Bring on the mackerel

• 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.

Off up to Alnwick for a meeting

• 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.....

New issue of Catch mag now online

• 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.

My best (red) fishing rod of 2008

• 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.

My best fishing line of 2008

• There are many outstanding lines out there these days, indeed you have got to go far to find a really bad one I reckon. If I use mono lines, it has to be Sufix (Tritanium, Zippy, Synergie etc., all outstanding), but with the amount of bass fishing I do, more often than not it is going to be braid that I end up fishing with.

• If I had to put my money on the table and come up with the best all round "regular" braid, then I still reckon Power Pro is it. This braid will work for our bassing just fine, indeed I have used Power Pro all over the world and it keeps on nailing fish. I see that Shimano have recently bought Power Pro, so I will be interested to see what happens here, but whatever does, you can use it with complete confidence.

• But, and this is a big but - earlier this year I began using the top of the range, high-tech Varivas braids from Japan, and I can't help but say that these are another step up. A "regular" braid like Power Pro is fantastic, but these premium Varivas braids are in a class of their own. There are various reasons as to why I use them so much now for my bass fishing, but in reality I just like using them, plain and simple. They just feel right.

• Braids don't come cheap as well all know, but they do last for ages if you underfill your spool and avoid loads of the dreaded wind knots. The absolute top of the range bass braid from Varivas is on the spool you can see in the photo above - a dull kind of grey colour. When I first felt this braid, I could not believe it, indeed I have never felt a line like it. A true 8 stand braid (as opposed to 4 strand), it is something else - the exact name is Varivas Avani Sea Bass Max Power PE, and you can get it right here. I said it wasn't cheap, but it is unlike any braid you have ever used. I use the 20lb for bass fishing, and I also have a reel filled with the 15lb for mullet fishing - honestly, this braid is so thin you can hardly see it !! In fact my mate Del rang me from the Isles of Scilly later yesterday afternoon to give me the update on his mullet fishing - three fish up to 6lbs, and guess what line he is using for it (and raving about) ? Yes, this exact braid in 15lb breaking strain.

• But it is the very slightly thicker and more "regular" feeling Varivas Avani Sea Bass Braid that you can see on the reel above that I have been using most of the time. Cheaper than the Max Power PE stuff, you can get it here. I really like the 23lb breaking strain in the green colour, with a short length of Varivas fluorocarbon leader to my lure. This braid is outstanding to fish with, and one fill up lasted me most of last year without any problem at all. You can horse fish on it. In my mind this braid is a kind of "ultra premium" regular braid (sounds like unleaded), while the Max Power PE is plain and simple "the best".

• My personal favourite for the moment has to be the slightly cheaper Varivas Avani Sea Bass Braid in 23lb breaking strain - I know the Max Power PE is a better line overall, but it is just so thin that sometimes it freaks me out. It is up to me now to get my head around using a line as thin and different feeling as this, because I know it works better for my fishing. But in all honesty, you can use both with complete confidence for all your bass fishing - they are that good.

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.

A few nice fish around

• There were a few decent fish caught over the weekend down here, so I guess that big southerly wind we had on Friday night did a bit of good. It played havoc though with Del over in the Isles of Scilly, but even so he landed a few mullet up to 5lbs - the bigger fish were there, but with so many maggots coming out of the weed he was unable to bring them larger fish within casting range. Still, a 5lb mullet would do me just fine !!

• A friend of mine landed a 28lb conger eel for a mate of his on a rock mark in South Devon that I used to fish for bull huss a lot, with some success as well - I had them to just under 14lbs off there myself, and I saw them landed to over 15lbs. My mate told me he nearly got washed in landing the eel, and they lost a bigger fish as well. Take it easy on those rocks when a bit swell is running.

• I also heard of a 12lb thornback ray and a 12lb plus cod from the River Tamar - it can be a frustrating and difficult place to fish at times, but the Tamar has a long history of chucking up decent fish. Virtually all my best shore caught cod came from Devil's Point at the mouth of the Tamar, fishing usually an hour and a half either side of low water on all sizes of tide. I never found any kind of pattern to catching cod in the Tamar, and it was more a case of if you could hold your bait out there in the tide, you were in with a shout of a decent fish. Daytime, night time, small tides, big tides, rough weather, flat calm weather, rain sunshine, doesn't matter - peeler crab always worked for me for the cod, with prawns killing for the thornbacks, but the prawns catch the cod as well.

