Not really how I wanted to commence the season…

Not really how I wanted to commence the season…

I could be talking and writing prematurely here, but in the past few days it appears that we are on an upward trajectory in regards to the amount of sunshine we’re enjoying. And yes, the bass, albeit some very small ones, have reacted by way of snatching at my delicately fished surface lures – with my very own concept, the Marc Cowling/TC Lures ZIPP WAKE accounting for most of them.

But what about the bass I am holding in the featured image on what looks like (and was!) a dreary, blimmin’ freezing, dull, cloudy, windy March afternoon? Well, I am ashamed to say that there is a rather frustrating story behind that one – and one that you may well have read before…

Earliest ever

Hang on Marc, I thought all of your guiding and client accomplishments we’re going to remain solely on your South Devon Bass Guide Ltd site? Ah yes, they are. However, as you’ve probably sussed, although I was guiding two brilliant clients (Tim and Ben) on what was the earliest I have ever conducted a guided session (the 21st March), although they both caught a bass themselves, it was during the one and only cast and retrieve that I’d made since the initial stages of the session, that I latched into what was a lovely, if a rather ‘crooked’ bass.

Not to be sniffed at…

Rewinding slightly, and although the weather has been absolutely diabolical since mid-October (I won’t labour this observation), during the half-a-dozen guided sessions that I have completed since this one, when I have actually been out n’ about it hasn’t been too bad. I’ve suffered a few deluges, and have been ‘sand blasted’ out on a few windy beaches but, overall, I can’t complain.

I mention this because it was very satisfying to witness the first two ‘client bass’ of the new season landed on a top water or surface lure (the Patchinko 100 and Rapala Walk n’ Roll 10 respectively) – an achievement not to be sniffed at in the UK this early in the year, although it provides and indication and indeed a representation of how comparatively warm the sea is around the southern coast of England this spring.

Great

When Ben shouted “Yep, fish!” only an hour into the session, despite the time of year and the lure type I had confidently requested he should attach based on the overall conditions, the spikey fellow that came bouncing up the gravel wasn’t the only bass on the scout that afternoon. I recall that we counted six ‘smash n’ grabs’ in total, but only one more bass, this time for Tim, managed to impale itself on the hooks.

It was great to be out, great to see some bass, and also great to be in the company of two very good bass lure anglers who had travelled up from Cornwall to be with me. And it was as they laughed and talked about how they would now be attempting to extract a bass from their own estuary a least one month ahead of when they would usual even consider it, that I plotted our next move…

A Hoodoo Lure…

There are a few lures that exist in my extensive collection that to me, scream ‘bass slayers’ for want of a kinder phrase, but for some unknown reason they just haven’t found themselves inside the gapping mouth of a quality bass… For example, I know that the Whiplash Factory Spittin Wire is one of those lures for many, many anglers, yet I love them because they have accounted for numerous specimens for my clients and I.

Well, for me personally, although I love the way they look, they way the cast, and the way they swim. Despite attaching them regularly alongside similar lures (the Savage Gear Gravity Stick Paddle Tail being a prime example) both while fishing alone or when guiding, the Evobass Sabre hadn’t, until this fateful day, accounted for a single bass – talk about a hoodoo lure!

I should have known…

Throughout this session I had observed a number of 6″ mullet cruising through on the current, or holding in amongst the wrack that adorns the stretch of estuary the guys were fishing on. And with the depth of the water now inching higher with every few minutes, and the pace of the current quickening also, I knew that if my clients were going to catch a bigger bass, that we would need to fish a lure deeper, and very close to the seabed itself.

I do have a penchant for ‘natural-coloured’ lures when the sky is overcast, plus, I’d spotted and noted the Evobass Sabre in the mullet-esque ‘Harengus‘ colour in Ben’s lure box earlier in the day. So with the clear(ish) water and the ‘bass treats’ in mind, the moment to send her out for a swim had arrived…

Skewering the brilliantly manufactured body onto a pretty substantial VMC Heavy 7/0 10g weighted, weedless hook so to counter the vicious ebbing tide, keeping the lure moving at around the same pace of the current, in conjunction with allowing the lure to sporadically ‘tap’ the seabed occasionally wasn’t entirely straight forward – which was how I ended up holding Ben’s set up… I should have known…

One cast = the only decent fish!

I know that my fellow guides across all disciplines will agree (I say this given the number of positive comments I received on social media when I posted this fish up) there really are times when the only way to ascertain whether the lure or fly is doing precisely what you, as the guide, envisage will be providing the optimum chance of your client connecting with a fish is to demonstrate it yourself… The technique that is, not actually catching the fish of course!

“Marc, please can you just show me again how you mend the line to allow the lure to sink, and then the pace and angle of the retrieve?” said Ben. “No problem”, came my reply, safe in the knowledge that ‘Sod’s Law’ surely wouldn’t play a part on what had been an extremely enjoyable day – but then you know what happened next… BANG – Bass on! Bugger……

Credit

As their guide and tutor, it was incredibly frustrating that it was me who ‘pulled out’ the best bass of the day. I felt really, really bad I have to say, and I very nearly just slid her back quickly almost in the hope that no-one had noticed I’d caught her! All credit to Ben and Tim here though, as they couldn’t have been more happy for me. As alongside witnessing what they and I considered to be a fantastic capture for the time of year, it proved, unequivocally that: a) we were in the right place at the right time, and b) we had got our tactics (and lure choice!) spot on.

It isn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last I’m sure – but it would have been nice if one of them had caught it and not me…. Onwards and upwards as they say.

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Thanks for reading

Marc Cowling