Night Fishing for Seabass in the Netherlands - Night Seabass

The first Seabass have been sightened and caught in The Netherlands. Time to give it a try and chase some silver! 

It was around 20:00 that me, Silvian and the Captain left the harbour. We knew there had to be some fish out there. But we know how whimsical seabass can be, it can be great one day, and horrible the day after! It's just about the right tide, time, current, moon and precense of baitfish. And when the seabass is present, it's all about the right lures and lines. This all together makes it a possible seabass party, or trying to find the needle in a haystack. This day the tide was upcoming till 1:00 AM. So we decided to fish till 1:00, as neap tide is not that good for fishing because the current is very low. 

It was around 21:00 that we spotted some fish on the surface in a small current along some rocks. We anchored about 30 meters from the school of fish and started trying out several lures. The first thing I start casting with is a 8cm Rapala X-rap. This lure always works and will tell me if there is seabass present. We started catching immediately, as we found out it was a school of bass between 20 and 35 centimeter. These young bass are really aggressive and bite anything, really. So I took some topwaters and shads and kept on catching till dawn. I think we managed to catch a 100 seabass with the three of us until we knew we had to move on and find some bigger fish. 

Fishing for seabass

The sun dissapeared and the moon reflected it's light on the surface of the flowing seawater which was full of small baitfish. We anchored near a corner and had the feeling some bigger seabass should be present, or should be arriving anytime soon. But somehow we didn't get a bite on either topwaters, shads or any hardbait. Just as we were wondering what the night might bring we heard some fish hunting close to the rocks. GAME ON! 

As soon as my lure hit the water I got a big hit! after a good fight I managed to land the first proper sized seabass in the boat. 

The Rapala X-Rap in orange color is definetly one of my favorite colors!

After this fish we were back in business! We caught some bigger fish than the school of seabass we had earlier. That was a sign that we were are the right place, at the right time, with the right setup. 

Full darkness means high visual baits! The X-Rap in Chartreuse colors!

The image above is a very common way to hook a seabass, as they try to knock the baitfish out using their head. Earlier that day I had a topwater lure getting launched a meter high by a small seabass trying to kick it's prey. We had many many taps on our rods from hunting seabass. 

As the night went on we noticed some big fish hunting the surface. Time to focus on catching a real biggy! I gave the new Rapala Precision Pencil a try. It's a 'Walk The Dog' action type of lure, great for these type of moments. 

The Precision Pencil is not a bait you should be throwing all day. It's a bait which you need to bring with you everytime, and use it when the time is right. This can be such a succes, as it was for this 60+ seabass!