Henry Gilbey - the world of fishing

This blog has now moved to my new website

2009-06-11T06:18:00.002+01:00

From now on, my blog will be running on my new website that you can find here - all the old posts and photos are all there as well, so I look forward to seeing you on the new one. Onwards and upwards.......

If it helps, the new blog can be found here.

A few thoughts about the French bass trip.....

2009-06-10T13:52:00.003+01:00

Graham and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the French bass guys who went so far out of their way to help us over on the stunning island of Belle Ile. Yannick from Ultimate Fishing and his good friend Bruno are incredibly talented bass fishermen and I am sure we have made some friends for life - it was a blast to fish, photograph and spend time with them in a little bit of bass heaven over in France. I got some very cool photos, and when time allows I will get some more up here - one of the afternoons we fished was just about as good as it gets for photographing fishing I reckon.

OK, so the weather was not great when we there, indeed the amount of rain was staggering, but I will be back there someday soon. Thinking about autumn either this year or next year, depending on time and commitments. When the fishing is good the reports are of some quite spectacular bass fishing, with plenty of big fish coming to a variety of different methods and locations - quiet bays, treacherous cliffs, rolling surf, you name it, Belle Ile I reckon offers everything that a bass angler could possibly want. The general shore fishing itself can be fantastic.

One of the aspects of the trip that I enjoyed the most was seeing the French guys fishing, and the way in which they are incorporating these ultra-modern, light tackle methods into it all. Of course you can nail bass on a good old fashioned spinner for the rest of your days, but these newer hard and soft lures enable you to fish over so much more ground in so many different and effective ways. I know I am guilty of asking a lot of questions, but the thing is that I simply want to learn more about fishing - and not just because I work as a fishing journalist. This sport fascinates me, and I simply can not stand sitting still and not advancing myself. I will begin posting plenty of bits and pieces I learnt out there when I have a little more time........

It was just so easy to get to Belle Ile, so I would implore any of you thinking of heading out there to get on to Brittany Ferries and take yourself over there with your car stashed full of fishing gear. But the problem is that there is a small but very full tackle shop on Belle Ile that just happens to be jammed full of awesome bass fishing gear - as I said a few weeks back, I am weak man when it comes to this kind of fishing tackle. The wallet's on lock down for a bit now !!

Graham and I were looking through a load of French fishing magazines and it was amazing to see the number of times that photos of anglers using red Tenryu rods were appearing all over the place. The more I use these rods, the more I want to get more of them !! Once you have used a rod that has been very specifically designed to do certain jobs by anglers who really know their stuff then there is no turning back. I know that I talk these rods up a lot, but in my view they are that good that they deserve it - there are loads of other really good rods for bass fishing out there, often at far better prices, but the red ones are off the scale in my book. And in case you were wondering, no, I do not work for Tenryu. I say it as I see it. Talk to these red rod junkies here if the idea of getting one floats your boat. Bruno was using a brand new red Tenryu rod for some of his soft plastic bass fishing and it was one of the most awesome bits of kit I have ever picked up. Help !!

My new website is very close to going live - when this happens, this blog is going to move there, but of course I will let you know right here what is going on etc. It should be fairly seamless to go from one to the other, so when it's up and running I hope to see you there, and of course I would welcome all thoughts and comments. Not long now.

I thought I had learnt loads at Nantes.....

2009-06-08T14:30:00.003+01:00

We have had some pretty "interesting" weather out here on Belle Ile - rain like I have rarely seen it this morning, and seriously rough seas yesterday. When I have processed the photos I will put some up here when I get back home - talk about "extreme fishing" !!!

The fishing has been up and down, but we have spent a lot of time looking around, trying different marks, and learning a whole load about how to target bass. We have caught plenty of bass, but no real size so far. The bass show at Nantes in February blew my mind, but on this trip Graham and I have got to see exactly how these switched on French bass anglers are actually fishing with all the different hard and soft lures - the why, where and how so to speak. Honestly, this fishing is a different world - nothing turns me on in fishing as much as learning more and more, and this modern bass fishing that the guys out here are involved in is fascinating. And I thought I knew a tiny bit about how to rig and fish a MegaBass XLayer for example - I ain't got a clue !!!!

Belle Ile is a kind of bass fishing heaven - the fishing might have been up and down for us so far (there is always this evening...), but the fish they catch out there when it is firing is insane. One of the French lads was telling me about a particular lure he uses (and yes, before you ask, I have bought one !!) that took three 10lb plus bass in consecutive casts off a rock mark out here. When it's on, it's on big time. The potential here is scary, and not only for bass - the "general" shore fishing is off the scale - I have heard of 9lb plus wrasse, 45lb plus conger eels, huge sole, loads of bream, etc. I will be back out here as soon as possible.

The French anglers have been incredibly kind to us, indeed they are some of the most talented fishermen I have come across in a long time. The levels to which they have taken lure fishing for bass to are extraordinary, and even Graham has admitted that his mind has been completely blown to pieces by some of the stuff they are using. Over time I will try to post bits and pieces about the kinds of things we have learnt out here. Credit where credit is due - these guys are the real deal. Back to the UK tomorrow, off to try and smash a few more fish. One of the guys we are fishing with was torn to pieces this morning by a proper bass.....

Like leading a horse to water......

2009-06-06T11:13:00.004+01:00

A seriously easy journey to get to Belle Ile, and sharing a cabin on the ferry with Graham was pretty good as well - it's amazing what a sleeping pill and ear plugs can do !! The weather was roasting when we arrived, so we were taken out on a boat for a few hours by Yannick Cordier (the boss of Ultimate Fishing) and a friend of his. I nailed my first ever French bass (only small) on a new lure I got hold of the other day, a Maria Fake Baits. (strange name) Seems to work nicely, a bit deeper than the Maria Chase BW. We also caught a load of big garfish on lures. But this was only a little warm up....

Excuse the order of the photos because they are not sequential. First thing Friday morning we were on the rocks with Yannick, and there was a little bit of life to the sea which there had not been when we arrived. I give Graham huge credit, for within ten minutes he was calling me on the radio (we carry them for helping with photography) to say he was into a bass. Like leading a horse to water - Yannick had brought us to a big stretch of coastline and said fire away, and Graham had looked around, sniffed out a decent bit of ground, and nailed the fish. I think he had eight bass on the trot, nothing above about 3lbs, but all very feisty and in great condition. The lure was non other than the Tackle House Feed Shallow in a white colour. Yannick nailed a few bass on one of his favourite bass lures, a Duo Tide Minnow Slim (the 125mm size I think, need to check), but even he was pretty blown away by Mr. Hill smashing all those fish on the Feed Shallow. I charged around taking photos and fished when I could, so it's no shock to hear I caught no bass yesterday morning - but I got some cool shots. Needs must.....

We searched hard for some more bass yesterday, but the weather went completely still and lifeless on us. Just when you want a bit of wind and life and it all dies a death !! One very cool thing we have done was to get a guided tour around Ultimate Fishing with Yannick himself, and if you are at all interested in high-end Japanese lures and all those awesome red rods, then you will understand when I refer to that hour as close to being in heaven !!! Neither Graham or I have seen that many lures or red rods in one place, indeed we talked about bashing Yannick over the head and running off with the whole lot of them !! Honestly, the both of us walked around with our jaws on the floor. You should have seen the rows and rows of hard and soft lures, and the boxes and boxes of MegaBass XLayer soft plastic lures.

One thing that both Graham and noticed was the incredible number of Zenith Z-Claw lures that were on the shelves, plus thousands of Duo Tide Minnows. Both ranges are huge sellers for Ultimate Fishing, and obviously Mick in Jersey does loads of this gear right here. Yannick told us that the Z-Claw is about his biggest selling surface lure in France, indeed I saw him nail one yesterday afternoon (see the top photo). This lure looks stunning when it is worked slowly and very deliberately, and it creates a stunning wake effect that obviously turns the bass on big time. Another lure on the shopping list !!

Above is Graham putting the gears on another French bass. This island is stunning, seriously, I am going to bring my family out here for a holiday one of these days. It's like a little piece of pristine France - unspoilt, a stunning coastline, and miles and miles of bass fishing everywhere you look. We need the weather to behave a bit more for us, but Belle Ile is a little slice of heaven. Easy to get to, really friendly people, fantastic food, just plain awesome. Even in this brief time I can see how good this place can be for bass fishing, and they also have stacks of shore fishing for species like big sole, congers, wrasse, turbot, pollack, bream etc. Too much to do, too little time....

Above is the Ultimate boss man Yannick clambering down the rocks to get to a bass he nailed on one of his Duo Tide Minnow lures. It's interesting to see the way he works the lures, and once more I am learning a hell of a lot about these modern styles of lure fishing. But I think Yannick was really surprised to see Graham smashing the bass by cranking the Feed Shallow lure. I suppose we all learn off each other. As I said, like leading a horse to water......

We all went out before first light this morning, and the three of us nailed a bunch more bass - again, nothing big, but good fish on various lures. At the moment the rain is lashing down and we are waiting for the tide before we head back out again. Guess what was in Yannick's lure box this morning ? Graham and I spied a brand spanking new Feed Shallow in there, but I guess the boss can take his own lures off the shelves !! It's not a hugely popular lure in France, but obviously a bunch of us lot in the UK really like it for "our" bass fishing. Anyway, better get back to it. More reports when I get a chance.

Vive la France !!

2009-06-03T15:03:00.002+01:00

Just packing the last of my gear and clearing bits and pieces of work before heading over to France tonight - I reckon the crossing is going to be fantastic. Graham and I are going to be on the newest Brittany Ferries boat, the "Armorique", and if all goes according to plan we arrive in Roscoff around 8am tomorrow morning, French time.

Graham tells me that his spoken French is virtually non-existent, so I guess it's up to me to make ourselves understood. I would never dream of stitching him up though, the thought had never crossed my mind !! Steak ? Yeah, right, dream on. He ain't going to have a clue that he is ordering !!

I will update this blog as much as I can with our bass fishing exploits on Belle Ile, hopefully with a few fish in awesome locations. It's going to be a blast. Back to packing...

It's great when a brand new lure works.....

2009-06-02T08:24:00.004+01:00

OK, so the little bass that jumped onto my new lure last night was hardly going to set the world alight, but I do love it when a brand new lure comes out of the box and works straight away - on about my fifth cast in fact. I have heard increasing amounts about these newish Sebile lures for a while now, and I have taken fish overseas on their big poppers, but I have been itching to try out their more "bassy" looking lures over here. Yesterday evening was my chance to sneak a few casts in before heading off to France tomorrow night.

Just so you know, I have nothing to do with Sebile - I say it how I see it, but from the first chuck with this new lure I was transfixed. The action on it is outrageous. So what is this lure that you can see above and down the bottom ? To be very precise, it is the Sebile Koolie Minnow SL 118mm Suspending - it kind of looks ok in it's box, but take it out and fish with it and I reckon your jaw will hit the floor. Seriously, it's got an awesome action, and it also dives nice and shallow. It is a classic kind of medium to fast running shallow diving minnow, but it rolls and darts around to the max - you can feel the thing working really hard right through the rod. I haven't got another lure that works like it - not that an extreme action is the be all and end all, indeed I like the "subtler" lures a lot of the time. But this Sebile Koolie Minnow SL has got something. Andy took one look at my rod tip on the retrieve and asked what the hell the lure was............and there was me trying to keep it a little secret !! Shame on me.

The only place I know that you can get hold of these Sebile lures here in the UK at the moment is Veals Mail Order, contact them here. It is now on their website, click here to see. Make sure you ask for the SL model if you want the shallowest version of it - that's the one I have got here. I am going to give it a damned good thrashing out in France, so check back here for more reports. I am really excited about this lure, and what I really like is that it is not very expensive as far as premium bass lures go. You've guessed it - I could talk myself into anything when it comes to bass fishing.

This new Tenryu Super Mix 240 I am using is growing on me every single time I cast and fish with it - honestly, I know they are hardly cheap, but I can see where the money goes in these rods. Very different to out and out ultra-fast action plugging rods like the Red Dragon Express and the Rod Bar 270, but the Super Mix 240 is fast worming its way into my affections.

The were huge numbers of sandeels in the water last night, and the mullet were topping and surfing all over the place. Andy got hit by a bass that let go of his lure, but we reckon we might have cleaned up if we had been using live eel either on a rolling lead or under a bubble float. Perhaps we should have fished the soft plastics a bit harder. The water felt alive all the time we were there, and the light just got better and better. I am sure the photo above will tell lots of you where we were fishing, for it's hardly any great secret. The kind of evening when just being out on the water is about all you could ever need.

You can take a look at the Sebile range of lures right here (it's an online PDF catalogue, allow it some time to load). I can see a fair few things in there that I reckon might murder for our bass fishing, and I have just seen the new Veals Mail Order catalogue with a few of these Sebile lures in there. My wallet is going to be put behind locked doors........help !! Off to France tomorrow evening, and I can't wait.

Bass fishing in France - bring it on !!

2009-06-01T10:44:00.004+01:00

On Wednesday evening I am going to drive ten minutes down to Milbay Docks here in Plymouth and then jump aboard the overnight Brittany Ferries car ferry over to Roscoff, arriving in France on Thursday morning at around 8am. Along for the ride will be my mate Graham Hill, and the both of us are completely overexcited about going bass fishing in France - obviously this is a work trip for me and I will nail as many photos as I can for magazine features etc. but then again, I will also do a little bit of fishing as well !!

Our final destination is the small island of Belle Ile that lies just off the coast of Brittany - we will drive down to Quiberon and catch a quick ferry over to Belle Ile around Thursday lunchtime if all goes according to plan. Graham and I will be fishing and photographing with some of the Ultimate Fishing guys that I met at the bass show in Nantes, so it should be a very cool few days indeed. The chance to smash bass in new waters to the both of us is a dream come true, so I can see myself having to pop some sleeping pills on the overnight ferry to Roscoff as I will be far too excited to sleep otherwise. And perhaps Graham snores like a baboon !!

The Ultimate Fishing lot are the guys that design and test all these awesome red Tenryu rods, plus they import and design all manner of lures for all kinds of fish - and especially for bass. Mick over in Jersey sells loads of their gear right here. I will do all I can over in France to keep the blog updated, hopefully with some decent bass. I have got various new bits and pieces of gear to try over there............

If things go according to plan, I am also going to try and nail some proper photos of smashing big wrasse from the shore on soft plastics - I have seen a few photos of this being done on Belle Ile and the fish looked insane !! Imagine big blue skies, stunning fish, red rods and a swirling blue ocean. I told you I was overexcited about this trip.

I know Graham is also not sleeping properly because of this bass trip coming up, so I guess the pair of us are going to be in a right state of adrenaline fuelled bass fever by the time we actually step foot on Belle Ile. Take a look at the island on Google Earth and you will get an idea of how cool the place looks for bass fishing. Whatever happens with the fish and the fishing, you can't beat fishing new places, and I have plans to do a fair bit over in France and perhaps Spain over the next few years........

And how about the incredible weather we had over the weekend ? About as good as it can get down here I reckon - granted, perhaps not perfect for lure fishing, but I have to say that spending time on the beach with my girls is about as much fun as I could ever hope to have. We had a blast, and I am really pleased to be developing some proper panda eyes this year. Another great weekend, and long may this weather last. How come we managed to book the one rainy day last week to take the kids fishing ?

Appearing on Tight Lines (Sky Sports) tomorrow

2009-05-28T08:38:00.004+01:00

I'm heading off to the outskirts of sunny London tomorrow to appear on the popular Tight Lines TV programme that has been running on Sky Sports for years now. It's always a blast doing this show, and I really appreciate the guys for asking me to come back again - they have had me on there a number of times now, indeed I remember the days when Bruno Brooks was presenting it. I would guess that their viewing figures drop somewhat when I start rabbiting on !!

Keith Arthur has been the principal presenter for some time now, and believe me when I tell you the guy is a walking fishing encyclopedia. Honestly, I have to try and find ways of covering up my lack of knowledge on far too many angling subjects - the guy knows loads, and Keith and the team up at Sky Sports are always more than friendly.

The Tight Lines show goes out at 6.30pm tomorrow (Friday 29th May) on Sky Sports 2, and then it is being repeated at various times - see here for full details. I know that Keith has been out boat fishing for pollack recently and I believe they are showing some footage of it on the show. There will be absolutely no inferring from me that extreme shore fishing for big pollack (see here) is a much greater challenge than hauling them in off the boat.........??

Yesterday was one of the best days I have had for ages - I took my girls up to see Nick Hart and his brood, and we spent most of the day trout fishing at his stunning Exe Valley Fishery. I am so proud to be able to say that my two girls both caught their first fish on a rod and line, and my wife even managed to catch one as well. And she thought a yelp of "strike" from me meant that all she needed to do was to gently wind into the fish !!! But they all did fantastically well. My two girls both asked at breakfast this morning when they could go fishing again......

OK, so it never stopped monsooning it down for the whole time we all up there, but I was amazed that the kids got so into the whole thing that nobody really noticed. We had them dressed up in waterproofs and the fact that the trout were feeding big time really kept the little ones really buzzed up and excited (nice one Nick and Freddy !!). We were float fishing with bread for the trout - ok, so fly fishing might be the way, but I caught my first ever fish on a float when I was seven (a wild brown trout), and the main thing I wanted was for my girls to at least catch a few fish and have something visual to see when they got a bite. The first few times and at least I want them to be able to catch a few fish and see what is is like.

I think that Nick and I might have nailed a few as well - "just seeing what the rod is like" or some excuse like that. Rain or no rain, it was about as much fun as I can imagine having, and whatever happens in the future, at least my two girls have caught some fish and seen a couple being quickly dispatched and then cooked up for lunch. I want them to keep learning more and more about what goes into the food that appears on their plates as I believe it is very important. Huge thanks to Nick and his lot for having us up for the day. Next time we will do it when the sun is shining - Exe Valley Fishery beware !!

Let the blood spill........you need to check out the latest album from the Norwegian thrash metal band Blood Tsunami, called "Grand Feast for Vultures". How does this wonderful country keep on producing such an insane amount of world class metal ? From the very first riff on the CD it is apparent that this is proper, pure and awesome thrash metal, almost like the good old days !! Listen to a few tracks here and then add this one to your collection. Sleeveless t-shirts, denim jackets, long hair, stage diving, those were the days.............

The new red rod has been christened.......

2009-05-26T06:26:00.008+01:00

OK, so it might only have been a mackerel that hit my lure, but for a couple of seconds I thought it might have been a (very) small bass. Whatever the case, first light on Saturday morning was about as stunning as is possible - Andy and I were at the top of the cliffs just before 4.30am and there were rivers of mist pouring down the valleys, over the cliffs, and down to the sea. Completely breathtaking. Conditions looked about as good as you could get them, and I was that excited to get down to the mark that I slipped on the wet grass and ripped my waders on some loose rocks as we made our way down !! Andy thought I was going to slip over the edge of the cliff, but believe me when I say my main priority was to protect my brand new red rod. Not a scratch on it, phew !! AquaSure to the rescue for the waders.....

About my fifth cast and I hooked up with the mackerel - you don't know how badly I wanted it to be a little bass !! To be perfectly honest, the light was that impressive that a part of me wanted to put down the rod and just take photos all the time. I want to catch bass, but I also want to photograph good looking fishing. Everything about the conditions were perfect for photography and fishing, and you don't get that all the time. I realised that I had put a rip in my waders as I crouched down in the water to take the photo you can see above - that electric feeling as you line up the shot and then a general feeling of cold starts seeping around your lower half. Always a shock, but I've done it enough times to almost make it worth starting my own wader factory. The Greys G-Series are fantastic waders, but nothing is going to withstand somebody like me slipping over onto some sharp rocks. I ain't exactly petite !!

Andy caught a small pollack and a wrasse on his lures, plus he had a fish follow and then turn away - he could not say for sure that it was a bass because he didn't get a good enough look, but the behaviour of the fish suggests it probably was. I expected to see a few bass coming to our lures, but they weren't playing ball and I am not quite sure why. Perhaps it's just a case of the fish being slower to establish themselves along the stretch of coastline that we are fishing. Gotta keep at it though. It was the kind of morning when just being out there on the rocks as a new day started was reward enough. Got back home and went for a picnic to the beach with my wife, two girls and Jess. A perfect day. Then we went over to north Cornwall on Sunday to see some cousins of mine and we spent the whole day on the beach over there (picnic again) - not a cloud in the sky and properly warm. Nothing beats England when the sun is shining. What an awesome weekend.

A few early thoughts on the new red rod I bought, the Tenryu Super Mix 240 - we are generally not used to lure fishing with shorter rods over here, and I so nearly went for the Super Mix 270 because I am almost conditioned to think "longer is better" all the time. But I took on board all the advice that the French bass guys gave me at the Nantes show and went for the 240, roughly 8' long version. And I am so glad I did. What an awesome bit of kit.....

I reckon the Red Dragon Express that I have been using for over a year is a sort of ultimate, out and out shore fishing, hard lure bass weapon - very fast action, "crank lures hard and abuse fish" kind of thing. Of course you can use soft plastics with it, and you'll smash fish no problem, but it is more of a modern style plugging rod. A staggering fishing rod.

Then take the Tenryu Rod Bar 270 and 240 - now we are looking at bass rods that are more comfortable using both hard and soft plastic lures. Hugely powerful, very fast actions, but just that degree more give and feel in the tip section. I would guess that the Rod Bar 270 (roughly 9' long) is the most popular model among UK bass anglers who have switched on to these kinds of rods. I would happily fish with both these rods all of the time. I don't own them, but I have used them both. But remember, I am an angler, and I am weak willed when it comes to fishing tackle......

