Sand Bass are FUN

Fished on the Daily Double for a fun little sand bass bite. The key was finesse with a slider egg. I was using 50lb braid to a 2ft leader of 20lb and a two ounce sliding egg. Small live bait was the ticket. The fish were active enough that they were biting sardines in the sink, so the extra sensitivity of the braid helped out. You really had to put pressure on the fish quick, it was a very tentative bite.

Didn’t bother with any swimbaits, the fish only fed hard enough to manage that for a couple minutes in which you could easily get them on a sliding egg.

Also my first complaint about the Fathom 300HS... it needs a power handle. The gear ratio puts out enough torque where there has to be a bigger arm to really move it.

 

No.

Basically the local basses eat by slurping a bait. They want as much of it as possible in their mouths, and then fold it. They don’t really try to grab and munch and readjust. These bass were slowly working their way on to the bait. Instead of going at it full speed, something that’s different to me.

 

Thats the thing about that reel. Despite its gear ratio that reel still just pulls things along. The reason I bought this reel was a fast moving and compact reel that will pull hard. The reel is capable of all that.. but it needs a power handle.

 

No it was more of a tentative hold. When using chud (ground or cut dead) as chum, the bass seem to just kind of hold on. They are not active enough to be chasing down sardines, so rather then wrangling it they just kind of hold it in their mouths. It’s not deep enough to get chocked.

 

Choke*. Yes, it was important to just wind down and set the hook.

 

Almost. 150ft of water. Also the way I fish sliding eggs is on slack line, let the reel take out line for you. Second thing was these fish were picking it up on the sink.

The biggest thing I’ve noticed on slow bites where chud is being used the sand bass are just trying to stuff their mouths their not trying to chase down prey, just stuffing as much floating protein as they can. They don’t commit to eating baits and prefer to just get a hold on it. The sardines being considerably larger then the chud normally just fit inside the bass’s mouth. That’s why I try to get on them quick. The bass will release the squirmy struggling baitfish in place of a easy dinner, if the bait is just to much for the lazy turd rollers. They have a load of free floating protein in the water, why bother with the bait you have to chase down. That’s why I make sure to get in top of a hook set and fish really short mono topshots to reel out what I’m doing. Also it helps to prevent the two different lines from wrapping around the egg sinker.

 

I honestly wish I tried fishing some chud on a 1/2oz slider. I thought at the time there was to much current to really commit to that and stuck with live bait. I was trying to go with the lightest presentation I could and stuck with the live bait.

Bass being sensitive to line is something I really question sometimes. Watching calico bass smoke bait and then just sit there is kind of an eye opening to just how winded up the fish get. I suppose if the fish being picky... well yeah their going to notice something is off. But I feel like the sinker would have alerted them initially.

In my mind, I think the bass we’re seeing sinking and floating bait, swimming up to it, grabbing it, and return to the bottom. Each time the fish was hooked in the lips of the mouth each time, which makes me think I was setting the hook before they were turning back and really grabbed on it. They just held thinking if I can’t handle this bait, oh well. I did miss a couple others and letting them eat did not work, so I changed to a rapid hook set as well as winding down fast. I did miss some fish with rapid hook set, but it was once or twice, out of 5 fish I landed with a quick hook set.

 

Two different sizes. I think the handle size for the Fathom 300 is the same as the TranX 400 and 300. The Fathom 400 is the same size as the Revo toro series... it’s more square. In terms of size, I think the 300 is an 8x5mm. The 400 is more like a 13x11mm. I wish I had a caliper or even some tool to measure it out.

 

Which one, I checked out the geomexus handles and I didn’t like the fact they had a bearing. I want a bushing that will last longer.