Fishing on islands

• I have always had a thing for fishing on islands - I am not sure why this is the case, but I guess the idea of being slightly cut off and even further away from what we might call "civilisation" appeals to me. I will never forget spending a day over on Dursey island on the west coast of Ireland for a TV show we made a while back. I don't remember any particularly big fish, but I do always remember the sense of adventure at getting that ropey cable car over there and then walking until we found somewhere that looked worth fishing. If you want to fish this part of the world, I would seriously recommend reading this photo essay here on my website, and then contacting the people whose details I have put in there.

• How about the insane cod and coalfish fishing we filmed off the coast of Norway on the tiny island of Rost ? See what I mean ? A long way from lots of people and the fishing was off the scale it was so good. Check out a load of photos here if you don't believe me.

• The photo you can see above was shot early one morning last year on the Minquiers, a huge reef system that lies a few miles off the coast of Jersey. I have been in love with the different Channel Islands for years now, and there are plenty of smaller islands around them that can be accessed and fished if you know what you are doing or go with experienced people (if you have seen me trying to navigate a boat, you will know why I choose the latter option !!). I have dreamed of going to the Minquiers for ages, and it was a huge thrill to spend a night out there. Check out how good that water looks for bass fishing - it was tough when we were out there, but anybody with half a brain is going to get excited about tide, reefs, islands, rips and eddies when it comes to bass fishing.

• Above is Jersey bass-freak Trevor Sangan fishing a popper off the back of the little island we stayed on at the Minquiers. What a perfect morning. There is also the famous Ecrehous reef system that lies off Jersey, plus numerous others. The bass guys over there have got access to such a vast area of fishable waters. I know that they guys here are always happy to help out with local advice, and they stock the rods, reels and lures that smash the bass big time.

• It just so happens that this exploratory French bass fishing/photography trip of mine that I am in the process of planning will most likely be based around an island or two. Perhaps the fact that islands get me going to much is partly down to the fact that you have to cross water to get to them, and that crossing of water always gives me that slightly increased sense of adventure. I don't care if it involves a boat, a ferry, a plane, a kayak or even a bit of a swim (preferably not), that crossing from the mainland over to an island always increases the heart rate. Fishing is an exciting thing to do in my book.

• I can't talk about islands without mentioning one of the most stunning places on earth - the Isles of Scilly. OK, so they don't have bass fishing, but they have insane shore fishing for species like mullet (monsters), pollack, huss, wrasse, conger etc. Accessing the different islands out there is like entering a new world every day. It's been too long......

• And on a different note, I watched a programme last night about the English 2003 Rugby World Cup campaign - mainly to remind myself of how great we once were, and to try and rid myself of all this heartache at being an English rugby supporter at the moment. The emotion of those days came flooding back and I think my wife caught me wiping the odd tear from the corner of my eyes - "got a bit of dust in there". She thinks I'm mad, but those were the days were they not ? We were world beaters once, with a team full of awesome rugby players who could do what it took under the severest of pressure. Can we ever be like that again ?

Shore fishing for bass in France ?

• Although the photo you can see above was shot in Jersey, in truth it could just as easily be over in France - a huge amount of French bass fishermen are fishing from fast, open boats with spinning rods and reels, doing the exact same thing you can see here. Tide, features, more tide, more features, bass love them all. Note the red Tenryu rod - these things are turning up everywhere, and this has to say something about how good they are. Starting to save up now for my Tenryu Super Mix 240..........

• Therefore a lot of the development we see with "their" fishing is related to catching bass off a boat. Of course there is a lot of crossover between this more modern style light tackle bass fishing, but you also need to bear in mind that a rod and lure that has been developed for fishing say twenty to forty metres down in a fast tide is most likely going to be of little use to us for our shore fishing.

• But I did spend a fair bit of time talking to various people at the Nantes show about the shore fishing opportunities in France. My spoken French is not nearly as strong as it once was, but I can get by. I love fishing from boats, and I hope to do plenty more of it in the future, but at heart I am most contented when I have to get out and walk serious miles. And I think I have come across some awesome shore fishing potential over in France for smashing proper numbers of bass and also wrasse on lures - I presume pollack as well, and those three species keep me more than happy.

