Bass fishing in France - bring it on !!

• 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 ?