Winter bass aren’t easy, so it’s always extra special when you do see one………..

When I am running I often find myself thinking about fishing - obviously - and one question I keep returning to is just what it is about fishing which most floats my boat. Any of us here could come up with a number of different answers, and whilst the obvious one might be the actual fish themselves, right up there for me are the people. I absolutely love getting to spend time with good anglers who happen to be intelligent, forward-thinking, forthcoming, welcoming, and a buzz to be around…………….

Into that category I put Marc Cowling who kindly allowed me to rip his blog post off the other day! We don’t get together enough for a bit of fishing, but when we do it’s always a blast and I enjoy every single second of it. Marc gave me a shout the other day and suggested I might like to get myself up to him for a winter bass fishing session if at all possible. I don’t need much encouragement to catch up with Marc, so into my Epic Berlingo went some lure fishing gear and camera gear and off across the border I went. Passport obviously required.

We talked a lot about this whole creature bait thing that you might have read about on Monday’s blog post, and we also fished with them for a couple of hours in some likely looking water. We didn’t hook anything, but it’s always a good jolt of confidence to chat to and fish with somebody who has incorporated these tactics into their own bass fishing and caught fish doing so. Neither of us come from a freshwater lure fishing background at all, so we did have a bit of a giggle about the whole “ownership” side of fishing which I will never understand or like.

So we put the world to rights for a couple of hours and then moved to another spot which was going to be more about fishing soft plastics in a bit of current. I feel very confident fishing like this, but the place was new to me and I have to be led by Marc and what he knows - which you might have guessed is a hell of a lot about bass fishing! When there was cloud cover, Marc was fishing with a lure I remember using over in Ireland a good few years ago now, the rather lovely Bait Breath TT Shad in the 4.8’’ size - and this is what nailed the one winter bass of the session, as per the photos here.

You can see how much this fat fish wanted the lure, and I also note how Marc deliberately went for a darker colour to his lure when we had cloud cover. Bass in the depths of a UK winter are never remotely easy to come by, so to see this fine fish swimming off after a few photos was fantastic.

I also got to have a few chucks with Marc’s new lure rod which I believe should be hitting the shops in spring. It’s a customised version of that stunning Major Craft Seabass Custom 882M 7-35g and it will be called the Major Craft Seabass Custom Marc Cowling Edition 88ML (8’8’’ long and rated 6-32g, note the ML code as opposed to the M code on the original rod). My understanding is that this rod will not be a limited edition model so there should be good stocks of them, and because I am so weak I am doing my best to forget that I ever picked this new rod up! Damn it felt good, and I know how happy Marc is with it for the bulk of his own bass fishing - which increasingly includes working crab imitations like that MegaBass Sleeper Craw around.

Anybody else as excited as I am about the England v India Test cricket which has started again this morning - just how awesome was that first Test? - and of course the Six Nations which begins at 8pm tonight with just about the most epic match possible. I can’t call Ireland v France, but I fully expect it to be an epic game. Ever so slightly nervous about England v Italy! You all have a good weekend, catch you next week.

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