And then we come to my new weapon, the Super Mix 240 - a proper, purpose-designed crossover bass rod. This thing is like a wand to use, and I mean that in a hugely positive way. Very light, massively responsive, stacks of power from the mid section down through the butt, and a tip that does what you ask it do to. Increasing numbers of bass freaks I know are using this rod for all their boat fishing, but take it from me when I say it is simply awesome to use off the shore. We may traditionally be used to longer rods, (we're getting there though) but this thing chucks hard plastic lures like bullets - they fly out. It loves soft plastics big time, and I can really feel a whole load more with the extra sensitivity in the rod. I knew how well the rod was designed to give the extra degree of feel you need to really work soft plastics properly, and I am over the moon that it does exactly what I thought it would. Lots more playing required though......

But the new rod almost amazes me most when casting and fishing the more "conventional" hard plastic bass lures that a lot of us use the majority of the time. I really like the hard, fast action of the Red Dragon Express, but the Super Mix 240 just has something very different about it that is really starting to grow on me already. Like I said, it's like fishing with a wand. More info in due course......need to get out and fish with it some more, but I can already visualise the spots where this rod is going to slay over in Ireland. Emigration ? Who said that ?

New bass fishing guide in Ireland

2009-05-22T08:21:00.007+01:00

I am really pleased to be able to say that a good friend of mine over in south east Ireland is going to be offering his services as a professional bass fishing guide. Patrick Gallagher is one of the biggest bass and lure junkies I have ever had the pleasure to meet and fish with, indeed he has got it so bad he reckoned that the best way was to do what people like me do - to give it a go at working in fishing. Check out Patrick's blog right here - you'll find his email address there. Alternatively, use the good old fashioned telephone and give him a bell on 00353 877 403445 (from outside Ireland), or 087 740 3445 from within Ireland. Be warned though, the guy's enthusiasm and knowledge is completely infectious !! He is based in Waterford, and this is one of the best places to be for accessing the many miles of prime bass fishing there is over in Ireland.

Take it from me, Patrick is the real deal - he knows that bass-rich coastline seriously well, indeed he has got various spots up his sleeve that I have no idea about. He is a lure fishing fanatic, with a close eye on modern developments, and I know he will also be offering selected items of fishing tackle for sale (rods, lures etc.) that he uses himself. I keep getting emails from Patrick talking about lures that I had no idea about, and I tend to pride myself on being pretty up to date - he's got it bad, and I know he will put his lucky clients over stacks of good fish. He also sends me photos of bass marks that I just sit here and drool over like a loon. We are a strange bunch, but we love it !!

I have put a bunch of photos together of some stuff that I have shot over in Ireland, and most of the stuff you see there involves Patrick. See here for the gallery. He is great fun to fish with, and he is one of the blokes who first really got me interested in the modern ways of using soft plastics for bass fishing, indeed Graham and I watched Patrick one afternoon last year nail three 5lb bass in three chucks, all on a 4'' MegaBass XLayer fished on a small jig head. I seem to remember our jaws hitting the floor !!

Here's Patrick with another prime Irish bass that fell to a soft plastic. If you are thinking of heading over to south east Ireland and have no idea about where to go fishing, then do yourself the biggest favour possible and get hold of Patrick to guide you for some of the best fishing on earth. I know how hard he works at his own fishing, and you can bet your life he'll go the extra miles to ensure that his clients have the best time possible. I can't think of a better way to get introduced to this quite magical part of the world. The best thing that any travelling angler can do is to hire a guide.

Make sure to keep up to date with Patrick's bass blog - this is fast becoming a fantastically useful resource, and I know that when their current bass close season is over, (ends 15th June) you are going to see a bunch of outstanding fish up there. There's a bunch on there at the moment. I also have a sneaking suspicion that Patrick is as weak-willed as me and is going to give in a succumb to another new red rod - the Tenryu Super Mix 240 of course. You don't know how seriously I am looking forward to getting over to Ireland again. Patience, patience......

Are all fishermen as weak-willed as me ?

2009-05-21T07:00:00.002+01:00

Ever since the bass show in Nantes earlier this year (see here), I have been trying to resist purchasing a new red rod - the Tenryu Super Mix 240. Hell, I pride myself on being decisive and very strong-willed, but when it comes to fishing gear then I guess I am as weak as the next (fisher)man....

Yes, you've guessed it, I gave in. I capitulated. I broke down and made the call. Whatever way you want to look at, weakness prevailed and I purchased the new red rod. Nearly three months resisting the urge to get this bass weapon, in fact I reckon I have done pretty well to hold out for so long - isn't it amazing how us anglers can justify a new purchase in so many different ways ?

I could almost hear Mick giggling on the other end of the phone, in fact I have a sneaking suspicion that ever since he had seen my eyes glaze over at the Nantes bass show he had been holding a Super Mix 240 back for me in a secret corner of his shop, knowing full-well that it was only a matter of time until he got a call like this (I got the new red rod right here) :

"Mick, you know that red rod ? Well. I've been thinking, and I reckon I need one. OK, I've got the Red Dragon Express and we all know it's the ultimate hard plastic plugging rod, but I think I need to add a degree of finesse to my fishing." (OK, cue the laughter on the other end of the phone. Henry, finesse ? Told you I could justify it to myself.) "How about I dust off my wallet and get a Super Mix 240 ? What's that, you've got a few in stock ? That's amazing, how did you know ?" (Cue more giggling from the other end). Never take a fellow bass freak for granted, it's lethal.

I will post my findings on the new weapon up here in due course. It is what I remember it being when I was shown it at the bass show - purposefully designed to be a true crossover rod that copes properly with soft plastics, hard lures, and some light vertical jigging. It's mine now !! I may be weak when it comes to fishing gear, but I've got a new red rod to add to my collection of one. What a stunning bit of kit.

At least our weather is original.....

2009-05-18T11:21:00.002+01:00

......because that's about all I can say at the moment about the wind and rain we are getting. Just when you get a glimpse of warm weather, big blue skies and a summer to look forward to, this current garbage comes in and gives us all a proverbial slap in the face !! Never, ever take UK weather for granted - but then we all know that don't we ? The only thing keeping me sane is all that talk the Met Office has talked of a decent summer.

Out come the shorts a few weeks ago, the white(ish) legs get exposed to the first tantalisingly warm afternoons, the world seems great. OK, so the bass haven't exactly been queuing up to jump on my lures, but things are looking good for the year ahead. And then what the hell went and happened over the weekend ? And is still going on today ? At around 5am on Sunday morning it felt like the roof was going to blow off the house and the rain was never going to stop.

I was home alone over the weekend, and I had all kinds of plans to do a bit of work and spend a few hours fishing - guess what went right out of the window ? Yes, you've guessed it, the rods never came out. More cod conditions than anything else. Now come on weather, time to grow up and give us a bit of hope again. To think that last weekend I wore suncream for two days when we were on the Isles of Scilly.

But I did hear of a big, 25lb plus pike that came to a mate of the pike-mad Danny Parkins (see his own monster pike here) on Friday I believe - and on a surface lure !! Imagine seeing that crocodile coming at you. Awesome fishing, well done guys. Danny texted me to say he lost a couple of really big pike yesterday, and had a jack unceremoniously torn from his hooks by a somewhat larger fish. Predators eh ? Lure fishing gets the heart going big time.

My Irish friends are at the start of their month-long bass close season - it runs from 15th May - 15th June. At least the rubbish weather means they don't have to think what could have been. I do think the close season is a great move, but I would imagine that when tides and conditions are good, it must be tough to not be able to go.

Ten years ago today......

2009-05-15T09:56:00.005+01:00

.....I got married. Not bad eh ? Best thing I ever did, and my wife is an awesome girl who for some strange reason seems to want to stick around. I think that a part of her still thinks I am a bit mad (fishing, metal, rugby, cricket, golf etc.), but luckily the majority of her thinks I am kind of ok.

OK, so I joke a bit, but in all seriousness, I could not do what I do without her support. She has even given me two perfect daughters (most of the time they are great, kids eh ?) who have turned my life upside down and made me realise what things are really important, and what are not. We have been together nearly seventeen years now. That is nearly half my life, and I could not be more over the moon about it. I knew I would marry her the moment we got together, and luckily she said yes when I asked her to. Phew !!

I suppose a fair few people see what I do in fishing, but I simply could not do what I do without the full support of my wife in everything that goes on. She knows how I feel, and for seventeen years I have been doing my very best to get her to appreciate and then love proper music - extreme metal of course. Seventeen years of trying to get her to see the finer points of true Norwegian black metal for example, or the subtle differences say between death metal from Sweden and the USA. Has she given in and come over to the darkside ? Has she hell !! You gotta give her some credit for holding out that long. But I am persistent.....

Here are a couple of photos of the coastline out on St. Mary's in the Isles of Scilly - where my wife and I went for a few days last weekend, and I of course managed to fit in a bit of fishing with my mate Del. I spoke to him yesterday and the poor bloke is suffering from a spot of man-flu (us blokes always get it worse than women), but he perked up a bit when he was discussing those howling east winds that they had been having were driving loads of weed into his favourite mullet bay. Rotting weed, plenty of maggots, big mullet. Fishing heaven.

Catalogue front cover

2009-05-13T06:09:00.003+01:00

I was really pleased to find out that I have got the cover of the new bass fishing catalogue from Veals Mail Order - I believe it is going to be coming out with the next issue of Sea Angler that is out in a month's time, so make sure to check it out. I have always had a lot of time for the people at Veals Mail Order and I really respect the way that they have identified a growing market in bass fishing and are doing their absolute best to offer a stack of different products at various price points.

Lures, lures, and more lures !! Are we all mad ? It's Veals who do those killer Maria Chase bass lures and the awesome Varivas braid that I use all the time. There are some really good tackle shops and mail order/internet companies out there now who are really getting into what I would term "modern bass fishing", and it gives punters like you and me a far wider choice of bits and pieces to buy.

There are far too many spinning reels out there to choose from, but I still reckon anybody is going to have to a long way to find better models than the Shimano ones. I noticed that my mate Del still has a couple of the classic 5000 model Baitrunners on his mullet rods over in the Isles of Scilly - loads of guys I know use these reels all the time, indeed I have a couple here as well that I would never part with. An angler and his gear eh ?

My wife and I got back from the Isles of Scilly early Monday evening - they cancelled the boat due to strong winds (didn't seem as bad as the winds we had on the journey over), so they flew us back to Cornwall on the Skybus. My wife was mightily relieved as she did not want to go through another rough as rats boat crossing !! Jess was not so amused as she had to sit in a dog-box for the short flight, but we got back in one piece and headed off to pick up the girls. It's a hell of a view of Land's End when you fly in. Stunning.

I have been to the Isles of Scilly a number of times now, and every time I get back I start thinking about going back as soon as possible. Life kind of gets in the way sometimes, but the islands really are that special. From a fishing point of view, I don't think shore fishing gets much more dramatic. Just those brief few hours deep spinning for pollack did it for me, and I love the fact that Del has managed to create a thriving taxi business on his home island and gets to enjoy some of the most unspoilt fishing there is.

Does fishing get much better than this ?

2009-05-11T06:28:00.003+01:00

Del and I got out yesterday afternoon for a crack at the local pollack population, and I knew it might just go ok when I caught one on my first cast !! Honestly, it has got to be one of the best places there is to come pollack fishing from the shore. We fished the last few hours of the flood tide and nailed fish after fish, with loads around 4 to 5lbs, and a few bigger fish from time to time.

The sea conditions were right on the edge for where we wanted to fish, but we had to go for it - we went to a mark we filmed at once a few years ago, in fact Del reckons not one person has either been out there or fished it since we were last there. How's that for fishing pressure ?

Here's Del with a nice pollack I landed, around 6lbs I reckon, and it hit me within say fifteen turns of the reel handle from the lead hitting the bottom. We were deep spinning with 4oz leads, running ledgers and a variety of soft plastic worms and small shads. Proper deep water - regular spinning rods don't cut it for where we were fishing. At one point we are catching a pollack every single cast. I love this kind of fishing just as much as I ever did, indeed I can't see how it is possible for fishing to get more exciting than this.

This was the best fish of the session - Del nailed this one, and it weighed 7lb 10oz, which in anybody's book is a fantastic shore pollack. They have had double figure fish from this particular spot, and then bear in mind how regularly it is actually fished. How big could they be down there ? I still reckon the Isles of Scilly offer some of the best and most unspoilt shore fishing there is, and every time I come here I am just amazed that so few locals sport fish, and also that so relatively few shore anglers make the trek out here from the mainland. Come on the ferry and you can bring all the fishing gear you could possibly need, and I know Del is always up for pointing people in the right direction to go and smash a few fish. It's been far too long since I have been out here myself.

Perfect fishing in my mind - Del hooked up into another crash diving pollack as we begin to lose the light. Things worked out perfectly yesterday. My wife and I went over to Tresco in the morning and the weather was stunning. We went for a bit of a walk and then she went to have a look at the gardens and I went for a proper yomp with Jess around the north point of the island. What a beautiful place, but then the whole Isles of Scilly is off the scale pretty anyway. A great pub lunch sitting outside in the sunshine with my wife, jump on a boat back to St. Mary's, grab a bit of fishing gear and my cameras, and then off down to the rocks with Del. If a Sunday can get any better than that then I would be amazed. Back home this afternoon and I can't wait to see the girls. What an awesome few days. What a place.

Paradise on earth

2009-05-09T17:48:00.003+01:00

We had a hell of a rough crossing from Penzance on the Scillonian yesterday - I dosed my wife up on Stugeron and she just about got through it, but when we were off Land's End I thought they might turn the boat back it was that lumpy. Talk about rocking and rolling. There were some seriously grim looking people at the end of the trip, just dying to get off the boat and onto the quay at St. Mary's. I rather enjoyed it all - a bit of adventure !! I met a really nice angler from Cornwall called Jim who was telling me all about some very cool gilthead bream fishing he does. We should be getting together for a session or two in the near future.

The photos here are just a couple of happy-snaps that I took on my wife's little compact camera when we went out for a long walk yesterday afternoon. It was still howling, but if you tucked out it then it was just fantastic with that sun out. The Isles of Scilly are as completely breathtaking as I remember them being. It's very cool to be staying with Del and his girlfriend here on St. Mary's. OK, so we've talked about fishing just a little bit. How could we not ?

My wife and I went over to one of the off islands today, St. Martin's, with our dog Jess of course - this is dog heaven over here. We walked right the way around the island and it was just off the scale beautiful. What a place. Had a fantastic lunch outside at the hotel bistro. Hardly anybody around, and I was remembering certain parts of it from when we have been over filming in the past. As an angler, walking around these islands gets you going so badly. Every single rocky point, calm bay, white sandy beach and tidal rip just screams fish. If it all goes to plan then Del and I are intending to get out tomorrow for a shore pollack session. I seriously can not wait. What a place. So much fishing, so few anglers......

Isles of Scilly here we come.....

2009-05-07T05:45:00.005+01:00

My wife and I are taking the 9am ferry tomorrow morning from Penzance over to the Isles of Scilly - of course our sheepdog Jess is coming with us, it is dog walking heaven over there. My folks are having the girls for the long weekend, so all in all you could say I can't wait to get back over to one of my favourite places on earth. The perfect place to spend a tenth wedding anniversary. I love my kids more than life itself, but a few days away never hurt anybody !!

I took the photo above a few years ago now, over on the tiny island of Bryher - every single island over there simply screams fish wherever you look. Wrasse, pollack, mullet, conger, huss, you name it, the Isles of Scilly has some of the best all around shore fishing I have come across. And the boat fishing is outstanding as well - lots of sharks. I love Ireland with a passion, and the pollack fishing over there can be great, but you'll have to go a long way to better the Isles of Scilly and their own shore pollacking in those deep tidal waters.

I am not really going over for the fishing, indeed I will try to get back out specifically for that sometime later in the year, but these long days we are getting now should give Del and I a chance to spend a few hours wetting a line together again. I hope the weather and light behaves, because the islands are such cool places to photograph fishing. The forecast looks a little "interesting" at the moment, but I don't hold much faith in any of these long range predictions. I bet we get snow now !!

Here are a few more screen grabs of my new website that is under construction. Above and below is how the new Photo Essays pages are looking. They are meant to be very easy to get around - lively and colourful to look at and read, with stacks and stacks of info on where and how to go fishing for loads of different species all over the place. Lots there on bass of course, and plenty more to come in time.

As you can imagine, I tend to get a fair few emails asking about fishing gear - rods, reels, lures, clothing (yeah, right, I am some kind of fashion guru ??!!), lines, you name it, and I have spent some time getting together lots of this kind of information for the new website. There is going to be a whole section devoted to fishing tackle that I am hoping will prove really useful to people, and again, it will be continuously updated. I will only ever feature fishing gear that I use or have used myself and therefore I know it does what it says. Above is a screen grab of a small part of the fishing lures page.

I would love to say we nailed the bass......

2009-05-05T08:53:00.007+01:00

......but we didn't !! Andy and I managed to get out over the high water and back yesterday afternoon, and I reckon the conditions looked spot on. OK, so a bigger tide would have been nicer for where we were fishing (Andy's mark, somewhere new to me), but the water clarity and general sea conditions were ideal. Just enough "life" to the water, loads of very inviting looking ground for the bass to hunt over, but sadly the fish forgot to turn up !! We both blanked in quite spectacular style. I sincerely hope you lot had a bank holiday weekend filled with a few more fish.

Back to the drawing board on this one. What a stunning looking mark to fish though, I fancy this place to throw up some nice bass this year. That is if I haven't gone and emigrated over to Ireland. Enjoy the close season lads !! Will be thinking of you.......

Not even a hit or a follow, and we tried different lures, different retrieves, you name it, but not a sniff. I would like to be out fishing a lot more than I am currently, but it is just not possible at the moment. I am going to be in the Isles of Scilly this coming weekend, principally to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary, but if the weather behaves then of course I will get out and do a bit of fishing and photography with Del. Can't wait to get back over there. Still one of the most special places on earth, and it's only just off our coastline.

How do you choose a lure from this lot ? They all look so nice !! Andy has got it as bad as the next man, and we laughed about the fact that it is very tough to make a phone call to somebody like Mick at his tackle shop here and not come away with a bruised bank account. I am trying to hard to exercise some decent self-control at the moment and resist buying the Tenryu Super Mix 240, a fishing rod that I really, really want. The Red Dragon Express that I have is still the ultimate (hard lure) plugging rod I reckon (ok, the Rod Bar 270 comes a very close second), but I could do with a little more "feel" for using soft plastics. Give me a while and I reckon I could talk myself into one......

I spent a few hours on Saturday up at Nick Hart's Open Day, and it was fantastic. Lots of people there, loads of anglers fly fishing on the lakes, and some monster trout being caught, including one of over 17lbs that morning. Plus another over 14lbs. Those are some fish. It is great to see so many people out and about doing something connected with fishing, especially in the current climate. Roll on the summer.

Still, who really gives a damn about blanking for bass when you can click here and watch the new video to the immense "Guardians of Asgard" song off Amon Amarth's latest album - the monstrously mighty Twilight of the Thunder God (see my original review here). As I have said before, who says music doesn't influence you ? And then you could weep tears of metal emotion to the video of arguably my favourite ever Amon Amarth song, "Cry of the Blackbirds", see here for the video. I should have been a Viking - time to grow the hair again, get on a horse (gonna need a strong one to carry me), grab my sword and dream of what could have been. Back to work........!!

New issue of the outstanding Catch mag online now

2009-05-01T13:56:00.005+01:00

A new issue of the awesome online magazine "Catch" has been published today, and I implore you to take some proper time to have a decent look through the pages - loads of great photography and also some very cool video clips. It doesn't matter what kind of fishing you do - Catch magazine is a prime example of how good fishing can look when it is done well, and full credit to the guys who put this online magazine together every couple of months. Have a look at Catch right here.

For some strange reason the guys keep on asking me to submit a few photos, and I am really please and honoured to have a couple of mine in there this time around. Check out the photo above that has been bled back to allow some text to be put there. Is my inclusion because they feel better for having at least one token Brit within the virtual pages ??!!

The other photo of mine that is in there is of a tigerfish that was caught on the fly down in Zambia, with the outstanding guys from FlyCastaway (contact them here). Few fish look as cool as a tigerfish when it is bathed in this kind of perfect light, but then again, light is what it's all about anyway. I have rarely seen light as perfect as that you see at dawn or dusk in some parts of Africa - it all happens fast, but sometimes you just sit there with your mouth open at such colours and tones.

I am going to go and check out Nick Hart's Open Day tomorrow, and it is taking place at Exe Valley Fishery. Check here for details. This should be a blast, a chance to talk about fishing with all kinds of people, and also to see what is new and exciting in the world of fly fishing. There is so much from fly fishing that we can and do bring over into the saltwater world, like waders, wading jackets, wading boots etc..

Working on my new website

2009-04-30T12:12:00.002+01:00

This rubbish weather has come at a perfect time for me, because it's eyes down this end at the moment while I try to do all the work that is required on my new website. The "old" one is still live and current, but hopefully it won't be too long until this new one is up and running on the same address - www.henry-gilbey.co.uk A very good friend of mine has designed it, and a person he works with is doing all the coding and creating the CMS system so that I can run it all myself. But of course it's up to me to get all the content together.

I have put a few screen grabs up here of various parts of the new site. Projects like this take a load of work, always more than you think in fact, but for somebody like me who makes a living from photographing and writing about fishing, it is vital to have a strong web presence that showcases one's work as best as possible.

Rest assured that there are plenty of bass photos and also bass related articles/photo essays up on the new site, plus lots of info on rods, reels, lures etc. Whilst the website is primarily a "look at my work in the world of fishing" kind of thing, I also want to make it useful for people to check out the kind of fishing gear we use for our fishing, and the stuff that I actually use and recommend. Life's far too short and principles are far too important for somebody like me to go around recommending fishing gear that I know nothing about.

