Only a decade or so ago, I would hazard a guess that 95% of UK bass lure anglers would essentially ‘give up’ once the Christmas adverts started appearing on TV, with the further south and west you lived the longer the season lasting generally. ‘May to October’ was what I was always told and what I continually read back in the late-80s and 90s being ‘the best’ time to tempt these spiny buccaneers on pieces of plastic or wood.
Therefore, it may seem somewhat remarkable (to some) that I personally consider the months of November and December to be the optimum period in which to haul out an utter behemoth – with the captures in this post serving to convince you if you’re not already a believer… Remember, my largest ever lure-caught bass of 83cm was landed in mid-November 2021.
The ‘Ripple’ Affect
Something I really must highlight about Jeremy’s marvellous 66cm bass (smashing his previous PB by some 14cm) is that he, like many of my clients (both regulars and new) have requested to be taught ‘How’ and ‘Where’ to utilise the Megabass Sleeper Craw over the past couple of months – something Joe and I have enjoyed facilitating.
So on what was a bright but brisk late-November day, I decided to positively embrace the strengthening breeze during this session, that took in two different venues. I expected bass to be present given the tidal range and state, but had the surface layer been calm, then I doubt very much the bass would have had the confidence to remain there once the water reduced in depth to 12 to 18″.
As it was, and just as I had planned for, the wind that was ‘rippling’ the entire zone served to provide the levels of concealment that both we and our quarry required to hunt and be hunted for, for want of a better term – something you’ll notice in the fantastic release video below:
Murky Slicks and Changes of Angle
If the above is a good example of harnessing the environmental factors to place more of the odds on your favour, then my client Ryan’s bass of 62cm and 66cm (see slideshow below) during the same session provides two additional snippets of how outright ‘watercraft’ can ‘aid the angler, and fool the fish’ as it were…
The 62cm beauty below purely and relatively simply came about because I’d asked Ryan to target a specific section of water that was being ‘stirred’ by the current. Here, it was being diverted and ‘slicking’ off of a section of mudflat to create zone of turbid water that I reasoned, through experience, that a bass would prefer to patrol into given the overall brightness that that afternoon.
That a large bass will prefer the murkier water to patrol and prowl within over the clearer water that may only be a matter of centimetres adjacent is something that has become second nature for me to target over the past few years.
Alongside ‘Where’ you are placing these lures, something else to add into the equation is the view of it that you enable what I regular term as ‘positioning’ bass. These are fish that you cannot easily observe because they are tucked in tight to the weedy margins, but that you need to assume are sat there, waiting for something to get a little too close – be it a crab or fish imitation.
So, if you have been casting to a tasty looking area, where you suspect a bass could be holed up and nothing comes of it, attempt to cast the lure to the same spot, but then retrieve it along a slightly different trajectory instead – this is what I asked Ryan to do, and you could definitely say it came up trumps by way of his new PB also at 66cm.
Books by Marc Cowling
(Including my LATEST RELEASE: The Lure of The Bass – The Revised Edition)
To learn ‘How to catch bass on lures‘ within all of the environments, circumstances, and conditions in which you will encounter this spellbinding species, my three books will undoubtedly help and are available to purchase.
For stock levels, purchasing options (BACS or PayPal) and for more information in regard to the specific contents of each of my respective publications, you can follow the links to my sister website (Marc Cowling – Bass Lure Fishing) below:
The Lure of The Bass – The Revised Edition
Bass Lure Fishing – A Guide’s Perspective (Volume 1)
Bass Lure Fishing – A Guide’s Perspective (Volume 2)
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