• Flounder fishing has never been my thing, but the guys have been catching some nice fish. A friend of mine has had two flounders of 3lb 12oz already, plus numerous other big ones, and the signs seem to be good for the Kingsbridge estuary especially to switch on sometime very soon. Good to hear that the famous River Teign has been producing so many quality flounder again.

• Below are a few more examples of some black and white photographs that I have been playing around with. Any comments are more than welcome, and please bear in mind that I am not always sure how these low-res JPEGs look on other computer screens - I work on calibrated screens in my office here, and there is always a degree of loss of detail when you down-res an image to put on the internet. They look very good on my screens (but then I would say that !!) at full size, so please bear that in mind when you look at them.

• I photographed this stunning girl in southern India a few years ago, in a local village close to where we were fishing for mahseer (see here for some photos) - I have never seen anybody look through a lens with such ease and confidence.

• The above photo was shot in Zambia when we were chasing the outrageous tigerfish on the fly - what a fish, what a place. A bunch of photos from that trip are here. It's those skies that work for me here.

• This kid was fishing with a dropnet off the local pier on Los Roques, an archipelago off the coast of Venezuela. I tend to obviously major on shooting fishing, but I also like to look around for different photos when I can. See a bunch of stuff from Los Roques here.

• We blew yet another tyre heading back to Kampala in Uganda, after smashing the Nile perch at Murchison Falls in a major way. A bunch of locals gathered around to see what on earth a couple of white guys were doing with a dusty Landrover, a spare tyre and a jack. The kid you see above just looked so serene and calm. See here for more photos.

• I am not completely sure whether fishing gear works in black and white yet, but I do really like the photo above that was shot out in Canada a few months ago. A very simple composition, but something about the angles always worked in my head.

Fishing in black and white

• As a photographer, I see the world in colour - having had no formal photography tuition or anything like that, I have no history with things like black and white, but as a medium is has begun to interest me a lot more. I love learning new things, and playing around with a bit of black and white photography is forcing me to think about completely different aspects to a photograph.

• Below are a few examples of some stuff I have been playing around with - I am not sure where this might go, but I have a few ideas, and it would be interesting to see where fishing in black and white could be taken......

• Any thoughts or comments are more than welcome. Fishing is such a colourful, vibrant thing to be involved with and it might seem a bit strange to take such wonderful colours out of a photo, but I reckon it can look very cool indeed with the right photo. I suppose about the most outstanding black and white fishing based photography that I have recently seen is of course in the many striking Simms adverts, shot by a photographer called Tibor Nemeth. Now that is some proper black and white stuff to aspire to !!

• And as I was typing this blog, I got a call from my mate Del (better known as Trotter) over in the Isles of Scilly - he was trying to keep calm as a load of big mullet were mooching around. "Just checking things out" were his words, but I don't fancy the chances of his taxi clients getting picked up later this afternoon. Trotter said there was loads of rotten weed around and the weather forecast is looking really good for him. I am going to try and get over there in January to photograph some of this outstanding fishing. I also have a feeling I might hear of a nice mullet or two over the next few days.

Some big Isles of Scilly mullet

• My mate Del rang me up from the Isles of Scilly this morning to give me an update on his recent mullet fishing exploits - and the old boy's been been doing pretty good !! Mullet to 7lbs last week, and a nice fish of just over 6lbs this morning, before the winds swung around on him and killed it for a while. That is some outstanding fishing, yet so few anglers have any idea that the Isles of Scilly produces some awesome mullet when the conditions are right. It is coming up now for their best time of year on the mullet and I am hoping to get over if time and weather allow, sometime over the next couple of months.

• Below you can see Del bringing a nice mullet to the net from a filming trip we did over there some time ago now - there are few places I have been on this earth that are as pretty and unspoilt as the Isles of Scilly. Del and his mate have got all the mullet fishing you could hope for to themselves. How about the outrageous shore fishing for pollack as well ? One of my all time favourite species off the shore, and one of my favourite places ever. You can't go there and not fall in love with the place. If you are lucky enough, it will be Del and his taxi that picks you up from the airport - he runs Island Taxis. Del is always really helpful towards visiting fishermen, especially if the bribe involves good quality mullet hooks.