We have done a lot of work on this new site to make sure it is not in the least bit "gimmicky", and by that I mean a lack of flash based stuff that does nothing but slow the whole thing down and detract from the photos etc. Each to their own of course when it comes to how websites look, but personally I am really into the "cleanest" and most "efficient" style possible, where the eye is led to the strength of the visuals (my photos) and not to some flashy bit of stuff going on in the background.

In time this blog will also become a fully integrated part of the new website, but there will of course be plenty of warning before anything suddenly changes over. There is plenty still to do to get the site to a state where it can go live, so I had better get back to the grindstone and keep doing what I do.

I am the featured photographer on Midcurrent.com

2009-04-28T09:37:00.006+01:00

One of the largest and most respected fly fishing websites there is went and asked little old me to supply a couple of photos a while back for a new section they have launched called "Fly Fishing Photography", and this week they have kindly put me on their homepage as their "Featured Photographer". You can see the page above, and to say this is a bit of a thrill is a mild understatement. There are some frankly outstanding fishing photographers featured on the US based Midcurrent, and to be in their (exalted) company on the site makes my week.

I am near to completely sure that not one of the photographers up there on the Midcurrent site has ever seen the fishing programmes I have made over the years, and perhaps it's better that it remains this way. Proud though I am of what we have done, I am not sure the off the wall moments in a few of the shows would appeal to an international audience !!

If you have any kind of interest in fly fishing anywhere on earth, have a good look around Midcurrent, for these is loads to read and look at. It is a huge resource, with a daily fly fishing news section right here. Also have a look at the Fly Fishing Art pages here.

And if you are interested in how diverse and awesome looking the world of international fishing is, make sure to check out the work of the various photographers on the Midcurrent site by going through to their respective websites from this page here. There is some seriously impressive work from some hugely talented people to look at.

I do accept that some of the photography up there might not be relevant to an angler say from the UK, but from a personal point of view, I am hugely interested in seeing fishing based photography from all over the world. I might never go to a lot of these places, but surely it can only be a good thing to open up the mind and learn about other places, other people, and other kinds of fishing. I have met plenty of people overseas who have taken a look at my bass fishing photography for example and then said "wow, that looks like some outstanding fishing". They might not do it, but they are interested in learning more about how we catch them etc. How can fishing keep going forward without the constant passing on and down of information ?

Bring on the mackerel

2009-04-27T11:56:00.005+01:00

No more than a bait fish to many anglers, the humble mackerel is so much more. I can't wait for them to turn up in proper numbers around here so that I can take my daughters out fishing off the shore for them. They may or may not like going fishing in the end, but at least I can give my girls a chance to find out for themselves. They love eating fish, so I reckon if I can get them to catch a few that we can cook up together, at least they can experience the whole thing and then see if they like it.

I am off to the Isles of Scilly in a couple of weeks, mainly to spend a few days with my wife over our 10th wedding anniversary (where does time go ?), but also to have a bit of time fishing with my mate Del over on St. Mary's. If the weather allows us to, we have some decent tides for a bit of mullet and pollack fishing, and I can't wait to get back over there. One of the most special places on earth, with some mighty fine fishing when things come together.

I was thinking a bit the other night about my own fishing, and I came to the conclusion that I need to get back into my mullet fishing in a proper way. Light, mobile fishing is what really gets me going these days, and I used to be really heavily into mullet fishing a few years ago when I had a whole lot more time. There are few better fish to go for around our coastline, so I am going to make a concentrated effort to have a few trips out.

Mullet can do your head in a major way (and I can lose my temper at them occasionally), but when they do take and explode off on that first run, it is something really special. I accept that the majority of our shore fishing in the UK is based around long, heavy shore rods, but most anglers from the saltwater world can not believe the thrill at sight fishing for mullet on what is essentially freshwater fishing gear.

And on the metal front, another classic death metal band from my past has reformed and released a pretty damned good comeback album. Pestilence were always at the forefront of the extreme metal world, but they seemed to fade away after their last album. But they are back now, and their brand new album "Devouring Frenzy" is heavy as hell and drives into the middle of your skull like a drill. Check out some new tracks right here. That voice (roar !!) is still as instantly recognisable as it always was. Monday morning is always a good time for some decent extreme metal. We had a big family wedding over the weekend up near Birmingham, and Pestilence's metal precision is certainly making me feel a whole lot better this morning.

Article 47 update

2009-04-23T10:13:00.006+01:00

Check out the latest Article 47 updates and a short video clip of UKIP leader Nigel Farage arguing the case for UK sea anglers right here. I am not a political animal by nature, but I can vouch for the fact that Nigel is a passionate fisherman, the same as you and I - we have spent a few days over the years out at sea, indeed the whole Farage family are fishing nuts. See my original post and thoughts on Article 47 here. Burying your head in the sand and hoping that this kind of thing goes away ain't going to do any good at all........

Some more black and white shots - not sure it makes much sense when the weather is as stunning as it currently is, but what the heck. Live dangerously eh ? The photo above is one of my all time favourite photos that I have ever shot of a bass, but even in colour it does not make complete sense until you see it blown up to full size. I have done a black and white conversion above, but I am not completely sure it works. I have always reckoned that a portrait-style crop of this photo (see below) would work really well as a front cover of a magazine, but so far it has not been used in this way. Perhaps the fact that it is an eye and not an immediately obvious "look at me, I'm a fish" kind of photo has been the reason why. Frustrating, but that's the way it goes in the fishing world from time to time.

A lot of bass fishing lends itself naturally to being photographed - especially in wide open places with big, imposing skies. Give me a complete lack of other people around and I am an even happier person. They are a very visually appealing fish to be around, especially when we are using lure and light bottom fishing tactics, rather than the more traditional "stick two heavy rods in a tripod and watch for a bite" fishing. All is good stuff, but I know what I would rather photograph out of choice. Not a hard guess !!

Some more fishing in black and white

2009-04-22T10:06:00.005+01:00

I have been messing around again with converting some of my photos over to black and white, and here are a few of the latest results. It does seem that the steelhead fishing over in BC (Canada) really lends itself to black and white, due mainly to the incredibly moody conditions, staggering backdrops, and long double-handed fly rods. It was monsooning it down in the photo you can see above, but the swirling mist and clouds with a vast mountain surround really made the place light up through the viewfinder. I believe that the black and white conversion has emphasised the moodiness of the photo - comments most welcome.

Just a brief glimpse of sun was enough to light up the snow-covered peaks behind the angler (Pete McLeod of Aardvark McLeod) as he really goes into the power stroke of another smooth Spey cast. I have gone for a very deliberate contrasty conversion to highlight the fisherman, the cast, and the mountains behind.

Still one of the most impressive places on this earth that I have ever had the good fortune to photograph, British Columbia is on a scale that I don't think I ever really got my head around during my brief visit. The type of area that stuns you into a kind of submission the first time you go, it really is that special, and one of those places that I so badly want to go back to and see it again. Steelhead fishing is a cult thing, and I completely understand why so many anglers give themselves over to it. Still the only place I have ever photographed that arguably looked a whole lot better the worse the weather was. And we got the lot when we were over there !!

One of our own UK rainbow trout, and a shot that I always reckoned would look good in black and white - from the moment I framed it up in fact. I just like the way the highlights on the body of the trout allow me to really bring the shadows down and still make for a photo with a degree of simple impact.

You can see a load more of my black and white photos right here, with some new ones loaded up. I am having a new website built at the moment, so there will be more news on that as and when it is done. The stuff I have seen so far looks very cool indeed....

Sea Angler cover and lure fishing bag

2009-04-21T08:27:00.007+01:00

Here's my cover photo on the current issue of Sea Angler magazine that I was talking about the other day (see here) - I like what they have done with my photograph, and this cover is a tight crop of a shot I took of a decent bass over in Ireland. Anybody with any interest in photography will most likely recognise that a fisheye lens has been used to get in really tight on the fish and emphasise that predator head with a very slight degree of natural distortion that comes from using this sort of lens in a situation like this.

The exact lens was the Canon 15mm f2.8 fisheye, but to be perfectly honest, the reason for using a lens like this makes more sense when you look at the original photo that the Sea Angler designers cropped from to make the front cover. See my original shot of the bass below. The photo being cropped so tightly for a front cover shows how clean and flexible high resolution digital files are these days from professional SLR cameras. The current issue of Sea Angler is going to take some beating I reckon, but they have some good people working for them who keep on finding really good looking UK sea fishing material.

I am always trying to keep an eye out for products that I reckon will work well for our fishing, and I came across a really good looking waterproof rucksack the other day that should make for an excellent kind of mobile lure fishing bag for bass fishing. Snowbee make this waterproof rucksack, and these guys will need no introduction if you are from the fly fishing world. They also do a load of sea fishing gear as well that you should check out.

Here's a photograph of the bag I am on about, and you can see a bunch of details right here. I believe I am right in saying that this bit of kit retails for around £50, and for a purpose built waterproof rucksack, I reckon this is really good value for money. A lot of us bass fishermen for a start want to make sure that our stuff stays dry, whatever the weather, and wherever we are fishing, and the idea of a lightweight rucksack that you can walk with all day long really appeals to me. The simplest things in fishing are often the most useful. I would guess that a load of UK saltwater anglers would fine a bag like this to be of use, whatever you fish for.

There seems to be a lot more "crossover" of products these days between the different fishing disciplines. I know we tend to split our fishing up into game, sea and coarse in the UK, but in my mind that is somewhat counter-productive, and I tend to believe we are all just fishermen, however we choose to catch our fish. Word of mouth and the power of the internet I believe is making it far easier for fishermen to see lots of different kinds of products and cherry-pick the ones that they want to use for their own fishing, regardless of what the original purpose for the product was.

Take breathable chest waders for starters - I see more and more guys in the sea fishing world wearing these things, but of course they were originally designed for the game fishing market. But we find them useful, so we use them. How about wearing short wading jackets from the game world instead of those somewhat (generally) heavier and bulkier specialist sea fishing waterproof tops ? Being able to roll a lightweight wading jacket up and stuff it in my bag is so useful to me, and again, I see more and more mobile sea anglers doing this.

Times are a changing, and I would guess that the tackle companies and retail outlets who can retain the flexibility to adapt to change swiftly and efficiently will be the ones who come out on top. Making the same old stuff and marketing it in the same old way in my mind does not cut the mustard any more. You want an example ? Why are so many switched-on, internet-savvy bass anglers increasingly buying rods, reels and lures with heavy Japanese and French influences that are not designed in the UK ?

Plaice showing from the boats

2009-04-20T08:25:00.008+01:00

Plaice are not a fish I have spent much time chasing over the years, but I fully understand their appeal and I would love to catch more of them. There's something about these flatfish that really get lots of anglers going. Although they had north east winds up on the famous Skerries banks off Dartmouth over the weekend, Malcolm Jones of the charter boat Sea Angler II tells me that the fishing was still pretty good. A fair few nice plaice were taken during the huge annual plaice festival they have up there every year. Check here for getting hold of one of the south west's best charter skippers. I can not recommend Malcolm highly enough.

I spoke to Malcolm this morning as he was steaming back to Plymouth and he said it was about as beautiful as possible out at sea. How good was the weather yesterday ? I am not sure what the actual temperature was, but to me if felt like the warmest day of the year so far down here - so sunny and warm in fact that I even got my shorts on for the first time in the UK in 2009. Now that is an event !!

Nobody can mistake the distinctive orange spots on a plaice - I have heard so many stories of when shore fishing for them over on the tiny Channel Island of Alderney was frankly awesome. We are talking about serious numbers of big, 5lb plus plaice coming to shore anglers, but as is usual on planet earth, the stocks were commercially hammered and what was once a world class shore fishery for them is now a shadow of its former glories. There is still some very good fishing over there at various times of the year, but imagine what it once was....................kind of like too many places on earth (sadly). Speak to these guys here for local info, guiding, tackle, bait and charter boats.

I also spoke to a friend of mine over in south east Ireland this morning - Cian told me that north east winds and an incredibly small tide did them no favours at all on the bass fishing front this weekend, but persistence paid off and he managed to land a solid 5lb fish on a Duo Tide Minnow lure. See here for getting some of these awesome lures. Cian said he had at least five decent follows from bass, but that they then turned away at the last moment. Why ?

The Wolves are howling - if you are into any kind of extreme metal music, do yourself the biggest favour possible this week and get hold of the new album by the US black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room. These guys get in your head in a big way, and their new CD called "Black Cascade" is a proper masterpiece. Listen here for some short samples of what this band is about. They play long, textured songs that won't leave you alone, and I reckon that's just about perfect. Kind of like a faster Drudkh if you get my drift. Monumental metal for the true connoisseur. Get the CD here.

Big soft plastics article out now

2009-04-17T09:30:00.005+01:00

Check out the latest issue of Sea Angler magazine for a big feature of mine on catching proper bass on soft plastic lures - look on pages 4, 5, 6, 7 and, 8 for my words and photos. All credit due to the guys at Sea Angler for making the stuff look so good, and for giving over so much space to this continual explosion of interest in a more "modern" style of bass fishing that so many of us as addicted to.

It is my photo of the head of a bass that is on the front cover of the latest Sea Angler, and when I get hold of a copy of it I will post it up here. As always, I never get a say in the choice of covers, but I really like this one - ok, so perhaps I am a bit biased 'cos it's my photo on there !!

There's a couple of photos here from that epic day in south east Ireland late last year, when Tom Hollyhock put on a MegaBass XLayer soft plastic lure, mounted on a small jig head, and then proceeded to blow his mind with the quality of the bass he nailed. Those few days of fishing and photography play on my mind a lot when I can't get out fishing or the weather is rubbish. Check out a load of photos from that particular trip right here. If I see many more days like that then I will be a lucky man..............

I got back from my meetings at Hardy Greys up in Alnwick late yesterday morning. We got plenty done, but it's always good to get out of an office environment and back to what I do day to day. I have the utmost respect for anybody who works within the sport fishing industry, and I suppose so much of what makes it so interesting is that there are so many different niches where people can fit into and make a go of it. And there is so much more to do.

I am going to do my utmost to start getting out bass fishing a proper amount now - work and weather allowing. There are some tiny tides this weekend, but I reckon the conditions look ok for various parts of the south west, and I keep hearing of more and more bass being taken on lures and baits. A lot of people want to know just how "big" bass fishing is in the UK, for various different reasons, but I can't see any way of measuring what is a kind of cult way of fishing that in my mind seems to be getting more and more popular all the time. So many people want to know about catching bass these days, on lures especially, and I reckon there are some exciting times ahead. If we have a decent season on the bass then I will be extremely interested to see where all this stuff goes.............

Off up to Alnwick for a meeting

2009-04-14T19:04:00.004+01:00

I trust you all had a good weekend - I was out all day today shooting some photos with Nick Hart, and then first thing tomorrow I have to fly up to Newcastle airport for a meeting with Hardy Greys at their base in Alnwick. Meetings aren't really my thing (would rather be out bass fishing), but they have to happen from time to time.

I am hearing reports of more and more guys catching a few bass - see the comment from Steve on my post from the end of last week. I love seeing comments like that and I am really grateful that people take the time to do so. When work calms down for me, there are some bass out there with my name on. Your time is up.

I met a couple of really nice anglers down on the Isle of Wight on Saturday morning - I was walking the dogs out across the beach at Bembridge and I got speaking to the two local lads who had just been out bass fishing (was it Nick and Ben ?, sorry, I am terrible with names). These two have really got into their lure fishing recently (and they read this blog, thanks guys), so it was great to stop and talk all things bass fishing for a while, and even better to hear that they had caught one on a lure that very morning. I also saw a couple of guys who were fly fishing for the bass, but I don't know how they got on. I was taking a couple of days off with my family, but next time I am down in the Isle of Wight my rods are coming with me. There are some tidy mullet around there as well which need catching.

Things will get back to normal on the blog later in the week, but for now I had better go and pack my stuff up for the 7am flight out of Plymouth (international airport !!) tomorrow morning. First class of course - or perhaps not.....

Have a good Easter weekend

2009-04-09T12:06:00.006+01:00

I hope all of you have a fantastic, long Easter weekend - may the fish bite big time !! Perhaps this bit of weather we have got down here at the moment might kick start the bass fishing off properly, especially with the larger tides.........

Talking of bass (not that I have a problem or anything), a friend of mine over in south east Ireland emailed me the other day to give me a report of some more good fish they have nailed recently. Patrick and Cian had a number of fish, with one he estimated around 9 to 10lbs. That's another awesome bass for these guys. Honestly, I don't know how much longer I can take NOT living over there.

I have put a bunch of photos up here from a Trout Fisherman shoot I did the other day with Nick Hart - the weather remained nearly perfect all day (perfect for me and my photos, perhaps not so perfect for the actual fishing), but the fish did not really switch on right until the end. When we are shooting a fishing feature, if no fish are caught then it's a day we can't use, so this puts a lot of pressure on Nick. But he can live with it !! Not that I ever remind him of the stakes during a shoot or anything like that. Nice one.

I am spending the long weekend with my family, no fishing for me this time. Please catch a few for me and have a complete blast doing so. I have a feeling that this year might just be a decent one, there seem to be plenty of reports of pockets of good fish around. The launce are turning up on the reefs down here off Plymouth, and the pollack are feeding hard. This is such a fantastic way to go boat fishing - light gear, shallower water, fresh, scrappy fish, a perfect day out. Get hold of one of Plymouth's best charter skippers right here - Malcolm always works his socks off to give his clients a great day out and I can not recommend him highly enough.

Live sandeels - is there a better bass bait ?

2009-04-06T11:11:00.004+01:00

I would be fascinated to know exactly what the overall most successful bass bait of all time is - I am sure this kind of thing can never be proven one way or the other, but live sandeel has to to figure right up there. Going out with the guys from Premier Baits on Friday was a real eye opener as to how a professional outfit goes about getting sandeels from the sea to the customer in an enticingly wriggly state. As you can see in the photo above, the day started off with a some really thick fog, but this quickly broke to give a stunning morning.

There is no other way to harvest sandeels for bait than good old fashioned back breaking work. There's me tripping up all over the boat as I try and nail the shots, doing all I can not to get in the way, and the guys kept on smiling at yet another "hold it there for a second" or "hang on, can I get in here" from me, the photographer. It's St. Ives you can see in the background.

If you want to get hold of some of the finest live sandeels you are ever going to see, you need to get yourself down to Hayle in Cornwall and see the guys from Premier Baits. Call Dave Dunstan on 01209 217062 or 07770 688207, or call Saul Astrinsky on 01736 796234 or 07779 316756 - they will also go out of their way to help you with advice on setting up proper tanks at home to store large quantities of live eels. They are getting some very good sandeels at the moment, and weather allowing, you will be able to buy eels off them until at least mid-October. Bass beware !!

I remember when I used to have a tank here at home for keeping prawns in, and I was always convinced that my wife used to "acquire" a number of them and then eat them without me knowing !! She has never admitted to the crime, but I reckon she is guilty as hell. Any time I mention how much I used to love and cherish my prawns, she goes bright red and changes the subject. What a killer thornback ray bait........

Above is a sight that any keen fisherman would dream about - a stack of live sandeels just out of the water. You would not believe the work and effort it takes to keep these things in perfect condition from the sea to their (huge) tanks through to the customer. I had a fantastic time with them, and I am going to try and go out bass fishing with them next to do a follow up piece on the guys nailing bass on their own product.

FieldSports front cover

2009-04-03T16:35:00.004+01:00

I just received a copy of the latest issue of the fantastic FieldSports magazine, and I was really pleased to see that they have used a photo of mine on the cover - this strange looking fish is a milkfish, one of the fastest things I have ever seen on the saltwater flats. There is a feature of mine in the magazine about fly fishing the ultra-remote Seychelles atolls of these milkies as they are known. I always wanted somebody to pick up on this particular shot to use as a cover, and I applaud FieldSports' bold decision to use it. But then I might be a little biased......!!

Fishing like this ain't even close to cheap, but I have yet to see any better saltwater fly fishing anywhere. I go on these trips because they are work for me - this might not sound quite right I know, but it's what I do. These atolls are freaky good for fishing, and if you can do this kind of thing, you need to speak to the fly fishing travel company Aardvark McLeod. These guys represent the awesome South African based FlyCastway company here in the UK, and I can not speak highly enough of their operation. You can see some photos here.

I have just got back from photographing a job around St. Ives down in Cornwall - early this morning I boarded a boat at Hayle and headed out with three guys to photograph them netting sandeels. They caught masses and when I have sorted out the photos I will get some up here on this blog. The north coast of Cornwall was stunning early this morning, and we were only a few hundred years off the beach at St. Ives. What a great bunch of guys to work with.

Photographing this kind of fast moving action requires that you get in amongst it and shoot the hell out of it, knowing that the moving boat and constantly shifting light will kill a percentage of the photos for you. But if you are prepared to work around the guys as they go about their work then you can come away with some really cool stuff. This is not a job for anybody who likes to spend ages planning their shots or doesn't like getting their cameras and lenses wet - get right in there is the key. Full details of this bait operation next week - are there many better things to use for bass than a live sandeel ?

Saw some bass, but couldn't catch them (plus a truly monster pike)

2009-04-02T08:26:00.004+01:00

I went out for a few hours over the high water yesterday morning, to have another look around and see if I could find some bass. I had timed it to fish the last of the flood tide, and the moment the tide turned I waded out onto a sandbank to fish with soft plastics in amongst the tumbling water and deeper channels. As I waded out I saw perhaps ten to fifteen bass laid up on the sand, right next to the main channel, but the moment they saw me moving towards them they quite rightly spooked !! They weren't big fish, but at least they were bass. I also saw a lone sandeel swimming around - bizarre.

