Monday morning - back to it

• By rights I should be posting a photo of the current dire weather conditions, but I can't face that on a Monday morning. Instead, here is a shot of one of my most favourite places on earth, the Isles of Scilly. Yes, we love to talk about the weather here in the UK, indeed some would say that we are mildly obsessed with it, but come on, let's be honest here, just how bad has this "summer" been so far ? Can it get any worse ?

• I had an awesome week on the Isle of Wight with my family, taking full advantage of any sunshine we got to head to the beach and go fishing for crabs, blennies and prawns with my two young girls. Luckily they still think their dad is quite sane when he jumps into the water and comes out clutching a crab in his hands !! How long they will think I am relatively cool for is anybody's guess though. But we had a blast - on one day we would all be whacking the suncream on, and on the next my wife and I would be walking across the beach in a bracing 50mph breeze. We got the lot and I loved it.

• The week started off fairly costly though as my sheepdog Jess cut her paw really badly on a rock and we had to take her to the vet to get the wound stitched up properly - not cheap, but vets know we'll pay virtually anything to look after our pets. Jess is still not allowed to go for proper walks, it was not a nice cut at all, but hopefully soon she will be fully healed so I can take her fishing again.

• Anyway, back to work with a vengeance, and life is about to get properly hectic again. I am off over to Jersey to photograph some bass fishing later this week for a few days, flying straight out of my local airport here in Plymouth - very handy.

• Another week or so here after Jersey and I then head over to the east coast of Canada to photograph some more of this awesome Atlantic salmon fishing they have in these incredible crystal clear rivers. Sight fishing for these fish blew me away last year, and I can't wait for this trip. There are a load of photos from that trip here, and you can find a photo essay here. Like last year, I will be travelling with Pete from Aardvark McLeod. And I rather bet Pete is hoping that we will not be sharing rooms so he can get some sleep - I tend to take a while to adjust to time differences and I seriously struggle to keep quiet when I wake up at 3am all the time. All I want to do is get out there and get the pictures, and I can't stand having to wait for dawn !!

• Virtually straight after this trip to Canada, I am turning around and heading back over to south east Ireland to get a load more bass fishing photos - plus some fishing of course !! As always for this kind of trip, I will be getting the Stena Line ferry from Fishguard to Rosslare. This is such a good way of getting to Ireland as you can carry all the gear you need and not worry for one second about weight restrictions etc. Check out a load of photos from my trip there a while back, see here.

• I have been keeping in close contact with Graham over in Ireland, and when the weather has relented they have been catching some fantastic bass as always. Jealous, me ? Never.....

• I am getting back from Ireland in time for my eldest daughter's 4th birthday - where does time go ? Then a week or so here at home before heading off to South Africa for ten days to photograph some rock and surf fishing near to the Mozambique border, and then some fly fishing for yellowfish on the Vaal river. See here for some yellowfish photos that I shot a while back. I can't wait to get back to Africa, it has been too long. There is no place on earth that feels the same as Africa.

• And then in October I am trying to plan it that I will be here in the UK for a decent length of time. It's all very well shooting all this material, but I then need time here to sell it properly, and I am also rather hoping that an Indian summer might just come along to give me a few more weeks on the bass fishing around here. Not much is happening right now with near gale force onshore winds, but a friend of mine had a load of nice bass on bait early last week before the monster winds. The fish are there, but too often we can't get at them. I am hearing of a few fish to plugs as well, but again, only when the weather allows it.

• I heard last week from my mate Cato over in Norway that a friend of his had just landed a 50lb halibut on the fly !!! I am really pleased to hear of this being done in Europe, so well done to the angler concerned - to actually go out and do this far out fly fishing takes some doing, believe me. I know that big halibut on the fly are a real possibility out at Rost, where we made a fishing programme and also I shot a load of monster coalfish on the fly, see here for the photos. April, May and into June are your best times for a go at the halibut.

• Make sure to check out Nick Hart's blog here. Not only has he gone and revamped the look of it, but you should check out his post here about an open day he is holding at Exe Valley Fishery on Saturday 30th August. Get yourself along for the day, it will be a blast.

Too much weed and colour.....

• OK, so now I am getting seriously frustrated - the winds last week knocked any bass fishing on the head for me, but I felt there was a chance of an early morning trip on Sunday morning to fish the last of the flood tide. I knew the forecast had to have been a bit out though when my alarm went off at 4.30am and it was peeing down outside and blowing pretty hard, but I picked Andy up and we headed out to the cliffs. If he had suggested we head home at that moment I would have done so, for the conditions were not good at all. Even in the half light you could see the surging sea, murky colour to the water and weed everywhere, but we gave it a go anyway.....

• I was gobsmacked to see Andy catch a bass on about his third cast, and so we fished on for a while. But the amount of weed in the water and the horrible colour put paid to any further chances of a fish, and to be perfectly honest I think Andy did great to catch the one fish he did. Where on earth has our rather pathetic attempt at a summer gone ? Is it just me or are we getting a lot more west and especially north west winds these days ? I really dislike north west winds for fishing.

• Remember that I recently put up an online gallery of our Irish bassing exploits from a couple of weeks ago. Check here for them, and indulge yourself in the big blue skies we got towards the end of that awesome week.

• You might be able to see that Andy has gone and bought himself one of the red Tenryu plugging rods (check them out here). I told him not to pick mine up a while back, but he did, and he has gone and got one - yesterday was his first chance to fish with it, so perhaps that is the reason he was so keen to scrabble down the cliffs and fish in those horrible conditions !! As you can probably guess, he is raving about the new rod.

• Above and below are a couple of photos of the Tackle House Feed Shallow lures, in a white kind of pearl/silver colour that I really like for bass fishing over foul ground. This is without doubt the bass lure of the moment, and I know my mate Graham is still mourning of the loss of his to a crocodile of a fish the other day. Oh well mate, sing to me again next time and I'll get you a couple !! Check these awesome lures here. The fact that these lures swim so shallow and so seductively is pure music to my ears, somewhat unlike Graham's singing. Notice that you will never find me singing as I am completely tone deaf and have a voice like a howler monkey.

• My mate Del rang me from the Isles of Scilly last night to tell about a stack of blue sharks they are catching on the boats. This is awesome sport on light gear and I love hearing about these magnificent fishing being around. Del also told me that he saw some big tuna jumping clear out of the water very close to them, and these kind of sightings are being regularly reported down there. It can't be that long until somebody heads down there and has a proper go at them on rod and line. I would imagine the shock of seeing a big tuna jump out of the water was akin the shock at me whacking him with a pillow over in Mozambique because he was snoring so loudly. Honestly, it ain't normal.

• And on the metal front, check out the new album by Soulfly, called Conquer. Check out some tracks here. This thing is growing on me. Now if only the original Sepultura line up would get back together and rip our heads open like they used to. I first saw "the original" Sepultura years ago when they toured their album Beneath the Remains for the first time, and they tore the Marquee Club up big time. Those were my stage-diving days !! I photographed them a while ago (check here), but once Max left it was never the same.

• I am not going to talk too much about the cricket and the fact that have just lost a Test series to South Africa - was it just "luck" that Gerhard called me from there about half an hour after they had beaten us ? Me thinks not................Michael Vaughan was a fantastic skipper and I am really sad to see him step down as England captain.

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.