• When I asked one of the French guys whether they caught any wrasse off the shore on soft plastics, he laughed !! They catch stacks of them (100 in two days last year), and some monsters as well - wrasse to over 8lbs from the shore, on lures. Bring it on. Plus when conditions are right, big numbers of bass on hard and soft plastic lures. One angler was describing a particular technique to me where he was working a very small, 25g vertical jig rigged with assist hooks to fish a particular area of the shoreline in a very precise way, and in three consecutive casts he landed three bass over 9lbs. Insanity prevails. The exact places they are fishing are of course not heavily publicised, especially with the pressure the French fish receive from so many mad-keen anglers, but it seems that you can have some decent shore sport if you look around. We shall see......

• As soon as time allows, I am going to try and head over to the west coast of France and begin to try and unravel more of what these guys are doing over there - and I really want to do a mixture of shore and boat fishing. It's perfect for me as I can just jump on the Plymouth-Roscoff ferry that departs about ten minutes from my front door. Seems to me that the open-minded, adventurous bass angler can find world class fishing in a lot of different places. Sure, it takes time, effort and money, but if you want to find the best fishing, it certainly ain't going to come to you. There is a part of me forever lost to the deserted coastlines of Ireland.

• I shot a feature yesterday with Nick Hart, for Trout Fisherman magazine. We never saw the sun all day, but we had a fantastic time with some stunning rainbow trout in great surroundings. There was not a breath of wind and this allowed me to shoot the kind of photo that you can see above - Nick casting a perfect line with that awesome looking tree perfectly reflected on the flat calm surface of the lake. A modern digital camera tends to want to try and slightly over-expose a scene like this, and as a result a lot of the contrast and "punch" can be lost. In a situation like this I have deliberately dialled in a bit of minus exposure compensation to try and retain the overall look.

• The trout that Nick caught were in fantastic condition, and this monster was the last one of the day. I lined this up as a cover-style photo, and in my head I could see the layout of the page already, but you never quite know what is going to actually end up on the front cover. We shall see what happens, but perhaps it is too far removed from "man plus fish" to make on to the front page. I really like how the guys at Trout Fisherman are making the magazine look, and I know how much hard work goes into it.

Greys sea catalogue front cover

• Above you can see the cover for the new Greys 2008/9 Sea catalogue, with my photo on it - I shot this on the rocks between Treyarnon Bay and Constantine Bay up on the north coast of Cornwall, with the imposing Trevose Head in the background. I love this rugged coastline, indeed it is where I first ever went sea fishing, and I can still remember the exact spot that my first ever wrasse went and jumped on my hook. I have spent probably many thousands of happy hours up on that coastline, both for fishing and for family holidays - a proper winter storm is really something to see when it crashes full bore into those rocks and beaches. Awesome ain't the word.

• Come to think of it, we used to fish hard during the big winter storms for the codling, at places like Newquay headland and Flat Rock in the Camel estuary. We always played it safe and tucked out of the way of the worst of the weather, but it was always big south westerly gales that used to get the codling moving inshore. You have to have that colour and "life" to the water up there that the big south west storms create. Getting out of the van at midnight on top of Newquay headland with a force 8 raging away was quite something. Driving home at dawn was another challenge as well. We didn't catch big fish, but often we caught plenty - far better than going to lectures or writing essays at university !! Those were the days......

• I am told that this catalogue will be in the shops sometime soon, with a bunch of new products in there. I really like the look of the new Greys Platinum Bass rod for starters (check here), plus the reworked Apollo clothing. It was always good stuff anyway, but the new bits and pieces are even better. Have a look here. If you fish in the UK, you know why we need decent waterproofs !!

• Anybody notice anything about the front cover photo ? You need to know the coastline to understand what I am on about.............there are also a load of my photos inside the catalogue as well. Believe it or not, the cover photo was taken in the middle of summer, even though it might look more like a stormy winter's day. My brother and I (the guy in the photo) caught a couple of bass that morning on plugs if I remember rightly. Nice conditions.

Back home from South Africa

• I landed at Heathrow at about 6am on Monday morning, still dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, so it was somewhat of a shock to step out into a temperature of 6 degrees !! And then on Monday night we had a proper storm come in here in Plymouth, with really strong winds and torrential rain - another lovely welcome home as I took my dog Jess for a walk at 7am Tuesday morning, fully kitted out in waterproofs. All that after having not worn more than shorts and t-shirts or tropical shirts for nearly two weeks. I know you are feeling real sympathy for me, because I am getting none here !!

