FieldSports front cover

• 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 ?

Nobody does it like the BBC

• 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.

That makes it four......

• 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 !!

Flounder fishing in amongst the icebergs

• OK, so icebergs might be a little bit of an exaggeration (us fishermen, never !!), but when did you last see masses of floating ice in a south west estuary ? I can't remember ever seeing it, but considering that we were set up before dawn after the coldest night down here for twenty years, it's hardly surprising. Along with the flooding tide came rafts of floating ice. I was a bit gutted not to get some big blue winter skies to show it all off properly, but the forecasted cloud cover came in far earlier than they said. I would not have been that shocked yesterday to have seen a polar bear come floating past on top of an iceberg, it was that cold. OK, so not somewhere like Canada cold, but it was proper UK cold at least.

• Still, it was a challenge for the guys to put baits out in between the rafts of floating ice, and a few sets of gear were lost - not to rocks but to the ice. How often can you say that in the UK ? Check out all the ice floating past in the photo above - mad !! Kingbsridge is such a pretty part of the world, and while I can not say that flounder are really my thing, I always love being out and about photographing them with a bunch of mates. With all these cold east winds and resulting clear seas we have had down here, at least the flounder fishing has been keeping lots of anglers going. The forecast says it will change over the weekend, so I will be interested to see how this might kick start our winter fishing.....

• The guys did well to catch a couple of fat winter flounder yesterday in some tricky conditions, and thanks to Yorkie and his magic frying pan and kettle, we were kept warm with hot bacon sarnies and fresh cups of tea. The man is a legend !! Amazing that he can cook so well when he is out fishing, when I hear from his wife Debbie that Rob's culinary skills at home are what might be referred to as "limited ". Damn fine sarnies though, and thanks to Andy for giving my sheepdog Jess a bit of his - she wasn't getting any of mine !! Those eyes looked at me like I hadn't fed her for weeks, but I know Jess too well......

• To talk of warmer climes - I had an email this morning from John Crabb, a Flycastaway guide and one of the finest all round anglers I have ever had the pleasure to fish with anywhere on this earth. I have worked with John in the Seychelles and also out in South Africa last year. John nailed a monster ragged tooth shark of around 500lbs (yes, you read it correctly - five hundred pounds) over the Christmas period down at Jeffrey's Bay, and another FlyCastaway guide (Tim, awesome angler as well) landed one of around 350lbs !!! John's shark took him under an hour to land, and that is some feat of fishing. Check out a photo of a somewhat smaller (but still monster) ragged tooth shark that John nailed for my cameras last year, right here. The guys also nailed some nice kob as well - jealous ? Me ? Never........complete and utter fishing insanity. Bet they didn't have to dodge rogue ice floes though !!

• My late Del also rang me from the Isles of Scilly yesterday - they had an extremely rare frost, that is how cold it was, but the winds have swung around for him and the mullet are back in and on the feed big time. He has a fantastic mullet of 7.5lbs a couple of days before Christmas, plus got smashed by a proper monster, but then the winds swung around and killed the fishing for him. Just Del and his mate fishing over there, and nobody else. Heaven, pure heaven.

Fly fishing for yellowfish

• I am sitting in Johannesburg airport, waiting for my flight home, so I thought I would use a bit of the time to update this blog with some news of my last few days here in South Africa. This is the first internet connection I have had since my last update. What a trip. What a place. What awesome fishing......

• We have been staying on the banks of the Vaal river at Parys, about an hour and a half outside Johannesburg, chasing these awesome smallmouth yellowfish on the fly. Above is Jako Lucas with a seriously good "smallie" that he took on a wet fly stripped back slowly. Working with these FlyCastaway guides is always a fantastic experience, for they are all outstanding fly fishermen and are huge fun to spend time around. The more time I spend with the guys simply reaffirms my belief that they are one of the best guiding operations on this planet. Check out what they do here, and then get in touch with them if you want to experience some of the world's best fly fishing.

• We spent a bit of time rafting and fishing certain sections of the Vaal river, and the two photos above show Jako landing a nice fish and then paddling down to the next spot. Africa is usually about the whole experience, and I love it with a passion. There is just so much fishing to do.

