February PB obliterated with a capture that ranks in my all-time Top 3!

February PB obliterated with a capture that ranks in my all-time Top 3!

Despite being thoroughly entrenched in the writing and editing of ‘The Lure of The Bass – The Revised Edition’ I am really enjoying being able to take the time out to write about and record the Audio Clips in relation to the bass I have caught so far in 2025.

I will tell the full story of the 62cm fish in the featured image further down this post, but first up, I will briefly describe how I landed a 56cm bass on the previous day – which was the 1st February.

As I mentioned on my previous post (here) there are a number of reasons why I believe the fishing has been so good this winter – the benign weather, the above average sea temperatures, the use of lure that clearly mimics what the bass are most certainly tuned into, etc. Therefore, over the first weekend of this month I was especially keen to place what is considered as a very rare beast (a lure-caught February bass) on the bank.

Stepping out with a fair degree of confidence, I surmised that my best chance to connect with one of these ‘unicorns’ was to target the ‘skinny’ water – areas were the channels would decrease in size and everything would become more condensed, thus making it easier for our quarry to find the crabs they seemingly court at this time of the year.

And following a bit of searching around – casting and moving with high levels of concentration, just waiting for that sharp tap or pull down on the rod tip (following the purposeful movement of the Megabass Sleeper Craw and the subsequent pause) my perseverance was rewarded with the beautiful, if rather muddy, bass in the slideshow above.

Measuring 56cm, this bass was my 2nd largest ever in February and by far my most impressive in daylight so, as you can imagine, I was pretty damn chuffed as I supped away at glass of red that evening planning the following day’s assault with my friend and 2nd Guide Joe.

I’d fallen in the mud while landing this splendid fish, plus I’d lost and even better one I believe that snaffled the creature bait right under the rod tip in the exceptionally turbid water. But I wasn’t too bothered – “I’ll be back”, was what I wrote on my Facebook Page…

Mission Accomplished

“I reckon you’ll smash your February PB today”, Joe said to me on the way to the venue. And to be honest, in myself, I knew that I had an a excellent chance of doing so. It’s just amazing how much confidence a method or a lure type can give you sometimes, and today, despite the slighter colder air and brisker breeze than 24 hours previously, everything had aligned so off we went, with Bertie following close behind as always…

You can see the joy in my face, but the gallery above tells a fraction of this remarkable story, one that as you would have read in the headline ranks 3rd in my all-time list of pivotal catches behind the 74cm bass I landed in March 2021, and of course my overall personal best of 83cm (she weighed 12lb 2oz) landed and successfully released in November of that same year.

Incidentally, you can read the full story of both of these captures in my 3rd publication: Bass Lure Fishing – A Guide’s Perspective Volume 2.

Onto the Audio Clip then – which you can also Download. All you need to do is hit ‘Play’ to listen to a grown man getting rather excited about a very special fish, and the circumstances, method and manner in which it was achieved. I am still buzzing about it now, even though it all happened just over a week ago!

The drainage channel…

Thanks for reading and listening. Please do leave a comment or ask me a question. Below is this extraordinary bass (my 4th over 60cm in 2025) swimming away to feed and breed, and as you can imagine, I was a very happy man that evening and still am!

Marc Cowling