To see fish always raises the heartbeat, and pretty quickly I got hit hard once on the soft plastic lure you can see above, but the fish did not connect - a MegaBass XLayer fished on an 18g Storm jig head (see here for the lures). But then nothing else happened. Typical !! I fished a few hours of the drop and then had to head back home. What a stunning morning when those clouds cleared, and pretty as it was, it had to have been too bright for the fish to switch on properly. That's my excuse anyway. Just me, Jess my sheepdog and a few seagulls - perfect peace, but rest assured that true Norwegian black metal in the shape of Gorgoroth was blasting out in my car on the way back. Peace when fishing, metal when not. Life is a series of opposites.

I also messed around with this lure above, and in the water it looks incredible - it's a 6.5 inch Hart Gummy Leech on a 22g articulated Storm jig head that I picked up in France. Why on earth can you not get hold of these particular articulated jig heads in the UK ? (a big hint to Shimano !!) I have a feeling that this lure set up might do some proper damage later in the season, and I reckon night time is going to work well where I was fishing......

Photo courtesy Danny Parkins

31lb 14oz pike - 01.04.09

But my brief efforts yesterday were certainly put into context when Danny Parkins rang me up and told me all about this huge pike he caught yesterday on the Exeter canal. Take a look at the size of that thing !! 31lb 14oz of killing machine, and Danny took this beast on a lure. I have met few guys who know their predator fishing as much as this guy, in fact he is an all round fishing junkie with a serious lure problem. Danny reckons this huge pike is a new Exeter canal record, so what can I say but seriously well done, that is a hell of a fish to catch on a lure and I take my hat off to the guy. I have been hectic with work too much over the winter, and I feel daft for not having got into this pike fishing properly - I have to make time for this, it's world class fishing. Nice one Danny.

Please take a look at Nick Hart's blog here - I could not agree more with him about this Robson Green bloke talking rubbish on the (primetime) box about the fact that nine out of ten fish that are caught and released then go and die. This proves to me once again that the whole celebrity culture is something to be avoided at all costs. Another nail in the "image of fishing" coffin, this time banged home by a bloke who is meant to be a keen angler. I am not about to post what I really feel here, it ain't printable.

Monday morning metal madness

2009-03-30T08:26:00.006+01:00

Monday morning is always a bit of a shock, so I tend to turn to a bit of extreme metal to get me through it. In reality I should have gone and tried for a bass or two around first light this morning, the conditions are really good for another crack at it, but work calls. More's the pity.

I am hearing more and more reports from all over the place of bass just about starting to turn up on the lures, and Kevin Brain tells me that he is still smashing big numbers of bass over on the west coast of Ireland. I bet he's still got the place virtually to himself.

At times like this I think back to my Plymouth university days - if there was ever a question back then of going fishing or going to lectures (three hours of marine law anyone ??!!), you can guess which way won every time. How times have changed. Regression is an option that crosses my mind from time to time, I can tell you. Drop out, fade away, go fishing.

Check out the new album by a band called Absu - the CD is called Absu as well, so there's no chance of getting this one wrong. Feels like a really good dose of fast paced death/thrash metal to me, perfect for the start of another working week. Heavy as hell, and really catchy in places. Listen to a few tracks here. Rest assured that it is playing here at my desk while I am typing this blog post. Nice........

The new look Trout Fisherman magazine that I told you about the other day (see here) is now out in the shops, and I reckon it looks really good. If any kind of fly fishing floats your boat, pick this issue up. Just to make me feel good, above is my cover shot (again) - I had a close look at this on the shelves and I reckon it fairly "jumps" at you, and that surely is the point of a cover. "Buy me, I look really interesting" kind of thing.

It's all about the light.....

2009-03-25T13:13:00.006Z

When you need to go and photograph long distance fly casting like Nick Hart and I did yesterday, it doesn't half help to have some decent light for it. We lucked out big time. The forecast was for a bright start to the day, but that it would rapidly cloud over and possibly rain. Guess how correct this forecast was ? Hint - look at the big blue skies in the photos here. I am sure that forecasts are actually getting worse, or is that possible ?

All that light bouncing around lets me do so much with the photos, and with Nick bending the hell out of these fly rods, it's brilliant to be able to put him against the sky and let rip on the motordrive at ten frames per second. You need this kind of camera speed when a proper caster like Nick is double-hauling and ripping the rod and line through at near-warp speed.

We were shooting this casting feature for Trout Fisherman magazine up at the stunning Clatworthy reservoir - it looked spectacular yesterday, and there were plenty of people out trout fishing. There can be no more perfect escape from all this economic doom and gloom than going fishing. Too many people are all doom and gloom when it comes to fishing - by no means is anything easy at the moment, but a positive outlook goes a hell of a long way for starters.

Anybody who saw the two of us doing our stuff at Clatworthy must have thought we were mad - there's Nick going through cast after cast, with me either kneeling down in the water in front or to the side of him and stuffing a wide-angle lens in his face, or otherwise I'm perched somewhat precariously on top of a small step ladder out in the water, trying for a different angle on the pictures. I know that Nick would never collapse laughing if I had fallen off the ladder into the lovely cold water !! And then the one time I turn around to have a pee without checking, a couple of walkers come right down the path in front of me. What can you do but say "Afternoon, lovely day isn't it ?", and hope you haven't ruined their walk !! Nice thought.

We basically walked the whole way around the reservoir yesterday - me with my camera gear, Gitzo tripod and stepladder, and Nick with all the tackle needed to shoot a casting feature. What I hate though is that there all these signs up saying "No dogs", when yesterday would have been such a great day out for my sheepdog Jess. What harm can there possibly be when a well behaved dog wanders around the reservoir with her owner ? The world's going mad......

How hard can you fight bass ?

2009-03-23T08:49:00.004Z

I really like seeing how different anglers around the world play or fight "their" fish when they hook them - whatever they are using. Bait, fly or lure, it makes no difference to me - fishing is just fishing. But ever since I began to travel for my work and thus saw how different anglers would behave with their hooked fish, I have come to the conclusion that we tend to play our fish here in the UK somewhat on the "light side".

Granted, we do not really have lots of big powerful fish that are going to make us learn early on how to fight fish really hard, but on the other hand, I reckon lots of us could push our fishing gear a hell of a lot harder on some of the fish we hook (and sometimes lose). It is the nature of fishing though - we are not going to land everything we ever hook, but a lot of time I see anglers over here who simply do not know how far they can push their gear on a fish. This is in no way a criticism, merely an observation. Why do I want to fight my fish so hard ? Firstly because I do not want them doing me on a snag, and secondly, because I believe that a "green" fish can be released far more easily. A tired fish that has fought for ages take a lot of reviving, whereas a still very lively ("green") fish that has come in (relatively) quickly tends to swim off far stronger. And how about doing all you can to keep those hooks in ? Remember that I am always crushing the barbs on the treble hooks on my lures.

Check out how much a rod can bend for starters - look at the casting shot above, of my mate Graham whacking out a lure on a very powerful and fast action Tenryu Red Dragon Express. These are strong rods, but they will bend, indeed they are meant to !! How about putting a whole load of that bend (or pressure) onto a hooked fish ?

Now look at the photo above - this is an angler using a powerful carp rod on a bass that I reckon went around 12lbs. Nothing was wrong, he landed the (awesome) fish, but I would bet Mick thought he was really piling the pressure on the fish. The bass went back fine, but all I wanted to illustrate here was that a whole load more grief could have been given to the fish as it ran in the tide. The rod will bend a load more, and it will also easily cushion the light line against the lunges of the bass. OK, so it would be wise to slacken off a tightish drag when the fish gets in close, but rest assured that rods bend a whole lot more than we think they do. There were no snags we knew of that the bass could have run into, but what if there had been ?

Note how Pat is putting a lot of pressure on a nice bass that he hooked fairly close in - the rod (a Tenryu Rod Bar 270) is bending nicely, but Pat knows exactly what he is doing and is what I call going with the fish slightly as it tries to run. He is allowing the rod to come down from high up and provide extra cushioning to the hook hold. But the rod is still bent hard into the fish.

I am lucky enough to know and fish with some awesome anglers from all over the world. Some of the south west, Irish and Channel Island anglers I am lucky enough to call my friends for the most part do not know how much I respect what they do in fishing. A lot of these guys have caught more awesome fish than I am ever going to catch in a million years.

I still believe though that in general, the people who fight their fish the hardest are the South Africans (and I include Namibia in this). Yes, this has to be because they have lots of far larger fish than we are ever going to see over here, and they either learn to fight them hard or lose them all. I remember being completely stunned the first time I saw a good local angler fighting a big shark off the Skeleton Coast beaches. I could not believe how hard a fish could be played, and it was like a light bulb going off in my head. There was me thinking I was giving my shark a bucket load of hell, and I wasn't even close. The shark must have thought he had mere toothache when he picked up my bait !! But I began to learn........

I want to enjoy the playing of my fish, but ultimately I want to get them in. I remember filming a cod fishing programme up on the Bristol Channel a few days after a Namibia trip, and the first few unfortunate codling I hooked were water skiing almost the moment I struck into them !! Not ideal, but I want to get my fish up and away from snags. Losing fish when you are filming is not good news. Losing fish winds us all up, and it's always the true monsters that get away is it not ?

Check out the photo above - that is a South African friend of mine called John Crabb giving a pretty big catfish a load of stick on a very light spinning rod. Was he ever going to lose the fish because he was playing it too hard ? No. You should have seen this guy fighting a big ragged tooth shark off the beach at Kosi Bay - my jaw hit the floor !! John has had no choice but to learn how far he can push his gear on fish.

But all things being equal, I reckon we do pretty well over here. I would never say that one set of anglers are better than the others. This is not the case at all. Some guys have to really learn how to play fish on their drags because their fish run hard, whereas some have to develop techniques to drag fish out of horribly rough ground etc. It just depends on where you fish and what you are fishing for. Sometimes you have to protect a very light leader being used on shy fish (mullet anyone ?) But there is no doubt that a lot of us over here could push our tackle a lot harder and get more fish in.

The photo above is what I would call "horsing a fish" !! Not a very technical term I know, but it works for me. "Giving it the gears" is another expression. This is a fly fisherman pushing a powerful 12 weight fly rod to the max on a rampaging giant trevally (GT) that has nailed his fly. Play a fish like this too light and you would be there all day. "Our" bass are mighty fine fish that occupy a lot my time (and dreams), but we need a sense of perspective on them. It is often where you are fishing that provides more of a challenge in the fight than the actual power or weight of the fish - put a 6lb bass on a light spinning rod over clean ground with no tide and you'll love every second of it. Now put the same fish in amongst rough as hell terrain or in a rampaging tide, and you'll love it a whole lot more. Has the fish suddenly gained weight ? No, of course not, but the fish will naturally try to use the conditions to do you. That's fishing. We love it so much because it is never the same.

OK, so I gave in...........

2009-03-19T09:09:00.009Z

I felt almost no confidence, but I simply could not resist getting out on the coastline yesterday late afternoon and early evening to chuck a few lures. The expectation of actually catching a bass was about zero, but this stunning weather has got to me. Me, my red rod, a few lures (ok, quite a few lures), and my sheepdog Jess. It felt a little like summer until the sun dropped further in the sky, but I have been promising myself not to head out lure fishing for bass until at least April. Are we not eternal optimists though ? And yes, I was right, I saw not a sniff of a fish.

To be perfectly honest, it was not really a proper fishing session as such - I wanted to get a few photos of the coastline as the sun dropped low, and I also wanted to have a really good walk/scramble around to check out where I reckon the fish might be hanging around when they are in. My feelings are that where I was fishing is going to be a back tide mark, with acres of rocks and weed shallowing out nicely as the tide clears. Yesterday was deliberately timed to be over the low water period so that I could see the lie of the land properly.

The light yesterday evening did not end up as impressive as I thought it might, but I took a few photos I was fairly happy with. Just sitting there with my camera on a tripod and watching the sun dip over south Devon kind of does it for me really. Nobody else was around, and more's the pity that no bass were around either !! To be fair, the water was about as clear as possible and bigger tides are going to help. But as I said, how can you resist going plugging when the weather is so good ?

In years gone by I would now be chasing bull huss in a big way around south Devon, with regular trips thrown in to the shallow reefs up in the Bristol Channel (Hinkley, Lilstock etc.) for the thornback ray and spring codling, but I tend not to spend much time these days with beachasters in tripods. It's awesome fishing, and it always will be, but I am restless person by nature and I live for different experiences. And I simply do not have as much time as I used to.

My feeling is that it won't be long until we connect with a few bass around here. Reports of bass turning up in various places are increasingly frequent - and I don't include Ireland here, that place is a (bountiful) freak of nature. Jealous, me ? I have a feeling that certain methods might work in very specific places around here (cryptic eh ?), and much as these east winds are blowing in lovely blue skies and relatively warm day time temperatures, I am going to feel a whole bit more confident when we get a nice set of spring tides and more onshore conditions to inject a bit of "life" to the sea. We shall see.....

I would imagine that a few of you watched that mightily impressive Yellowstone programme on BBC2 on Sunday night ? I made myself wait until it was on in HD last night, and I have to admit to sitting there open mouthed in complete astonishment at such awesome programme making. Some of the shots in there were breathtaking. What a place, what a brutal winter. If you missed it, watch it here on the BBC iPlayer. Nick Hart and I spent a day in Yellowstone last summer when we were out doing a job in Montana, and just that brief glimpse of the place left a lasting impression on me. The mighty Yellowstone river was still blown out with snow melt in late June when we were there. It continues to stagger me at how impressive this world can look. Too much to see, too little time.

How about this weather ?

2009-03-18T10:14:00.006Z

There is nothing like the first proper taste of spring here in the UK - big blue skies and (relative) warmth is about as good as it gets, and I for one am loving it. Granted, I would rather not be working when the sun is out, but that is not the point. Living in Devon when the weather is like this is a privilege.

The photo above is actually from one of those extremely rare days last summer when we actually did see the sun !! Other countries I know think we are all a little mad to be so obsessed with the weather, and we are, and we make no apologies for it. The moment the sun comes out and we all go a little bit loopy. Kind of like werewolves in reverse.

Make sure to check out my latest article in my modern bass fishing series in the new issue of Sea Angler - look at pages 48, 49, 50 and 51. The opening DPS photo is exactly the one that I hoped they might use. The article itself is all about fishing for bass with surface lures, and as I said yesterday, the magazine is looking awesome. If there is a more exciting way to fish than with topwater lures or flies, then I have yet to come across it. Anybody who doesn't shake with adrenaline when a fish swirls on a surface lure is not really alive.

I left my office behind yesterday afternoon to go and check a few potential bass marks out. I have walked and explored most of the south Devon coastline before, but for some reason this particular little area had escaped me. And it looked great.........I was looking out for likely looking bass spots, but really I spent most of the time looking for treasure with my eldest daughter. My sheepdog Jess was happy chasing sea gulls, and my daughter and I trawled the beach and rocks looking for shells with holes in them and those smooth bits of worn down green glass you find. That is the treasure, and we came back with masses. The things we do as parents !! It won't be long though until I am down there chucking a few lures for the bass. It was properly warm when we tucked out of the east breeze as well. Stunning.

I love living in Devon, indeed there is nowhere in the UK that I would rather live. The south west peninsular is a great part of the world, and for the keen fisherman there is a wealth of fishing on offer. I will talk up the merits of Devon until the cows come home, and I have a serious soft spot for Plymouth. It's a great place to live and work, and my family and I have a fantastic life here.

But then you go and hear about the recent bass fishing they have been having over in Ireland recently, and in truth, the better quality of shore fishing overall, and you do begin to wonder. Less people, wide open spaces, countless spots that are simply never fished, lots of big bass, I could go on. The grass is not always greener, we all know that, and Devon is my home, but I will admit to dreaming. I am fairly restless by nature. You never know..........

Brand new look Trout Fisherman - out soon

2009-03-17T04:56:00.008Z

It fascinates me to see such a well known and well established fishing magazine like Trout Fisherman being completely overhauled and then relaunched. On March 26th you will be able to see the results of the new look Trout Fisherman magazine when it hits the shops, and here is a sneak preview. I know I work for them, but I have to say that I am hugely impressed by what has been going on, as you can see here. Magazines have to overhauled from time to time, and it takes a lot of hard work and vision to ring these changes. Sea Angler had the same thing a little while ago (see here), and the magazine looks better and better to me every month.

What makes me even happier is that the powers that be have chosen one of my photos to go on the cover of the relaunch issue. Nice one !! OK, so I might be a bit biased towards their choice, but I really like what has been done with the photo of Nick Hart you can see on the forthcoming cover above. What a strong way to launch this brand new fly casting series we have been shooting recently - with words from Nick of course.

The whole style of the magazine looks that bit "cleaner" to me, and personally I believe that is a good thing. So much information has to be crammed into these kinds of publications, and the trick is to make sure this info is put across in a way that can appeal to fishermen of very different skill levels. Plus you want a big dollop of inspiration in there. I reckon they have done this here, and the proof will be on the shelves at the end of this month.

Those Irish bass keep on coming. Keven Brain emailed me from Kerry to tell me of more bass up to 8lbs over the weekend, all returned. I would hazard a guess that he has the spots all to himself as well.

And from south east Ireland, I hear that my mates Graham, Pat and Cian had a ball over the weekend, with numerous bass coming to lures and baits - the biggest going a cracking 10lbs (on a soft plastic lure), to the efforts of Mr. Hill himself. Check out the full report on Graham's blog here. That is some fishing, and again it proves two points to me - there is no better shore fishing for bass that I know of than over in Ireland, and that they can have awesome fishing all year round for them if the conditions play ball. I can't wait to start "discovering" a bit of the French bass fishing, but it is going to have to go a long way to match the fishing I know of in Ireland. Outstanding stuff indeed. The urge to emigrate has never been stronger !!

How about the rugby on Sunday ? A day to warm the heart. The first half of England v France had me jumping up and down in delight, and I can't help but feel that those forty odd minutes had been coming for a while now. We just had to let go and play rugby if that makes any sense. It had to happen sometime, and perhaps it was just good timing that it happened against the French at Twickenham, and in perfect spring weather as well. The second half could never live up to the first, but what a fantastic game. I reckon England were almost so shocked at what they had achieved in the first half that they went back into their shells somewhat. Still, we won properly, and the big test now is to see how we perform against Scotland on Saturday. If we play well and win properly, I reckon we are allowed to hope again. Perhaps even dream again. But we shall see............

While my website is undergoing a rebuild, I have come across a great way of putting up really good looking web-based galleries of my photos, and I have put a few up recently. Check out a load of black and white photos here for starters. For more, check out the links on the right hand side page of this blog, under the "My Photos - various galleries" heading. There is plenty of bass stuff up there if that floats your boat.

Lots of west coast Irish bass

2009-03-13T05:50:00.006Z

Photo courtesy of Kevin Brain

K.B. Fishing Ireland

What perfect timing !! There I was writing yesterday about the value I attach to fishing with decent guides, and then shore fishing guide Kevin Brain emails me from Waterville on the west coast of Ireland to tell me it's almost not fair the numbers of bass he has been catching. Nice one. Above you can see Kevin with a cracking 9.5lb bass he took recently, and this morning I found photos in my inbox of some nice ones he has yesterday to around 7lbs. I told you, the guy can catch bass - Kevin is a great shore fishing guide, and you can book him right here.

Above is a photo I took of Kevin on one of his favourite bass marks a few years ago - the moody tones of black and white really work well I reckon for this very classical type of "standing in the surf and touch ledgering" kind of bass fishing. There can be little argument that one of the spiritual homes of bass fishing is the rugged west coast of Ireland. A place like Kerry is very accessible to anglers who are prepared to make a bit of an effort and want a real adventure.

Going back to a point I made yesterday - I get plenty of emails asking when and where to go for some decent bass fishing, but lots of anglers still think that it's a late spring/summer/autumn thing only. Most people do not realise that the wild west coast of Ireland often fishes best when the conditions come right during winter - they can have awesome fishing nearly all year out there, but when the tourists have long gone is often when the bassing really fires. Just look at the top photo for proof !!

I am extremely honoured to have a few of my photos featured on one of the web's most highly regarded fly fishing sites - Midcurrent is an awesome resource for anybody with any interest in fly fishing (or fishing full stop), and it makes me really proud to see my work up there with some truly outstanding photographers. See here for the photo page. Scroll down the page and you will see little old me, the token Brit !! If you have any interest in how good fishing can look, take a little time to check these photographers out - there are plenty of links to their respective websites. Fishing done well is truly inspirational.

If you want to see some (non-fishing) outstanding nature and wildlife photos, then check this link here, and scroll through the winning images. The world is a stunning place when it is photographed well. This kind of photography blows me away.

Bearing in mind that I am setting up my first bass fishing trip over to France for later on this year, it is with great trepidation that I await Sunday's Six Nations clash between our two great countries. I love France and I hugely respect the French, but I can't take losing to them in the rugby. Form says we should be beaten, but me being the eternal optimist, here's hoping that England turns France over and wins a glorious match. Imagine, a proper England win !! And then at least I can hold my head up high when I cruise on down to Brittany and wax lyrical about the "good old days" of English rugby - 2003 still brings tears to my eyes..........

Bass and shore fishing guides

2009-03-12T10:29:00.011Z

A great way to learn more about fishing is of course to pay for the services of a guide. In UK saltwater fishing we have plenty of professional charter skippers, but there are not very many shore guides that I am aware of. While it is perfectly normal in say fly fishing to hire a guide (or a ghillie) and work with their knowledge to better your fishing, our UK sea fishing culture is not really ingrained with using the services of a guide.

