find the slight changes you then only have to suss out the other countless factors. Time of year, time of day, time of tide, type of baitfish, type of lure etc etc.

Funny how one species of spikey fish can drive so many grown men to distuction. Hunters and gatherers rule!!

 

[kevin white]

there's 3 things i like to look for,

current

structure

cover

as long as an area has all of these, i'm happy.

kev

 

[Nigel Gullon]

there's 3 things i like to look for,

current

structure

cover

as long as an area has all of these, i'm happy.

kev

This is what I look for along with food source.
As Mick say as well, only slight depressions on a featureless beach will hold bass and they follow these "roads" on the push(flood).

 

[Ben Field]

Personally, I consider it a given that food is pretty much everywhere around here. I look for the other things first.

 

[trev]

5 years ago i decided to start bait fishing in the sea and for some reason i chose a mark which is just around the corner of the mouth of the river Conwy.I had never seen or heard of anyone fishing there and it is just a vast expanse of smooth sand which goes on for miles. It made sense to me that it would be best to fish the flood which is what i did,and as the sand is one massive lug bed then that was my obvious choice of bait which i simply dug as i fished. Success came pretty quickly with 7 bass upto 7.5lb on my 2nd session and a double a few weeks later. The strange thing about it is that i learned that the best conditions were....................calm sea, a bit of colour in the water and casting 35-40yds no more!! ( This means you are fishing in about 4ft of water) and is totally opposite to what most people would expect of a shallow surf beach,but when there is a good surf the fishing tends to be poor untl it calms down again.Having now taken up lure fishing late on in October and catching on my first and third sessions ,but on rocky reef and weedy type marks which most of you tend to feel more confident with,i am now seriously thinking that as i know my sandy beech so well ,i know where and when the fish tend to be there so why wouldnt they take a lure which is put infront of them ,and with distance casting not needed i am going to crack this flat sandy beach this year. Well i say flat but there are shallow gullies that run parallel to the shore which is often where the bass can be picked up.So i would say to anyone ........give it a go at similar marks and you may be surprised. i hope i
will be !!
Trev.

 

[Keith White]

Having now taken up lure fishing late on in October and catching on my first and third sessions ,but on rocky reef and weedy type marks which most of you tend to feel more confident with,i am now seriously thinking that as i know my sandy beech so well ,i know where and when the fish tend to be there so why wouldnt they take a lure which is put infront of them

Oh, great post, great insight too.
Of course, you are dead right. I've fished recently with 2 well known to you all lure anglers whose confidence
all but vanished over sand. I just change tactics.

 

[The Squid]

A good fast food outlet nearby, that is crucial when bass fishing.

Sometimes it seems difficult to get Mick and Bob away froom food outlets :lol:

 

[The Squid]

My prefered ground is where I can wad in about 3' of water and the max depth of water would be 4' over sandy ground with lots of little knobheads around to cast near.