• Above is Jako with another big smallmouth yellowfish - these magnificent creatures are arguably more loved than trout down here, and big numbers of fly fishermen target them in the Vaal and Orange river systems. You can fish dry flies and wet flies, with upstream nymphing being particularly popular and successful in the faster, shallower water. These fish pull big time. All the FlyCastaway guys are so easy to photograph.

• Here is FlyCastaway guide and all round "freaky good" angler John Crabb bringing a "smallie" to hand as the sun goes down on another perfect African day. Last night they smashed the fish hard on small dry flies, wading right out into the middle of the river. What is great is that the water is warm enough to wet wade - no need for chest waders.

• The Vaal is also full of huge catfish and some nice carp, including this stunner that Jako nailed as he was trying for the yellowfish. We were hoping that it might be one of the rarer and more elusive largemouth yellowfish - these thing grow huge, but they are not as prolific as the hugely numerous smallmouth yellows. Very much worth chasing though.

• You can see from this head shot just how adept the smallmouth yellowfish is at grubbing around on the bottom for the large percentage of its food. They simply light up when the sun is out, and all fish are of course returned.

• Here's that carp barely slipping into the landing net - Jako just managed to fit him in there. The carp are in fantastic condition and John Crabb nailed a few that he saw literally tailing like bonefish. He also got smoked by a big, 30lb plus catfish !!

• This has been a hell of a trip, meeting some fantastic new people, and also catching up with some good friends. I am already making plans for multiple return visits, but not before I get home and actually spend some proper time with my family. These last few weeks have been seriously travel hectic (check backwards on the blog for the info), and I have photographed a huge range of material that is going to illustrate a serious number of features all around the world. Now though I am so looking forward to getting home to my girls and being around for a while - my wife is awesome the way she holds the fort when I am away and I could not do what I do without her. If all goes well I should be landing at Heathrow early tomorrow morning, and then I have about a three and a half hour drive back down to Plymouth. Hopefully the bass are biting big time......

• Far too many people simply have no idea about the world class fishing that is on offer throughout Africa, from some outrageous rock and surf fishing on the southern coastline through to monstrous Nile perch in Uganda. I have done a lot in Africa over the years, and I have every intention of doing a whole load more. This place gets to you in a big way. A lot of the fishing really need not cost the earth - and some really good news is that the incredible beach fishing in Namibia is really firing once again, and the guys are catching stacks of big sharks again, together with the edible species such as kob and steenbras.

• Talking about kob (kabeljou), I am already about to put some dates aside for next autumn to come back down and fish with John Crabb again for some potentially huge kob - they have been caught recently to over 100lbs from the shore. Yes, you read that right, that is a "fish" and not a "shark" - imagine what that must look like. Anybody into serious shore fishing needs to check these kob out. A lot about how they are caught reminds me of our own bass, although this is on a somewhat extreme scale.

A few more recent Irish bass trip photos

• I thought it would be cool to put a few more photos up from my bassing trip over to Ireland last week - above is Cian O'Halloran with his 9lb 9oz bass that he took on a lure on that awesome first morning. Asking a guy to smile when he has just landed his best ever bass is not hard to do. If anybody wants to doubt the weight of the fish, feel free, but take it from me, what this photo does not show one bit is the extraordinary girth of his bass.

• The kind of photo you see above is a very deliberate silhouette shot, whereby I focused on the two guys and then deliberately underexposed the shot to make the rock and the anglers essentially come out black, therefore retaining the fantastic colour in the early morning sky. I do not mess around with trying to change colours in Photoshop when it looks as good as this already. I really like the darkened, swirling bit of sea at the bottom of the photo as well - this all just says "bass fishing" to me. The early bird gets the worm !!

• Here is Andy Bignell with one of his first ever Irish bass, and I deliberately asked him to push the fish towards me and then I focused on the eye of the bass and used a large aperture to blow the background right out of focus and therefore draw your eye right in on the fish. Has it worked ? Up to you to decide, but magazines tend to like these kinds of photos to slot into a feature, and I need to shoot stuff that sells - it is my job after all. It's all very well wanting to shoot purely "creative" stuff all the time, but the successful photographer is going to make sure he or she shoots a mixture of material that works for their particular markets, with one eye of course on any future openings........I tell you, the amount of stuff that swirls around my head from day to day is worrying. I even tend to caption a lot of my photos in my head as I am shooting them. Mad ? Obsessed ? I'll let you decide.