• But today it is beautiful, a properly crisp, early autumn morning, with big blue skies and light winds. It is such fun to be back home with my family, for it has been a seriously hectic few weeks of being away - but this is the life we have chosen and somehow it seems to work just fine. But now that I am back, I need to spend serious time in my office and get a load of photos sorted out for magazine features. Usually I never have a load of photos stacked up, but right now I have Canada, Ireland and South Africa material waiting to be processed, and I am just beginning to shift the Irish bass fishing stuff I shot the other day. I really like being away from what I have shot for a while, and then coming back to it with a refreshed and clinical eye - we nailed some awesome stuff over there, but I can only do this because I work with good people.

• Look carefully through the spray above and you will see my mate Graham Hill banging a bass lure out. Note that he is wearing some seriously good waterproofs, the Greys Apollo stuff, check here. They have a lot of new gear out at the moment, and it is really worth taking a look at these waterproofs - we tend to need them in the UK. This is the kind of photo that you hope people are really going to pick up on, but at the same time I wonder if some people are also going to worry about it presenting fishing as being perhaps a little "extreme", when in reality Graham knows exactly what he is doing and would not put himself at risk. Well, perhaps a little bit, they are bass we are chasing after all.......

• Above is Andy Bignell fishing just as the tide starts to drop, and right before I came down the rope to join him. It's a very simple composition, designed to work perhaps across two pages (a double page spread or DPS) with text laid on top of it. We shall see. You never quite know how various designers will work with your material.

• Talking of good material, if you come across the US fishing and hunting magazine "Traveling Sportsman", check the current issue out - this magazine looks stunning and it is seriously going places. I am proud that a 10 page feature of mine is in there (pages 80 - 89), all about fly fishing for Africa's outstanding tigerfish (check some photos here), and have a look at the magazine's website right here. If you are into good looking fishing, shooting and hunting from around the world, get this magazine.

• I have also been sent a copy of one of the most impressive fishing magazines that I have ever come across, called "Fishing Wild", hailing from Australia, and the brainchild of an outstanding Aussie photographer called Col Roberts. Have a look at their website here. Take it from me, this is a publication you want to track down, and how badly does it make me want to spend some proper time in Australia ? Thanks to Col for sending me a copy - when fishing is done properly it can look out of this world, but so few people really do it properly. Fishing Wild is done properly, like the Traveling Sportsman.

• Check out a cod fishing feature of mine in the current issue of Sea Angler, on pages 50 - 55. I shot this out of Poole this summer with some great guys who seriously know their stuff on the boats.

• Here is Graham with a bass that he nailed on a soft plastic lure out in Ireland, the MegaBass XLayer - you can get them here. I have a feeling that we have so much to learn over here about using soft plastics for our fishing, and I don't mean simply dropping down various lures over wrecks and reefs for cod and pollack. I mean potentially catching some really good bass, wrasse and pollack from the shore on a wide range of soft plastic lures.

• I was speaking with Nick from Bass Lures yesterday, and he was telling me how well they had been doing recently on the Lucky Craft Wander - they caught some really good bass recently up in North Wales, and it seems to me that very few of us over here have any real experience of this particular lure. Nick was saying that it is designed to be fished at virtually any depth you want, and that you can even walk the dog with it under the water, as you would with a Sammy or GunFish on the surface. It sinks slowly and is easy to control, either with a kind of fluttering motion, or as a sub-surface kind of slider, and you can still use it over very shallow ground without fear of snagging it up. Plenty of anglers in the US rave about this lure, see here. The Bass Lures guys are all fanatical bass anglers themselves and I take what they say very seriously indeed - so yes, you guessed it, I have found another lure I am going to have to add to my ever expanding collection. I can't wait to give it a proper go. Anyway, back to the stack of photos to process.......

Epic wrasse fishing

• I shot a load of wrasse fishing photos yesterday with predator specialist Danny Parkins - he is a fantastic angler and can easily turn his hand to most kinds of fishing, and the wrassing yesterday was out of this world. We even got a drop of sunshine as well to make the day really special. Thanks Danny, it was a blast to fish and photograph with you again - I am really looking forward to nailing a few pike and chub together this winter. The thing I most enjoy about my job is meeting so many different anglers from all walks of life, all with fishing on the brain. None of us are hugely different, we are all fishing junkies and can't get enough of it.
• Danny had a wrasse bite on virtually every single drop down, and while a lot of the fish were small to medium size, a few proper ones turned up and were duly photographed and then returned. Above is Danny winching a decent fish out of the water on his Shimano 50-100g spinning rod - there is simply no need for any heavier gear, and on this set up the fish are such fun. More people should go wrassing.

