February PB smashed again alongside more late-winter catches! BUT…

February PB smashed again alongside more late-winter catches! BUT…

My word… As I said on the Facebook thread that described this fish – you wait so long for a bus to come, and then two turn up at once! Yep, nine days on from catching what was genuinely, at the time, the 3rd most significant bass I have ever landed… Guess what, I managed to bust it again with a porky 63cm brute while entertaining Mr Henry Gilbey.

What’s more, if you follow my endeavours on social media then you also be aware that I have completely and utterly destroyed this February PB again with with a colossal 71cm ‘animal’. Yes, I am still ‘bouncing’ from that capture, one that is of course worthy of a standalone blog post – so bear with me as I’m pretty busy what with testing lures and writing books at the moment!

No Boundaries

So, in this post I want to cover my more recent tactics associated to the 63cm fish with Henry, in addition to two further specimens of 58cm and 60cm respectively via the galleries and also the Audio Clip further down the page.

What a month! And to think, I’ve only been able to fish seven times in total as I write this on the 24th February. I shudder to think how many I might have landed if I’d been out every other day or night! But I have to remain disciplined if I am to release The Revised Edition to The Lure of The Bass in late-April as is the current plan…

In relation to the type of lure that’s accounted for these fantastic fish, well, lets just say that it appears the Megabass Sleeper Craw knows no boundaries this winter… I’ve caught a lot of very nice fish (all of which have been successfully released) now in clear water, ultra shallow water, ultra ‘skinny’ water, deeper water, murky water, exceedingly muddy/turbid water, and of course darkness. It’s been nuts hasn’t it!

As you may well guess from the next photograph below of me holding a 60cm bass, I did land this one during the same session, albeit a further 600m down creek so to speak. And the funny thing was (and I might have to start recording my actual fishing sessions!) I had my phone tucked inside my front wader pocket and was chatting to my mother at the time this stunning blue-finned beauty firmly nailed the Sleeper Craw – meaning she received a running commentary of how I landed it!

Hook up rate?

Before I move onto the remarkable capture of the 63cm bass in the featured image (a photograph very kindly taken by Henry) just a quick word (via the Audio Clip below) on the hook-up rate/ratio achieved with a lure that has well and truly altered my winter bass lure fishing approach and mindset.

Fun, and a bit of business…

I always enjoy inviting Henry up to fish with me. And having recently returned from his trip ‘wave dodging’ in sunny Portugal I thought he’d appreciate a session surrounded by stinking mud, in a freezing easterly in darkest Devon… And as per all of my 2025 blog posts, I’ll now refer you over to the Audio Clip below where I reveal how, what was briefly my largest February bass at 63cm, came to be…

I really wish I could post up the photos Henry took of me tussling with this beauty as they are spectacular, but the truth is I am petrified we might potentially give something away in regards to the location…

The Lure of The Bass – The Revised Edition

I am seriously ‘head down’ with the updated and extended (by 100 pages+) version of my fist book ‘The Lure of The Bass’ with the release date set as late-April 2025. I will be contacting everyone who has purchased any of my previous titles individually in the lead up to this date. But if you would like to be added to the pre-order/waiting list then please do complete the Contact Form below:

Thanks for reading. You don’t want to miss the next one!

Marc Cowling