I love it when one of the really good guys in fishing lands their fish of a lifetime - well done Marc Cowling!

I don’t believe that any angler deserves a particular fish, not when we’re trying to outwit nature and surely the way that nature works means that it simply doesn’t bend to our human sentiment - but I do feel that from time to time fishing kinda goes our way and perhaps a certain fish or moment was meant to be. I know Marc Cowling, I have a huge amount of respect for how he goes about his fishing and guiding work in south Devon, to me he is one of the really good guys in fishing, and I am over the frigging moon that he has gone and landed his bass of a lifetime. As a person who knows a lot of anglers and fishing industry people all around the world - of course I like some anglers or experts more than others - damn right it makes me so happy when somebody who puts so much back into the sport of fishing achieves a dream. From Marc’s Facebook page on Saturday morning:

“83cm - 12lb 2oz! PB obliterated and my first 'lure-caught' double! To say I am chuffed with what is, without a doubt, my fish of a lifetime is the understatement of the century as it's still sinking in as I write this. To have tracked down, hooked into, landed and released such a magnificent creature was and truly is an honour. The successful lure? What else, but the brilliant Savage Gear Gravity Stick Paddletail in white, under a spectacularly bright Moon, within a fast-running tide. After a heart-stopping take only 7m off the rod tip, I couldn't and didn't give her the opportunity to get her head down and run - the power was insane, but the Major Craft Seabass Custom (the 8’8’’ 7-35g version) coped superbly - although the Shimano Vanquish (spinning reel) is a little worse for the experience! Phew, was I happy to get this one ashore!!! I will write a blog post detailing what is, of course, one of my greatest achievements in life, let alone fishing, as soon as my hands stop shaking from the excitement!”

I know how hard Marc works at his fishing and his bass guiding business, indeed I would suggest that you can recognise an angler with a true passion/obsession for fishing when they work in fishing AND still want to go out fishing as much as possible. Any 10lb+ bass from the shore on a lure is a fish of a lifetime for any bass angler, but Marc has smashed it out of the park with this donkey of 12lb 2oz, and I genuinely mean it when I say that it could not have happened to a nicer guy. When we spoke on the morning after he caught this bass he was barely coherent with the adrenaline still very obviously coursing through his veins! I did think about asking him exactly where he caught it in case he might slip up because he was still so excited, but my conscience got the better of me and I didn’t. Or did I and Marc didn’t realise what he said because he was still in that fish of a lifetime fug?! Bad, bad me!

From my own angler point of view I am made up for Marc catching this fine fish, and also that bass like this are still around. I tend to love this time of year here in the south west for bass fishing, but I would argue that it’s even more conditions dependent than other seasons because of what sort of weather we so often get but definitely aren’t at the moment. I do always wonder whether a period of decent weather later in the year means that the weather gods are ganging up to send us down some sort of weather armageddon sometime soon………..

And from my working in fishing point of view I am seriously made up that an angler like Marc chose to clip on one of the Savage Gear Gravity Stick Paddletails - and then caught this bass of a lifetime on it. I got to make THE soft plastics I want to go bass fishing with with these Gravity Stick lures, but you never quite know whether other anglers will switch onto them and fish with them as readily as I do. In some respects it’s the Pulsetail from the Gravity Stick range that perhaps floats my boat the most, but in reality I can’t get away from the simple fact that my biggest bass and now Marc’s biggest bass have come on the Paddetail - and in the simple white colour as well, which as you can probably guess was THE first colour I asked for when we first started sampling these lures a while ago now. A huge well done Mac for catching this fine fish. Wow.

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