Front cover

• I just received the latest issue of Sea Angler magazine in the post with a shot of mine on the front cover - it is a photo of Graham Hill over in south east Ireland with a nice bass from a shoot we did last autumn. It is always a kick to get a cover, especially with a photo of such a nice guy. I would not be fishing that part of the world if Graham had not contacted me out of the blue a few years ago now, so I am eternally grateful to the man.

• Check out the feature that goes with this front cover on pages 112, 113, 114, 115 and 116 - I really like the DPS shot they have used that covers 112/113. I like to shoot off-angles when the light and situation enables me to, and it is great when a designer picks up on it and uses the shot. Guess how many other anglers were about when we shot that feature ? Yes, you've guessed it - none, nada, squat, zero.

• For fear of moaning any more about the #':*"^&! weather, guess what ? It's raining and blowing hard outside yet again. Seriously, come on, surely we can't be having a summer like last year's ? On a more positive note, I reckon we are going to get a cracking late summer/autumn and the bass will be crawling up the line...............(somebody wake me up please, I'm dreaming again).

• I spoke to Danny Parkins yesterday and he told me about some nice bass he and his dad caught on lures on Sunday morning, when they had rather different sea conditions to the ones I faced. They also caught a scary amount of decent wrasse, with most going over the 4lb mark, and topping out at 7lbs !! Nice one guys, please can I come ? That is some fantastic fishing, especially considering the wrasse were all caught on heavy spinning rods.

• My mate Cato Bekkevold over in Norway sent me a link to some insane photos of a swordfish that was seen swimming in shallow water close to Oslo the other day, and he tells me that they are seen fairly regularly in the summer months. See here for one of the photos. That is far out.

• Scroll down the page of this Norwegian fishing forum here and you will see some scary photos of Cato in hospital the other day with a dirty great pike treble stuck in his hand !! I seriously hope that this does not affect his awesome drumming, for his band Enslaved are heading off at the weekend to film a video for one of the tracks off their forthcoming album. It will be called "The Watcher" and it will be in shops from 29th September. You can expect a full review on this blog of course. Now it is a case of counting down the days until the monster metal release...........

• It is great to be at home for a while, seeing my family and catching up on all the stuff I need to do, and on Thursday I am heading off for a week with my family, away from computers, fishing talk and the phone. We are off down to the Isle of Wight, and it is such fun to mess around on the beach with my girls and take my dog for long walks. Then things get seriously hectic again......

• Later this month I am going to head across to Jersey to do some bass photography from the boats, and then in early September I am off to the east coast of Canada to photograph Atlantic salmon fishing with Pete McLeod of Aardvark McLeod. I then head straight across to Ireland again to photograph some more bass fishing, back home for about a week, and then it's off down to South Africa to photograph some rock and surf fishing, plus yellowfish on the Vaal river with the guys from FlyCastaway. Phew !! I am not sure how life gets so hectic, but I am just happy to be working and making a living in fishing.