Client Catches – ‘The Sound’

Client Catches – ‘The Sound’

BADOOOOMMMM…. Like a small stone, or a lead weight ‘banged out’ by a bait angler and then entering the water at great velocity is the best way that I can describe ‘The Sound’ of a bass whipping some poor prey item off the surface layers of the water!

And whether it is within the confines of a sheltered rocky cove, the trough of a shingle beach, or in the case of this blog post, in amongst the wrack of a remote, inland, estuarine creek, well, that noise is both very familiar to me, and is always a frantic moment in the sense that I will immediately cast towards, it or indeed, instruct one of my clients to do so…

Hear – not see?

In broad daylight, you may well witness the sight of a bass ‘taking’ a sand eel, sand smelt or sprat off the top, via an impressively timed ‘swish and swirl’, or indeed, you may miss the onslaught by a nanosecond, whereby only the ‘rippling remnants’ will remain. It is extremely impressive just how adept these magnificent creatures are at hunting within all manner of situations and scenarios, ranging from heavy surf and cloudy or silted-up water, to the darkest night imaginable – and it is the latter that I will concentrate on within this short post.

Firstly though, unless there is some kind of ambient light present (harbour lights or the Moon for example) or they are in a gluttonous mood (which I have witnessed on a freezing January night with a bitter easterly wind blowing of all things) then once it is dark, it is unlikely that you’ll be able to physically ‘watch or witness’ a bass smashing into what we as anglers term as ‘bait fish’ either going about their own hunting, or are being herded high onto the upper layers of the water by the predators below.

Clearly then, once you remove the visual aspect to what is always a spectacular spectacle, you are only left with what is a noticeable noise to alert you to the presence of a feeding bass. Interestingly however, when all of your senses are on overdrive, as they often are when stood out in the gloom, then these attacks do not need to be overly frenzied to catch your attention…

Uncontrived or calculated?

In my experience, the sea/water does still need to very calm/flat, and the night relatively still/tranquil (no wind rustling through the trees or howling across the shingle) in order to stand a chance of hearing that ‘BADOOOM’ or ‘DOOOOOOF’. But this is where it gets even more absorbing from my perspective, as it’s almost as if the further out into the blackness you witness the sound of that attack, the more uncontrived, frantic and hurried it is, whereas when it occurs much, much closer to your fishing stance, the way a bass strikes seems to me to be far more calculated, and therefore, exceedingly measured in comparison.

One can only assume that when a bass is hunting further away from the immediate shoreline and in deeper water with a greater volume perhaps (although this may not always be the case as you could be fishing over a flat reef or a sandy beach covered by shallow water for the first 100 yards for instance) that they are more ravenous in their approach for fear of the little fish scattering and dispersing into the night… Or, there is the genuine possibility that there will be more than one bass, or even a shoal feeding fervently, whereby the ‘competition or competitive’ aspect comes into play: if I don’t eat this prey item first, then my mate will as it were.

With the above in mind, the notion I propose is that when you only perceive a more indistinct assault in the shallows, where what is far more likely to be a single bass that has stealthily steeled into position by astutely utilising the cover of the darkness and the terrain, then when it does decide to grab its supper in an instant, it will be careful not to alert the remaing morsels on the midnight menu… Blimey these fish are clever!

Lob it in there!

In summary, and indeed to highlight what was a marvellous moment that brought the first half of my 2023 guiding season to a close (prior to embarking on our family holiday in late-July), the tremendous bass below (at getting on for 5lb) was hooked, landed and successfully returned after Aaron (its captor) and I were happily reviewing the previous days of fantastic fishing and fun courtesy of the 3 Day Package that he, and his friends Steve and Paul had thoroughly enjoyed, when we heard that unmistakable sound of one of these wily predators snaffling something only centimetres away from us, and in water that was barely knee-deep.

The fact that it had: a) sneaked into position without attempting to wallop the white Savage Gear Gravity Stick Pulse Tail (that must have surely transited either within its path or in close proximity) prior to it snapping at something almost at our feet, and b) that it hadn’t been alarmed by our presence (the casting, talking, and laughing on what were the final ‘chucks’ of the whole package) yet was, instead, intent on patrolling, positioning and ultimately posturing within ‘our’ domain just tells you everything you need to know about these very unique fish…

They are simply awesome at what they do, and when it suits them they do not give a hoot that a potential danger (the angler) is stood almost right above them. Yes, it was dark, but I am absolutely convinced that it knew we were there, just I have witnessed many, many times now during the day – the trick being to attain an immediate reaction, and an instinctive and inherently rapacious response from a wild creature that is there to eat something.

Lob it in there quick!

“Did you hear that mate? Lob it in there quick”, were my words as we stood together in the water remember. And no sooner had they left my mouth and Aaron (who is a very adept angler) had gently flicked the Gravity Stick Pulse Tail literally only two metres off the rod tip that he instantly proclaimed “Yep, got him!”, before the water understandably erupted – he’d got him (her most probably) alright!

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Thanks for reading.

Marc Cowling