• Not that we get excited when we are out fishing or anything. Below you can see Del frantically making hand signals to me about some rather large mullet he was seeing - fishermen never exaggerate !! I remember filming this particular episode in fact, and we saw some cracking mullet swimming around, but the crew kept spooking them because they needed to be around us all the time. I had to ask them to hang back and let Del and I do our stuff, and as far as I can remember, we got a mullet or two for the camera. I might have got somewhat overexcited as well - mullet tend to do that to me. Proper fish.

• One of these days the phone is going to go with Del telling me about a double figure mullet he has just caught - it is going to happen. An old friend of his had one of just under 10lbs a few winters ago, and Del has had a proper double in his net before, only for the net to break and the fish get away (you need a bigger and newer net). I remember that particular phone call being more of a counselling session than anything else !! He is seeing some huge fish at the moment, often just out of range, but the fish will make a mistake soon enough. Del told me his mate got smashed to pieces by a seriously proper fish last week on those big tides.

• Seems to me that a lot of fishing is really beginning to pick up at the moment, especially on the bass and mullet front - the extreme amount of rain we had in August has to have had a far greater effect than we tended to think. My mate Andy had a couple of nice bass on Sunday morning on the Cornish coastline, including a fish just under 5lbs and a tidy one that came off, all on lures. I would have been out with him normally, but I had my in-laws staying with us for the weekend and I wanted to be around. They are very cool people. But I knew that Andy would catch bass - the tides and conditions were about as spot on as I can remember all year.

A mighty return to form.....

• I was wondering when the mighty AC/DC were ever going to get back to releasing decent albums, and at last they have come good again with their new one, called "Black Ice". From the very first track, this is a typical AC/DC album that will have you banging your head and air-guitaring along with Angus Young all the way through !! Check out some of the new tracks right here. Will I ever grow up ? Life's far too short for that when music like this is still being released.....

• You know what to expect, but that doesn't take away from the fact that nobody does it quite like AC/DC does - I read one rather snooty review over the weekend that was lamenting the fact that Black Ice did not offer anything very new or different, but he totally missed the point (typical pseudo-intellectual music journo who seems to hate all kinds of music anyway). AC/DC are so great because they write awesome songs, plain and simple. They know what works, they know what they are good at, and thankfully they have decided to spend some proper time in getting a decent album out there once more. Nonetheless, I will always be a Bon Scott man at heart. Now if only I could get tickets to see them on tour, for it proved impossible the other day......

• I have heard various reports about the Jersey Bass Festival that took place over the weekend, and while the winning fish was a shade over the magical 10lb mark (on bait), sadly the fishing was not half as good as it had been in the week prior to the event. Ain't that typical ? But I gather that the guys involved had a blast, and there were over thirty visiting anglers over from the mainland - it seems to be a really well run, popular event, and I will try to get over for it one day soon.

• Below is a photo that I really like, of Andy Bignell right at the end of a cast while the fog surrounds him in a quiet blanket. While the bassing might have been a bit quiet over in south east Ireland recently, Graham told me the other day of some more huge mullet they had seen, estimated to weigh over 12lbs !!! Now if only some decent mullet anglers would head over there and spend some proper time on these fish, they would get a proper shock I am sure. The tiny Channel Island of Alderney might well be the mecca for mullet anglers chasing big winter fish, I have had a feeling for some years now that Ireland might well be the place to head for as well. Oh for more time......

• If you ever get the chance to check out the awesome Norwegian fishing magazine "Alt om Fiske", have a look in the current edition at a big feature of mine on those magical golden dorado that I fished for and photographer earlier in the year. Look at pages 72, 73, 74, 75 and 76 for my words (handily translated into Norwegian, one of my many talents ??!!) and photos. Not much in freshwater comes close to these mighty fish, check out a load of photos from that trip right here. There are also a couple of photo essays here and here.

Going away for a week with my family

• I am off tonight for a proper week with my family and I can't wait. Life has been bananas here recently and I have not been able to give them the time they deserve from me. The next week or so is my chance to spend some decent time with them before it goes and gets hectic all over again. I am off to go and join them in the Isle of Wight, and although I always see plenty of nice mullet over there, no fishing rods are coming with me !!

