Book Review: Bass Lure Fishing – A Guide’s Perspective – Volume One by Marc Cowling
After Marc’s last book, ‘The Lure of The Bass’, this latest book promised to be different.
The previous book was a ‘How To Manual’ type of book. This book was going to be almost a ‘Confessions of a Bass Lure Guide’.
The lure and fishing tackle company Storm had a slogan on their lure boxes; ‘Think like a fish no matter how weird it gets’. It was rather apt that this slogan kept popping back into my head whilst reading Marc’s book, because by my reckoning, Marc Cowling must be hallucinating regularly.
Marc’s track record of consistent bass catches, and with some real belters amongst them too, puts him right up there, as someone that’s doing something right, and he is really worth listening too.
The book partially, is accounts of various fishing trips that Marc has been on with his clients. But that’s not all. The story starts with Marc sussing out the marks that he fishes to the nth degree. He carries out reconnaissance missions on all his marks, at all stages of the tides, night and day, and on the various stages of the lunar cycle. He goes through the whole process in his book, leaving you pondering your own tactics.
There are several accounts of Marc’s own fishing trips. He puts many hours in, not only trying to catch bass, but testing and designing his own brand needle lures. He also determines what hard lures, or soft plastics work best on each specific mark, so that if you are his client, then he can give you the best advice, of what type of ‘bait’ to use at every mark that he frequents, and at every state of tide.
And then there are the parts of the book were he really does think like a fish. Anticipating their every move in the tide cycle at each mark.
Personally, I have fished marks that produce bass one day, and the next tide twenty four hours and forty eight minutes later, I catch nothing. Marc would know the reason why this is. In reality, the tide is slightly smaller, so the bass haven’t ventured into this particular gulley, but they are in the gulley fifty yards away. That’s the kind of information that he knows, and passes on in his book.
Marc has a chapter dedicated to the twelve month cycle, and gives us his notes on the biotic factors, and abiotic factors, with comments on both. These are interesting facts that determine not only his lure choice, but also the locations that he fishes.
When he blanks, he analyses the session; from the tide height, temperatures, lunar cycle and more. And then he fishes the mark again, when he thinks that he has re-evaluated things correctly.
This three hundred and four page book, gives the bass angler so many ideas, and thought provoking moments, that I’m sure like me, you will have many light bulb moments.
I can’t wait to get my hands on volume two.
Author: Nigel Fairclough
If you want to know more about the contents of this book, or are interested in purchasing a copy, please have a look at Marc’s overview and details on his website.
