Bass fishing in Portugal is where it all started for me! 20 odd years ago I picked up a rod when my local surf spot was over run with traveling surfers! A real irritation at the time turned out to be the start of an amazing fishing adventure that slowly lead me away from surfing to the addictive passion of fishing!
I don’t know if it was Fortune or destiny that a nice 5lb bass took my lure, but it was certainly not my skill, as at that time I had very little of that and even less knowledge about bass fishing!
But that was it! The fish was hooked and so was I. I’m really not sure if I would ever have fished again had I not caught that fish! Thank God!
For 15 years I fished the beautiful Portuguese coastline, and learnt as much as I could about chasing these awesome fish.
The last 6 years I’ve been land locked in Switzerland but fortunate enough to make regular fishing adventures overseas. Although I love traveling the world targeting pelagic fish from the rocks, Bass fishing will always remain very special for me.
So the chance to return for a spring weekend fishing trip to my old fishing grounds (and my mums home cooking) was enough to get me dreaming about it for weeks before!
After an early start and a long train trip to Geneva I landed at Faro around lunchtime.
I was determined to get in an evening session, so picked up my hire car and set of down the empty IP 1 toll road towards my house and the west coast.
Hiring a car out of season in Portugal is reasonably priced and if your looking for somewhere to stay, I got just the place! (Home cooking not included)
With just 3 hours sleep it was catching up on me, and the forecast for a rainy weekend was not what I wanted to hear. Ignoring that I collected all necessary tackle from my shed and headed up the west coast to confirm what the wave report was saying . A nice small swell was running through giving favorable Bass conditions.
For Bass fishing on the west coast .5 to 1.2 meters is the optimal size!
I headed to one of my old favorite spots up the coast!
It’s a tricky spot to get to but has certainly produced some nice fish over the years.
I had all my bass fishing essentials like a wet suit and a rope to get down the cliff.
If your thinking of fishing spots that need a rope to get down, I strongly advise you bring your own! Many places have old ropes already there, but you just don’t know for how long, and what condition they are in, and Its certainly not worth risking your life over.
Their are plenty of good bass marks along the coast, and it’s easy to find somewhere that suits your needs. If your not happy climbing and hopping over rocks there’s many good beaches to spin from that can produce especially with a lure that gets past the breakers, like a Samson long cast lure
I personally rather be on the rocks, and you certainly don’t need a rope to access good marks.
Once down I quickly set up whilst scanning the sea deciding where I would start.
The tide was dropping which is personally my favorite conditions.
The bass are often waiting to ambush bait fish heading out again, and you can continue to access more marks with the dropping tide!
I cast out my Enticer. Minnow a short distance working the edges, and over ledges hoping there would be bass patrolling in close.
As any bass fishermen knows, you can go long periods without hitting any bass, and this is what often causes people to give up on this style of fishing. If the bass aren’t about there’s just not much you can do about it!
But fortunately it wasn’t long before a bass hit the enticer! A nice 5.5lber, good start. Now I could relax and not worry about blanking all weekend!
The Enticer bass lure was developed for just these conditions, working the shallow ledges at first and then steadily casting out further to cover as much ground as possible.
Next I tried a mini candle, a lure designed for generally calmer conditions as it can be retrieved slowly imitating an injured fish. I didn’t catch any big bass with it, but did manage 3 between 800g and a kilo over the weekends fishing!
The Saturday proved to be very slow going, the swell had picked up and apart from a nock, it was a fun but fruitless days fishing!
Sunday was my final session as back to work Monday!
Another dawn start proved to be well worth the effort, as I ended the day with 4 more bass bringing my weekend tally up to 7, just rounding off a superb weekend out on the rocks where for three days it felt like I was in another world!
The last bass turned out to be a nice 7.5lber caught on the Enticer again! It took the lure whilst sub surface using the fleeing fish darting action, which you can create using your rod tip!
As I head back to Faro I’m already looking forward to returning again this summer!
Enjoy your bassing!
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