• Below is a nice bass that was taken the other day on one of these awesome Slug-Go lures. The fish was caught when we were fishing and photographing up on Anglesey, and if I am not mistaken, is that a big blue sky I have framed up with in the background ? So blue skies do exist then........

• The moment that Nick Roberts of Bass Lures put this fish down to unhook it, I saw the shot and nailed a few frames before the fish was safely returned. You should check these lures out - a lot of bass anglers are really turning on to soft plastics over here, and in the right situations they can be truly deadly. Just ask the French bass fishermen.

• Below is one of my favourite shots from my bassing trip over to Ireland the other day - this was very early in the morning and I had a feeling that the sky was going to get really powerful as the sun began to rise and illuminate the broken clouds. I hit my first fish of the trip just around the corner from where Graham is standing in this photo. I am actually just in the process of booking up a few days fishing and photography back over in south east Ireland for mid September, just after I get back from Canada. I feel we are on for an Indian summer as well.

• I spoke to Graham this morning and they had some awesome bassing on Sunday morning (when I was cursing the conditions on my coastline) for some big fish nearing the 10lb mark. Am I jealous ? Am I sitting here looking for Irish houses right now ? What do you think ? Nice one guys, leave some for us !!

• My mate Cato over in Norway has sent me some links to some really big Swedish and Danish mullet that have been caught on fly fishing gear - could this be the place to go and get the really big ones on the fly ? It looks like it. Check here, here and especially here for some truly outstanding fish. Check out those flats !! I need to see this stuff......

• Anyway, I am going to finish up here and then hit the road, along with some mighty fine extreme metal to spice up the journey. At full blast of course. See you in a week or so. Here is to fine fishing weather and stacks of fish, and a little sunshine please for the Isle of Wight.

Big shore caught conger eel landed

• I got a text message from one of Plymouth's best shore anglers this morning, telling me that he had finally gone and done it - last night Rob Yorke landed a 43lb conger eel from the River Tamar, and I know how much this fish means to him. Well done Rob, you deserve this fish, I know how hard you have been chasing a 40lb plus eel. They are a hard fish to come by at that size off the shore.

• Conger eels are one of the most powerful fish we can catch off the shore in the UK, and the 40lb mark is a true milestone to get past. Immensely powerful fish that require serious dedication, personally I have never got past 40lb off the shore, and I have spent far too many hours of my life trying. I know how hard it is to land a fish of this size, having lost one over 50lbs on the gaff when I was at university, so my respect for what Rob has done is huge - the monster I lost some years ago gave me nightmares for months afterwards. I also lost a huge eel when we were filming I think it was for my first TV series, but that is another story..............

• Below is Rob Yorke with a nice mullet he caught from the tiny Channel Island of Sark a couple of years ago when we were across there in winter. You will have to go a long way to find a nicer guy or more accomplished angler than Rob, so I could not be more pleased for him - it is one thing to set yourself goals in fishing, but to achieve them is another thing entirely. He has had more good fish off the shore than a lot of us put together, and I know how hard he works at it.

• I have been asked a lot over the years about the people in fishing that I really admire, and I always answer the same - I have no time for "fishing celebrities or experts", or people like that (the word "expert" is one that I have a particular dislike for in fact). But I do have the utmost respect for fishermen who really know their fishing - the fish, the water, the tides, the feeding patterns and times, weather influences, reading the water, etc. The kinds of things that take years of dedication to accumulate - watercraft, one of the most important and often overlooked things in fishing. These are the kind of anglers that I strive to learn from.

Canon 1D MK11, 24-70 f2.8L lens (at 45mm), ISO 320, f4.5, 1/200

• The River Tamar is big fish country - hard to fish unless you know the tides and conditions, and tough because you are going to blank more often than you catch when chasing good fish. But nowhere in the UK has thrown up more big eels over the years, including Martin Larkin's current shore record of just over 68lbs. We all know there are far bigger fish down there, but getting them out is another matter entirely - fish that can swim as fast backwards as they can forwards are somewhat expert at exploiting weaknesses in your gear, and also at getting back into some kind of sanctuary. I hate to think of the number of times these things have smashed me to pieces, with a certain degree of disdain as well !!