My post from the other day about lure fishing confusion got me thinking about this, as did an email from Tim Griffin alerting me to a bass guide I had never heard of (thank you). Yes, of course we all like to go out and do things ourselves, and I know that the idea of actually paying somebody to take you out shore fishing is anathema to many anglers, but I know of few more shortcuts to success than working with a decent guide. I have worked with loads of different guides and operations all over the world, but what about in the UK and Ireland ?

And also bear in mind that there are loads of professional bass fishing guides over in France, where their bass fishing "culture" tends to revolve around fast open boats and wildly exciting waters. As I learn more about this, so will you. Isn't it strange how working with guides and the attitudes surrounding it is so different from country to country, and also between the various fishing disciplines ?

The guide I can most wholeheartedly recommend for bass and also general shore fishing over in north Cornwall is of course Ed Schliffke (aka "Ed the Bass"). Ed used to take me and my brother out shore fishing some years ago now when we were down on family holidays near Padstow, and he is still one of the best there is. I will never forget those trips, and I lay some of the blame for my fishing addiction firmly at his door !! Ed knows his bass fishing big time. You can contact him here. Take on board what he advises you go for and you will have an awesome time. Take the kids out as well and spend time on one of the most beautiful coastlines there is.

I have worked a couple of times with an excellent bass and shore fishing guide over on the outrageously stunning Ring of Kerry in south west Ireland (in Waterville to be precise). Kevin Brain has a bad bass fishing addiction, and he puts lots of clients into plenty of fish. He emailed me the other day to say they have been having a spectacular winter on the bass. Why on earth do more bass freaks not spend more time over there in winter ? They also have a B&B where you can stay. Contact Kevin here and see a feature on him right here.

Bill Ryan works further up the coast from Kevin, on the equally pretty, wild, and rugged Clare coastline. He's one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet, and I very much look forward to working with Bill again. See a feature on Bill here, and contact him here. There is a huge amount of good fishing around here.

Tim Griffin told me of a professional bass fishing guide on the west coast of Wales, see here for all the details. I have not fished with these guys, but the operation they run comes highly recommended. I am also in contact with another angler setting up as a bass guide in Wales, so as and when I have more info, I will post it here.

There is of course my mate Nick Hart who is one of the best fly fishing guides and instructors I have ever worked with, anywhere. Nick also guides a fair bit of bass fishing on the fly, so do make sure to contact him here if you are coming to the westcountry. If you are from the saltwater or coarse fishing worlds, why not have a go at fly fishing ? It's a blast.

This is by no means the definitive list of bass and shore fishing guides, but I hope it helps for the moment. As I come across and fish/photograph with more, I will get the details up here and in the various fishing magazines I work for. Think about the time and money that can be spent on going to different places for fishing, and then work in the costs of a decent guide - suddenly it all makes sense when you are into fish that you might never have caught on your own. Local knowledge is key.

Confusion over fishing with lures

2009-03-10T09:40:00.003Z

Judging by the number of emails and feedback I get, plus the questions often asked on this lure fishing forum here, it strikes me that there is (and most likely always be) a certain amount of confusion surrounding the subject of fishing with lures. The more you get into this way of fishing, the more you find there is to learn.......

By no means would I ever come close to claiming that I am some kind of "lure fishing guru" - far from it in fact. I know what I know, but I have got so much more to learn. I get to see all kinds of fish caught in all kinds of ways all over the world, and a lot of this information naturally finds its way into my own fishing. The key to understanding more on how to fish with lures is having an open mind and wanting to learn. We've all met fishermen who for some reason think they know it all, and I always leave these people to stew in their own dreamworld. I like spending time around people who have open minds.

So where on earth do we go to find out more about fishing with lures, and especially using lures for "our" bass ? Good internet forums are great places to ask around and share information, and you could do a lot worse than have a look at WorldSeaFishing right here. Granted, on every forum I would imagine that there are going to be a few "keyboard warriors" lurking around, but the forums on WSF are generally full of lots of anglers willing to help out and share information.

Read as much as you can. In a shameless plug for the features I write and photograph for Sea Angler magazine, I am of course going to say that this magazine should be high on your list. All biased words apart, I am in the middle of a "modern bass fishing" series for the magazine, and you can see a big feature of mine on shallow-diving lures in the current issue on pages 120, 121, 122, 123 and 124. There are a few "experts" who like to knock the various fishing magazines, but I simply ignore this sniping. Magazines have to aim at all skill levels, and I reckon the new look Sea Angler is doing a really good job at the moment. It has always amazed me though that so many of these "experts" who claim never to read the magazines often want to ask specific questions about certain locations, photos, fish etc !! "But I thought you didn't read the fishing press ?"

Read fishing books. Just because a particular book might have been published a few years ago does not suddenly put the information within it out of date. Sure, modern lure fishing techniques are constantly evolving, but still the most important thing in fishing is knowing where and when to find the fish. All the shiny new lures in the shops are never going to change that.

I have been searching my brain to think of a particular online fishing resource that actually shows you how to fish with different lures, but I can't really think of one - people often ask me what on earth it means to do things like "walk the dog" or "fish with a popper" etc. Again, I am hardly the most knowledgeable person there is on this, but I am learning more and more all the time. But all the photos and the words in the world are still never going to fully explain the different techniques, so does anybody out there know of any online locations where people can see decent video footage of fishing with different lures ? Please get hold of me through my website here and I can post links to them, or put them in the Comments section on this blog.

Nothing though is ever going to beat actually getting out there and doing it yourself. Most of it is really very simple indeed, and by getting out there you can play around with the lures and also get to meet other fishermen. I still say that there is no finer sport to be into than fishing, for the majority of anglers I meet are only too happy to share information and also help others along.

I am starting to speak to the Jersey tourism guys and also some friends over in Jersey about the idea of putting together some very informal kinds of "bass fishing meets". We are not sure of the exact logistics or format yet, or even if it is going to happen, but some of us are really keen on getting anglers over to fish and learn together in one of the most magical places I know of. It would be nothing to do with "experts or brain-overloading", rather a chance to get together and pool what we know and see what comes out of it. There are some guys over there who know a hell of a lot about all this. The Channel Islands are just fantastic. Do these ideas have proper merit ? Any more information will be posted here.......

Fishing for real men

2009-03-09T13:27:00.004Z

Although I am somewhat loathe to have to admit it, I have become something of a "warm weather" specialist over the last few years. Any kind of fishing that involves t-shirts and suncream over floatation suits gets my vote every time. To think that some years ago now I used to moan about summer and jump for joy when winter was on the way and the cod started showing up off our shores (distant dreams down here ?). How life changes.

But this ice fishing that I keep hearing about up in Norway has really got me interested - my mate Cato has emailed me again to tell me about some staggeringly big cod some guys have caught recently. Check out these frankly insane photos right here (scroll down the link). You will see pictures of cod to roughly 45lbs taken from under the ice - mad, completely mad. Look at the shots of the guys fighting these fish through the ice. Now this is fishing for real men. Not warm weather wimps like me !! Just the thought of possibly heading over there next winter to photograph this sends me rushing to the nearest radiator for a reassuring blast of warm air. But I have got to see this stuff. I guess the old floatation suits I have here are going to have to come out of retirement.

Cato also had a 6lb char from his local river up in Norway the other day. Great country, awesome music. Cato drums for one of the finest metal bands on this earth, Enslaved - if you have been following this blog, you will know how much I rate their latest album. see here. Enslaved are off on a big US tour soon (see here), along with another fantastic band, the mighty Opeth. I would hazard a guess that Cato will be stopping off along the way to smash a few nice fish !! As I keep saying, how can you get better than a mix of metal and fishing ?

And to prove that I can take a bit of cold weather fishing - my last trip out to Ireland late last year (see a stack of bass photos here) saw us having to wrap up against some properly icy conditions. Bitter north winds in our faces, frozen roads and beaches, but the bass were on big time. Real men like me wore no more than a pair of shorts and a t-shirt (my nose is growing....), while the other lads had to wear virtually every single bit of fishing clothing they possessed. No gloves, hat, fleece Buff or thermal tights for me !! Yeah, right.....

Roll on the English summer. I went out walking a stretch of coastline yesterday morning with a mate from Cornwall, and like an idiot I thought it would be fine to leave my wet waterproof jacket in the back of the car. Nice one Henry. Those big blue skies soon gave way to driving, icy rain and a gale on our backs - you know when the backs of your jeans are soaking wet but the front is completely dry ? That will teach me not to heed the weather forecast. Saw some nice looking plugging water though.....

Fishing on islands

2009-03-06T10:38:00.009Z

I have always had a thing for fishing on islands - I am not sure why this is the case, but I guess the idea of being slightly cut off and even further away from what we might call "civilisation" appeals to me. I will never forget spending a day over on Dursey island on the west coast of Ireland for a TV show we made a while back. I don't remember any particularly big fish, but I do always remember the sense of adventure at getting that ropey cable car over there and then walking until we found somewhere that looked worth fishing. If you want to fish this part of the world, I would seriously recommend reading this photo essay here on my website, and then contacting the people whose details I have put in there.

How about the insane cod and coalfish fishing we filmed off the coast of Norway on the tiny island of Rost ? See what I mean ? A long way from lots of people and the fishing was off the scale it was so good. Check out a load of photos here if you don't believe me.

The photo you can see above was shot early one morning last year on the Minquiers, a huge reef system that lies a few miles off the coast of Jersey. I have been in love with the different Channel Islands for years now, and there are plenty of smaller islands around them that can be accessed and fished if you know what you are doing or go with experienced people (if you have seen me trying to navigate a boat, you will know why I choose the latter option !!). I have dreamed of going to the Minquiers for ages, and it was a huge thrill to spend a night out there. Check out how good that water looks for bass fishing - it was tough when we were out there, but anybody with half a brain is going to get excited about tide, reefs, islands, rips and eddies when it comes to bass fishing.

Above is Jersey bass-freak Trevor Sangan fishing a popper off the back of the little island we stayed on at the Minquiers. What a perfect morning. There is also the famous Ecrehous reef system that lies off Jersey, plus numerous others. The bass guys over there have got access to such a vast area of fishable waters. I know that they guys here are always happy to help out with local advice, and they stock the rods, reels and lures that smash the bass big time.

It just so happens that this exploratory French bass fishing/photography trip of mine that I am in the process of planning will most likely be based around an island or two. Perhaps the fact that islands get me going to much is partly down to the fact that you have to cross water to get to them, and that crossing of water always gives me that slightly increased sense of adventure. I don't care if it involves a boat, a ferry, a plane, a kayak or even a bit of a swim (preferably not), that crossing from the mainland over to an island always increases the heart rate. Fishing is an exciting thing to do in my book.

I can't talk about islands without mentioning one of the most stunning places on earth - the Isles of Scilly. OK, so they don't have bass fishing, but they have insane shore fishing for species like mullet (monsters), pollack, huss, wrasse, conger etc. Accessing the different islands out there is like entering a new world every day. It's been too long......

And on a different note, I watched a programme last night about the English 2003 Rugby World Cup campaign - mainly to remind myself of how great we once were, and to try and rid myself of all this heartache at being an English rugby supporter at the moment. The emotion of those days came flooding back and I think my wife caught me wiping the odd tear from the corner of my eyes - "got a bit of dust in there". She thinks I'm mad, but those were the days were they not ? We were world beaters once, with a team full of awesome rugby players who could do what it took under the severest of pressure. Can we ever be like that again ?

New issue of Catch mag now online

2009-03-05T06:01:00.009Z

There is a brand new issue of the online magazine Catch out now - see here. It does not matter what kind of fishing you do, whether it's saltwater, fly or coarse, because I presume that most fishermen like to check out awesome looking fishing. Catch magazine continues to blow me away with the quality of the work in there, and this issue they have gone mad and dropped a photo of mine in there - have a look in the Light Series for my shot.

The first photo in that First Light section is simply outstanding, and it was shot by the famous US fly fishing photographer Val Atkinson. Check out more of his work here. OK, so some of us may never go to some of the places featured in Catch magazine, but that is not the point. This online magazine in my mind is a simple celebration of all that is good about fishing - the fact that if photographed well, fishing can look so inviting and impressive. The better we make fishing look to everybody, the better our chances are for keeping this great sport going. That is how I see things anyway.

I am a fairly useless fly fisherman myself, but to photograph fly fishing is just plain awesome. Many of the world's most beautiful and remote areas are regularly accessed by pioneering fly fishermen, and it this spirit of adventure that I find such an appealing part of fishing. Sure, we tend to all love our "home" fishing the best (give me a bass any day of the week), but just the sniff of a chance to experience different species, cultures, techniques and people is what drives a large part of my work. I know that lots of anglers are never going to venture overseas to fish, but surely there is no harm in dreaming ?

And my favourite place on earth ? It has to be Ireland. I fell for Africa ages ago, indeed a part of me would love to live and work in South Africa, but Ireland just feels that extra bit special to me. It did the first time I ever went. Every time I go over there I can hardly sleep for the excitement. OK, so Ireland has some outstanding bass fishing, but what most sea anglers do not realise is that there are so many miles of basically unexplored and unfished coastline over there. The more effort you put into a place like Ireland, the more you will get out. In these credit crunch times, and even with the Euro being so bad for us, you can still do Ireland very cheaply. And of course there is some fantastic fly and coarse fishing over there as well.

I like my shore-based fishing to be as far away from the crowds as possible, and it still amazes me how few people I see shore fishing in Ireland. The guys who know their fishing tend to fish out of the way places, much like around here, but there is so much easily accessible water over there that can chuck up such good fishing. I defy anybody's jaw not to hit the floor when you are fishing areas like the Beara peninsular, the Ring of Kerry and the Clare coastline. What about heading west from Cork ? And what about the virtually deserted coast of the south east ? Ireland is simply stunning. There is so much more I want to see out there - wild islands offshore on the west coast where I hear rumours of mind-blowing pollack fishing. Acres of water stuffed full or rays and huss. Huge mullet swimming around with nobody to fish for them.......

See what I mean about dreaming ? Fishing is about dreaming, and something like Catch magazine simply stokes the fires further. One of these days I am going to do what I have dreamt about for years now, and that is to jump in a camper van and take myself off to remote parts of Ireland I have never been to and simply roam and fish until I drop. To dream is good.

Winter blue sky front cover

2009-03-03T09:29:00.011Z

I was really pleased to get the cover of the latest issue of Trout Fisherman magazine, as you can see above. Check out my photos on pages 14, 18, 19, 20, 21 , 22 and 23 - Nick Hart wrote all the words. The blue skies on the cover were like what we had down here over the weekend, but they are forecasting a decent storm coming in later today. We shall see....

I am sorting out an exploratory bass fishing trip down to Brittany in north west France - there is a particular area that really interests me, and some of the people I met at the Salon de Peches show the other weekend down at Nantes are helping me out with tides, contacts and dates. I can not tell you how much I am looking forward to the chance of photographing and fishing for bass in France, it is such an awesome country, and I hope that this trip might be the start of another love affair - like I have for Ireland and the fishing over there.

I told you yesterday about the bass that were caught by my friends over in Ireland over the weekend - check out the photos on Graham Hill's new bass blog. Keep an eye on this one. Over time I fully expect his blog to become a place that I am going to have to avoid looking at too much in case I do what I keep thinking about - dropping out, moving over there to live, and just fishing my socks off until the day I die !! Not very realistic I know, but hard not to think about doing.........

I have just been sent a PDF of a photo essay of mine that is in the awesome Norwegian fishing magazine Alt om Fiske - I really like getting my work in this publication. Granted, I don't understand a word of it, but it looks fantastic !! The salmon photos of mine were shot out on the Gaspe peninsular over on the east coast of Canada - pure sight fishing for Atlantic salmon in the clearest rivers I have ever seen. What a lot of fly anglers don't know is that most of this east coast Canadian salmon fishing is really cost effective, and it takes hardly any time to get over there. Flights are usually dirt cheap as well. Talk to Pete or Charlotte at Aardvark McLeod about going there.

I also received a copy of the German fishing magazine Blinker yesterday, and in there is a big feature of mine on the frankly scary-awesome lure and fly fishing for giant golden dorado in Argentina. I am especially pleased with the big double-page spread photo of mine that they used, of a jumping dorado with a popper in its mouth. Heading to this particular location that is in the feature is not cheap, but they are virtually fully booked up because it is THE best place on earth to chase the biggest golden dorado. These magnificent fish are still one of the most impressive freshwater species I have ever come across, and I really want to do a lot more with them. Again, if this kind of fishing floats your boat, talk to Aardvark McLeod. I would never do this kind of thing if it was not an important part of my work, and I never thought for one second that when I started out working in fishing that I would get to see things like this. But as I always say, it ain't ever close to what it seems.........

A perfect day - very nearly ruined.....

2009-03-02T08:54:00.005Z

Yesterday was just about the best day I could have had without going fishing - my girls and I went over to north Cornwall to see some friends, and with the stunning weather, we all had a picnic down on the Camel estuary and basically had a blast building sandcastles, collecting shells and walking out on the sand at low tide. Out of the wind and it was really warm, and my sheepdog Jess was happy to chase sea gulls until we had to head home to Plymouth. What an awesome way to spend a Sunday.

But the rugby on Saturday afternoon came close to completely ruining my weekend - I know the mature me should rise with ease above such an outright disappointment, but to do this took real strength of will. To say that England were awful (once again) is something I hate having to admit, but surely the time has come now to start dropping players who can not stop giving away daft penalties. I would hate to be Danny Care when Martin Johnson gives him hell - and the idiot deserves it, what an insane way to get yellow-carded. "Professional fouls" I can understand when you have no choice but to try and prevent a score, but the penalties we kept on giving away were mad. The only reason the game was so close was because Ronan O'Gara momentarily forgot how to kick at goal. How much longer can I keep on watching the England rugby team do so badly ?

I heard from a friend over in Ireland that they had a couple of bass at the weekend, including a fish nudging the 5lb mark. These fish came on crab baits, proving once again that if you go to the right areas, bass are a real possibility all year round. I fully expect reports of good lure caught bass fairly soon from over there. They also had a huge flounder and some small sea trout.

I generally have a fisheye lens in my camera bag, but it rarely gets used. It's the kind of lens to bring out only on the odd occasion, like the shot you can see above - sometimes a shot simply "jumps" at you, and I took this one a few years ago with my friend Graham Hill. Yet again he was smashing decent fish on lures, and with the generally pretty poor light we had that particular day, I was keen on trying something else photography wise to try and emphasise the majestic lines of these fish. The head of a bass always makes a strong impression on me, and getting in really tight with a fisheye allows me to make something of that feature. Personally I really like the shot, but I do have reservations about using fisheye lenses too much......

Today is the day

2009-02-28T08:26:00.003Z

I am hoping this afternoon that against all odds, the English rugby team are going to awaken from their slumber and come out with only one thing on their mind - beating Ireland. No hang-ups, no excuses, so stupid penalties, no yellow cards, just a load of guts and glory. Granted, we played a bit of rugby against the Welsh, but we still lost. And how about France beating Wales last night ?

The life of an eternal optimist - English rugby supporters have had to be pretty tough to stick with the team since the emotional highs of November 2003, so perhaps this afternoon will be the time when we rise from the ashes and announce ourselves back on the world stage ? We shall see............

Shore fishing for bass in France ?

2009-02-25T11:31:00.010Z

Although the photo you can see above was shot in Jersey, in truth it could just as easily be over in France - a huge amount of French bass fishermen are fishing from fast, open boats with spinning rods and reels, doing the exact same thing you can see here. Tide, features, more tide, more features, bass love them all. Note the red Tenryu rod - these things are turning up everywhere, and this has to say something about how good they are. Starting to save up now for my Tenryu Super Mix 240..........

Therefore a lot of the development we see with "their" fishing is related to catching bass off a boat. Of course there is a lot of crossover between this more modern style light tackle bass fishing, but you also need to bear in mind that a rod and lure that has been developed for fishing say twenty to forty metres down in a fast tide is most likely going to be of little use to us for our shore fishing.

But I did spend a fair bit of time talking to various people at the Nantes show about the shore fishing opportunities in France. My spoken French is not nearly as strong as it once was, but I can get by. I love fishing from boats, and I hope to do plenty more of it in the future, but at heart I am most contented when I have to get out and walk serious miles. And I think I have come across some awesome shore fishing potential over in France for smashing proper numbers of bass and also wrasse on lures - I presume pollack as well, and those three species keep me more than happy.

When I asked one of the French guys whether they caught any wrasse off the shore on soft plastics, he laughed !! They catch stacks of them (100 in two days last year), and some monsters as well - wrasse to over 8lbs from the shore, on lures. Bring it on. Plus when conditions are right, big numbers of bass on hard and soft plastic lures. One angler was describing a particular technique to me where he was working a very small, 25g vertical jig rigged with assist hooks to fish a particular area of the shoreline in a very precise way, and in three consecutive casts he landed three bass over 9lbs. Insanity prevails. The exact places they are fishing are of course not heavily publicised, especially with the pressure the French fish receive from so many mad-keen anglers, but it seems that you can have some decent shore sport if you look around. We shall see......

As soon as time allows, I am going to try and head over to the west coast of France and begin to try and unravel more of what these guys are doing over there - and I really want to do a mixture of shore and boat fishing. It's perfect for me as I can just jump on the Plymouth-Roscoff ferry that departs about ten minutes from my front door. Seems to me that the open-minded, adventurous bass angler can find world class fishing in a lot of different places. Sure, it takes time, effort and money, but if you want to find the best fishing, it certainly ain't going to come to you. There is a part of me forever lost to the deserted coastlines of Ireland.