• Conditions like these are a dream to photograph - they might not be that great for bass fishing, but the period after first light has allowed me to produce what looks very much like a black and white photograph, when in fact what I have done is used a polarising filter and the correct angle of the sun to essentially burn the background out and bring the rocks and angler in as a silhouette. Looking at a full size photo on a decent monitor, you can begin to see into the crystal clear water as well.

• A fairly "standard" grip and grin photo of man plus fish, where the aim is to grab a couple of decent photos and not harm the fish. Graham nailed this nice pollack on a soft plastic lure one afternoon, and it gave him the typical pollack runaround, crash diving hard and generally doing its best to create mayhem. Graham is a very easy guy to photograph and he cradled the fish gently with the aid of these Berkley Pistol Trigger Grips that a bunch of us have started using this year, see here for details. Note the brand new Greys Platinum breathable waders that he is wearing - keep an eye on the Greys website for when these great new waders are going to be launched. It might not be the finest photograph ever taken, but it is in focus, correctly exposed, fairly tightly cropped, and the fish went back just fine. Give me big blue skies with a fine fish like the pollack and I can make them shine big time..........

• I am leaving from Heathrow Terminal 5 on Thursday evening, flying down to Johannesburg, and then John Crabb from FlyCastaway is picking me up and we are heading straight for the coast. He is a seriously accomplished rock and surf fisherman, as well as being rather handy with a fly rod as well, so it is going to be a blast of a trip. Wish me luck for Terminal 5, it is the first time I have ever flown from this particular and no doubt delightful corner of Heathrow. I will post when I can from South Africa, so keep checking back here.

Front cover and some Irish bass thoughts

• Above is a current cover photo of mine on the front of the US magazine Destination Fish - this strange looking fish is a bumphead parrotfish that was caught by South African fly angler Rob Lewis out on Providence atoll in the ultra-remote Seychelles. I believe that I might have been the first fishing photographer to document these creatures being successfully targeted and captured on the fly, on the flats, and I have got a bunch of awesome photos. I really like their choice of my photograph for the cover (well I would, wouldn't I ??!!), and I imagine that it certainly "jumps" at you from the newstands. There is only one guiding company on this earth that I trust to put you onto this kind of world class saltwater fly fishing, and that is FlyCastaway. Fishing like this does not come cheap, but if you can do it, talk to Pete or Charlotte at Aardvark McLeod. Check out a bunch of my Seychelles photos here, here and here.

• I have naturally been thinking a lot about my recent trip over to Ireland - was there anything more we could have done to nail a few more bass when the weather went really still, clear and settled ? Usually I would have fancied our chances big time on the baits, but the weeks leading up to my most recent trip had seen insane amounts of rain, and a lot of the bait marks were far too coloured up to produce the goods. I have just heard that in fact they are starting to fish well again as the freshwater starts to clear away. Sod's law !!

• I know that Andy is just about coming to terms with his first Irish experience, and I hope to get him back over there next year. On our penultimate morning he got hit on his lure, and then immediately saw a huge bass jump behind it. This fish came at his lure a couple more times, but would not take - Andy nearly fell off his rock, and put the size at "well into double figures", and bear in mind that this guy has personally witnessed fish to 13lbs plus being landed over in Cornwall, so he knows his bass. Much like Graham back in July, Andy proceeded to talk fluent Swahili for about an hour after he saw that huge bass......

• I manged to get a bass over the 6lb mark on this penultimate morning, but as Pat grabbed the lip of the fish, it turned and shed the hooks. It hit me right next to a rock and really put on the gas, but these red Tenryu rods have serious power in reserve for when you need to play them hard. So we did not get the photos, but at least the fish went back just fine, that is always the most important thing to me. I de-barb all my treble hooks on my bass lures as I believe it is far better for the fish, and unhooking is just so much easier and more efficient. The less time spent trying to remove hooks, the better the fish recovers. I do not believe that I have lost any fish due to doing this - the bass that got away would have got away with or without barbs, and I would hope that the majority of bass anglers crush the barbs on their trebles.