• The most famous big fish marks in the Tamar are Devil's Point and Mutton Cove - both spots chuck up big conger eels, plus lots of decent thornback rays and some nice cod in winter, plus anything and everything at times. You have to fish these places to realise just how deep and tidal the water is.

• Rob said he fished for only two hours last night, with Mark Bryce, and the successful bait was mullet, a known big eel bait. He said he hit the fish and literally held it as hard as he could, to stop it diving back down and breaking him up. It must have been some sight to see that thing coming up in the headlights. Mark helped Rob get the eel out of the water. Well done guys - that is a serious fish.

• While those two were out fishing, I was watching one of the most exciting Wimbledon finals I can remember - while I really wanted Federer to get the six titles in a row, I have to say that Nadal deserved his victory. What a match, I could hardly watch for the whole fifth set it was so tense. It must have been amazing to actually have been there and watched it live. It has to have been some of the best men's tennis ever played - you would not find me facing one of those serves, I would be going down fast with a convenient calf injury to get out of the way of those howitzers.

• Is that more rain I can see out of my window ? Surely not...............thoughts of emigrating are becoming all the more frequent.

Outstanding new magazine

• There is a fantastic new fishing, shooting and hunting magazine that has just hit the news stands in the US, and it is really worth tracking down if you are into the outdoors life. Called "The Travelling Sportsman", it deals with the best fishing and hunting destinations on this earth, and I am really pleased to have the lead feature in there. Check out pages 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 for my words and photos from one of the remotest Bahama island - Great Inagua. Those eagle-eyed among you might also spot some other photos of mine in the magazine as well........

• The Travelling Sportsman's website can be found here. I am fascinated in all kinds of fishing from all around the world, and this magazine is exactly the kind of publication that I reckon the fishing and hunting world seriously needs. All credit to the people involved. The editor Doug is one of the nicest guys you could hope to meet. Why can't we have a publication like this in the UK ?

• If you ever get hold of the Norwegian fishing magazine "Alt om Fiske", check out a big feature of mine in issue number 3, 2008 - all about the outstanding trip to Rost we had last summer chasing monster coalfish on the fly (check here for the photos). OK, so I don't speak or read Norwegian, but the magazine is well worth tracking down. Look on pages 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 for my words and photos. I sound good in Norwegian !!

• There is a very cool DPS photo in there (pages 24 and 25) of the stunning looking Hardy Zane rod and reel that Nick Hart was using to smash the coalfish with. It's the kind of photo that you know looks really good the moment you frame it up, but then you are relying on a forward thinking designer to pick the shot out and use it. I am really pleased with how they have used this particular photo. It was taken with my Canon 16-35mm f2.8L wide angle lens, plus a polarising filter. And yes, the horizon is deliberately wonky !!

• Since we're talking about fishing magazines here, have a look at the current edition of Sea Angler for a mullet feature of mine that I shot earlier this year. Look at pages 66, 67, 68 and 69. If you get the right conditions down here, mullet can be caught virtually all year round and the guy I shot the feature with is without doubt the best mullet angler I have ever come across - Martin Larkin. He is also heavily into his carp fishing, and he landed a 42lb common carp the other day. That is some fish, and it was in stunning condition.

• And on the subject of mullet, my friends in south east Ireland keep emailing me to tell me about the vast shoals of monster mullet that they keep seeing. Granted, they might be tearing their hair out with the bass close season still upon them, but these mullet have got me going big time. For a while now it has struck me that Ireland is a serious mullet mecca just waiting to be discovered. Oh for more time................

• Not long now until I head out to Montana with Nick - we fly out next Sunday from Heathrow into Denver, then we connect up to Bozeman. I can not wait to finally get the chance to take photographs out there, and I know that Nick is "mildly" excited about fishing those famous rivers and streams. Trips to where we are going can be booked through Aardvark McLeod. If internet connections allow me to, I will keep this blog regularly updated when we are out there, hopefully with some outrageously pretty fly fishing photos. I'd better start thinking about what camera gear to pack.

• I told you the other day about the new Opeth album that is out, called "Watershed" - I have been listening to it virtually all the time since I got it, and take it from me, this is a monster release. Some albums take proper time to grow on you and reveal themselves, and this is one of those - I am completely blown away by how good this CD is. There is an insane amount of talent in this band and I can't wait to see them live when they next come to the UK.

