The first rush of the bigger bass was working back down the coast, following the westward migration of the sandeel shoals. This is one of the best times of the year for bass, matched only by the spring run in May, when the bigger fish come in from the spawning grounds to begin their migration upchannel.

Dave Butt is a friend who keeps his boat in the small harbour at Looe in Cornwall, not for him the long runs offshore for the shark fishing which has made Looe an internationally famous name over the years...his is a much more interesting, inshore style of fishing for the hard fighting bass over the inshore reefs of this famous fishing port.

Dave is a retired Toy Designer who runs an open 16 foot Plymouth Pilot with a 15hp Kubota diesel engine which he can run all day at 2 knots on a gallon of diesel.

This is a style of fishing which owes much to the rich tradition of Westcountry sea angling, bottom fishing in the winter, drifting with sandeel's and trolling for bass through the warmer months of the year.

More than a few anglers have dismissed trolling as a mind numbing, boring method of catching fish, where the boat is motored around at slow speeds trailing lures for hours on end.

Trolling as it is popularly known today is an ancient method of fishing, demanding skills which the beginner might take some time to appreciate. Such is its effectiveness that it is the most popular "hooking" method used by commercial fishermen and skilled anglers seeking the large Bass around reef marks such as the Eddystone rocks off Plymouth, the notorious Manacles reef off the coast of Cornwall near Falmouth and the lonely Runnel Stone reef standing sentry at the western end of the English Channel. As well as thousands of other sea ripped reefs around the coasts of Ireland, South West England and the Atlantic coast of France.

The old Celtic name for trolling is "whiffing".

"Il faut tracher" is Celtic Cornish for "I must whiff", some would say that whiffing is only properly done under sail, sculling or pulling with oars, but today "whiffing" for bass is a term still used by local fishermen in the English Westcountry and is a term totally interchangeable with the modern word "trolling" even though engines now propel the boat.

To the initiated it is an exciting method where the lures are presented to the fish using the influence of the currents, the state of the sea, the wind and most important of all the knowledge of where the fish are going to be, having weighed and considered all that is happening around you.

There is a skill in lining up shore marks, combining the old skills with the precision of modern GPS navigational systems to move a pattern of lures through a deep sunk gulley or accurately through a boil coming off the top of a rock, without spooking the fish, demanding spatial skills where a dozen different influences are weighed and considered in the mind, then the boat positioned and motored accordingly. These are subtle skills, unseen and little appreciated by those who do not understand. These skills cannot be learned from books, they are skills which can only be acquired by watching others and participating.

So what is the best tackle for whiffing/trolling.

First the boat must be considered as an integral part of the tackle. Wooden boats are believed to better absorb engine noise and issue a less frightening "signature" to the fish.

Secondly the best engines are slow running diesels, on small boats, the baby Saabs, Yanmar or Kubota diesels are much favoured.

It is quite possible to whiff with outboards, four stroke outboards  are the best, if you have to use a two stroke be careful. The oil injected engines are the best, because the ratio of oil to petrol is automatically reduced as the engine speed falls, so the plugs are far less likely to oil up at the prolonged slow speed. If you do not have an oil injected engine then a second fuel tank can be taken with a reduced oil mixture for slow speed running, but you have to be careful if running on a low oil mixture that you do not forget which tank you are on and open the throttle when on the low oil mix, because if you do, something sad will rapidly  happen to your engine!!

Depending on the strength and direction of the tide you have to be able to maintain a speed between one and a half and two knots for hours at a time.

On small boats a 10 foot rod such as a light uptider  is an advantage, so that the length of the rods act almost as mini outriggers, keeping the lures well separated. Often two anglers will work four rods, one out each side of the boat to give a good separation of the lures and the other two rods fished deeper over the stern.

Rigging the rods is a skill in its own right, the pattern of sinkers have to be deployed so that the lighter sinkers are on the outside and the heavier sinkers on the inside so that as the boat goes around in a wide turn, the inside sinkers will tend to sink deeper then the outside ones and the lures will swim over one another without tangling. When the tide changes and you need to change direction, the rods may have to be swapped around.

Most Westcountry anglers use Eddystone Eels for trolling because they "swim" better than most other brands. It is essential that the lures swim upright and track in a straight line. If the lure lays flat on its side, you can tow it around till hell freezes over, it is unlikely that you will catch any fish on it.

Often half a matchstick is taped to the shank of the hook, and forced inside the lure so that the position of the hook can be shifted from side to side to act as a "keel" ensuring that the lure "swims" upright.

The eel is fastened off a 1 metre fluorocarbon leader to either a ball bearing swivel or two or three barrel swivels joined together, to eliminate any twist that might occur. The sinker is on the main line above the swivels.

After checking that the lure is swimming properly, pay out about 20 metres of line, fasten the sinker with an elastic band. Then pay out about another 50 metres of line so that the lure is swimming 70 metres behind the boat, well away from the noise and disturbance caused by the engine.

Place the rod in a holder, set the clutch and the ratchet just hard enough to resist the natural pull exerted by the lure "whiffing".

When a fish "strikes" the lure, the ratchet screams off, the bend in the rod will usually set the hook and pandemonium reigns...well, why else do you go fishing??

The sinker will usually slide down to the swivels and the fish can be played to the side of the boat to be netted or released.

Keep the boat gently moving whilst you are playing the fish, at least until your companion has reeled the other lines in.

Dawn and dusk are the best times to go whiffing and grey, bordering on rough days, can often produce the best fishing. Make no mistake this is not the boring method that many think it is, this is a method where hard work and restless anglers go well together.

These words are just a kindergarten starter to this method. I would say without fear of contradiction that more double figure Bass are caught each year "whiffing" than by any other method. Problem is the wide world of conventional angling never gets to hear about these fish because (a) the anglers don't want to alert the "others" to an areas true potential or (b) they are landing the fish commercially through the "black economy" and they do not want any one else to know, particularly the Inland Revenue!

Tackle tips.

Drill the ball sinkers through with a 3 or 4mm drill and remove any sharp edges with a countersink, so that if the sinker has not already slipped over the elastic band when playing your fish, the sinker can be reeled up to the tip eye and with a tug on your line, the wet elastic band will pass through the sinker and slide down to the swivel. This makes the netting or releasing of the fish much easier.

Good tackle for this style of fishing is the reasonably priced 2.9 metre Diawa Powerlift Z Uptide rod combined with the excellent Diawa SL175H multiplier reel. This is a very reasonably priced rod and reel which is reliable and a fine sporting outfit. If you want to spend more money to buy an outfit that is the ultimate in function and dependability, then look closely at the 2.9 metre Shimano Ultegra 9628 Uptide rod combined with a Calcutta 700 reel or its smaller brother the Calcutta 400. This is an outfit that will land the most powerful Bass that you are ever likely to catch and with reasonable care, will last a lifetime.

For this style of fishing there is little advantage to be gained from using superbraid line, a good quality monofilament will function perfectly, also it has the advantage of being cheap enough to discard as soon as you feel it is suspect. Anglers who consistently catch big fish will change their line at regular intervals, a nick or scratch on the surface of monofilament line will cause it to break just when you have the fish of a lifetime putting your tackle to its ultimate test.

A good quality line such as Maxima, Diawa or the Shimano monofilaments with breaking strains between 7 and 10 kilo is all you need.

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