Water temperatures are always useful for my bass fishing – especially at the beginning and end of the year. There exists an (admittedly imperfect) relationship between water temperatures and whether bass feed. By using water temperature you can help decide whether its likely to be worth starting to fish for them early in the year, or continue to try for them at the tail end of the season… If nothing else, they give my excuses for blanking an air of scientific credibility.
Many reckon 10 degrees (C) to be the boundary that divides expectation of catching a bass from mere hope (especially when it comes to using lures rather than bait). While further down at 8 degrees there is a line that seperates those with remote possibilities of catching from the deluded and insane – yet we all probably hear of an occasional bass that hasn’t read our “rules”, and angler who ignored them.
I find the excellent “seatemperature.org” site great for monitoring water surface temperatures:
http://www.seatemperature.org/europe/united-kingdom/kingsbridge.htm
The regularly updated long term average sea temperature map below is also of value. At present it encouragingly shows the temperature for many of us in the UK (apologies for showing this if you fish the North Wales coast or in Lancashire) to be above the average for the equivalent time of year.
http://assets.weather-forecast.com/maps/static/UnitedKingdom.sstanomaly.jpg
I am still hearing of a few decent fish getting caught (especially from the Cornwall, an area that usually produces fish into January). Unfortunately for me I am off to the other side of the globe for the next 3 weeks to get abuse from gloating Australian cricket fans in the sun, otherwise I would still be trying for a few more bass this year. Good luck to you if you keep trying. Si and others will be keeping the blog going as normal of course. And don’t forget the books we are giving away for best feedback and for those signed up to the BASS newsletter (see here: http://www.ukbass.com/five-chances-to-win-a-bass-book-one-more-chance-to-save-our-bass-stocks/ )
Bass wishes for 2014.