Chest waders - live in them

• If you have yet to experience wearing breathable chest waders for your fishing, then you are missing out big time. The fly guys have been using lightweight, breathable chest waders and felt or rubber-soled wading boots for sometime now, but not that many anglers in the sea fishing world have switched on to just how useful they are for a lot of our shore fishing - and especially when you head out lure or bait fishing for bass. Some of you might not mind getting a soaking when you are fishing close to or actually in the water, but personally I like to live in my chest waders and keep nice and dry. The photo above from the other day is a perfect example of the need for chest waders. Please note that I used a long lens to compress the scene, and that the water is actually breaking safely behind where Mark is standing.

• Not only are they good for keeping dry when you are wading, but they are great for those (frequent) times when the weather takes a turn for the worse. I simply can not imagine going bass fishing without mine. I also wear them for a lot of my mullet fishing, plus every single time I go out to photograph fly fishing, and they are even perfect for a lot of our standard shore fishing. Think of the shallow reef marks such as Lilstock on the Bristol Channel and then think how useful it would be to be able to wade out a bit if you could. I reckon my chest waders are as important to me as a decent rod or reel, and as such, they are worth every penny. In the winter I wear a fleece bib and brace lining from the fly fishing market to keep me warm.

• Yes, you can pick up neoprene chest waders very cheaply these days, but personally I would rather wear nothing than have to wear neoprene for my fishing. Heavy, non-breathable, hot and horrible !! Look around though and you can usually pick up a good deal on a pair of breathable chesties and wading boots. You can't go far wrong using the Greys G-Series waders and the GRX wading boots. The boots are sized to allow for the waders, so just choose your regular shoe size.

• If you want to spend more, then I can really recommend the Hardy EWS waders and EWS wading boots - I use and abuse these all the time for my fishing and photography and I can't talk them up enough. Sure, they cost a bit, but as I said earlier, I reckon waders are as important to me as a good rod and reel. I hate to think how many hard miles I have walked in mine so far, and they are standing up strong.

• Some friends of mine had a few nice fish up on the Bristol Channel on Saturday, including a 6lb cod and a few thornbacks. This is a good time of year for the rays up there, and spring cod are always a real bonus. Southerly winds and medium tides are perfect for the really shallow reef marks - I have always been convinced that the thornies are put off by the noise or turbulence of rough conditions when you are fishing very shallow water, hence winds in the south being so good. My biggest thornback ray came from the Bristol Channel when it was flat calm, indeed all the best rays I have seen up there have been when the winds have been from the south, coming from behind us and flattening off the sea.

• Check out some serious pike over on Nick Hart's blog - Chew Valley is an awesome place, and Nick and I filmed a TV programme there some years ago now where we had some big pike on flies. I am due to be out tomorrow in fact to photograph some lure fishing for pike, so I'll post here if it all goes well. Although I have not fished for them for a while now, pike have always held a fascination for me and I can't wait to see them again.

At least I saw a bass....

• I got back to Plymouth late on Tuesday night after a couple of days up in Alnwick with Hardy & Greys, and before I went to bed I checked the local forecast - perfect for another go at some bass on the lures, so on Wednesday morning I gave Mark Bryce a shout and we went out for a short session on the first of the push. The actual conditions could not have been better - decent tide, gentle westerly breeze, a bit of chop, and fantastic water clarity. Just look at the photo above to see how good it looked for bass yesterday.

• While it still might be a little early to expect much success, about two hours after low tide I had a bass come at my lure and then turn away. I saw the fish plain as day, very close in, but the bass was that small he might actually have had a bit of a problem trying to nail my lure - again, the Maria Chase BW in holographic silver. I was able to watch my different lures work all the way in yesterday, and you can't believe how good they look in the water. Check here to get some of the Maria Chase lures - whatever you do, have one or two in your lure box at all times.

• So, I got skunked again, but at least I saw a bass, albeit a little on the minnow size !! Mark got all excited when he saw a bigger fish track his lure at one point, but it turned out to be a nice mullet. I am going to keep trying as things are looking up - hopefully the weather will behave next week for a few attempts, because after that I am off to the Florida Keys to get hurt by some tarpon for a few days. Work of course. And when I am back it is time to head out plugging whenever time allows.