• Here's Danny above with one of the last fish of the session, a cracking wrasse that fell to bottom fished ragworm right beneath his feet. The location was fantastic, a proper climb up and down, tucked right of the way and no doubt a prolific winter cod mark as well when the conditions are right. You can check out Danny's own blog here. He is a seriously accomplished predator angler, and lures are his speciality.

• The secret with wrasse fishing is to strike the bite and start pumping the fish up all in one movement, for they are devils at crashing back into a rocky sanctuary. Danny was using 30lb braid mainline on his Shimano Stradic spinning reel and it worked great. Keep the end gear very simple - a hook and a weight, possibly a 3-way swivel, that is all you need.

• I will always have a particular soft spot for wrasse, it was the first sea fish I ever caught, and I love the fact that they can be so obliging yet also frustrating at the same time. Seeking out big wrasse is a really specialist thing and I know Danny and his dad landed some really big ones a few weeks ago from the same place. But then he didn't do badly yesterday !! Look at the lips and jaws on this thing - easy to see just how they smash crabs and limpets to pieces.

• I am out later on today photographing some light tackle boat fishing for bass around a quiet part of my local south Devon coastline - please sun, come out and play for us. It should be a blast, and they had a few nice ones last week. I might even take a few lures along and see what I can do, in between taking photos of course.

• Make sure to check out Nick Hart's blog where you can find details of his Open Day this coming Saturday - it will be a great day out, and you might even win an outstanding Hardy Demon fly rod worth around £290 - can't be bad !!

• I know I bang on about the fishing over in Ireland a lot, but that is firstly because it is awesome, and secondly it is because I am head over heels in love with the country. But did you know that they have some fantastic shore fishing for cod during the winter months, along the south coast ? And you can even catch codling during summer off the deep water rock marks up and down the west coast, talk to these guys here and here for this. I am in the process of arranging a trip over there to photograph this fishing, hopefully sometime during December, and you can also catch decent bass at the same time. That is my kind of fishing.

Lighter winds......

• OK, so the skies may be grey, but at least the winds have eased off and are forecast to be fairly light for the rest of the week - here's hoping they stay that way !! I am off tomorrow morning to shoot a wrasse fishing feature off the shore, something I love doing - these scrappy fish have always been one of my favourite fish in the sea and I am hoping that a few nice ones might show themselves tomorrow.

• Above is a photo of a wrasse that was taken on a bass lure last week out in Jersey, around the vast Minquiers reef system. The successful lure was the Duo Tide Minnow SLD-F, see here for where you can get them. The mind boggles at how good the wrassing must be out there - next time I am going to take a bucket of bait and a heavy spinning rod and have a proper go. I also heard about stingrays, blonde rays, tope, turbot, brill and of course serious bass fishing when it all comes good.

• As you can probably tell, my one and a half days on the Minquiers really got to me in a big way - I find it incredibly reassuring that there are still truly wild and desolate places around the UK that can still be visited, that are away from roads, cars, mobile phones and other people. As I always say, fishing is arguably the world's greatest excuse for visiting cool places.

• Then I am out on Thursday photographing some local bass fishing, the stuff that I was meant to be doing last week before all that rain killed it stone dead. I heard of a few fish over the weekend on live mackerel and sandeel, so it should be a bit of fun. I am really hoping that the sun comes out for this one as big blue skies on a boat really make things look a whole lot more impressive.

• Above is Steve Mullins from Jersey, casting a plug off a remote sandbank that we dropped him off on out at the Minquiers. This expanse of sand only uncovers around low water and it looked awesome - I only wish I could get to the skies and photograph this kind of place from the air, then it would look how it should. That is the coastline of Jersey that you can just see in the background.

• I heard of some really big bass from the south coast of Ireland recently, including a fish of just under 13lbs and another near 10lbs, all on lures. As to where, the bloke was not telling me, but once again it shows how productive this coastline can be when conditions are right. I am heading back out there in mid-September again, right after I get back from Canada, and I can't wait. I am even hearing rumours of an Indian summer...........

• I am right in the middle of trying to clear a load of work before heading out to Canada next Tuesday morning, including the processing of all the photos I shot out in Jersey late last week. Above is the Minquiers just after low tide, early in the morning, and you can see just why this place is so revered for bass fishing - check out the mass of rocks, gullies and tide rips. At high tide there are nothing more than a few rocks poking their heads out. Boats beware !!

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.

