Out at sea

• Above is the intro page of the May edition of the Hardy and Greys online magazine, Fin & Fly - it is a photo of mine from Rost in Norway. I deliberately used the amazing clouds to fill the frame and allow plenty of room for this kind of use. Check my latest Fin & Fly feature out here. What a place Rost and the surrounding waters are, and the fishing is going off big time right now. I have heard that they are catching lots of big halibut, including some 200lb plus monsters, plus stacks of big cod and coalfish. Yes, this area costs more than the cheaper "package-style" pirking for cod areas further up north, but you get what you pay for - the areas around Rost in my mind offer some of the best boat fishing in Europe. Check here for the best guiding operation there is up there, and the guys come extremely highly recommended by me.

• I have actually just heard that Per Jonasson, the guide who worked with us up there last summer for the big coalfish on the fly, has put one of his clients onto a new world record halibut, see here for full details. That is some fish !! I told you these guys were good. You get what you pay for in fishing. See my photos from that trip last year here.

• My mate Malcolm Jones rang me yesterday to tell me all about the great boat fishing he has been putting his customers over out of my home port of Plymouth. The recent good weather has given them a real boost, and they have been smashing good numbers of big pollack to about 18lbs on live launce. This is one of favourite forms of fishing, for you can scale right down and really have a blast with them when they crash dive. I reckon this is one situation when the US style gear I talked about the other day would work well (scroll down the blog). I see no reason why a decent spinning reel and a good spinning rod would not work well. I have landed coalfish to 35lbs on this kind of gear over in Norway, plus big cod, so of course it will work well here. My rod of choice for this is the stunning Greys Missionary 6 30-100g spinning rod.

• Malcolm's boat is called Sea Angler II, and he is one of the best charter skippers around, plus a thoroughly nice guy into the bargain. A day's fishing with Malcolm is always a serious pleasure, so get in touch here. He also makes a blinding cup of tea or coffee !!

• I am not heading over to Norway to photograph the pike fishing, for my contact has just told me that the weather has suddenly turned and messed their fishing up, so I guess it will be next year. A real shame as I so wanted to see this fishing. My contact over there is a mad keen angler with a world of experience, and he also happens to be the drummer for one of Norway's best extreme metal bands, Enslaved. Check out some tracks here. This is one seriously awesome band, and I can't wait to hear their new album due out later this year. I would never have come across places like Rost if it was not for Cato Bekkevold - how perfect is that ? A proper mix of fishing and metal. A seriously nice guy, an awesomely talented drummer, and a complete fishing junkie. I photographed Enslaved a while ago when they were playing a gig in London, shooting for Metal Hammer magazine - they blew the other bands off the stage. Scroll to the bottom of this page to see them in action, with some photos of Cato in action as well. Now if this isn't a cool way to slip extreme metal into a fishing blog then I don't know what is !! You have to give me some credit here.......