I shot a feature yesterday with Nick Hart, for Trout Fisherman magazine. We never saw the sun all day, but we had a fantastic time with some stunning rainbow trout in great surroundings. There was not a breath of wind and this allowed me to shoot the kind of photo that you can see above - Nick casting a perfect line with that awesome looking tree perfectly reflected on the flat calm surface of the lake. A modern digital camera tends to want to try and slightly over-expose a scene like this, and as a result a lot of the contrast and "punch" can be lost. In a situation like this I have deliberately dialled in a bit of minus exposure compensation to try and retain the overall look.

The trout that Nick caught were in fantastic condition, and this monster was the last one of the day. I lined this up as a cover-style photo, and in my head I could see the layout of the page already, but you never quite know what is going to actually end up on the front cover. We shall see what happens, but perhaps it is too far removed from "man plus fish" to make on to the front page. I really like how the guys at Trout Fisherman are making the magazine look, and I know how much hard work goes into it.

Bass fishing - the future ?

2009-02-23T13:21:00.005Z

How on earth can such a seemingly simple bit of soft plastic like you can see above create such wanton desire among so many bass anglers ? A modern soft plastic lure like the MegaBass XLayer is to the untrained eye probably no more than a slightly dubious looking ribbed bit of strange rubber, but in the hands of a decent bass fisherman this thing comes alive. Watching the French guys demonstrating various hard and soft lures in the tanks was a real eye-opener. The XLayer for example is designed to be worked in slower tides, with a jig head roughly the shape of the one you can see above. You then literally make it jump and twitch up and down as you retrieve it. Kind of like the guys were using them when I was last over in Ireland in fact - and the bass were nailed big time. See the photos here.

You need to be able to impart such subtle movements and twitches to these things, and the more information that is literally transmitted down the rod and through your hand and arm will mean more bass caught. Might sound like rubbish, but it's true. That is why I a starting to save up for the red Tenryu Super Mix 240. The right tool for the job.

By no means am I am now saying that the only people who really know how to catch bass are the French, because that's rubbish. I know some pretty good bass anglers myself who can smash the fish big time. But on a personal level I like to learn all the time. I don't like standing still. The French are doing a lot of different things to us, and it fascinates me.

The lure you can see above is one of the best looking hard plastic lures I have ever seen - the picture of it does no justice to the overall shape and appeal of this thing, but when I saw this IMA Imagene 130 sitting in a glass stand at the Nantes show, my eyes nearly popped out of my head. This is a shallow diving lure that is designed to worked fairly fast, much like the Maria Chase BW, the Tackle House Feed Shallow and the various Duo Tide Minnow lures, the IMA Imagene will soon be in my tackle box, and specifically in the colour you can see above. A top-end Japanese lure like this does not come cheap, and they can be really hard to get hold of, but I know that in a while you will be able to get them right here. Ask and ye shall receive !! (after abusing your credit card of course) I have heard such good reports about IMA lures, and there is also a slightly smaller 110 model of this one that swims even shallower. Not that I like lures or anything.......

I had an email from my mate Cato over in Norway, and he caught a 17lb coalfish the other day when he was out ice fishing. That is some fish to catch off the shore !! A guy he knows was ice fishing last week and caught an 80lb ling - yes, you read it right, eighty pounds. Not off the boat, off the shore. OK, off the ice then. Wow. They have got some incredible fishing up in Norway. Cold but insane. Check out Cato's awesome drumming on this life-changing metal album here.

Today is the last day of the show

2009-02-22T05:28:00.004Z

Yesterday was another really interesting day out here - it is not much use to spend all my time wandering around the show looking open-mouthed at all the kit on display. Granted, you could do this, and I did myself for the first few hours on Friday, but in truth I need to learn as much as possible.

I have talked at length with one of the most respected and highly successful specialist shore anglers out here, and he is completely obsessed with fishing for bass. Kinda sounds like plenty of us does it not ? This particular person is using a rod no longer than about 8' for all his shore fishing, and very specifically the Tenryu Super Mix 240. I wanted to know why.....

An angler like this guy wants a rod that can very easily switch from fishing more "conventional" hard plastic lures over to various soft plastics on either jig heads and or free swimming. Then he might go and put on a tiny 25g vertical jig, rigged with 1/0 assist hooks, and cast it close to one hundred metres and really search out huge areas of water by making this shiny piece of metal sink and flutter all the way in.

So are there rods out here that can do this ? And bear in mind that they are very different bits of kit to the ultra-fast action rods that the French love to use for fishing with hard plastic lures - essentially the things we are most used to using. I am seeing a lot of companies out here who are launching lots of specialist "do it all very efficiently" bass rods that are used for both hard and soft plastics, and might stretch to a little bit of very light vertical jigging if required. You can easily buy individual rods that are designed purely for what I would now term the three different bass fishing methods out here (hard lures, soft plastics, and vertical jigging), but it is interesting to see the "crossover" rods.

Tenryu without doubt is top of the three out here - the distinctly red rods are drawing big crowds all the time, and I see lots of guys walking around with red Tenryu rod bags that they have just bought. The Tenryu range is massive, and I want them all !! Dream on perhaps......

The Tenryu Super Mix 210 (say 7'), 240' (8') and the 270 (9') are the all round, "cope with it all very well" rods, and they feel stunning to pick up and waggle. I already know of a fair few bass anglers from Jersey who are using these particular rods, and if there is one rod I would now buy to really get me into fishing with the mountain of soft plastics available, it is going to be the Super Mix 240. Better get saving !! The shore guy was talking me through the reasons behind the Super Mix 240 specifically, and I could really see exactly what he was getting at.

But there are also plenty of awesome cheaper bass rods out here that will do the crossover style really well - I have talked a lot with the guys over at Sakura and Hart specifically, and there are some outstanding bits of kit for sensible money. The popular lengths for a rod that can do it all are without doubt 7', 8' and 9'. Bearing in mind of course that a lot of the bass anglers are fishing from boats of course, but around 8' seems to be the most popular length for this kind of rod, for both shore and boat work.

There are also loads of more regular spinning rods out here, but what in the UK I would now term "specialist bass plugging", the French anglers call spinning for bass - this is using more regular hard plastic lures like the ones we all love. Surface, sub surface, stick baits, wanderers, you name it, bass love 'em. So a "more regular spinning rods" out here is generally lightening quick to use.

Spinning (or plugging) rods out here are virtually all very fast action and seriously light. Gorgeous bits of kit at plenty of different price ranges, but you can see how the French bass anglers have so wholeheartedly embraced the fact that fast rods are far more efficient at working hard plastic lures from boat and shore. The length of rods range from 10' down to 7', and I have not seen a lure rod for bass yet that is over 10' long, and you can see that guys are more than happy to fish with the shorter rods. My own Tenryu Red Dragon Express is close to 10', and it is the most incredible rod to fish with, but I have to say that I would fish with a 9' specialist plugging rod off the shore with no worries at all. The Rod Bar 270 comes to mind.

Anyway, lots more to think about. Time now to go and get some coffee and wake Trevor up who is sleeping (and snoring) in the bed next to me - nice !! I am flying back to the UK tonight, and I am so glad I came out here. It is the lads from Jersey that I know who first told me that I had to come to this show, and I owe them another debt of thanks for switching me on to this stuff.

Can't sleep - some more French bass thoughts

2009-02-21T04:11:00.006Z

My head is swimming with an information overload out here, and with all that going on I woke up at silly o'clock again. Kinda feels like being out on repeated night fishing sessions again. Only a few hours now until the Nantes show starts again, and today I am going to try and learn a whole load more than I did yesterday.

I wanted to try and find a principal reason why French bass fishing has become so technically advanced. Fishing trends and markets are driven by different things, but there had to be a reason to explain the explosion out here in fishing modern soft plastic lures generally close to or on the bottom, plus the increasing acceptance of vertical jgging as a killer method for the bass in deeper water.

The main reason I have found for all this modernisation is that there are literally so many French bass anglers continuously casting "conventional" hard plastic surface and sub-surface lures at the fish that the bass are basically getting spooked and moving out from inshore and are congregating more and more in the deeper, often very turbulent water. Fishing for bass is huge out here, indeed I was quoted figures yesterday that at least 50% of French sea anglers are active bass anglers. And bear in mind that sea fishing is really big out here.

Of course there can be some excellent shore fishing out here if you know where to look and can get away from the crowds (the same the world over with all kinds of fishing), but it is far more of a boat-based bass culture in France than it is in England. The guys are using these generally smaller, faster boats (loads of RIBs, perfect for fishing close to rocks and rips) to access the deeper water often way offshore - but bear in mind that a lot of the west coast of France is littered with islands and rocks that give so much varied bass water for the boat angler. Many of these offshore islands are where the keen shore fishermen go as well.

So the French anglers have had no choice but to keep developing more and more refined techniques and gear to catch these fish. The guys seem very happy with the actual numbers of bass or stock levels that they have around here, but they are being forced to literally "adapt or die". Either learn new methods or suffer a drastic reduction in your fishing returns. This is a very interesting philosophy to find so close to home on the saltwater fishing side.

It goes almost without saying that the range of what we would call hard plastic lures is about as refined as I have ever come across - more "please buy me" shallow diving and surface lures than you could believe, and I want to own them all, in all the different colours as well !! There is some stunning new stuff from brands such as Sebile, IMA, Tackle House, Duo, ILLEX etc. I watched a new Duo lure being demonstrated yesterday and had to stop my mouth opening all the time in a really intelligent "hang dog" look - the lure was insane, and the guy working it simply made it come alive. I was gobsmacked at how slowly and deliberately the guys fish some of their hard plastic lures. OK, so there is plenty of stuff that likes to be cranked hard and fast, but there is some really interesting stuff that likes to be worked closer to how you might work a soft plastic lure like the MegasBass XLayer or the Slug-Go.

And on the soft plastics front, this is what I find most staggering out here. I said earlier that the bass are tending to vacate the more pressurised inshore areas, and the guys are often having to fish deeper water to catch them. It is how they might fish say twenty to forty metres down that is really opening my eyes. The amount of different kinds of soft plastics (worms, shads, minnows etc.) and the variation in jig head weights, shapes and patterns is what has got into my head big time. Watching these soft lures being properly demonstrated in the tanks is blowing my mind. The lures look better than the real thing, seriously. I know we can use a lot of these methods in our waters, from boat and shore.

I was talking with a really well respected bass angler out here yesterday, and he was talking me through a specific soft plastic lure that was being demonstrated. It was a kind of worm, fished on a tungsten weighted jig head. The best results they get from this particular lure is to let it sink to the bottom in a bit of tide and literally allow it to sit there, nose down, while the body of the soft worm literally shivers and flutters in the tide. From time to time they will move it a bit, and these movements practically had me jumping into the tank to grab the lure myself. Even in a tank with no current you could see what was going on when the lure sat nose down, and the angler said the hits off the bass could be off the scale savage on the static worm. I am often guilty of cranking my lures too fast (too overexcited half the time), but these methods the French are using often require huge finesse, patience and skill.

I have been showing a few prints of my bass photographs to various people out here, and the reactions are fantastically positive. We might be lagging behind the French when it comes to modern bass fishing techniques (and we are, there is no point trying to stick one's chest out and deny it), but they really like the way we photograph and film our fishing. Interesting. Time to go and find some coffee......

This is a different world of fishing out here

2009-02-20T19:38:00.002Z

This Nantes fishing show out here in France is simply staggering - I have been to lots of different fishing shows all over the world over the last few years, but never have I seen so much stuff that I know so comparatively little about. The French bass anglers especially are so technically advanced in what they are doing that my head is still spinning.

I have learnt so much new stuff about lure fishing for bass in just one day that my head feels ready to explode, but I can not tell you how exciting it is to almost "discover" a market that is thriving on the driving forward of technology and fishing methods. I have learnt a lot about French bass fishing over the last couple of years, but today was a real wake-up call as to how far down the line they actually are.

Now it's not to say that we are doing anything wrong with our bass fishing in the UK, because we are not. We catch some good fish from time to time with a variety of methods, but I now can not wait to start trying some of what I am learning about over here on "our" bass. I had no idea that you could successfully lure fish for bass in so many different ways, but bear in mind that it is only around ten years ago that this technological explosion in bass fishing methods and tackle began happening in France.

The actual fishing gear out here is off the scale - far too many stunning rods that are often designed to fish very specific methods, plus more soft and hard lures that you could ever dream of using in a lifetime. It is a tackle tart's heaven out here. It's been a long day though and we are about to go and grab something to eat. More tomorrow. My head is hurting with all this information and I am loving every minute of it.

Yes, I am a grown-up

2009-02-20T05:45:00.005Z

At least that is what I keep telling myself. I am now nearer 40 than 30, I have a wife and two children, I am self-employed, I pay my taxes (wish I didn't have to though), and I read The Times and Terrorizer magazine at the weekend. But I am still a fishing junkie at heart, and there ain't anything that will ever change that....

I am out in France, in my featureless, bland hotel room, slowly going up the wall. Bouncing off the ceiling in fact. Woke up at silly o'clock this morning thinking about all the shiny lures, (red) rods and assorted bits and pieces that I am going to see at this Nantes fishing show today. Remember, this is a work trip for me, but there is no harm in loving your job. I have already written a fishing feature on my laptop this morning, done my emails, listened to loads of proper metal on my iPOD (that will never change either), drunk far too much coffee, and still it is not even time for breakfast. I have been fishing since I was seven years old, and still I can get so excited by it all that I can't sleep properly. Who needs drugs when you've got fishing ? And this is just a fishing show - it's not even going fishing. Do I have a problem ? Mmmmmmm.........no comment.

When I can I will report back on this blog with my thoughts on the show. It should be a real eye-opener and I can't wait for it to start. I have so much to learn and absorb, and it is this which has got me so buzzed-up (ok, plus the rods, reels, lures, boats etc.) I've been up for hours now and I need to calm myself down a bit. Some more coffee I think.....

Off to France tomorrow

2009-02-18T13:28:00.004Z

I have the dubious pleasure of having to drive all the way to Stansted airport tomorrow morning to fly down to this big fishing show in Nantes on the west coast of France. The show is on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and if internet connections allow then I will do all I can to keep this blog updated with my findings at the event - especially on the bass fishing front. I have a feeling it will be a fascinating few days. All I have to do is to remain calm and not completely empty my wallet on lots of shiny new lures, rods, reels, and bits of soft plastic. From a phonecall with a friend of mine over in Cornwall last night, it seems that we who have lure fishing problems number many. He knows who he is, and he has got it really bad. I bet he blames me when his family question the arrival of yet another parcel at the front door !!

Great timing as well because the Six Nations rugby is having a weekend off, so I won't miss a game. I feel a little better now about the future of English rugby, but perhaps that's just me willing them ever onwards and forever hoping eternally !! Think positive.

For a bit of nostalgia, above is a photo of mine that was from the first time I ever met and fished/photographed with Graham Hill over in south east Ireland. He has become a very good friend and I look forward to many more days over in paradise - this picture made the front cover of Sea Angler magazine, where they cropped it to work on the page. See here for the cover.

If like me you are chomping at the bit to get through winter over here and back into the proper light tackle bass fishing season, help yourself through these lean times with an eyeful of how bass fishing can look. Check here and here for a load of photos of great days in the past - and here's to hoping for plenty more this year.......

I have just had a phonecall from my friend Rodney of Fish the Dream over in the Florida Keys to say that they have had a last minute cancellation. They now have the first two weeks of April free, and I know Rodney will do a deal on the fishing - this is prime tarpon time for starters, so if you can make it, get hold of Rodney right here. He is awesome on the tarpon and you will see a load of big fish hooked up - whether you can land these outrageously powerful fish is another matter entirely !! I should be heading out there in May to fish with Rodney. I can't think of a more cost effective way to fish the magical waters of the legendary Florida Keys than with Rodney.

Some news on another monster metal release to bring a delightful ray of darkness into your life. Vreid was born from the ashes of the mighty Windir (RIP), and the new CD "Milorg" is a huge album. Riff after riff of shredding Norwegian style metal, all in the best possible taste. You can here some tracks here. This one is really growing on me, and I will make sure to blast this through my skull on the plane down to France tomorrow.

I am categorically not a fishing tackle tart

2009-02-17T09:34:00.004Z

Yeah right !! I am not thinking much at all about all those lovely rods, reels and lures (and more lures) at the Nantes fishing show (watch my nose grow as I type that sentence). I have spent so much time in France, and I love the country and the people, but this will be my first real chance to properly delve into the French sea fishing scene. And obviously the bass fishing is a big part of what fascinates me here......

In all seriousness, weird rigs and strange set-ups don't do much for me at all, but give me a glimpse of high end rods, reels and those lovely, shiny "please buy me" lures and the tackle tart within me comes out to play. I've used countless different beachcasters over the years, and in my honest opinion I think we are making them about as good as they need to be, but the massive potential within the lure fishing side of things is what is driving me forward at the moment.

On that front, check out pages 120, 121, 122, 123 and 124 in the brand new issue of Sea Angler magazine. There is a very cool feature of mine on fishing for bass with shallow diving lures - I know I would say it is cool because I back my own photos (modesty eh ?), but the guys at Sea Angler are really making the magazine look very strong at the moment. All credit.

If you are interested in stunning photography, then I implore you to check out the outrageously incredible work by a photographer I have just stumbled upon. I love awesome photography of the world around us, and my wife gave me one of the most stunning photography books I have ever seen for my birthday the other day. Galen Rowell was an American photographer and environmentalist who tragically died in a plane crash in 2002. I can't believe that I have only just "found" this guy, but his work was and is truly inspirational. His use of light in his photography is truly jaw-dropping and it makes me realise just how far I have got to go before I am close to being fit to even carry the gear for these kinds of photographers.

Galen Rowell's website is here, and the (awesome) book my wife got me is called "North America - the beautiful" (the cover is above) and you can get it from Amazon right here. There are plenty more books by the same guy here as well. I love my photography and I feel that I am getting better and better every year, but when you see a collection of work from a guy as talented as Galen Rowell then you realise just how powerful a medium photography really can be. If my kind of work can better help to show fishing off in the best possible light, then that is what I strive for.

Going to the Nantes fishing show

2009-02-16T10:19:00.005Z

Like a kid in a candy store - I am in a high state of excitement about heading over to France later this week for the huge "Salon Europeen des Peches en Mer" show (see here). This will be the first time I have ever gone to this major sea fishing show, and with the emphasis being on bass fishing you can now understand my "mild" excitement at going. On the serious side, an event like this is work for me, and on a less serious note, hell, it's a chance to feed my (lure) addiction even more !! Soft plastic heaven here we come.....

I am flying from Stansted to Nantes on Thursday and will be spending Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the show and then coming back home at the end of the weekend. My role there is to quite simply learn as much as possible about the rapidly expanding bass fishing market - I have various reasons for heading down there. If you have followed this blog for a while now, you will know how much I value what the switched-on French bass anglers are doing, and how much we are learning and still have to learn from them.

Take the bass you can see above - this is one of the largest bass I have ever seen caught, and it was nailed on a peeler crab bait over in south east Ireland a couple of years ago. I love my bait fishing for most things that swim, but the more I learn about the increasingly modern ways of fishing with lures, the more I am convinced that bass like this one can be more regularly taken on hard and soft lures. Go to the right places at the right time, use the right tactics and mix it all up with a big dollop of luck and you might just see a magnificent fish like this on the end of your line.

Allow these rabid mongrels into your life - you have to check out the new album from the British stalwarts Napalm Death, called "Time Waits for No Slave" - it is what I would term the second monster metal release of the year so far, right after this one here. A lot of people think that Napalm Death are just a load of noise, but you need to listen to them to hear just how downright groovy they are - yes, you heard it, groovy !! Heavy as hell, faster than a bolt of lightening frying your brain, but always willing to slow it down a tad and abuse your senses in the most proper of ways. Check out some tracks from the new album right here. If this does not get any self-respecting metal fan jumping up and down like a cat on a hot tin roof then you need to see somebody about it. Monday is getting better and better.

And onto the Six Nations rugby - a glimmer of hope is how I would term the England performance on Saturday. OK, so the Welsh beat us (grudging respect to you lot over the border), but we actually stood up and showed some proper guts. We played some decent rugby and we began to look like a team who can think for themselves a bit under proper pressure. If we had not given away so many stupid penalties and lost two players to the sin bin we might have actually been able to win the game (ok, maybe I am dreaming). It always hurts to get beaten by the Welsh, but they were by far the better side and even then they have had much better days. They are growing into an awesome team (it hurts to have to type that) Is this the first sign of an English revival though ? Should I start getting excited again about England rugby ? Time will tell, but at least we saw a glimmer........

Nobody does it like the BBC

2009-02-12T10:28:00.005Z

The majority of fishermen I meet have an increased level of interest in nature and the outdoors, so I am presuming that a load of you watched the staggering new programme on BBC1 last night - Nature's Great Events - 1. The Great Melt. If not, watch it as soon as you can on iPlayer right here. I love nature related programmes, and I still believe that when the BBC puts their mind to it they make the greatest natural history shows on earth. I spent most of last night's episode with my jaw on the floor. How many of you went "aah, aren't they sweet" when the first polar bear mum and her cub trundled across the screen ? I bet they aren't so sweet when they haven't fed for four months !!

How on earth is the BBC ever going to replace the timeless David Attenborough ? His commentary always lends an air of class, and I appreciate the fact that there is a gentle but persuasive environmental feel where it is required. Utterly outstanding, and I personally can not wait for the episode next week on the salmon migrations - how cool do the slow-motion shots of the bears waiting open mouthed for the salmon look ? Just imagine getting proper budgets and time to make fishing programmes look as cool as that ? And how about shooting them in full HD ? The mind boggles at the possibilities........

