Cania short stay

[TIEBTI]

Made it back to Cania for a short stay last weekend. Was disappointed to hear of the fish kill the Friday before, so I wasn't expecting to land alot of bass. Fished for 4hrs on Saturday from around 8am till 12. Managed to land only 1 x 40cm bass. This fish gave itself away with a surface smash in the shallows and two casts later to that area with an Atomic Hard, and a fat and healthy fish was the focus for some happy snaps at the boat. The only other fish raised for the day was when walking a dog, a larger fish boiled over the top of it but never touched the trebles.

Sunday morning I made my way to the frosty dam before the sun raised its head. Again I headed to where I knew fish were hiding (8-10ft - couldn't find any fish in the deep water) and again began fishing surface poppers and walking the dogs. I had fish crawling over these lures on several occasions but I could not convince one to gulp them down.

This is the first time I have fished the surface for bass. Obviously the technique I was deploying was very close to being spot on but I could not hook a fish.

Do I need to do anything different to get them to engulf the lure rather than roll over it? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Awoonga]

Technique, Thats what its all about...Without knowing how you retrieve your lure its hard to know . Go there tomorrow and use that same technique and get smashed..Maybe next time speed up your retrive or slow it down, even long pauses. There is no right or wrong way

[NAGG]

My bass fishing on surface lures improved considerably when I upped the size of the lures ........ Sammy 85s worked a treat. ( bigger than typically 50-65cm lures fished)

Like Trev mentioned - slow it down and longer pauses may improve results

Chris

[MickThe]

Pause!!!!!!!!

Like has been said though, some days they want an aggressive quick retrieve....but the odd shorter pause is still the go.

Some days or when it's glassy it's better to use a subtle walk, then if you pause till the ripples have gone, then twitch...BANG!

I have done this many times with shallow and deep jerkbaits as well, it's the long pause that is just too much for them and so when you move the lure an inch they slam it. Slow roll the same area with something else......no touches. Some days when i am bream fishing with hb's it's the same deal, they just follow the lure if no pauses.

Mick.

PS. Oh yeah, Nagg is right on bigger lures, poppers, or those that make more wake sometimes being better too, a jaysea gremlin, jitterbug, kokoda bugger chug etc.