Sea Bass Fishing Tips

Picture yourself surrounded by calm blue waters. The coast is off at the distance, along with all your problems and worries. You sway with the gentle rhythm of the waves, accompanied by your friends and family, some beer, and a fishing rod in your hand.

Yes, fishing is one activity that has many distinct facets to it. For one, it is a great way to bond with people. The time you spend on the boat waiting for a bite is often spent conversing with others and just having fun.

Along with bonding with others, you also share a bond with the nature around you. In fact, the more that people spend outdoors fishing, the more they feel a connection with it. The people who really fall down the rabbit hole of fishing often find themselves researching more about fish and even responsible about the lakes and rivers they visit.

Finally, fishing provides a challenge for people. Apart from the various pieces and combinations of gear, it feels good when an angler is able to select the right gear, find the right spot, and wrestle enough patience and skills to catch the elusive fish.

For those who are just starting out with fishing, we hope that this has endeared you to try your hand at it. As the saying goes, there are many fish in the sea. One of the best fish for beginners to focus on is the sea bass.

Let’s learn a little more about the sea bass and discover a few fishing tips that you can use to catch more of them.

The Sea Bass

The sea bass is a fish that is commonly found in the southern coasts of Britain or Ireland. This ubiquitous fish is characterized as having silver on its sides, with blue and gray splotches at the back and white on the stomach part.

It has two sets of fins, with the number of spines from both coming to a total of 22 spines. The sea bass also has quite a large mouth. Anglers need to be cautious about having their fingers around the sea bass’ mouth as it has an arsenal of sharp teeth that can cut if not handled carefully. The spines also need to be addressed as a point of caution.

Along with the fact that there are so many sea basses out there, they can also be caught the majority of the calendar year. For best results though, anglers should aim to try and catch them from May to October. The bigger sea basses migrate south when November comes.

It is truly a great fish for beginner anglers to set their sights on.

Seabass Fishing Tips

The Right Equipment

Success in fishing is determined by a few factors. These include things like skill, knowledge, patience, and bringing the right equipment along for the ride. Fortunately, a wide range of equipment can be effective for catching sea bass.

Baits

In terms of bait, sea bass are extremely accommodating to almost any type of bait. For best results though, anglers can depend on fish strips, whole fresh fish that are small, and even squid. However, baits like ragworms, lugworms, rubber sandeels, and plugs are also good choices when trying to catch sea bass at night.

Rigs

Apart from baits, you’ll also have to consider the type of rig you’ll be preparing. Much like the baits, there are a great number of rigs that can be effective. When fishing by the shore, the paternoster or two hook running leger rig are advisable.

If you are just starting out, we urge you to check out all the resources and learn as much as you can on how to tie black sea bass rigs.

Hooks

For black sea bass hook sizes, there are a number of options available. Sea basses are hungry fish with large mouths. As such, larger hooks should be used. You can start off with the sea fishing hook size of 1/0 all the way up to 6/0.

These large hook sizes are not only ideal for black sea bass fishing, but also help to avoid pulling out of large sea basses when one is on the line. You can check out our post on the Best Fishing Hooks to guide you on which type of hook will be exactly what you need.

Prepare for the Tides

Before heading out for fishing, one thing that all anglers absolutely must do is to check on the tides. Note down the tide times and then prepare for the set of tides you’ll be going out to sea for.

For one, understanding and preparing for the tides will help improve your chances of catching sea bass. More importantly though, the knowledge of the tides can help secure your own safety.

Early or Late Fishing

When fishing for sea bass, you can either go really early in the morning or late at night. These two times are the most ideal ones to choose from. Going on any of these times will greatly increase your chances of catching sea bass.

Heading out at the right time though won’t get the job done. You should also research and head out to areas where sea bass are most likely to feed.

Holding a Sea bass

When you eventually catch your seabass, what is left but to hold it up and capture the victorious moment. It may not occur to new anglers they should learn how to hold a seabass. Learning the correct way of holding a seabass will serve to prevent bodily harm to your catch.

For starters, there is the vertical hold which is viewed as the safest method of holding a seabass. In order to do so, place a thumb inside the seabass’ mouth and hold the bottom lip tightly.

The other fingers rest outside the lip, with a firm grip to ensure it doesn’t wriggle free.

There is also the horizontal hold which employs the same thumb in mouth technique in the vertical hold. Your other hand would then support the body of the fish right by the anal fin, holding it up horizontally for that photo opportunity.

Fishing Fun Awaits

The seabass is a great fish for both first timers and angler veterans to catch. Fishing is more than just catching fish. It is a great way to bond with people and nature, learn a new skill, and challenge yourself to outsmart and sink those fish.

Fishing is great fun when you get into it. Like all new endeavors, it takes time, patience and practice to get better at it.

As our final tip, we want to remind you that after you have caught your seabass to release it in order to ensure that they continue to reproduce and for all the other anglers to enjoy the fishing experience.