• I had a really good couple of days with Hardy & Greys, doing a bunch of stuff on the game fishing side - there are a whole raft of very exciting looking new products to be launched this year, so keep your eyes open for them. A lot of the game fishing clothing such as breathable waders, wading boots, wading jackets and other clothing is exactly what I like to use for my mobile fishing, such as chasing bass and mullet.

• I am out with Nick Hart next week to photograph some wild Cornish brown trout if conditions let us, and this is awesome fly fishing. There are few prettier fish in the world than a prime condition brown trout - roll on Montana in June, can't wait. Check out a load of fly fishing photographs here.

• Check out the full report from Pete McLeod's recent bonefishing trip out to Los Roques by clicking here. One of the world's great destinations for bonefish, you can book a trip through Aardvark McLeod, check here for their website. If fly fishing for bonefish is your thing, get out there as soon as you can. You can also see a photo of me hard at work out in Canada last year by looking here. Check here for photos from Canada and here for photos from Los Roques.

• And onto spinning rods that work well for bass fishing. Below, Mark is using what I believe to be one of the best value for money plugging rods in the UK at the moment. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of good spinning rods out there right now, check here for a load, but the rod that Mark is casting happens to work particularly well for bass fishing. It is the Shimano Technium DF BX Spinning rod, and the exact model is code STECDFBX30H - about 10' long, a nice, fast action for working all kinds of lures, and a hell of a lot of rod for not very much money at all. I know you can get them here.

Windy weekend

• Is it just me or we having an awful lot of windy days this year ? Don't get me wrong, a bit of breeze can be great for some kinds of fishing, but you really have to feel for our professional charter fishing fleets who are very badly affected by strong winds. A good friend of mine is about the nicest charter skipper you could ever hope to meet, plus he catches a stack of good fish into the bargain, and I know he's tearing his hair out when his boat is tied up. You owe it to yourself to come fishing with Malcolm Jones who operates his boat Sea Angler II out my home port of Plymouth. Contact Malcolm here. He always goes out his way to give his clients the best day's fishing possible.

• And guess what ? The forecast for the weekend down here is for very strong winds, plenty of rain and a little bit of sunshine - about par for the course for the start of spring !!

• Above is a photo of one of my favourite places on earth, the stunning Isles of Scilly. I shot this on Bryher, one of the off islands. You can almost smell the pollack and mullet in that bay. If money was no object, I would buy a house over there and spend at least five months of every year living in paradise. Did I mention that the fishing is pretty good as well ?

• Check out Aardvark McLeod's fantastic new website that has just been launched. Click here to have a look around. You might notice a stack of my photos all over the site as well.

Great spinning/fixed spool reel

• There are so many different reels to use for mullet fishing, and I would guess that most anglers are using fairly small models for the light mainlines that we use. Whilst I reckon that Shimano make the best spinning (fixed spool) reels there are, this little Okuma VS30 (photo above) that I have been using for my mullet fishing for a fair while now is a delight to fish with. It came with a couple of spools, but I use mainly 10-20lb braid on mine for mulleting and it works a treat.

• A friend of mine over in Florida also swears by the larger Okuma VS models for a lot of his heavy fishing, for species such as tarpon, and having used one over there, they do work very well. It is amazing what you can do with spinning reels these days.

• I am actually looking around for some spinning reels at the moment, for various parts of my fishing, and while I know that these Okuma reels will do all that is asked of them, I have to admit that my heart really wants to invest in a few of the most awesome reels in the world - the simply mind-blowing Shimano Stella. If money was no object, I would get the 4000, 5000, 6000 and 8000 size models right now................dream on !! These reels are machines and are a serious pleasure to use. But perhaps I had better get real and start looking through the Shimano catalogue at some slightly cheaper reels.

• Check out the stunning new Greys 2008 Game catalogue - there are plenty of my photographs in there, including a very cool shot of one of their reels inside the front cover that I shot last year on the Exe, with Nick Hart. Thanks Nick for the use of your hand !!

• Below is a photo from mullet fishing the other day - at times we could see fish surfacing not ten yards out from here. I lay down on the ground here and literally rested the camera on the pebbles, using my Canon 16-35mm f2.8L lens to try and accentuate that moody sky, with the sunlight off to the left illuminating the foreshore and Larks fishing away.

Fish to tip you over the edge....

