Client Catches – ‘Back of the car’ bass marks…

Client Catches – ‘Back of the car’ bass marks…

An apt post, the idea of which came to me as I lay sweating in my bed last night due to a badly-timed bout of COVID… I am supposed to be guiding a 3 Day Package party at the moment, but I just did not have the energy to join them earlier. Therefore, after discussing the plan for today (where to send them and how to approach it) I have been guiding them ‘remotely’ this morning with a view to heading out for a socially distanced session this evening. Urrggghh bloody COVID eh…

Convoy

I doubt that I’ll be firing on even half my cylinders for a few more days yet, and with another 3 Day Package on the horizon I cannot see myself clambering up, down, and around the majestic open coastal headlands, through miles of stinking mud, or out onto the remote beaches until I’m feeling up to it again.

So, what this means is that I’ll looking to guide my more imminent clients ‘out of the back of the car’ so to speak! Their cars, not mine I hasten to add, as I don’t think jumping in with me and Bertie the Border Terrier is a good idea either! No, instead, there will be a small convoy following me, whereby I’ll need to factor potential parking issues into the equation, as well as this wicked North-Easterly that’s developed – which isn’t the death-knell some might think incidentally.

Small percentage

As you may have read, in the course of my bass lure fishing life and now my professional guiding, I have amassed just over 400 bass lure fishing marks – 414 to be precise. Further, as you may have also read, I spent a great of time over the 2023/24 winter (the wettest, dullest and most downright miserable 6 months that I’ve ever known here in south Devon!) ‘scoping out’ the 100 odd that I’d earmarked anywhere between a few weeks and a few years prior – mostly with my clients in mind although I do keep 10% for my own endeavours.

Now I don’t mind a very long walk if required to access what I consider to be the ‘best’ marks. As mentioned, this could be across rocks and reefs, sand, shingle, mud and everything in between, whilst taking in a section of the beautiful, yet brutal south-west coastal path. However, wind back 17 years ago, when I was placing the building blocks in place towards what I hoped would be a successful career as a professional bass lure fishing guide, and I knew that I would need to cater for (within reason) a variety of ages, capabilities, and dare I say it disabilities.

I have crunched the numbers this morning even though my head hurts, and out of the 414 marks, 29 of them are what I’ve determined as ‘extremely close to the car’ and with easy access to what will be a prime venue in which to not only learn how to catch a bass, but to also catch one. You see, for me, it is more about the terrain, the topography of the seabed, and the way in which the current interacts with it that is more important than it being especially remote… Although I won’t lie, I’ll always try and remain out of sight if I can!

A case in point

I have to apologise to Chris here, the lovely gentleman holding his new personal best bass in the feature image (at just over 60cm) in advance, as his magnificent bass deserves a ‘better’ write up than I am going to bestow on it before I climb back into bed…

It was at the end of one my popular 3 Day Packages (please do drop me an email via the Contact Form at the bottom of this page if you’d like to be added to the 2026 distribution list, or that of my 2nd Guide Joe for 2025), when everyone is a bit ‘cream crackered’ that I decided to complete the sixth and final four hour session of the package on a beach that is, well, a stone’s throw from the car.

Literally from the off, despite the seabed being essential ‘clean’ and sandy here, the way the flooding tide is deflected off of a nearby rocky promontory on this mark meant that all of the ‘surface hits’ were exceptionally localised to where I’d positioned Chris. But not for the first time this season, just when I was thinking about changing the Patchinko 125 over to something else to avoid catching tiddlers, a substantial ‘flash’ from beneath the lure saw his 9′ HTO Nebula 7-35g almost wrenched from his grasp (his words, not mine!)

No fluke

An extremely innocuous-looking venue at first glance, this isn’t the first time that this mark has come up trumps for either a client or when I’ve been fishing alone. And do you what I am continually on the lookout for? Yep, a venue that has all the attributes of this one – situated either a minute away from where we tie up our laces, or an hour away!

2025 and 2026 Bookings and Availability

As mentioned above, my 2nd Guide Joe (you can read all about his involvement within South Devon Bass Guide Ltd here) and I will be sitting down within the next few weeks to assemble his 2025 Availability – this will be weekends only between late-March and June, Full-Time from July onwards, including his own 3 Day Packages. Thereafter, I will be releasing my 2026 3 Day Package dates in early-November, closely followed by my One-to-One and Guiding Day dates.

Please do complete the form below to be kept informed:

Thanks for reading.

Marc Cowling

South Devon Bass Guide Ltd