Spring is here......

• The sun us beaming down today and it actually feels properly warm for the first time this year - spring is here at last. But the forecast is giving a vicious little cold snap this weekend, just to remind us not to pack away the fleeces just yet. If nothing else, at least we have a good amount of variety to the weather here in the UK. And don't we love talking about it !!

• I photographed a good looking feature up on Wimbleball reservoir with Nick Hart yesterday, but for the first half of the day we were wrapped up in every bit of clothing we had. Grey skies and a really cold wind might not be that great for photos, but it was fantastic for the fishing, and in quick succession Nick nailed three nice rainbow trout on fast sinking lines fished into deep water close to the bank.

• In the photo above I have deliberately worked on framing Nick against a backdrop of trees and hills - when the sky is really grey, I do all I can to not have to put the angler against all that grey, as to me it tends to look plain horrible. Making fishing look good is easy when the sun is out, but making it look as good as you can when the light is against you is a proper challenge. And I love it. When conditions are like this, I tend to use one of my Canon 70-200m lenses (either the f4L or or the f2.8L) and frame pretty tight to get away from the "dirty" look of a dark grey sky. Granted, it might cut your range of shots down a bit, but if you are wearing chest waders and are prepared to get into the water and photograph low down, you can actually make things look really good. As anybody who knows me will attest to, I tend to live in chest waders for the bulk of my work and fishing, and my Hardy EWS waders and boots are going just great. OK, so I don't actually wear chest waders when I am at my desk........

• Nick is playing one of his rainbow trout above, on a Hardy Demon rod and reel, a setup that he is raving about. Nothing ever beats buying your fishing gear from a place where you can get proper advice from people who actually use the gear themselves. For that reason I can wholeheartedly recommend that you click here to buy your fly fishing gear.

• Talking of Hardy & Greys, check out the new edition of Fin & Fly here, and specifically a feature of mine on wild brown trout. Click here to see it. Few fish in the world are as stunning as a wild brown. You can see a load more fly fishing photographs from around the world by either looking here on my website, or by clicking here.

• And just as the sun broke through yesterday and Wimbleball lit up, the fish went off the feed and resolutely refused to play ball any more. Still, at least it allowed me to get my wide angle lens on and shoot some more scenic orientated material. I want big blue skies for my photos, yet the fisherman wants it overcast for the fishing.