You beauty - sunshine !!

OK, so it was cold yesterday, but the sun actually spent most of the day looking down upon Nick Hart and I as we shot a feature for Trout Fisherman magazine at Burton Springs fishery. What a stunning part of the world, actually right behind some Bristol Channel sea fishing marks I have spent many hours both catching and blanking from over the years. Driving from Nick's shop over the Somerset hills and on up to the coast was just fantastic, what wonderful views. What a thrill it was to be able to shoot with my 16-35mm f2.8L lens and a polarising filter - to get in the (cold) water and frame Nick against some big blue skies was just awesome and we came away with a really good looking feature. Nick had some nice rainbow trout in great winter condition, and above you can see him landing a feisty one that scrapped hard all the way in. Look at that blue sky !! For those of you living in the southern hemisphere, you will probably be wondering why we are getting so excited about seeing the sun, but if you experience a UK winter like we are having (mostly grey), you will understand.

Nick was using the a brand new Hardy Demon rod and reel and I have to say that it is about the best looking cartridge-based fly reel I have ever seen, and Nick was raving about both the rod and the reel by the end of the day. They will be on sale soon, so go to Nick Hart's fly fishing website and buy some for yourself. These things are going to sell big time. There is a great looking advert for them at the front of the new Trout Fisherman magazine.

Talking about the new Trout Fisherman, check out a couple of my features in there : pages 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 - my photos, Nick Hart's words, and pages 122, 123,124, 125 126 and 127 - my words and photos on the steelhead fishing I photographed out in BC last year. You need to go and do this fishing, it is plain awesome. Contact the fishing travel company Aardvark McLeod for starters, and then look at a bunch more photos by clicking here.

I have also started doing some work for Hardy & Greys' online magazine, Fin & Fly - click here to see what we have been up to. You need to keep an eye on this thing, because there are serious plans afoot to really make this publication really go places in due course......I am really excited to be on board with it.

And how could I not mention the fact that I am highly overexcited about the start of the Six Nations rugby today, with England playing Wales at 4.30 this afternoon. Rest assured that I will be glued to the box for it, can't wait, come on England !! Let's make this the start of building a squad for the 2011 World Cup when we are going to bring that Cup back home. To my South African friends - quick, get your photos taken with the Cup as soon as you can, it ain't going to be yours for long !!