• That morning also saw a rather excited Pat doing his best not to fall off another rock with excitement - with all this nearly falling off the rocks, you probably think they are all overdoing the Guinness, but in fact Pat saw a bass he reckons was nudging 14lbs swim right beneath him in the crystal clear water. The fact that the fish was not interested in his lure was mildly frustrating to say the least.

• Whichever way you look at it, this recent Irish trip was still a huge success - we saw plenty of decent fish, and for the most part the light was excellent and I managed to get a load of photos that I am really happy with. The photograph with Pat and Graham being hit by a big wave is in fact one of my favourite I have shot this year (see this post here). I could see that Pat had a fish on, and I knew that Graham would get right in there to help his mate land it. Moving as fast as I could over some seriously treacherous ground, I dialled in -1 stop of exposure compensation to my Canon 1D MK111 camera/70-200 f4 L lens combination as I walked/crawled/scrambled over the seaweed covered rocks, to prevent blowing the exposure with all that white water against a dark rocky background, and the result was an awesome sequence of shots that in my mind show the kind of bass fishing on the edge that a whole load of us enjoy. Being in the right place at the right time comes from a lot of practise and a certain amount of luck, but mostly it comes from knowing when not to fish. Believe me, I want to fish all of the time, but this is my job, and I need to get the kind of photos that are going to sell for me time and time again. Nailing a photo like that is as much of a thrill to me as catching a decent fish - yes, I am in love with my job, and I am proud to say so. I am also lucky enough to work around some fantastic people, and I am forever in their debt.

• I am flying out to South Africa on Thursday evening, so I had better get on with clearing some work and then getting ready for this trip. It has been far too long since I was in Africa, and I can't wait to see those vast skies and smell those unmistakable smells of the most awesome continent on earth............

Front cover

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Was that summer ?

Canon 1D MK11, 16-35mm f2.8L lens (at 31mm), ISO 200, f9, 1/100, polarising filter

• OK, it's a bit premature to start moaning about the end of summer, but it certainly felt like it yesterday. I arrived back from a grey, windy Newcastle into Bristol airport last night (wearing shorts and t-shirt of course, how sensible is that ?), to be met by howling winds and torrential rain. I feel really sorry for all the people at Glastonbury for the weekend, including a good friend of mine - why is it that it seems to always rain there ? There is no way that we can have a summer like last year's is there ?

• To take myself away from the gloom of an overcast morning, above is a photo of a nice big bass that my mate Graham caught last autumn over in Ireland. I wish I could show you a photo of my latest, greatest capture, but with work and travel recently, my own fishing efforts have been zero. That is going to change from this weekend though, for I have a few days over in Cornwall with my family to look forward to. I have packed the alarm clock for a few early morning plugging sessions.........

• I have a few really interesting new bass lures here to try out, including some that I have yet to see anywhere in the UK. Some of them look lethally effective, so I will give them a go and see how they do - watch this space. All in the name of "work related research" I assure you. Not that I like playing with new toys or anything like that.

• I sent a bunch of these US soft plastic Slug-Go lures over to a couple of mates in Ireland recently, and I am hearing sketchy reports that they are working really well for the bass. When I say sketchy, what I really mean is that I think the guys have really begun to nail fish big time on these Slug-Go lures and are trying to keep it quiet from me !! But I have my sources.............you would not believe the action these soft plastic lures have when they are fished properly, indeed I have yet to see a lure like it. Check here for where you can get hold of them in the UK. Don't get me wrong, hard plastic lures are great for bass fishing, but there is a quiet revolution going on with soft plastics - just take a look at the French bass anglers for a start. You are going to hear a lot more about them over the next few years I am sure.

