Client Catches – The ‘Splash Factor…’
With a number of fishing related projects now coming to completion, and my guiding season now in full swing, as mentioned in my ‘A New Era Begins‘ blog post, in the coming months most of my blog posts may well be shorter and sweeter affair! But despite the content being rather succinct on occasion, my primary objective, alongside highlighting my clients’ catches, the successful lures, and the types of conditions or environments will always be to ‘educate’ the reader in some way.
To add, when I say ‘educate’, what I am always aiming to do is explain or share something as clearly as I can, be it a technique or just something ‘new or enlightening’ that I have learnt, or that is continually coming to the fore within our sessions, and that may assist my readers with their own bass lure fishing.
Sunny, Calm, and Clear
It was with Ben, one of my regular clients who travels up from Cornwall to be with me, that I decided to guide him and the two other anglers during this session on a stretch of shoreline that I am rediscovering, and that I placed a fair bit of time reinvestigating over the dreariest winter that I, and many of you, have ever known…
But with mornings like the one we stepped out into being precisely the type of conditions in which I envisaged this venue could fish well (sunny, with flat calm and crystal clear water) it took a certain lure type, and with a strong emphasis on getting the best out of it, that came up trumps…
Reactions
So with the tide at the midway point when we arrived, as expected it was ‘hoofing’ through! Therefore, upon instructing Ben to ‘fish out’ the 6/0, 7g Gamakatsu Worm EWG Springlock hook that I’d spotted in his box, before adding “what type of soft plastic paddle tail do you have the most confidence in? “I like the Gravity Sticks, but can I whack on an Evobass Sabre” came the answer. So on it went.
Now if you aren’t familiar with these superbly made, well designed, and beautifully coloured paddle tail lures (I am not associated to Evobass in any way I must add) then you might have read (on my sister website here) my thoughts on them being something of a ‘hoodoo lure’ for me! I really, really like them, but until March this year, I hadn’t achieved an awful lot of success on them either personally, or whilst guiding my clients.
A surprising splash
We were all set, and with my other two clients utilising a Patchinko 100, and a solid white OSP Dolive Stick respectively, I asked Ben to place a huge amount of emphasis on retrieving the Sabre the very second it hit the water… Why, you may ask? Well, as part of numerous paragraphs in my most recent book (Bass Lure Fishing – A Guide’s Perspective Volume 2) either at night, in turbulent water, and even more so I believe, in fast running water, the initial splash of the lure entering the water acts as a wonderful attractant to a bass – making them react, and in turn, making them respond positively through that impressive, imitable, and innate instinct of theirs.
And yes, it was indeed ‘the splash’ that Ben’s bass undoubtedly responded to. But what came as surprise to me, and I am happy to share this, is that although my clients were all lined up on the outer-edge of a channel, and where the current was pushing food items (and weed fragments!) towards us and therefore, where I expected the bass to be transiting through, it was if fact the opposite, and therefore the more sheltered, inside edge of the channel where he hooked her.
Interestingly also, and what I think was significant however was that the water here was exceptionally shallow (8″), and covering a warm section of sand that was jutting out in the warm sunshine, and where hundreds of tiny bait fish (mullet, bass, sea trout, sand smelt?) where positioned – trying their utmost not to swept away in the vigorous flow. ‘Bass food’ for thought you might say…
Thanks for reading.
Marc Cowling
South Devon Bass Guide Ltd
South Devon Bass Guide Ltd 