Photo courtesy Jako Lucas

I mentioned some recent and very good ray fishing around here from the other day, but how about the ray that you can see in the photo above ? Now that is proper ray fishing !! It is a 90lb plus stingray (not sure which type, there are loads) caught in South Africa a few weeks ago by one of the FlyCastaway guides, Jako Lucas. I have worked with Jako in the Seychelles and in South Africa, and as well as being a seriously talented fly fisherman and guide, Jako is also scarily good at rock and surf tactics for the silly-sized kinds of fish you can see here. More keen fishermen should check out the shore and boat fishing opportunities in South Africa - how do you fancy being spooled by a shark that takes exactly 1000 yards (yes, one thousand) of line off you ? I know somebody that this happened to. We have some awesome fishing around us here, but it never gets as "out there" as it does in places like Africa. Insanity prevails.

Thanks to Stu and a couple of comments he placed on this blog (check here)- please take the time to read the last few posts on his own blog right here, and take serious heed of what can so easily go wrong when you go fishing. Thankfully the guys are all ok, but they were horribly close to a serious disaster. Push your fishing hard, but please play it as safe as you can.

Winter rainbow trout

2009-02-11T15:14:00.003Z

Nick Hart and I did a feature yesterday at the pristine Blakewell trout fishery close to Barnstaple in North Devon - it is a fantastically well maintained place to go and fish, and even with all the rain we had on Monday, Nick still managed to nail a couple of stunning looking rainbow trout for my cameras. We even got big blue skies for the first couple of hours as well. Check the photo above for proof !! These skies look awesome in the winter.

Conditions were fantastically tough for the actual fishing, so I take my hat off to Nick for getting a decent fish so quickly, almost to order in fact. The water had gone really murky with all that rain, yet I'm still there hoping that a fish was going to get caught quickly so that I could make full use of those blue skies - and come to order it did. Nice one Nick.

I just saw a good friend of mine who happens to run a charter boat out of my home port of Plymouth - you could not hope to fish with a nicer or better skipper than Malcolm Jones, and it always gives me a real boost when I know the guy running the boat is also a mad keen angler. Malcolm has just got his boat Sea Angler II back in the water after its yearly dry-dock visit, and he nipped over to the mouth of the River Tamar for a quick session over the weekend. Five thornback ray to around 12lbs were caught, all on prawn baits, and Malc said he had one on before he had even managed to set up his second rod. Class fishing. If you want an awesome day at sea, book Malcolm up as soon as you can.

It's getting very hard.......

2009-02-09T16:22:00.003Z

.....to keep watching England play rugby. James and I got back into Heathrow on time on Saturday morning, and I made it back to Plymouth in plenty of time to watch England take on Italy in the opening match of the Six Nations. My wife and two daughters had made me a birthday cake, so I did the decent thing and Sky +ed the second half of the rugby......

How bad can a game of rugby get ? I am a fanatical England rugby supporter, but I am finding it increasingly tough to keep watching the turgid rubbish that they keep playing. OK, so we essentially thrashed a very weak Italian side, and a win is a win, but it's just such boring, depressing stuff to watch. I am not one of those people who demands that England play expansive rugby all the time, but the stuff they are churning out at the moment would test the most hardy of souls. What on earth is going on ? England's greatest ever skipper (Martin Johnson is GOD) is in charge of the team, yet even he can't seem to get the team playing with any intelligence or "think on your feet" attitude. I am dreading the Wales game next weekend, and how often do you say that ? November 2003 seems like a lifetime ago.

One bit of good news is the release of the first great metal album of the year - the mighty Kreator keep on churning out the classics, and their latest CD is a ferocious thrash metal assault that will make any morose rugby fan smile. I keep reading about the "rebirth of thrash metal", but as far as I can tell it has never gone away - how about The Haunted, Death Angel, Slayer, Kreator etc ? The new bands I have heard are not remotely fit to even polish the shoes of classic bands like these who are still releasing monstrous albums. Listen to a few tracks of Kreator's latest release "Hordes of Chaos" right here. The sweet sounds of anger pouring forth from my speakers have put a smile back on my face, and that takes some doing after the grim rugby and the even grimmer weather that has greeted me on my return from Belize. I have taken Jess for a walk twice today, and both times I have been dressed in full waterproofs - nice !! Thoughts of fishing are not in the forefront of my mind at the moment....

If the weather lets us, Nick Hart and I will be out tomorrow to photograph a feature for Trout Fisherman magazine. A little different from photographing out in Belize, but considering the up and down weather we had out there I'll gladly get into my waders and photograph the entire day under a big golfing umbrella if I have to. I do not like being beaten by the conditions.

The jacks have saved us

2009-02-05T22:46:00.010Z

The fact that the jacks have been obligingly hitting the flies have saved us big time - there is nothing you can do when you get the kind of weather we have been getting out here in Belize, but you might as well go and nail a few hard fighting jacks when the tarpon and permit are keeping their heads down. It has been that (comparatively) cold here today that any self-respecting flats fish has long run for deeper water.

The weather we have been getting out here sounds like nothing when compared to all the snow and cold I keep reading about back home, but for a place like this it has been pretty extreme. Wednesday was really bright, perfect for photography, but the wind was literally hurtling down the coast and causing the flats to go all milky and cold. Tarpon, bones and permit hate this !! We tried really hard but could not find the fish, so on the way back to the lodge we stopped to smash a few jacks - they were somewhat obliging. Nothing huge, but a blast. I even picked up a fly rod and (very badly) cast a Clouser Minnow out and nailed a few fish. James and I had a competition to see who could give the least amount of line to a hooked fish, and I am proud to say that I won - not one jack took a single millimetre of line off me. Very silly, but great fun.

The wind was pumping even harder this morning, so our guide elected to run us miles south to try and find clearer water and the fish, but by the time we got there the rain was lashing down in a huge way - not great for flats fishing !! In fact I have never felt so cold in the tropics, and although that might be hard to believe, put a howling wind and lashing rain together and it was feeling more like fishing back at home. Granted, there was no snow, but with our luck I would not have been that surprised if James and I had got a dumping of the first ever snow they have had here !! This place chucks up some seriously good fish, but we have just been dealt a bum hand with the weather. In the bar there is a photo of a 197lb tarpon taken on the fly in 2002 - that is how good it can be here, and when the weather behaves, anglers get multiple shots at tarpon, permit and bonefish. I will be coming back to nail this stuff properly on camera......

James and I are flying back to the UK tomorrow and if all goes to plan we should be landing at Heathrow just after 9am on Saturday morning. I am really hoping that the adverse weather at home does not prevent me getting back home to see my girls and of course make the 3pm kick-off for England v Italy in the opening match of the Six Nations rugby. With Saturday being my birthday, surely a good result might be on the cards ?

Tough day yesterday

2009-02-04T11:18:00.007Z

It feels a bit stupid to be talking about problems with the weather out here in Belize when back home in the UK they are having the worst snow for ages - but yesterday morning especially out here were some of the toughest flats fishing conditions that I have seen for a while. Howling winds and scudding grey skies make it really difficult, so the big jack you can see above was even more of an accomplishment by James. Targeting either permit or tarpon yesterday was never going to happen. We saw a few nice snook lying very close to some mangroves, and James landed a small one, but the bigger ones don't get big by being stupid. We were told of some snook landed on the fly the other day out here to over 20lbs.

Above you can see James's jack being landed by our guide - this place is an awesome location. El Pescador lodge where we are staying is simply fantastic, and when the weather is kinder they have some outstanding fishing here for serious numbers of tarpon (some truly huge fish as well) and permit, plus stacks of mainly small to medium sized bonefish. Some fly anglers never look twice at big jack crevalle, but there are lots out here -anybody who ignores the chance to fish for them needs their heads examined. Belize is a country that is really growing on me, and the more you speak to the locals, the more you realise just what an incredible fishery there is out here. There are big numbers of resident tarpon around all year that do not migrate, but during July, August and September there are a scary amount of migrating tarpon moving through here, and it is not uncommon to land numbers of them every day. All we need is some half-tidy weather and we have got a decent chance........and the forecast is giving it to be a lot better for today.

The moment James and I got back in off the boat yesterday, we jumped straight in the kayaks and paddled out into the backcountry behind the lodge. We found some shelter from the wind and James smashed a few bones on a deserted flat, including this one above. Nothing very big, but proper fun - I saw one shoal of decent bonefish moving around, but they were not in a feeding mode. We did see a few tailing fish, and James also saw a spooky permit.

Messing around on the kayaks is a blast, even though we got lost for a bit and could not work out where to go in the maze of mangrove channels out here !! With the sun rapidly going down, I did not fancy getting stuck out in the backcountry when the mozzies came out to play. It's before first light as I am typing this and we have two full days left to get this properly nailed - if the weather plays ball then I hope we can show just how good it can be out here.

As regards some fishing that is more in keeping with all the snow I keep hearing about back home, check out this mad Norwegian ice fishing at this link right here. Scroll down the page a bit and you will see my mate Cato and a friend of his with some proper pollack and coalfish that they nailed through a tiny hole in the ice - check out the size of the fishing rod !! This looks like class fishing, and Cato tells me they had pollack to 12lbs through the ice, mainly on various soft plastics fished on jigs.

Tricky fishing conditions

2009-02-03T02:47:00.005Z

OK, so it's not snowing out here in Belize like it is back home, but at first light this morning the wind was really pumping the clouds through - if there is one thing you need for flats fishing, it's decent light to help spot the fish. James nailed this nice mutton snapper early on, but it was tough fishing for most of the day. We saw a few nice permit tailing, plus some spooky tarpon and bonefish, but it was not easy to see fish moving.

The weather gradually improved all day though, and this allowed me to start nailing some proper photos - I do really love photographing flats based fishing when the sun gets high in the sky and starts lighting the sand up. There is hardly a breath of wind at the moment, so we are hoping that it stays like this for tomorrow, and then we are in with a proper chance of nailing tarpon and possibly permit. It's lovely and warm out here, but a part of me wished I could see all that snow that is falling in the UK - we see it so rarely and it is a bit of a shame to be away when it is all happening.

Isn't fly fishing awesome ? Isn't fishing in general just plain awesome ? I love photographing fly fishing virtually anywhere, but it really works well for casting shots when the light allows me to frame the angler against big blue skies and try for something that little bit different. James happens to be a seriously good fly angler, and he can chuck a proper line.

We finished the day off by drifting a channel that lay between a couple of small islands, and James smashed the jacks in a big way. We could see hundreds and hundreds of jacks of all sizes swimming around below the boat, and a fair few were taken on fast sinking lines and a Clouser Minnow. Both James and I are big fans of the jacks, and they never cease to amaze me at just how insanely hard they fight. Pound for pound I reckon they are one of the hardest fighting fish there is. Anyway, time to hit the sack and recharge the batteries for another day tomorrow.

Out here in Belize

2009-02-02T01:56:00.006Z

James and I arrived at El Pescador Lodge out here in Belize around lunchtime local time, and within half an hour we on a couple of kayaks and paddling out to some pristine mangrove flats. The serious fishing starts early tomorrow morning. but even so, James hooked a nice bonefish this afternoon, and we saw a fair few tailing and feeding happily. Just seeing those tails glinting in the sunshine gets the heart going every time,and it's great to be back on the flats. "Skinny water" is just so special.

This place is seriously cool, and I am writing this blog as we are sitting outside having a drink and talking about fishing - obviously !! If the weather remains good then we are going to have a proper go at nailing some tarpon and possibly permit on the fly tomorrow, and then when we come in off the boat, James and I will head straight back out on the kayaks to fish and photograph until dark. Might as well use all available hours while we are out here. We are here via Aardvark McLeod and I have a feeling that Belize is going to make a real impact on me - already I have heard about more and more areas out here opening up, with some outstanding fishing..........

These photos are hardly going to win any awards, but it is always good to get out on the water and check that all is working fine. Hopefully I will able to get some decent shots up during the week.

Off to Belize

2009-01-30T14:19:00.005Z

I am frantically trying to clear a load of work before packing my stuff and heading off to Belize tomorrow - I have to leave early tomorrow morning to drive up to Heathrow, fly to Miami, spend the night there, and then fly down to Belize on Sunday morning US time. With the weather outside my window right now, I have to say that the chance of some big blue skies and a bit of heat sure is going to be more than welcome..........

The photos here are from a photo job I did yesterday with Nick Hart, for another piece in an upcoming series on casting in Trout Fisherman magazine (check out the current edition on pages 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 for our latest feature). Yesterday was a tough shoot, with fairly appalling light levels, but we worked hard and nailed a good looking set of photos - I had to shoot most of the day on anywhere up to ISO 800 to get fast enough shutter speeds, but with modern digital cameras the files are so clean that it's not much of a problem. Yesterday was the kind of day when I really would have been struggling on ISO 100 slide film...............ah, the good old days of Provia !!

I am pretty sure that I am going to have proper internet access when we are in Belize, so I will do my best to keep this blog updated as regularly as possible, hopefully with some very cool stuff. The long range forecast for the UK seems to give it getting really cold again early next week, so I guess a quick "in and out" photographic trip to warmer climes ain't too bad. All joking aside, it's going to be great to work it really hard and look for lots of cool material - we touch back down in the UK next Saturday, and it just happens to be my birthday (nearer 40 than 30), so I reckon a wicked present would be England starting the Six Nations rugby really well. But nothing ever beats getting home and seeing my four girls again - wife, two daughters and of course Jess my sheepdog. Perhaps a big England win though......................................?

Make sure to check out the brand new Hardy, Greys and Chub websites, just launched this week I believe.

What is the addiction with bass ?

2009-01-28T08:05:00.004Z

The question was posed via a comment on this blog from Rob, see the original post here. So what is the addiction with bass ? Why do so many of us literally live, breathe and sleep these fish ? There are bigger fish in our seas, and there are fish that fight harder, so why do an increasing amount of sea fishermen spend so much time doing their utmost to catch the king of (sea) fish, the bass ?

Well the photo above says a lot to me about why I love my bass fishing so much - I spend very little time these days staring at two rod tips sat in a tripod. I've done loads of it, and I've even caught a fair few nice fish doing it (and it is always going to be awesome fishing), but if there is one thing that drives me forward in my fishing, it's change. Doing the same thing all the time loses its appeal for me in the end, but I never really spared much of a thought for serious bass fishing for many years. But look closely at the photo above - a lack of other people around, huge, lonely skies, no tripods, seat boxes, rig wallets or vast rucksacks full of millions of reels and lead weights, just the angler lost in their own personal thoughts, waiting very simply for a fish to find his or her bait in amongst the hypnotically rhythmical water.

I guess that bass fishing is just such a "true" form of fishing to me. I have nothing against whatever kind of fishing that anybody wants to do, but I just really like it when fishing is stripped right back to what it always was - man versus nature in its most basic form. Bass fishing forces me to keep learning all the time about the most vital ingredient in all kinds of fishing - watercraft. And it's this learning that drives me on and on. I guess I just want to know more all the time, but is that a good or a bad thing ?

As part of what I do, I have been asked the obvious question many, many times - "Why do you go fishing ?", and a bit like the title of this post, in reality we all love our fishing for so many different reasons, and these reasons are often very hard to really put into words, whether written or spoken. I try to let my photography of fishing speak volumes for why I do it, so I guess my visual interpretations are a huge part of fishing's appeal to me. Sometimes on my various photography jobs I have to photograph the technical bits and pieces to do with fishing, of course I do, but anybody who looks carefully at what I do photos wise will see straight away that it is the "being out there in the middle of it all" that is a huge part of going fishing for me, and especially with regards to bass fishing.

I love certain aspects of various modern technologies, indeed I embrace a lot of it in my work, but you can't get away from the fact that going fishing (or indeed hunting or shooting) is still one of the most natural things that mankind can do. Whatever the newspapers, think-tanks (daft term if ever I heard it), quangos or successive governments tell us day in, day out, we are still hunter gatherers at heart, and nothing is ever going to change that.

I guess I go fishing partly because I can't actually help going - something inside me drives me to go, and I guess that the bass simply happens to be a fish that perfectly suits many of the reasons why fishing does it for me. My own fishing is so wrapped up with my love of photographing it, and bass fishing gives me the perfect mix of it all I suppose - hugely exciting, very mobile, often takes place in stunning locations, often with great people, usually away from the crowds, and as a form of fishing, bassing is really being driven forward in this country by lots of forward thinking anglers who have got the bug as badly as I have. The people responsible for largely opening my eyes up to the thrills of bass fishing know who they are, and I am forever indebted.

And lastly, let's not forget that although I would lay claim to not being a tackle-tart, in reality I do love all these bass lures, modern Japanese-style bass plugging rods (see here), lovely looking spinning reels and assorted waders. Basically, I am addicted, and it just gets worse. The bass does it for me, plain and simple. All of you who are into bass fishing will have your own theories I am sure, but fishing's just fishing in the end, and it's what makes us who we are.

This weather has been due......

2009-01-27T11:30:00.006Z

If you have got the weather we have at the moment then welcome to the club - mist, grey skies, drizzle and generally a complete lack of sunshine is all I can see out of my office window right now. But we can't really complain that much with the (relative) amount of sunshine we've had so far this winter, in fact it's been pretty good. If I could be sent a little bit more of the giant golden orb for a photography job with Nick Hart on Thursday, that would be great - but the forecast says otherwise at the moment.......

I have put a few photos up from the ultra remote atolls of the Seychelles to see what you think of them in black and white - photographing those huge blue skies on pristine flats is as close to somebody like me is ever going to get to paradise, and I hope you notice that I am not complaining (too much) about our current weather. That's because on Saturday I am heading off to photograph some flats fishing out in Belize. Bring it on !!

I am convinced my end that huge blue skies can work well in various shades of black and white, if there is enough detail from the clouds to provide a load of depth and contrast. Don't get me wrong, I love the extremes of colour that flats based photography can provide, and I am really hoping for endless blue skies out in Belize, but I will also be looking out for any black and white opportunities that I see out there. On these kinds of work trips (might as well try and work in some cool places) I have to try to nail as wide a range of material as possible.

I am travelling out to Belize with a friend of mine called James, and he just happens to be one of the most awesome fly fishermen I have ever worked with. The guy is extremely modest and would never acknowledge this, but he has got a serious talent for smashing serious numbers of fish on the fly, indeed I believe James has landed over 100 different species of fish on the fly so far. Now that takes some doing. I have worked with enough talented fly fishermen on this earth to know how well James can fish.

The target species in Belize are going to be (weather depending) tarpon, permit and possibly snook, but we will wait until we get there and take into account our guides' advice. James and I are travelling via the international fly fishing travel company Aardvark McLeod - I do a lot of work with these guys and they always impress me in a big way. Not all fishing overseas has to cost an arm and a leg.....

On Saturday, James and I are flying out to Miami, overnight there, and then we head down to Belize the next morning. We have four and a half days' for fishing and photography (sleep is not an option, that's for the flights home), and then we arrive back in the UK just in time for the first match in the Six Nations. English rugby worries the hell out of me at the moment, but surely a massive revival is just about due ?

Technology can be great

2009-01-23T09:39:00.003Z

I was walking my dog Jess early this morning and I got to thinking about how modern technology helps so many us in our working lives, plus also with our fishing. I seriously doubt whether I would be making a living in fishing right now if it was not for digital photography, the internet, computers, and the advantages they gives somebody like me who works on their own. This has been really banged home to me this week in fact, for various different reasons.

There are also a couple more black and white photos below that I have been playing around with - the first is of a flounder from a shoot the other day, and the second is from the east coast of Canada last autumn. I gotta see where I can take this kind of thing, I am really liking it.........

Take this photo shoot I did with Nick Hart on Tuesday - I am there to make it look as good as I can via the medium of photography, but it is vital that the technical side of the fly casting is correct, and that is down to Nick's expertise. With digital photography I can shoot away, try plenty of different things, and then at the end of the day I can dump the photos to my laptop and review them with Nick, before I head off home. He can instantly tell me what photos are technically incorrect from a casting point of view, and this then allows us to get rid of the dross and get the right images to Trout Fisherman magazine as fast as possible.

I then very quickly get these photos ready for publication my end, but instead of then copying the images to a CD or DVD and trundling off the Post Office in my car (none local to me anymore, it closed down), I zip the images into one compressed file and upload them over the internet. While that is going on in the background on my second computer, I can carry on with other work.

When I go away on a job, overseas for example, I go basically as a self-contained unit - I can photograph all day, edit photos at night, and write words in airports, on trains and planes (ok, not so easy in steerage class where I always am !!), plus, depending on where I am, I can often keep communicating with clients etc. It's far better for me to work my proverbial socks off when I am way from home, and modern technology allows me to do far more than I was ever able to.

One reason this technology thing really means so much to me is the ease with which somebody like me can move images all around the world. Putting good looking imagery in front of clients has never been faster or easier. Technology has made the world a far smaller place, and while I agree that on the one hand this can have its downfalls, on the other hand I see so many benefits. It got me thinking this week because I have uploaded different batches of photos to people in the UK, South Africa, America, Denmark, Argentina and Norway, all via the internet. Putting both low-res sample and high-res publishable photos and material in clients' faces (or Inboxes) very quickly and efficiently is the name of the game in my business. I am sure the same applies to a number of you.

And on the fishing front, I am continually amazed at how much international fishing information now buzzes around the internet especially, via various websites, forums and blogs. Take a forum like the one at WorldSeaFishing.com, see here - so it might major on UK style sea fishing, but there are anglers from all over the place both viewing and posting all the time, and information is scattering far and wide as a result. Check out a US fly fishing news website like MidCurrent (see here) - before the internet, where on earth were you going to see this kind of up to date information and news from across the pond ? Granted, fishing around the world might hold no interest for some of you, but in my job I have to really keep my ears close to the grapevine, and modern technology allows me to do that extremely efficiently. Plus I am fascinated in all kinds of fishing all over the place anyway, regardless of whether I am ever going to do it or see it. We can all but dream about various things......