• We had great fun yesterday, but as is typical with early season mullet fishing, they are either starving hungry and nail anything, or they do the "mullet thing" and proceed to play with your head all day long. Larks and I saw plenty of fish moving around, and at times we had some nice mullet gently nibbling our ledgered and surface fished bread baits, but the only fish actually caught was a small one - by Larks of course (photo above). I'll use the "taking photos" excuse for getting skunked !!

• The first spot we fished was freezing cold, with a brisk east wind running off our left shoulders, but the moment there was a lull in the breeze, we could see a few mullet nudging bits of surface bread. Nothing beats visual fishing, and mullet are our major chance to do this in UK sea fishing - just seeing fish always gets the pulse going.

• The second spot we moved to was much more sheltered, and the sun even came out for a bit. The water was crystal clear and I am sure the fish could see Larks and I a mile away, but we had a few nice bites. Mullet fishing is unlike anything else, but I love it. Few fish in our seas put up such a scrap, and the fact that we can fish with what is essentially coarse fishing tackle makes them a real blast to target.

• So all in all, a tough day, but I got a few nice photos. Larks is the best mullet angler I have ever had the pleasure of fishing with, indeed he has so much knowledge in his head that he has forgotten more than I will ever know. He is a particularly gifted angler and can catch virtually anything he puts his mind to. Take the current British shore caught conger eel record, a fish he deliberately went after, and eventually nailed.

• Check out a great new blog, over at Aardvark McLeod, click here to have a look. I reckon this well develop into an invaluable way to keep up to date with what is going on with fly fishing all over the world, and I can wholeheartedly recommend speaking to Pete or Charlotte about your next fly fishing trip.

• And on the music front, I have a couple of awesome new releases to tell you about from the extreme metal world - one of my all time favourite thrash metal bands have fairly recently got back together and their new CD is awesome. Check out "Killing Season" by Death Angel, you can listen to some tracks here. One of their old albums, "Act III", has always been close to the top of my list of thrash metal greats. Their comeback CD "The Art of Dying" was very good as well, but the new one is a whole leap better. I am pretty sure that Death Angel were one of the first ever bands that I ever saw live, when they were supporting Motorhead a long time ago at the Hammersmith Odeon - am I getting older or does everything seem like a long time ago now ?

• Check out the new CD from Meshuggah, the masters of off-time, head-spin metal - these guys are technical wizards, and the new album "Obzen" is one that gets in your head and grows over time. Give it multiple spins and it will start to open up and reveal itself. Check out some tracks here.

Well done Wales

• All credit to Wales for winning the Grand Slam in such style yesterday evening..........between clenched teeth I have to admit that they more than deserved it. I bet there were a record number of sore heads over the border this morning !! The Wales v France game was a proper game of rugby, and even on TV the atmosphere seemed to be electric - what must it have been like to have actually been there ?

• At least we put up a proper performance against Ireland at Twickenham, especially after the disgrace that was the Scotland match the weekend before - did England even turn up to that ? I still can't work out what went on there, but in time I will erase the painful memory from my head. My middle brother Julian was at the Ireland match yesterday and said it was awesome.

• Looks like what they have been saying for ages now is possibly true - this Danny Cipriani guy had a great game at 10, but counting out Johnny in the future would be foolish. World class players do not simply become has-beens over night. We all remember that great day in 2003 I am sure.

• Some nice bull huss are being caught around here at the moment, including good numbers of fish over 10lbs, but why on earth do so many anglers have to kill them simply to weigh them in for clubs, medals and trophies etc ? Surely with decent scales and cheap digital cameras the days of killing fish simply to weigh in are over now ? Sadly not..................don't get me wrong, taking the odd fish to eat is just fine, but taking prime fish to get your name up on a board is doing nothing remotely positive for the future of our sport. Anybody can justify taking a fish to eat, but on on earth can any of us justify killing a fish to make us look like great anglers ? If there is one species that we can have an effect on as shore anglers, it is the bull huss - take too many big fish out and I really believe that you are adversely affecting the very marks you fish.

• Anyway, the forecast is for brighter weather and colder winds tomorrow, and I am off for a day's photographing and fishing for mullet, one of the UK's great saltwater species. Few fish fight so hard on light gear - this is going to be a great way to spend a Monday.