Daft sea conditions - more like winter

• Yesterday saw some of the roughest sea conditions I have seen for a long time, more winter than summer. I know we Brits like to bang on about the weather, but when you have the kind of "summer" we are having at the moment, you would understand where we are coming from. The beaches were blown out here yesterday - Constantine was a seething mass of white water and foam, so my chances of plugging have been zero. I could have made a proper effort and sneaked over to the south coast to find some calmer water, but I would rather spend some time with the family and leave the serious bassing for back home and Ireland in a couple of weeks (bring it on !!). If the conditions had been better, I would have done as much as possible - all the gear is with me here, including these stunning looking new plugs I want to try out.

• I am heading back to Plymouth today, but the forecast for the next few days is still for strong onshore winds and a mix of sunshine and showers (but more showers I believe), so I have a nasty feeling that I am going to get blown out on the south Devon coast as well. There were a few decent bass landed on baits around Plymouth recently, including one of over 11lbs, so there are a few serious fish around it seems. But general reports are that bassing has been a bit slow - is it because the sea is taking so long to warm up this year ? I reckon we could be in for a very good late summer and autumn on the bass. Guess I had better look at booking myself another Irish trip for September or October !! (all work of course.........)

• The guy I went pike fishing with a while ago (Danny Parkins, a seriously good angler) has got hold of me to tell me about some epic fishing for chub he has been having on lures, around his home town of Tiverton. Danny had a chub of just under 7lbs the other day, and that is some fish. I am going to have to see some of this fantastic fishing - he has really made me think about getting into a bit of winter pike fishing later on in the year, so I hope to be able to do a bit of that when time allows.