Please make sure to check out Paul's comments on my post from yesterday about scrapping Article 47 - Paul has very kindly put some details up there of more people to contact to register your protest, plus a reply he got back. Doing nothing is not an option when it comes to the future of our sport -sticking your head on the sand and hoping that any "future of fishing problems" simply go away ain't going to do any good at all. Modern technology makes it easier for us little guys to get seen and heard.

Scrap Article 47

2009-01-22T08:50:00.003Z

Anybody with any interest in recreational sea fishing in Europe should be aware of the proposed Article 47 - see Nigel Farrage's own thoughts below. Nigel is an MEP and is the UKIP leader, and together with his two sons, they are all mad keen sea anglers. Please read Nigel's words and then sign the various petitions. There is also a forum thread all about Article 47 right here. Nigel is not just some politician who claims to love fishing because it gets him votes - I have fished with him and his sons in the past, and they are as passionate as you and I about their fishing.

"I had been enjoying a superb autumn on Dungeness beach, catching loads of codling up to 8lbs. On my last trip before Christmas I packed up at 2am. I thought how incredible it was that from April I might have to report my catch to the authorities or risk breaking the law. This is because on December 18 last year, with no prior warning, the European Commission announced that they intended to regulate sea angling. Be under no illusion, this represents the biggest threat to our sport ever and we must stand up and fight. The plan is to put sea angling on the same, discredited quota system as that used by the commercial fishermen. It will mean that ever private boat, yacht or kayak that wants to drop a line over the side will need a licence. All fish landed will need to be reported whether caught from boat or shore. Once the quota for angling is used up, any fish taken could result in a fine of £50,000! Without an army of officials, the likelihood is that many sea anglers will just become criminals, as bad laws are always treated with contempt. The odd person will be unlucky though and face massive fines. What is at stake here is not just the sport we love but one of the last freedoms that we enjoy. It must be stopped. Over the Christmas holidays I worried about the plan and I had plenty of time to do so as the easterly winds killed cod fishing stone dead. On my return to Brussels I was even more alarmed to see the plans to put these measures through at breakneck speed. We have to act now as the final vote by the European Parliament is likely to be in April. I would strongly urge everyone in the fishing community to oppose this proposal. There is no point in writing to your local MP and all power of fisheries has been given to the EU.

Visit the UKIP website, http://www.ukip.org/ and sign the petition to have Article 47 dropped. Contact the MEPs for your area, they can be found at www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm

Tell them that you want Article 47 of the 'Council Regulation establishing a Community control system for ensuring compliance with the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy' to be deleted.

Clearly tell them you will not vote for them in the June 4 European Elections if they let you down.

Contact UK Fisheries Minister Huw Irranca-Davies at www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/huw_irranca-davies/ogmore and urge him to get Article 47 dropped.

If tens of thousands take the trouble to lobby you will be listened to. MEPs need your votes to secure their next five year term. You can put pressure on them. I am appealing to angling groups in France and Holland and urging them to do the same. Don't let Brussels bureaucrats ruin our sport or our industry.

Stand up and fight!"

Nigel Farage MEP, UKIP leader

Make sure to sign this petition here as well - we sea anglers tend to have a tradition of general apathy towards potential threats to the future of our sport, but regular people like us need to wake up and be heard. We are not commercial anglers, and I have no time for recreational anglers who sell their catch on the side - either you fish because you love it, or you are a commercial angler. In no way am I damning the commercial guys by the way, that is not my point at all. Fish commercially with a license to make a living, and come under the various rules and regulations, or fish for pleasure because you are an angler. Any attempt by the powers that be to bring recreational anglers under the same regulatory umbrella as the commercial sector has to be stopped.

There is a good newspaper article online about the proposed Article 47, click here. Those charter fleets we see in our ports are having a tough time of it as it is, but now imagine you can't go out pollack or cod fishing later this year because there is no more quota left. Sure, you could go and catch a few and then watch them float off dead in the tide because you can't legally take them home and eat them, but who's going to do that ? I would support any logical measure to fine the hell out of any recreational angler who is caught selling their fish, and I am completely behind measures to protect our (dwindling) fish stocks, but recreational fishing must not be allowed to come under the commercial quota systems.

Precision casting

2009-01-21T11:10:00.005Z

I started work yesterday on a new series of casting features with Nick Hart - these will come out in Trout Fisherman in due course. Nick is working on putting the technical aspects of fly casting into regular fishing scenes, so that the fisherman can take the various casts and learn more about when to actually use them to catch more fish. Casting is obviously a hugely important part of fly fishing, we all know that, but the aim in my mind is always to learn how to smash a few more fish in a given situation. The same could be said of sea fishing could it not ?

To start the process off, we needed to try and find a "look at this" opening photo to run across a couple of pages (DPS), and by pure luck the weather was with us from the off. There are lots of different ways to shoot casting, and a lot of them are set by the weather and background you have, but the moment I saw the light and situation I could "see" these photos in my head as strong opening shots- the photos above and below are a couple of examples. I made a really contrasty black and white version to see what it looked like, and I really like it, but it is up to the designers at Trout Fisherman as to what they use from yesterday's shoot. Nick is a complete pro at what he does and he is an incredibly easy guy to photograph.

The photo above is a more "regular" casting shot of Nick roll-casting a line along the margins, but even then these things take a lot of thought and pre-planning. I am always on the lookout for different angles and views, and I thought this photo worked pretty well with the orange line coming down through the frame. The aim is to provide a photo that can say a lot in regards to the words that Nick writes, and this kind of thing does that.

With a more technical shoot like this, it is vital that my creative attempts marry up properly with what Nick knows is technically right and wrong in a cast. This is the beauty of digital photography. On a shoot like this we can photograph a load of stuff and then check everything on my laptop to make sure any glaringly wrong stuff is deleted. Not that Nick would ever make a bad cast !! Imagine me doing the fly casting ?!!

As I have said before, working in fishing is never what it seems. This job of mine really gives me a huge kick, and I love almost every part of it (except for paying taxes especially), but my own fishing time now compared to pre-kids and pre-fishing work is somewhat of a scary reduction. In all honesty though I have never loved fishing more than I do now, and just getting to be around it all the time does me just fine. The world's a fascinating place. I am off to Belize at the end of next week on a photo job and I can't wait.......more details in due course.

That makes it four......

2009-01-19T16:15:00.004Z

I have just found out that a photo of mine is on the front of the forthcoming Hardy UK and Europe 2009 catalogue, as you can see above. That just about makes my day, for I have no say in any of their catalogue covers - I just submit my photos when asked, and then wait to see what happens. Getting my photos on the cover of something like the Hardy catalogue gives me a real kick, and once again I am really pleased with the shot they have used.

The photograph is of their commercial director Martin Kelly doing rather nicely with a double-handed fly rod (I think he was using a Hardy ??!!) out in Norway last year. It's the kind of thing you shoot with a front cover in mind, but Martin never knew I was taking the photo. The trick with this particular photo was to dial in some minus exposure compensation to make sure not to blow the highlights out when they are set against the relative dark of the water and tree branches. That light blue Hardy shirt looks great, but when it is around any kind of bright light, a camera tends to want to blow it out. Cameras are great, but it is vital to know exactly when not to trust them and instead rely on what you know.

It is this kind of "eyes in the back of your head, be prepared to shoot wherever and whenever" attitude that you need to get anywhere close to succeeding in working in fishing. Am I anywhere close to getting to where I want to get in fishing ? Not yet, but I'm working hard to get there......

With this latest cover shot, that makes four for me - four of the Hardy & Greys 2009 catalogue covers have my photographs on them. That is what you could refer to as a result in my book. Above is the Greys 2009 Game cover with a photo of a decent steelhead taken in the wilds of British Columbia. I am somewhat pleased !!

Above is the Hardy 2009 Game catalogue that is out in the US. I shot this photo in Montana last summer, and I so badly want to go back and photograph a load more US trout fishing. In fact there are an increasing number of fishing related things that I want to do out in America. Check out a load of photos I shot in Montana right here.

And above is the new Greys 2009 Sea catalogue. There are stacks of my photos inside as well. The light in the photo really reminds me of a typical winter's day of sunshine and showers, but in fact I took this photo up in north Cornwall in July. You can't beat an English summer !!

You have to check out this insane saltwater fly fishing, see the video right here - these are the outstanding South African based FlyCastaway guides that I have worked with on numerous occasions, and without a doubt they are some of the most talented fly fishermen on this earth. This video is all about fly fishing for the world's largest tarpon off the coast of Angola. I remember sitting on the beach there some years ago, watching the tarpon and threadfin rolling around, knowing that we were not kitted out to fish for them, and vowing one day to get back there. These guys catch monsters on the fly, plain and simple, and you can fish with them by talking to Aardvark McLeod right here. Stuff like this does not come cheap, but the FlyCastaway consistently put their clients over some of the best fly fishing on this planet.

Nick Hart and I are out tomorrow to shoot some new casting stuff for Trout Fisherman magazine, so we will see what the weather brings and take it from there. I really like doing this kind of stuff with Nick, he is so easy to work with, and the fact that he can cast like a dream kind of helps. He is without doubt one of the busiest and best-respected fly fishing guides and instructors around, so make sure to get in early and book him up. I guarantee that your fly fishing will come in leaps and bounds - I guess I need to take my own advice and book Nick up myself, as anybody who has seen my cast a fly rod can attest to !!

Now this is proper hardcore fishing

2009-01-17T08:18:00.007Z

I just had an email from Cato over in Norway, the drummer for one of the finest metal bands on this earth - scroll down to my post from yesterday and you will see exactly what I am on about. Not only can the guy drum like a human spider, but he is also a madly addicted and seriously good fisherman. I still owe him big time for the Norway programme we filmed a couple of years ago - without his knowledge I doubt whether anybody here in the UK would ever had heard of Rost to this day (see here for photos of the mad fishing).

I thought my flounder job a week or so ago was properly cold (see the post here), but I now see that this was virtually a nice summer's day when you compare it to what Cato and his mates have been doing over in Norway. Look this at this page right here to see a photo or two of what they have been catching - I don't understand a word of it, but the fish speak for themselves.

Proper ice fishing - I mean going out on the sea ice, cutting holes in it, and smashing some seriously good fish. How about thornback rays to 19lbs and spurdogs to 16lbs ? Awesome fish by anybody's standards, but now bear in mind that a couple of days ago they were fishing in -20 Celsius, right through the ice - no need for any casting either. Now that is serious cold, but the fishing sounds spectacular. Put me into cold like that and I reckon I'd curl up into a ball and start crying, but there is a big part of me that really wants to see this kind of fishing being done, and especially when you consider the fish they have been catching. Looks like very cool stuff to me.

Cato also tells me that Enslaved have been nominated for a Norwegian Grammy for their outstanding album "Vertebrae" - if they don't win it, I'll be astounded. You see, as I always say, fishing and metal mix together just about perfectly. But perhaps not at -20.........

The best music of 2008

2009-01-16T08:58:00.005Z

Let's get a few things straight here - in another life I would have been a rock star, travelling the world, and ripping stages and audiences to pieces with the ferocity of our extreme metal assault. But there is one tiny problem, and that is that I never had more than an ounce of musical ability. I could but dream though, and believe me, I did. I used to have a recurring dream (no, not those kind) at school that I was a guitarist for Slayer, and waking up was always a complete let down.

Fishing is what drives me, both as a passion and for my job, but my other obsession has always been music. I mean seriously obsessed as well. I have spent nearly seventeen years trying to convince my wife (then girlfriend many years ago) that there is no better music than metal, and that all other music means nothing at all. Seventeen years of trying, and still she dislikes it as much as the first time I played here Slowly we Rot by Obituary and told her that this had changed my life for the better. And she agreed to marry me !! Women eh ?

2008 was an epic year for metal, but then I feel this every single year. Just when you think that nothing can top your latest favourite album, another one comes along and blows you out of the water. Many awesome bands released great albums last year, such as Amon Amarth, Septic Flesh, Opeth, Keep of Kalessin, Deicide, The Haunted, Martriden, Meshuggah, Nachmystium, Satyricon, AC/DC, Hail of Bullets - you name it, I bought far too many as per usual, but they all give me countless hours of listening pleasure. Rest assured that many a fishing feature is written this end while nodding my head in time to the music. Writing about deftly casting a fly in some remote little river mixes just great with the mighty Amon Amarth pouring forth from my speakers......

But there is one album from 2008 that stands head and shoulders above the rest. A release so good that I am still getting my head around it now, and that is after so many listens I know virtually every single drum beat off by heart. Norway's Enslaved are of course one of the most respected bands in metal, but even they have managed to surpass their previous efforts with the mighty "Vertebrae" - from the very first spin of the CD my eyes were popping out of my head. Can metal really be this layered, this textured, this subtle even, and just so damned good ? Anybody with any interest at all in heavier music should get hold of this CD, I can't praise it enough. A part of me thinks that I should be trying to find fault with the album because I know their drummer Cato through fishing, but I can't. Rarely does an album just keep on growing every single time you listen to it, but this one does. Cato's drumming is just immense.

Don't just take my word for it - listen to a few tracks right here. Then listen to them again, because this music requires plenty of time to breathe. There is that much to it. Then get hold of the album here. There is no benefit to me saying where to buy Vertebrae, and there is no financial incentive to me saying it is as good as it is. I bought a copy of the CD, as I do with all my music, but it gets me going that much that I want loads more people to realise just how awesome Enslaved are. They have taken the term extreme metal and spun it so hard on its axis that I reckon many other bands are wondering what on earth to do next. Anybody with any interest in metal should have this CD in their collection.

You could even stop working for a minute or two and watch an outstanding video off the new album, click here to see it. I see that the extreme music magazine Terrorizer also has this new Enslaved album as their no.1 release of 2008 - great minds think alike !! If they had not chosen it, I would have cancelled my subscription as a protest.

So there you have it - 2008 was an emotional year on the music front, and I reckon there is a whole load more to look forward to this year. The new Kreator album is already on its way to me for starters. Rarely does an album rise so far above the rest though, but Vertebrae is just that. Enslaved are where it's at.

Sneak peak at the new look Sea Angler magazine

2009-01-15T11:52:00.004Z

On the 22nd there will be a new look Sea Angler magazine in the shops, and I have managed to get hold of a "sneak peak" at this important relaunch. Not only the cover, but a couple of features that will be inside the mag, including the next one in my bass fishing series. I hope you like the look of it, because I have to admit to being really excited about what the Sea Angler people are doing with the magazine............

I have worked on a freelance basis for Sea Angler for many years now, and they continue to use really high quality photography to illustrate the sport we all love. I am sure that most of us read sport and hobby related magazines for a mix of "wow, doesn't this look awesome, gotta do it" and also "I want to learn how to improve my own hobby/pastime/sport" - I know I do, and I do not envy the powers that be at the numerous magazines out there for having to create this kind of mix every month. I know I am a little biased towards the people I work for, but I reckon that the Sea Angler guys are pretty much spot-on.

The relaunch in my opinion makes this all look a whole load better again - very "fresh, clean and hands on", and I like that kind of thing in this kind of magazine. The kind of feature you can see above does what it says on the tin. Bear in mind that all kinds of anglers of all kinds of skill levels read a magazine like Sea Angler, and it is vital to cater to your readers with a strong mix of features. They have done a good thing I reckon in bringing back the dedicated Boat Angler section.

I love it when a magazine designer picks up on a particular photo that I just know is going to work well in a certain way the moment I have pressed the shutter. The photo you can see above in my feature is exactly that - in my viewfinder I could see my mate Graham Hill bringing a bass to hand, and at the same time I could see the photo running across two pages in my head (DPS, double page spread), allowing enough space to place text around it if needs be. He's a handsome chap isn't he ? Hell of a bass angler, all credit due.

This is exactly how I would like my current bass features to be turning out - a mix of good looking fishing action together with plenty of "how to". I am in no way a "fishing expert", indeed anybody who knows me knows how much I despise the word "expert", but I get to work with some of the best anglers you could ever hope to meet, all around the world. What they do rubs off on me, of course it does, and I like to bring this knowledge and what I know myself together in a way that I hope is easy to understand and also very accessible. Fishing is an easy thing to do, and I reckon the new look Sea Angler goes a huge way towards making the sport more and more approachable. Look out for the new issue when it comes out on January 22nd.

My best (red) fishing rod of 2008

2009-01-14T08:05:00.006Z

Being perfectly honest, I don't end up buying many fishing rods these days - working as a consultant for Hardy Greys means that I get to use and abuse plenty of different rods, but good as most of their gear is, they would be the first to admit that (at the moment), they do not make specialist bass plugging rods. Loads of UK tackle companies make very good spinning rods that will work just fine for a lot of bass fishing, but none that I am aware of actually make what I would now refer to as a "specialist bass lure rod", or in our terms, a plugging rod.

But do you really need to get into all this specialist kit ? Entirely up to you, but let me say that 2008 saw me finally come around to realising just how much we have to learn about ultra-modern bass fishing, and on that front I am referring to the gear as well. My friend Graham Hill and I have spent far too long over the years talking about what we would ideally like to see from a plugging rod, but neither of us really knew who to turn to. I was hearing more and more about bass fishing over in France, and I had seen plenty of catalogues, but still I had never actually held a rod that I felt was a proper "plugging" rod. I mean a rod that is purpose designed to work with modern lures, not an all round spinning rod that is designed to chuck virtually anything.

I have to give a lot of credit to Mick at Mr.Fish over in Jersey for putting me onto my ultimate plugging rod. There are various people that I talk to on a regular basis within the tackle industry, but it was through Mick that I first started to hear about these red Tenryu rods. Mick took himself off to France and did his own research - remember that the man is a serious bass junkie himself. We spoke a bit, he told me how good he believed they were (and bear in mind here that there are a lot of talented, forward thinking bass fishermen in the Channel Islands), but still I had not actually held one. But I had spent enough time and effort looking for the rod that I felt had to be out there, and I decided to take a punt on it - "go on Mick, here are my card details, please send me over the Tenryu Red Dragon Express". It was like a light bulb going on in that head of mine..............

My thoughts have not changed one bit from when I first got hold of this awesome fishing rod - in fact the red rod keeps growing on me every single time I use it. Few rods I have owned over the years have given me as much pleasure as this one. See my original thoughts on the rod right here, from when I first got hold of it. I stand by everything I said. They are not cheap, but I am so into my bass fishing that I would have paid more if required - this rod does exactly what I want from a plugging rod, and sometimes I actually try to prevent people I fish with from picking it up, because I know that one wiggle and one cast and they'll be getting one for themselves. It has happened on several occasions. I still get emails from anglers asking me "I am using so and so spinning rod and it works just fine, so can the Tenryu rods really be that much better ?" Take it from me, they are a whole different world apart from what we have been used to. The sooner we accept that here in the UK we could really learn a whole load more about our bass fishing, the better we are going to get at it.

I am not saying that every single angler who fishes with lures for bass should go and get one - make up your own mind, assess what you want, and take it from there. There must be something about them though, for more and more of these red rods are creeping into all the photographs I take of bass fishing. See here for example. Of course there are lots of spinning rods out there that will do the job really well (check back through my blog in 2008 for some thoughts on these kinds of rods), but it just depends on how far you want to take it.

So without a doubt, my fishing rod of 2008 is the Tenryu Red Dragon Express - but I am now thinking about getting the Tenryu Rod Bar 270 as well, and I'll explain why. The Red Dragon Express does me perfectly for my shore based bass fishing, and I feel totally comfortable with the length of it - roughly 10' long. But I have used the Rod Bar 270 a fair amount as well, and it is an incredible bit of kit - and it is roughly 9' long. My own personal opinion is that the modern soft plastics that we are really getting into can be worked that little big more effectively with the 9' rod and a tiny bit more give in the tip. The Rod Bar 270 is as lightening quick as the Red Dragon Express, but as an overall bass rod I think perhaps it offers a more rounded solution to some of our bass fishing. I would be really happy to own both, and I can see myself using the different rods on different spots. Come on, I'm a fisherman, and I love fishing gear as much as the next man. My lure addiction shows no sign of abating for starters......

So I had better start saving up for the Rod Bar 270 then !! This is serious money to spend on rods, but it is what I do and love, and I reckon they represent excellent value for money. I spend a lot of time with outstanding fly fishermen all over the world, and they have no problem accepting that if you want the best, you have got to pay for it. Take a top of the range Hardy, Sage or Loomis fly rod - they cost that much because they really are that good. Same with a rod like the Tenryu. Traditionally us UK sea anglers do not tend to like spending much money on spinning rods, for to us they have tended to be mere "add ons" to our more regular (and sometimes very expensive) high-tech beachcasters. But the world is changing, and a load of technology and thought is being poured into lure rods the world over. And us UK sea anglers are slowly but surely catching up................

Del rang me from the Isles of Scilly with tales of more big mullet, including a stunning fish of 6lb 10oz - to any of us this is a proper mullet, indeed I have never caught one that big, but Del did say that that particular fish managed to grab his bait just before a very interested 10lb plus fish got there. These are problems I would love to be dealing with, believe me !! I know so many good mullet anglers over here, yet so few of them seem to get their head around the potential for huge fish over in the Isles of Scilly - and I can say that about Ireland as well. Too much to do, and too little time.

I had a good day up with the guys at Hardy Greys on Monday, and what came out of it could be really exciting further down the line. Plans like we laid of course will take time to come to fruition, but if all goes well then we should be doing some cool stuff. Further news as and when I can say will of course come through this blog.