South Devon Bass Guide Ltd – A new era begins…

South Devon Bass Guide Ltd – A new era begins…

The 1st April 2024. A seminal date in my angling and guiding career (and not an April Fool’s spoof I promise you!) in which I officially ‘incorporate’ South Devon Bass Guide, and become a company director – proper grown up stuff! But in relation to how I will be going about my business, will anything change…? Yes, is the answer, and for the good I believe, which is why I have decided to write this blog post in order to keep you informed of my plans for the future – I am bloody excited too I can tell you!

New Era = New Website(s)

First of all, please feel free to peruse both my ‘refreshed’ South Devon Bass Guide Ltd site, in addition to my new ‘Marc Cowling – Bass Lure Fishing‘ platform. Currently, there is a crossover of blog posts until my new site gains some traction and works its way up the Google ratings! But outside of the blog posts, if you click on each of the tabs: for example, my ‘About’, ‘The Experience’, or ‘Prices’ pages, you will notice that I have redesigned them where applicable (more especially the Testimonials page) as well as adding ‘Further Services’ and ‘Gift Vouchers’ pages respectively- more on those late in this piece…

Business Only

First up, and something that you’ll notice going forward is that the South Devon Bass Guide Ltd site content will become exclusively business related, and by that I mean that it will be dedicated solely to publishing and promoting my professional guiding operation, and the catches and experiences that my clients enjoy. My personal catches, endeavours and enterprises will only appear on my sister site (Marc Cowling – Bass Lure Fishing) from now on.

Client Catches Only

In so far as the content that will form the blog posts themselves, a couple of the things that frustrating me last year was that I struggled to write about, or indeed ‘do justice’ to the individual catches that my clients achieved. Instead, due primarily to the time it takes to write, I found myself grouping together (shoehorning in fact) a dozen or so client captures under one subject, thread or theme. Moreover, I also didn’t write anything about my own achievements until my 2023 End of Year Review (here) because I felt that, as guiding is my profession, my readers and prospective clients would rather read about how the clients were doing…

Furthermore, something else that wasn’t sitting well with me was that despite 65-70% of my website views coming directly from Google and the like, my 4.5K Facebook followers were always reading about the client catches far in advance of my website followers. So, from here on in, much like the Facebook threads that I post to highlight the client catches, the blog posts that I will write for my South Devon Bass Guide Ltd business website, although much shorter, will be far more concise and succinct, and will therefore, be far, far more regular – more of Diary Entry in essence.

In completing the above, I hope that it will grant my regular readers with a greater and more ‘up to date’ perception of how the season is progressing, as well as providing a valuable insight into which tactics, lure types, conditions and environments that are working for us. Furthermore, although I probably shouldn’t admit this, when it comes to writing Volume 3 of ‘Bass Lure Fishing – A Guide’s Perspective’ a few years down the line all being well, I will be able to elaborate on what I am positive will be great deal more special captures and wonderful memories made by my customers.

What else is new?

It’s taken me over 30 years to get to this stage, but as you would have read in ‘Bass Lure Fishing – A Guide’s Perspective (Volume 2), nowadays I initially locate my bass lure fishing marks by applying one of a number of proven templates based purely on the types of features (and the way the current interacts with them) where bass love to frequent, hunt, feed, and patrol or position themselves.

More Marks…

So, following some steady research over the past few years, and by scrutinising various forms of satellite imagery, OS Maps (to understand if there is safe and/or unambiguous access) and the photographs I’ve taken during the subsequent site visits over the winter and early-spring period, I have amassed and added a further 114 marks/venues, on top of the near 300 that were already in my extensive and extremely varied portfolio. Commensurate with the stunningly diverse nature to the south Devon coastline and landscape, these venues range from the wildest and remotest deep-water headland, to far inland, intertidal creeks that I never knew until a couple of years ago bass would even venture up into! We are always learning as I’ve said and written many times.

Gift Vouchers

This leads me onto something I touched on above. There are two more ‘tabs’ that have appeared along the menu bar… These are the ‘Gift Vouchers’ and ‘Further Services’ tabs. The former speaks for itself, although I will elaborate on why I am offering this facility again further down in this post, whereas the latter is something entirely new…

My all-new ‘Venue Locating’ Service

In a nutshell, I have been approached numerous times, both by former clients or people I have never met or guided, and asked a very direct question which is: Could I, and would I effectively ‘find or locate’ a number of potential bass lure fishing marks/venues for them on their stretch of coastline? I’ll be honest, and say that I wasn’t sure initially, but by employing precisely the same method(s) that I do to my own bass related discoveries, it has proven to be something that I am now 100 % ready to add to my consultancy work. Thus, my ‘Venue Locating’ Service has been conceived, the details of which can be found on the Further Services tabs on both of my websites here and here.

