Client Catches – The Full Compliment…
Clearly, this could easily have been three separate blog posts! But with so many quality bass to summarise within my Client Catches 2024 Collection before my guiding season ends, I would have been tapping away on this keyboard for a week to cover all of the the recent the catches achieved by the same client.
It really has been a fantastic season of bass lure fishing for my clients and I here in south Devon – one of my best, and of course the first for my 2nd Guide Joe, whose achievements with his clients you can read about in my previous post here.
Pride
There are many things that I, and now ‘we’ pride ourselves on at South Devon Bass Guide, with one of them being to teach and assist a client to catch a bass on surface lure, a soft plastic, and also a bass in the dark – all within the same session, or a series of them at least.
Our clients come from all types of backgrounds. Many are superb anglers in their own right, but within a different discipline (with Fly, Trout, and Salmon being the most common). Then there are those who have lure fished for bass for anything from a few months to many years, but who just require a little tweaking or affirmation that what they are doing is right (such as technique, lure choice, selecting venues, and of course water craft). Plus, Joe and I also guide some complete beginners from time to time which we are very happy to do.
Tweaking
Ben (the gentleman in the featured image of course) is a client who most definitely falls into the ‘requires occasional and very slight tweaking’ category. His passion for bass lure fishing was evident from the first time I guided him – which was some years ago now. And even when I guide him nowadays, his overall energy is absolutely boundless in tandem with his skillset, which has undoubtedly increased, session upon session. Indeed, you may well recognise him from previous blog posts, and maybe even within the pages of my 3rd book: Bass Lure Fishing – A Guide’s Perspective Volume 2 here.
99.9% of my/our clients are extremely receptive to listening, and above all, learning, no matter what their experience or level of expertise – which is one of the reasons why I love doing this. Therefore, in the following paragraphs I would like to highlight how certain integrands to what I asked Ben to do, culminated in assisting him to to catch such a magnificent array of bass, over a three separate sessions, using three separate lure types, methods, and techniques.
The Paddle Tail
The magnificent 6lb+ sandwiched between the immediate paragraphs below utterly ‘nailed’ what is gradually becoming a staple in my soft plastic paddle tail armoury: the Evobass Sabre. Rigged onto a 7/0, 10g Gamakatsu EWG Springlock Hook (here), it wasn’t a case of bang it out and wind it in (bass lure fishing very rarely is in my experience to be completely honest) but rather a very specific angle was required on the cast so to avoid some nasty obstacles on the seabed on this venue.
Furthermore, although it was beginning to ease, the tide here was exceptionally strong – hence the requirement for a 10g weighted hook, which is pretty heavy duty for my fishing and guiding when it comes to the utilisation of soft plastics.
And with the optimum retrieve style being administered by Ben, with this kind of lure, and in these types of conditions (to be able to ‘feel’ the vibration of the lure, enabling it to occasionally ‘tap’ the seabed whilst recovering it at as close to the same velocity as the tide as you possibly can) as you can see, this brute of a bass did not mess around with its meal!
Darkness
I have written many, many times about the virtues of utilising an extremely subtle soft lure when lure fishing for bass in darkness so to almost ‘mirror’ their behaviour and that of its prey. Slow and deliberate on one hand in regard to the retrieve speed, and allowing what is my favourite lure for this type of work (the Savage Gear Gravity Stick Pulse Tail) to level sink with both pauses to the recovery, and when it initially ‘splashes’ into the drink being the party trick.
If you do not routinely acquaint yourself with lure fishing for bass in darkness, then allow me to convey just how much concentration one needs to regulate into your every action in order to truly maximise your chances. A smooth casting technique, a tight line as the lure enters the water and descends, and then, with this lure type anyhow, five quicker turns before transitioning into a slow, steady recovery.
And with me on his shoulder every ten minutes or so, as I shifted from client to client during this particular 3 Day Package session in order to check their technique and offer words of encouragement, it took until the tide began to ebb for Ben to screech my favourite words out into the still night air “Yes, Fish On!” She’d swiped it ‘on the drop’ as so many of these wonderful creatures often do…
The Surface Lure
There are many facets to being able to consistently catch bass on surface lures, regardless (within reason) of the sea state, clarity, wind strength, all in addition to a wide variety of environments. For me, maintaining the tension on the line is a major component , and one that you can read about in a previous post here: Client Catches – A Mention for the Tension.
Furthermore, if I were to summarise their use during both my personal and guided sessions, I would say that unless the water is too murky (if considering their use in water over 4ft) or too rough to actually see them amongst the melee, then between late-April and mid-January (where here in south Devon the sea temperature will be above 11o C) this is very often the lure type that I, or one or more of my clients, will attach before anything else – no matter what the environment.
Now, alongside this being another stonking near 6lb bass for Ben in as many guided sessions, what was especially noteworthy about this capture is that it involved an element of ‘cat and mouse’ to coax it out of its lair…
I have guided Ben on this very specific ‘gap between the bladderwrack’ many times, and each time I tell him to “make the first cast count” as there is very likely to be good-sized bass positioned within it – I know because I have seen them there numerous times, and of course hoicked them out myself! Until this session however, he hadn’t plucked anything out of it!
Sure enough, as we crept into position and I asked Ben to gently flick the Patchinko no more than 4m from our stance and into the ‘bass den’, an almighty swirl and a blink and you’d miss it attack on the lure resulted in disappointment. Straight away, Ben was moving around in the margins and looking to place the lure into the same zone, but this is where I stopped him. I what…?
Yes, I stopped him… Just for a minute, with the clear intention of allowing what we knew was a substantial bass to re-establish itself into its ‘safe place’ and regain its confidence. What’s more, I also instructed Ben to remain completely still, as this was close quarter fishing, and I remarked that any swishing or swilling of the water around his legs might just prevent our quarry from shifting back into strike position.
Of course, you know what happened on not the next deftly placed cast and retrieve, but the one after this… Boooooooooom! Our gully erupted and the we quickly won the contest.
2nd Guide Joe’s 2025, and My 2026 Availability
After a highly successful first season of ‘some weekends only’ guiding, my 2nd Guide Joe (who you can read about here) has recently released his 2025 Availability which you can find here. Note that these dates (especially his 3 Day Packages) are getting snapped up quickly.
Furthermore, within the next fortnight I will also be releasing my remaining 2025 (literally half-a-dozen dates) to the wider public, alongside my confirmed 2026 Availability – all of which encompass my 3 Day Package Dates, Guiding Days and One-to-One programme.
So, if you would like to be kept informed of all of the above please do complete the Contact Form on my homepage here, or you can fill out the form below and I will respond as quickly as I possible can:
Thanks for reading.
Marc Cowling
South Devon Bass Guide Ltd
South Devon Bass Guide Ltd 