The biggest bass I have seen this year. So far…………….

It ain’t over yet down here, indeed if we get the conditions I seriously fancy it to fish well right into January around where I live - but this fine bass caught by my friend Mark Quinton is the biggest bass I have seen caught so far this year. Weighed at 10lb 5oz and measured at 75cms long, I count myself lucky to get to see another double figure bass caught from the shore, and the fact that I was standing pretty close to Mark when he hooked this train is something I will never forget. Big bass like this are a rarity from the shore as we all know, and although I might use the word awesome a touch too much (great song!), in my mind it’s just about the best word to describe a fish of a lifetime like this……………….

You know how I feel about bass and their relative power when compared to other fish around the world, but I saw exactly how Mark’s bass hit and it really was quite something. We were fishing a fast run of current and I reckon the water is about 30’ or so deep. Mark cast his lure up the current and literally the moment it hit the bottom this big bass slammed into him and charged off. We’re obviously not talking about coming anywhere close to emptying his reel because there ain’t a (sea) bass out there which with at least a bit of half-hearted pressure from us is going to take very much line, but Mark’s bass did scream off a bit on a decent drag setting and it was great to see. There isn’t much I can do while he’s subduing a fish like this other than be ready with my net which I carry when I am wading especially, and I hope that most anglers would do exactly the same as me and stop fishing when a fish like this is hooked - firstly to keep your lure the hell out of the way of what’s going on, and secondly to be of assistance in landing a good fish if required. It was so good to see Mark’s bass slip into my net - carried as I described using this clever clip in this blog post here - and we then got on with weighing and measuring this fine fish. Please note that at no point was the bass ever out of the water for more than a few seconds, and that includes the photos I shot which you will notice are with Mark always in the water with the fish.

A huge well done to Mark for catching another double figure bass from the shore, and from my point of view I was over the moon to be there when a mate catches a fish like this. I was in Ireland when Mark landed his first 10lb+ bass from the shore a few years ago and I have always felt a bit gutted that I wasn’t there to see it and nail the photos - but this time I was. The bass swam off strongly in some fairly coloured water which is mainly down to such big tides rather than lots of freshwater in the system, and I truly love times like these when you or a mate has successfully landed a really good fish and you can grin away like a couple of loons. How many times does fishing beat us up but just sometimes it all goes right?

And from a working in fishing point of view, I am absolutely over the moon that Mark’s 10lb 5oz bass was caught on some items of fishing tackle which didn’t exist a while ago and which I have had a serious hand in bringing to market. All the work I am doing with Savage Gear revolves around a lot of testing and development time, so whilst I know that the gear we continue to launch works and catches fish, it’s one hell of a thrill to actually see other anglers using the gear I have worked so closely on - and then landing a bass like this. Mark doesn’t work in fishing and he quite rightly chooses to fish with exactly what fishing tackle he wants to in order to catch fish.

Because of where we were fishing we tend to need something with a bit of weight to successfully bump the bottom. I was almost beside myself with a sense of pride at Mark catching this 10lb 5oz bass on one of our new Savage Gear Sandeel V2 Weedless lures in the killer Lemon Back colour, but I was also a touch surprised that he was able to successfully bump the bottom in such a run of current with the smaller 11.5cm/22g Sandeel V2 Weedless as opposed to the larger and heavier 13cm/31g version which I was using myself. Mark could have been using a number of lures which could have been fished in a similar way, but he chose to clip on a Lemon Back Sandeel V2 Weedless lure and he landed his second double figure bass from the shore on it.

Did I mention how proud I felt? Almost from day one of working with Savage Gear we were talking about making a proper, proper weedless version of the famous Savage Gear Sandeel which is a lure I came to somewhat later than many other anglers, and from about day two I was putting forward my thoughts that if we were going to do it, we needed to make the design of the jig head for the weedless version “bumpable”. I know how well it works via a lot of testing, and Mark’s fine bass was like the icing on the cake for me. I only realised after our excitement had died down a bit and we carried on fishing that Mark was also fishing with the Savage Gear SGS8 9’2’’ 9-42g lure rod which is the exact rod I find myself fishing with the most when I’m not testing out new rods which we might or might not be working on. Mark’s the lad who landed this bass of a lifetime and he is quite rightly over the frigging moon. I didn’t catch this bass of a lifetime but for a bunch of reasons I am over the frigging moon as well. I can’t understand why any decent human being could ever be remotely jealous of a mate who catches a fish like this, but for the reasons described I am even more pleased about the whole thing than I would usually be - which means that I am literally hopping up and down with joy! Roll on the rest of the year and please weather gods can we have some tasty conditions………....

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