First bass of the year - small but beautiful

• I managed to get few hours in plugging yesterday afternoon before I needed to be back to babysit my two daughters for the evening, and it turned out to be a blast. Just me, my sheepdog Jess and a deserted coastline, with the strong NE wind off our backs and what seemed like fairly good conditions. I knew something was looking up when the first rock I waded to had a nice, perhaps 4-5lb bass rooting around just behind it - but the fish saw me and promptly legged it !! You simply can not put a value on decent polarised sunglasses, and I wear what I believe are the best on the market today, Maui Jim. It was flat calm and the water was verging on being almost too clear (weeks of east winds), but when a proper sized pollack turned on my Maria Chase BW (check the lure here) right at the edge of the rocks and showed me that big, predator eye, I reckoned my luck might be in. I then had numerous follows from plenty of other, smaller pollack, plus a small bass, before moving to another set of rocks close by and landing three small pollack. Together they might have struggled to reach 1.5lbs, but at least there was plenty of life around.

• About two hours after low water I went and snagged my Maria Chase up properly and lost it, so I re-tied a short 30lb Varivas fluorocarbon leader on and picked out another great shallow-diving minnow, the Lucky Craft Flash Minnow. I really like this lure, but it dives a little deeper than the Maria and I had to retrieve for the most part with my rod held high to get it closer to the surface. I also reckon it works better with a slower retrieve than I use for the Maria. But it worked......

• The bass you see above is my first this year on a lure, and although it might be "slightly" on the small side (!!), I could not be happier to see one - seriously overjoyed in fact. A typical smash into the lure typifies these magnificent fish. It went back fine after a few photos taken with the aid of this great little tool, the Berkley TEC Pistol Trigger Grip. I picked it up in the US a few weeks ago, principally to enable me to at least get a few photos of fish I might happen to catch when I am fishing on my own. It is designed for gripping a fish like a bass for unhooking - no harm comes to the fish and no more will you end up with spike and cut marks all over your hands. It sits in a little holster on your belt and I would not be without it now.

• I also saw a big wrasse follow my lure right in to my feet before I caught the bass, and after I moved to another finger of rock and hooked the bass, on virtually the next cast I caught this one you can see above. Around 3.5lbs I reckon, it was great fun on this Tenryu plugging rod and it put up a typical wrasse kind of scrap. It had stunning markings and went back fine. I love these fish and I am really pleased to have nailed one on the plug where I was fishing. On a Bank Holiday weekend, I saw nobody - amazing. To have that kind of good looking water to myself was a real treat.

• That was it, I had to head back home and take on the babysitting duties so that my wife could go out on the razzle. How badly would I have loved to stay on fishing, but I could not even get any mobile phone reception to try and call and tell a little lie about my car breaking down or something like that !! Not that the thought has ever entered my head...........

• Below is the lure that did the business, the Lucky Craft Flash Minnow. It does cast a little better than the Maria and it "rolls" incredibly seductively through the water - I like having different options in my lure box. I just have to remember to slow down on the retrieve when using the Flash Minnow.

• The more I am using this stunning Tenryu Red Dragon Express plugging rod, the more I can see just how advanced a fishing rod it is for this kind of bassing. You can see my initial review of it here, and my views have not changed at all. It is the single best plugging rod I have ever picked up, and I feel totally confident of getting the upper hand on any bass that might come my way (setting myself up for a fall I know !!). But I do know that I am working my lures effectively from the moment they hit the water.

• And as for this Varivias braid I am using - wow !! Yes, it costs more than most others, but it is sublime to fish with. The bright green Avani Sea Bass Braid in 23lb is awesome to use, and I love the colour, but the Avani Sea Bass Max Power PE in 20lb is a class apart. I just wish they did it in a really hi-vis colour like yellow or orange (hint, hint). I have yet to find another braid that feels like this - you will not believe how thin and easy casting it is. I used a different Varivas 8-strand braid out in the Florida Keys the other day and it did great, so I guess I am sold on the merits of this stuff. I know you can get both the Varivas braids I am raving about here. If you are seriously into your lure fishing, you will no doubt be prepared to pay to get the best.

Fishing with braid

• There has been a fair bit of talk I have seen recently about using braided mainlines for fishing with. Over the years I have heard some serious garbage talked about the pros and cons of using braid, but there is no doubt that it is the best way to fish lures for species such as bass. I am totally sold on the benefits and all my spinning reels are loaded up with braid.

