My name is Dave Rae and I can’t stop fishing for bass. I’m a bassaholic. I first tried bass on the upper Hawkesbury in the late 1970s and was able to manage myself quite well until I fell in with the “wrong crowd”: The Bass Father, Big Phil, PC Mick, The Librarian and Shirley Bassy … now I’m an addict!
Bass are the east coast equivalent of trout in that even the briefest mention of their name invokes a certain air of mysticism. This is exacerbated by the taciturn types who specialise in targeting bass. For the neophyte bass fisher, success on these enigmatic natives can appear far-fetched, even unobtainable. It needn’t be that way. In general, bass fishermen are a gentle breed but they are often reserved. In terms of saying where and when they fish, they can in fact be downright sneaky and deceptive. However, given that bass honey holes can be tiny and therefore exposed to overfishing, perhaps it’s better not to ask for locations. If you do, consider the answer with a grain of salt!
That said, the reality of the situation is that connecting with a few wild bass isn’t all that hard if you know where to look and how to fish for them. Becoming a bass “expert” is, however, a different story. My old Spanish “yeyo” describes the game of backgammon like this … “learn to play in 20 minutes and spend the rest of your life mastering it!” I reckon the same goes for bass…
Dave Rae
This story was first published in the Fishing World January 2013 issue.
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