TIDAL WATER ACTION

Bass and Estuary Perch

In deciding to make a video on Bass and Estuary Perch, Dean Hayes and I committed ourselves to both a long term project – and one that would not only cost time, but also money.

Not being able to afford film crews and their tight deadlines, we put ourselves into debt, purchasing the very best in digital movie equipment – taught ourselves – and carried it everywhere we fished.

In “Tidal Water Action”, we not only planned to cover and show traditional shoreline casting for bass – we also wanted to point out some of the more unusual and exciting aspects of chasing both bass and estuary perch in their tidal water homes.

I think we achieved this in the segments on “Swamp Drain Fishing”, “Finding and Exploiting Estuary Perch” and the one on Dean’s fantastic “Pelagic Bass”.

At all times we attempted to show both by action and word, techniques and as much “how to do it” information as we could. This being added to in a lengthy “Tackle Tips” segment after the main video action.

I must also make special mention here of our editor and fellow compatriot, Shannon Kitchener. Dean and I broke every rule in the film- makers book when shooting the action – and it was up to Shannon to put it all together. And this he did.

“Tidal Water Action” is the first of the “Bethune on Bass” series – and at this stage Cameraman Grantly Gray of “Marlin off the Rocks” fame, Dean, Shannon and I are well into finishing an epic on chasing the monster bass of Lake Glenbawn.

I hope you enjoy and learn from our efforts – I know we did.

Tight Lines

John Bethune.