Every Spring and Autumn great shoals of Bass swim by my house…. well past the Eddystone then! The shoals of fish are following the receding edge of the warm water till it reaches the point off the Lizard where the water temperature stays within their tolerance zone throughout the Winter months.

It is in this patch of water that these wonderful silver fish spend the winter procreating the species in an aquatic gang bang…. well there is nothing much on the telly these days!!

So for a few tides in the Spring and again in the Autumn the Eddystone Reef becomes a staging post for these migratory shoals of fish, as they stop over to feed up on the huge schools of Greater Launce in the Spring and with Joey mackerel, scad and occasionally herring providing the protein for their Winter exertions.

The trick is being on the ‘Stone when the fish are on a stopover, because they are "here today and gone tomorrow" and it may be a few days before the next pod of transient fish arrive. But it is at these times when locals such as myself get in as much sea time as possible, because these transitory shoals are mainly composed of bigger fish. It is not unusual to see a couple of doubles in a day when the fish are hot to trot!

The problem as always, is getting to the fish before the reef is smothered in wall to wall gillnets which it has to be said, has largely killed the ‘Stone’ for recreational Bass fishing. However, the netters don’t know everything.

There are a few places within a ten mile radius of the ‘Stone where there are low lying, tackle grabbing outcrops of rock where the Bass also lie up before continuing their journey to the Western spawning grounds.

Rod and line fishing these low lying snarls of rock is a salutary experience in losing tackle. You need to fish very close to the bottom or you will not catch the fish, if you are eight or ten turns up you will save on your tackle but catch only the occasional fish. So a visit to the local tackle shop to fill a bucket with sinkers, hooks and booms is a necessity before embarking on one of these trips. Sounds like fun doesn’t it, the tackle dealers love this time of year!!

If you have fished the Westcountry reefs and wrecks before you will know the rig. A 10 foot flowing trace using a tubular or Knotless boom is the way to go. Rig the sinker with a 12 to18 inch length of 8 or 10lb monofilament from the boom with a big loop at the end to thread the sinker into. The reason for this long dropper is because the sinker will always find bottom first; then if the bottom wants to grab it, then you might get away with just losing the sinker. I always put a couple of overhand knots in this sinker length just to make sure that this sinker drop will break out first, especially if I am fishing light.

Tackle is not difficult. A seven foot seven inch Snowbee 12 or 20 pound class rod is excellent or as some prefer, a light uptide rod. This is not the place for a stumpy rod. Combine this rod with a decent reel such as a Shimano Calcutta, Abu 7000 or else the cult reels for this sort of fishing are the baby Accurate reels from the USA because of their super smooth lever drag systems.

A couple of weeks ago I fished such a mark in company with some good anglers. I was checking out some new monofilament so before the slack water I fished using monofilament. I didn’t catch a fish, couldn’t even feel them, it was as if my baits were just being totally ignored whilst all around me there were fish being caught, so something was wrong. Then I swapped to my baby Accurate loaded with Power Pro braid and there they were. I could feel every tap, every little pull.

I felt it when my best Bass of the season picked up the bait and swam downtide against the lightest pressure of my thumb on the spool. After a few seconds I knew the fish had turned the mackerel, so I gently eased the clutch up to the stop, gently lifted the rod and started to play the fish. The reason I did not hammer the rod in a strike is because most of us using big baits these days are using Circle hooks and if you strike whilst using a circle hook you just pull the hook out of the fishes mouth. So why Circle hooks??

After you have used Circles for a while, got used to not striking, got used to finding the hook right in the front of the fishes mouth where it is so securely lodged and yet is so easily removed, going back to using conventional J hooks is a step back in time, a real pain in the ass!

Having said that, it is true that Circles are more difficult to bait up with crab and worm baits, but it is not impossible, it just requires some though and imagination. I have been using Circle hooks for about eight years, for every sort of fishing from shark through to plaice and flounder fishing. They work very well with lures such as jelly worms and shads, just remember not to strike, just wind down into the fish.

So if you want to try Circle hooks what are the best to try. There is no doubt that the best of all are the Owner SSW Circles available from Harrison Rods in Liverpool. If your local shop does not stock them give Mike Helliwell a call on 01 51 709 5981 and he will tell you how to get them. Veals Mail order now stock them as well. The Gamakatsu Circle hook is I believe equal to the Owner hook, but Daiwa who are the Gamakatsu agents in the UK, do not stock the large sizes that we need for this fishing(yet!). So the USA over the Internet is where you get them.

Just as a guide, 4/0 and 6/0 are good sizes for cod, ling and pollack fishing. Size 1 and 1/0 work well for flounder and plaice.

PS.  Just received an email from Mike Concannon to say that Daiwa are now stocking the Gamakatsu Circles up to 6/0. So If you want these hooks you will have to ask your local Daiwa Dealer to get them in for you.

I would be interested in your experiences with Circles, email me at russ@reelfoto.com