• One thing I really notice about travelling in the US is the welcome you receive - shops, restaurants, hotels, you name it, most of the time you are met with a beaming smile and an offer of help. I really like this attitude. Manners cost nothing in life, and it is something my wife and I are working hard to instill in our two girls. On Wednesday evening, I checked into a hotel just over the road from Newcastle airport at about 11pm, to be met by a surly, sour excuse for a receptionist who hardly had the good grace to look me in the eye and say anything more than a mumble of "this is what you need to pay before you can have your room". Nothing approaching "welcome, how are you ?" or "enjoy your stay" or "what can we do to help ?". Nothing of the sort. I should have said something, but in truth I could not trust myself to remain calm. A lack of manners really winds me up. My rant for Friday morning is now over !!

• If you get The Field magazine, check out a really good looking feature of mine on the insane golden dorado fishing I photographed earlier this year out in Argentina (check here for a stack of photos). Look on pages 86, 87, 88 and 89 - I really like the fact that they have used one of my fish jumping shots as a whole page image on page 87. My thanks to the designer for picking it out.

• Remember to have a look through my Montana photo gallery which I have put online - check here for a selection of photographs from one of the most special places I have ever been on this earth. I am still dreaming about it.

• Gerhard from FlyCastaway emailed to tell me of a 16.5lb tigerfish that one of their clients caught on Monday, on a fly of course, at a new camp they are using in Mozambique. That is some fish on the fly, but then not much surprises me with the FlyCastaway lot - in my mind one of the top guiding outfits on the planet, and I do not say that lightly. Speak to Aardvark McLeod about booking trips to fish with them - and for Argentina and Montana. You can see a bunch of my tigerfish photos here. Tigerfish are deeply impressive fish to be around. It has been too long since I have been to Africa, so I can't wait for my South Africa trip at the end of September. Nowhere feels like Africa.

• Anyway, I am off on holiday for a few days later on today, but I will do my best to keep this blog updated - hopefully with a few reports of a few nice bass. You don't know how much I am looking forward to getting back over to Ireland in July.

Some more Bank Holiday bass

• It was raining that hard yesterday morning that I didn't even get my camera out, but we had five or six small bass on lures, plus a few pollack. I was fishing with a thoroughly nice guy over in Cornwall and we managed to duck out of the howling northerly wind for a really fun session.

• I heard recently that some good bass over in Jersey are being taken on the Duo Tide Minnow lure, so I put that one on first and hooked a bass within about five casts early yesterday. It is great when a new lure works so well !! The one I was using was the Tide Minnow Slim 120 (but they come in various sizes), and it casts really well and has a stunning kind of rolling, side to side action when you retrieve it. A shallow diving lure that was designed by the French bass anglers, I know you can get them here.

• At least twice I was hit by a fish that did not connect, and I then cast in the same kind of area on the very next cast and hooked a bass both times. Was it the same fish hitting me again ? Good to know that there were a few fish about - what an awesome mark to fish, very awkward to get down to, but I suppose that is what protects it from getting a hammering from other fishermen. Lots of rocks, weed and gullies, plus plenty of different depths of water. I really fancy the area for surface lures as well.

• I reckon the better size of fish will come in time, and to be perfectly honest, I love this style of fishing that much that I simply couldn't care how big or small the fish are. My opinion is that if you are putting yourself in the right place to catch bass, then the size of them will take care of itself - at least one can hope !! Big or small, they are great fish to be around.

• I just wish that our bass stocks were properly looked after and managed so that these magnificent fish offered a real sporting proposition to more fishermen. Imagine if there were lots of big bass to fish for ? Just think about what a thriving sport fishing industry we could have that was based solely around the bass if we had more and bigger fish to catch. Think about the money that this would be worth to the economy. Think about the commercial value of a thriving sports fishery compared to commercial landings - the bass is worth far more to us swimming around than on a plate. When are the powers that be going to wake up and see what needs to be done ? All they have to do is to make a brief study of the US striped bass fishery to see just what can be done.

• We managed to get a few hours in early yesterday morning before the wind swung around from northerly and off our backs, right round to due east and smacking us in the side. Time to head for home. My dog Jess had cut her leg on the way down to the mark and for a while it was pouring so much blood we considered getting her back straight away, but I managed to wash the cut in saltwater, bind the wound in a bit of fishing rag (thanks Andy) and the bleeding began to slow and then eventually stopped. She has ripped one of the pads on the heel of a front leg, but luckily it is not affecting her walking at all and I cleaned it off properly when I got back home. All fine. I don't like seeing my dog in pain.

