Client Catches – A Flick of the Wrist…
As a pro-guide of 7 years now, there isn’t a lot about bass behaviour that surprises me nowadays… Indeed, I’ve mentioned the word ‘capricious’ many, many times in my writing, as it comprehensively encapsulates the comportment that these wonderful creatures regularly display! Yep, they can be excruciatingly wary, yet, as ridiculously contrasting as it sounds, they can also be surprisingly and fixatedly reckless on occasion…
‘One Of Those Nights’
Just like the title of one of my favourite ‘Eagles tracks’ the session in which Rich, one of the clients making up a 3 Day Package party with his brother Si, and a regular client of mine, Michael, it really was ‘One Of Those Nights’ as this one as it had it all. A stunning location on the kind of summer’s evening we’d all been dreaming about through that bloody awful winter, plus laughs, camaraderie, a massive bass lost (sorry Michael!) and eventually, a stroke of luck that culminated in the bass in the featured image.
Too many marks?
Alongside the tides, I place a great deal of emphasis on the wind direction and strength when deciding precisely ‘where’ to fish or guide my clients. Moreover, it may seem like a strange thing to write, but when there isn’t any wind to speak of at all, with 400+ marks now at my disposal, it can actually make this process more difficult would you believe!
The main reason for this is that if I am looking to visit an estuary mark (where I want to capitalise on the current bringing the fish to me or marking the likely positioning points) or to fish/guide into darkness, then I like to be sheltered from the effects of the wind. Where as if a daylight sortie on the open coast is on the cards, then I will be looking for ‘onshore’ conditions in regards to the sea state – that aerated, white, fizzing water that bass love to hunt within.
But with this evening almost identical to the previous in terms of the tide height and the overall weather, considering I’d enjoyed a bumper session on this mark 24 hours prior, it made my decision to revisit this mark exceptionally easy! I went with the ‘Form Book’ essentially, and ignored all the other dozens, and dozens of possibilities. Too many marks Marc? No way! You can never have too many bass marks!
Right Place. Right Time
Just as the evening before, once we rounded a particular mini-headland on this estuary venue, the place was absolutely ‘alive’ with mullet, bait fish (sand smelt, sand eel, and seemingly thousands of immature mullet and bass) all skirting and skating along a surface that was as calm and as still as the proverbial ice rink. Yep, we were in the right place alright, and by my calculations, we were here at precisely the period in the tide when the larger bass had appeared for me.
We couldn’t fail surely? Well, unlike the evening before, when the bass where sat in the weedy margins, picking off anything they could snap at (including my Xorus Patchinko 100!) it actually took what Rich and I instantly knew was a ‘good one’ to put the breaks on or career into our knees as we stood in the water, to eventually tempt one out.
What a sight! A spikey dorsal fin, a torpedo-shaped ‘V’ being created, and a ‘swirl’ to conclude only a matter of centimetres from our legs, as a bass homed in on its prey, apparently none the wiser or possible not giving a hoot about our presence. “Just flick one in Rich, just a few metres from you mate”, and with that Rich duly obliged by delicately flicking his IMA Chappy 80 into the rippling remnants of the commotion with an underarm swing.
First cast. Nope, she didn’t want it. Next cast – BOOOOOOOOOSH! The water erupted two metres from the rod tip and all hell broke loose!
It’s crazy isn’t it. Like many of you I’m sure, I’ve literally swam many a bass lure across the nose of a bass on occasion and it hasn’t showed the slightest interest. Yet when they are in ‘the mood’ anything goes!
To Book or to Enquire
To book or to enquiry about a professionally guided bass lure fishing session please complete the Contact Form below. Further, please feel free to peruse my Testimonials, The Experience, What I Offer, and About pages.
Thanks for reading.
Marc Cowling
South Devon Bass Guide Ltd
South Devon Bass Guide Ltd 