chance of the line getting nicked on a rock.

Bass are predictable, and never more so than in the April to late Juneperiod when they move inshore over the rough ground beaches.The trigger for this inshore migration is governed by the first flushof peeling shore crabs. The crabs shed their old shells and are softfor a short period until their flesh hardens into a new hardprotective coat. This is how they grow and increase in size. The readyto peel crabs seek shelter during this shell transition period amongstthe rougher ground where there are hidey-holes for them to quietly sitout there vulnerability. But life is never that straightforward and agood surf will move the rocks and boulders about exposing some of thecrabs and creating a food supply for the hungry bass.The first major crab peel begins around the beginning of April in thesouthwest and in Wales. It can be more into May along the east coast.It starts gradually with a few peelers scattered here and there, butquickly builds up until peelers are shucking their shells en masse. Ifit’s warm and mild, then there will be a major peeling explosion overthe spring tides in May, and again over the spring tides in June.It’s this April to June period that sees bass become preoccupied withcrab and little attention is paid to other food items.You need to remember that the crabs need to be getting washed out oftheir homes for large numbers of bass to be working inshore. Thistells us that the bigger tides with a faster tide run and disturbedwater are going to be more favourable. Dead right! The best tides arethose over the three or four days prior to the biggest tides of thatcycle and for the two or three days after as the tides start to fallaway towards smaller neaps. The very biggest tides though, are often disappointing and producefewer fish. I think this is because the fish have fed well theprevious days and are digesting their food. By the time the tidesstart to drop the bass are getting hungry again and return to feeding.On some marks, the bigger tides can also be too strong for even bassto feed in with regard to energy spent and food gained.Neap tides are much less reliable. Some bass will use the neaps tocome in and feed, but generally the fishing is poor. If you decide tofish neap tides, concentrate over low water only. It consistentlyproduces more bass bites than high water during neap tides. Flood tides are by far the most fruitful. This is when the sea isgenerally roughest and new ground is getting covered all the time asthe tide pushes forwards, exposing more food. As the tide retreats, itoften kills the surf, plus the tide is falling back over groundalready fed over. You can find marks that produce ebb tide bass, butgenerally these are the exception.Peak feeding times for bass are the hour either side of low water andthe two hours before high water. Generally speaking, the middle hoursof the flood tide are not productive. Some beaches will produce fishduring the first hour of the ebb tide if the water is deeper than2-metres. If it’s shallower, the fish are nervous of getting cut offand stranded, so move out quickly. Few bass are caught on outgoingtides from the rough ground beaches. Weather is key to the whole equation. Ideally, you need a good surf. Windsneed to be hitting the beach almost straight on and putting a goodsurf up for the water to be disturbed enough to wash out the food.Look for winds between force 2 and force 4 as being about right onmost beaches. If a wind is hitting the beach at more of an angle thiswill weaken the surf and affect the way the rollers smash over therocks limiting the amount of food washed out. Try to have a fewbeaches available to you. Get to know how the wind hits them fromdifferent directions, then choose the beaches where the wind isblowing directly at the beach head on. Bass will work the rough ground in daylight if the sea is a littlecoloured after storms, but dusk and dawn tides, or tides in completedarkness are better. By day, heavy overcast cloud cover can bringenough fish in to make it worthwhile fishing. Drizzly days are quitegood too.Picking a suitable beach needs care. Ideally, the whole beach will becovered in rock and boulders. Invariably, the typical bass beach ispartially covered with rock and boulders but broken up by sandpatches, areas of weed and even patches of shingle. Leave your rods at home initially and just walk the beach severaltimes at the low, mid and high tide marks. Choose the specific areaswhere the rock and boulders are densest. Mark them, and any weed beds,by identifying above high tide features so you can find them again.Ignore the sand patches.Now go back to those rough ground areas and really “look” at them.Pick out any depressions in the overall area, note much bigger thanaverage rocks and also the edges of the weed beds.Food gets washed in to the depressions amongst the boulders and rocksand holds there, bass know this and persistently return to the samespot to feed. Likewise, food gets lodged against rocks on the uptideside and washed around the edges of the rock