• Just how much rain did we have yesterday and overnight ? Proper stuff. I feel really sorry for all the people who have come to the westcountry for the long weekend, but what can you do ? This is England after all. One day you're walking around in shorts and slapping some suncream on, and the next you're turning the heating on in the house and getting the waterproofs out. It's just a shame to get such ropey weather on an important weekend for tourism down here, especially when we see footage of the north of the country basking in warm sunshine. At least they managed to complete the Test match - well done England, a good win after such a poor first innings score. Monty is the the real deal and it's great to see Strauss scoring proper runs again. I love cricket, what a great sport.

• Check out some really nice fly fishing photos of mine in the current issue of Trout Fisherman magazine - look at pages 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. These were shot on the stunning River Mole, and have a look at some awesome sea trout fishing that Nick Hart has been guiding his clients on to over the weekend - click here for the report.

• If you ever get a chance to have a look at the Danish fishing magazine Sportsfiskeren, look for a feature of mine in the current issue. It is all about fishing in Africa and I am blown away at how good they have made the piece look. I love fishing and photographing in Africa. At the end of September I am booked up to fly down to South Africa to photograph some really wild shore fishing near to the border with Mozambique, and then head inland to do some more stuff on the fantastic yellowfish of the Vaal river. Look here for some photos of when I was last there. Too few anglers know about this great fly fishing for yellowfish. I will be working once more with the excellent FlyCastaway guys, and you can book some of the best fly fishing in the world with them through Aardvark McLeod.

My new fishing book is on sale from today

• In a shameless act of self-promotion, I believe it is my duty to inform you that my new fishing book is on sale as from today - available at all good book shops I presume, or order it from here. It is very exciting to have my second fishing book coming out after all the hard work that went into it. Stashed full of some very cool fishing photography, this new book I reckon is an invaluable guide to all kinds of fishing, places, methods, tackle and other assorted nuggets of useful information. Check out the cover above.

• Like any lure addict, I have just ordered a few new bass lures to put in my already overflowing boxes. Do I really need them ? Probably not, but it makes me feel really good to have new models and colours sitting here ready for the off. Somebody once described plugging to me as a chance for boys to play with increasingly expensive bits of high-tech plastic - boys with toys basically.

• I am out tomorrow shooting a feature for Trout Fisherman with Nick Hart. so hopefully we might see a little bit of spring sunshine to light the piece up. It's always a blast photographing with Nick, and both of us are in a high state of excitement about our June trip out to Montana.

• It's good to hear of a new nice thornback rays and spring codling coming from the Bristol Channel, an area I really like for shore fishing. Those murky waters can produce some great fishing when things come together, but the last few winters have been relatively tough. Check out places like Hinkley, Lower Light, Brean Down and Sand Point for thornies and codling. Whole squid baits always sorts out the big rays, but I would never travel up there this time of year without some decent peeler crab as well. The tidal ranges up there are incredible.

• I had a long chat last night with Gerhard of the South African fly fishing company FlyCastaway and they have got lots of seriously exciting plans. I love working with these guys and I reckon they are some of the most talented and adventurous fly fishermen I have ever met. I have photographed with them extensively and we have plenty more to do together in the future. Gerhard also gleefully informed me last night that the South African cricket team are now no.1 in the world rankings - surely this is not right ?

• Gerhard told me that the remote Seychelles atolls they are working on are continuing to fish their proverbial socks off, and especially Providence. A client recently lost a black marlin estimated at over 450lbs after a 2.5hr fight, on a fly rod !! They are catching lots of those extraordinary bumphead parrotfish on the flats, plus plenty of huge GTs, bonefish, triggerfish etc. This vast atoll is simply incredible and I have been lucky enough to have been there twice with the FlyCastaway guys. Check here and here for a load of photos and info. I can't think of anybody on this earth who has as much remote Seychelles material as me.

• If you can, get yourself out there to fish this paradise. Talk to Aardvark McLeod and they will sort a trip out for you.

• Remember, my new fishing book is on sale from today - another shameless plug !!