Although the satellite images above and below (of the same venue at low and high tide) doesn’t match the narrative below for obvious reasons, below is an example of the kind of detail that I go into – which would include the following:

• Satellite Imagery of the venue at both Low Tide and High Tide – including the main feature(s), the direction of the current, the anglers’ stance, etc.
• An introduction to the venue via a synopsis/description.
• A breakdown of what the main feature(s) is/are and just what it is that, I believe, would attract bass.
• The tidal conditions that, I feel, would provide the optimum chance of catching (based, again, on very similar marks that I fish myself and guide my clients on).
• The time of year that would be most conducive.
• The lure types, and tactics that I would personally employ on the mark/venue.
• Based on OS Maps and the published routes – details of how to access the venue, in addition to where to park (if applicable).
• The orientation of the venue, in relation to which wind direction(s) it is sheltered from or exposed to – both of which will help me determine whether this is a day time, or night time mark being one example of how the through process works.
• The air and sea conditions that, again, I would personally look for if I were fishing this venue, alongside what I would consider to be the ‘best’ time to be fishing there.

Expansion and Development

A 2nd Pro-Guide

I am ready to expand the business even further… In the coming months, my recently trained apprentice (Joe) will be commencing with and fulfilling a small number professionally guided/tutored bass lure fishing sessions as part of the initial growth and development of South Devon Bass Guide Ltd.

Yes, you read that correctly, I have taken on the first of what may well eventually transpire to be a number of guides. And this is why I have recommenced with the opportunity for my customers (or more specifically, their loved ones) to purchase a Gift Voucher that the recipient can redeem at a time and a date that suits them – simply because the business will now have the capacity to fulfil these additional bookings.

With substantial numbers of people on both my ‘Reserve’ and ‘Waiting Lists’ asking for my services, I will be contacting these individuals in the coming days, with a view to offering them the opportunity to be guided by Joe during the 2024 season. Although I will continue with the customer interface and the thorough planning involved with each guided session, Joe is equipped with not only the procedures and thought processes that form my tactics in the conditions encountered, but just as importantly, he also has access and intimate knowledge of my 400+ bass lure fishing marks.

Inshore Boat Bass Lure Fishing

Oh yes…! In addition to, and in conjunction with the above, I will be teaming up with one of the UK’s premier diving and spearfishing experts – Joe Pike (See Joe PK on You Tube here) and his BRIG RIB named ‘Rosie’ to offer fully insured, fully coded, Inshore Bass Lure Fishing. With Joe’s innate knowledge, experience, and apprehension of what lies under the water and on the seabed, in addition to having the capability to place the RIB over sections of the magnificent south Devon coastline that I simply cannot access on foot, and we believe we can offer something that is very, very special.

With either myself or my 2nd Guide (the other Joe!) onboard as your instructor and guide, the sessions will operate from the beautiful and internationally renowned harbour of Salcombe, south Devon, to facilitate the following, exclusive service, that will encompass:

• Two Sailings Per Day (1x Early Morning + 1x Evening).
• 2 Anglers Maximum.
• Pick Up and Drop Off Service from Salcombe Marina.
• 4 hours Per Sailing/Session.
• Full use of equipment (rod/reels/lures/buoyancy aids) is included in the price
• Expert guidance and instruction on the methods, techniques and tactics utilised to catch the formidable bass.
• Prices are currently on request.

Enquires

I appreciate that there is a lot of information to take in and digest above! But if you have any queries, would like anything clarified, or if you would like to enquire about a professionally guided shore-based session, either with myself, or with my 2nd Guide, or indeed, if you are interested in the inshore boat, bass lure fishing element, then please do get in touch via the Contact Form below:

Exciting Times

So there you go! Exciting times ahead. I’ve been threatening to hit ‘the turbo’ on the business for a couple of years, and now I’m going for it! If any of my readers have any ideas, suggestions, constructive feedback or observations, I would be delighted to receive them.

Thank you for reading and supporting.

Marc Cowling