• But the thing you really want to do to ensure trouble free fishing is to take a close look at the photo above - note that I have deliberately underfilled my reel, for this really cuts down any chances of getting a dreaded wind knot. Do not be tempted to fill your spinning reel to the brim to try and get a few extra yards distance - yes, of course I have done this, and then paid the price with a beauty wind knot first cast. Underfill for proper performance. Let my previous distress save you from any yourself !!

• My favoured breaking strain for bass fishing is 30lb, preferably in high-vis yellow. I like seeing my lines and I fish a short clear leader to the actual lure. I know that I'll never land a 30lb bass (here's to dreaming...), but 30lb braid casts great, sits just fine on the reel, and enables me to wrench stuck lures out of most snags. I can also horse hooked fish near rocks. You can't go far wrong with 30lb Sufix Performance braid or Power Pro. Both are excellent lines. It was my mate Graham Hill who really put me onto fishing with 30lb braid. You can see him in a bunch of photos here. This guy catches serious bass !!

• I presume you are aware of the news about the somewhat thorny issue of a UK sea angling license - the government has abandoned any current plans to introduce one, see here for the full story. I have deliberately remained quiet about these issues for my feelings are strong and would no doubt cause some kind of reaction which I do not seek.

• Should we have to pay to fish our sea waters ? No, of course we should not.

• But will we have any fish left if we don't pay the right people to fight for the future protection of our already very depleted fish stocks ? Like most sea anglers, I refuse to believe that the introduction of a government run license (or stealth tax in my book) is the way to do this.

• If I felt that my money was going to the right people though.............that is another matter altogether. Things can be done properly - look at the success story of the US striped bass fishery for a shining example of stock regeneration and a booming recreational fishing industry directly linked to having plenty of decent fish to catch. Imagine what kind of industry we would have here in the UK around our own bass fishing if we had lots more big fish to go after ?

• Anyway, politics over for the day. Below is a photo of one of my all time favourite species, the ballan wrasse. The first fish I ever caught off the shore was a wrasse, just below Trevose Head in north Cornwall, and ever since I have had a serious soft spot for these hard fighting fish. Like most shore anglers I went all out for them with heavy gear for a while, but actually all you need is a powerful spinning rod and reel, and some decent bait. Fishing for them is a blast.

Front cover

• I just got the new Get Hooked 2008 guide through the post, with my shot of a grayling on the cover. This is a fairly tight crop of a photo I shot with Nick Hart, and it shows just how much can be done with a clean digital file to make it work for a particular client. The Get Hooked guide is an invaluable way to find out about all kinds of fishing, fisheries, tackle shops etc. throughout the south west, and they have a good website here.

• What a weird weekend of weather we seemed to have all over the UK this Easter - down here in the south west we had virtually everything over a three day period, but that did stop my wife and I from wrapping the kids up warm and going to the beach. What on earth would be the point of living down here if we did not take every chance possible to get down to the stunning beaches we have all around here ? Plus the moors of course. My sheepdog Jess just loves chasing sea gulls on the beach.

• Have a look at the new issue of Sea Angler magazine - there is a really good looking feature of mine that I shot on wrasse fishing, a kind of fishing that I still get a huge kick out of. Sitting on quiet rock edges and banging a few of these hard scrapping fish out will always put a smile on the face, especially when the odd one comes along and does you like a kipper !! Look in Sea Angler at pages 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 for the feature. Martin and Kevin, I owe you one for taking me out fishing with you. Thanks guys.

• Well done to Neil Mackellow for becoming the new Sea Consultant at Hardy & Greys Ltd. - I very much look forward to working closely with Neil. I know that this guy will take the company where they need to go in the sea fishing world, and I am really pleased to be a part of it all. Check the link here for the full details.

• It was a sad day in extreme metal when Max left Sepultura all those years ago - I remember when they blasted onto the scene with their classic "Beneath the Remains" album, and I will never forget when Sepultura first toured that album and I saw them rip the famous Marquee Club up with their rabid intensity. So it is great news that the two Cavelera brothers have finally got back together and released an album full of their trademark sounds - check out "Inflikted" by the "Cavalera Conspiracy", and listen to a track or two here. You seriously need this stuff to get your week off to a flying start.

• I did photograph Sepultura a few years ago when they played down at Exeter, but in truth they are a shadow of their former selves. You can see a stack of photos here. Go and listen to their classic Beneath the Remains, Arise, Chaos AD and Roots to see how awesome they once were.