Bass smash and grab

The Blackwater never ceases to amaze me a place where the skill of the angler can shine through a place where watercraft is king and putting your money on pure luck just won't cut it ,
Look on a map and you will see a expanse of water pointing North East with the sea faring town of Maldon at its Head and Bradwell on sea at the mouth leading into the North Sea.
The Blackwater has the largest expanse of estuarine saltings in the UK a total and utter wilderness with large sky's and sunsets to die for ,supporting wildlife of all descriptions from Adders to Avocets a purely remarkable place no more than 20 miles from horse guards parade in London.

Access to fishing areas is afraid by foot or on your bike and there is no easy access to any of the great fishing this diverse place has to offer.

By far my personal favourite in the estuary is the z claw surface lure off the top with that Bass fly flier sitting around 6 inches from the nose of the lure. Standard walking the dog is not the case here
The most effective way of fishing the hard running estuary is to again to trot the z claw and do not retrieve the lure just let it go down the run holding it back with the odd twitch to give that ball bearing a little tap!.
In the mean time the flier will be slowly sinking and rising with the action of your rod tip under the floating z claw when your lure is at distance feeling for takes is the answer but these hard fighting estuary bass play smash and grab  and it's great fun I have landed fish up to 5 lbs this year but hopefully the Bass will get a better size soon but what great looking fish.

Thanks for reading
Gee