Bass in the upper Hawkesbury
The upper Hawkesbury in November is a great time to pull out your surface lure to fish for bass.
Bass will sit under the overhanging structure waiting for any insect or small creature to fall into the water. If you are ever near a creek on a hot summer night that has overhanging willow trees and bass in it and there is plenty of insect life you will often hear the surface hit from the bass as they feed.
Surface lures are best cast close to cover or any shallow area. Cast them as close to or under any overhang, let it sit for a while and give the lure a little twitch, then let sit a little longer. This is when it usually gets struck, if not wind the lure a metre or so, let it sit and repeat the process. If this does not work, vary the speed of your retrieve. Active bass often like a lot disturbance and lethargic bass will often strike if you slow down and leave it in the strike zone longer. Surface lures also work well in open water over weed and along the front edge especially after dark. My favourite surface lures are Taylor made surface, Small Feralcatt surface walkers and fizzers and my own home made fizzer.
Most bass fishermen and women only use their surface lures in the late afternoon or early morning. On most hot summer days, surface lures will work right up and past the middle of the day. As long as you cast into the shadowy areas and keep it in those areas for as long as you can by working it very slowly. Bass find it hard not to strike if they are active and if your lure is kept in the strike zone.
The colour can be important especially if using surface lure in the middle of the day. Often bass will strike from the side so they often prefer a lighter colour surface lure.
I like greens and yellows on most sunny days and on over cast days I will tie on a darker colour lure most often it will be purple with a white head. At night time black will be my first choice except on a moon lit night. On these nights I will often cast a white or yellow frog pattern surface lure.
Fly fishing for bass with surface is also deadly. You can cast a fly into areas that you will find difficult cast a lure into. Some of the other advantages of using a fly are: you can match the size of the insects the bass are feeding on, a more delicate presentation, when you miss a strike you can pick you fly up a drop it back on the spot with out having to retrieve all the way back, pot holing the hole in the raft of weeds and the clear areas between the inside edge of the weed beds and shore line. Some of the flies I use are Small popper, cricket and Eddy Studman surface fizzer fly is a ripper.