by tidal movement. Againbass come to feed here regularly. Also remember that bass will workaround the edges of weed beds trying to scare up crabs and small fishas they swim. Bass love to work right through the middle of weed bedsfor the same reason.You’ll also notice definite long gullies and gutters that run throughthe areas of rough ground. These are especially useful as bass willalways use these as definitive routes, plus they hold food washed invia the tide.Obviously, you’ve now got several different areas identified that willhold fish. More importantly, you have areas at low, middle and hightide marks. Remember that bass are constantly moving. They patroldefinitive routes along the beach taking all the little food-holdingareas. Having located these, you can work back up the beach as thetide rises moving to each hotspot in turn and maximising your chancesof a catch.As you get to know your mark, you’ll find that bass become verypredictable in their habits. So much so, that you’ll get to realisethat you’re likely to get maybe two bites from the one spot during aspecific ten-minute period. After that, the bass have gone through andit’s pointless waiting there any longer. You move to a mark elsewhereand ambush the bass as they switch to another route and feeding area.Yes, it takes time to understand their habits and movement over acertain beach, but is worth doing and you’ll benefit from consistentcatches and bigger bass. Much has been written about bass being just 30-metres out from theshore. If there’s food there then they very well may be. If there’s nofood, then they won’t. Don’t believe all you hear about short casts.On shallow beaches especially, the bass are often a good 70-metres outwhere the depth of water has the roll over power to displace food.Concentrate on casting out to those identified feeding areas and iftakes a long cast, then so be it.You have the choice between baiting with peeler crab or soft crab. Thepeeler remember, is the crab about to pop off its shell to reveal asoft body underneath. A soft crab is the crab that’s shed its shelland is waiting for it to harden. Both are excellent baits.With peeler, pinch it between the eyes to kill it, then remove all theshell from the back and belly and the legs and claws. Cut the body inhalf with scissors, slide them lengthways up the hook shank and bindthe two in tandem around the hook to create a large smelly bait. Ilike my bass baits to be at least 5cms long. Bass have big mouths andyou’re fishing for big fish, so don’t be skimpy with the bait. If youwant to attract really big bass, then use up to six halves of crab allbound on with bait elastic to form a bait a good 15cms long andmounted on a two-hook pennel rig. They’ll eat it!The soft crab I use whole, immaterial of size. Even crabs 10cms acrossthe back will be engulfed and crushed by hungry bass. I pass the hookthrough one side of the body and out the other. Then use the elasticthread to secure for light casting. Bass smash a soft crab to pulp andtend to find the hook providing it’s not buried completely.The best hook for bass fishing is the purposefully designed Mustad33751BL Bass hook. It has a unique shank bent to both make the crabbait sit correctly but leave the hook-point well clear, but also has ahidden cam system to facilitate better hooking. Beware some of thechemically sharpened needlepoint type hooks. These can bend the pointon the hard mouth of a bass at the strike and you’ll lose the fish.Bass rigs need to be simple. By far the best for rough ground is asimple sliding ledger system. Get some fine plastic tubing about 1cmlong and push this through one eye of a size 8 rolling swivel. Addabout 45cms of 25lb line to the other eye, which will take the leadweight, but use a short weak link of lighter mono to allow the lead tosnap off without losing the whole rig. Slide the main line through thetubing to allow the swivel to move freely on the main line. Tieanother size 8 rolling swivel to the end of the main line, add 25cmsof 20lb clear or black mono line and a size 3/0 or 4/0 Mustad Basshook.This rig allows the bass to pull line freely through the slidingswivel without alarming it, and puts direct pressure via the line onto the rod tip. This gives you instant indication of movement andinterest at the bait. Also, when you strike, the full power of the rodbeing lifting is applied to the hook giving a much improved hook-upratio. Bass rods suitable for this fishing need not be too heavy. Somethingcasting 2 to 3ozs is about right. It needs to be 11 to 12ft long andfast-tapered. Fast-taper rods will hit a fish hard as they bend lessas power is applied. Through action rods lose too much time bending totheir full compression point and lose you strike power at the hookpoint by bending too much before the line comes fully tight.Last but not least, it matters little whether you use a fixed-spool ormultiplier reel. I’d suggest loading it though, with 25lb line. Onsome marks I choose to use 30lb line just to combat the snags and the

chance of the line getting nicked on a rock.