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.

Track this stunning fishing book down

• I received a truly wonderful book in the post yesterday, all the way from Tasmania, and it is seriously worth getting hold of if beautiful fly fishing books are your kind of thing. This publication is one hell of an achievement and I commend the guys involved - especially the photographer Brad Harris who works for an Australian fly fishing magazine that I do a bit of freelance work for, the stunning FlyLife.

• Brad is a proper photographer, and this exceptional book is a glorious look at the world class fly fishing for trout right through a season down in Tasmania - it looks like one fantastic place, and Brad has done real justice to a subject with which he obviously is head over in heels in love with. This is what I so like about fishing, the fact that there are so many of us out there who are genuinely in love with "our" sport. Is there anything better ? (apart from extreme metal of course !!)

• I am not sure about getting hold of this book over here in the UK yet, but I know you can order a copy right here. It is really worth doing so - order one for yourself, and then order another one to give away as a present. This book is that good. There is a website devoted to the book, click here to have a look.

• There are few better things to photograph in the world of fishing than wild fly fishing for trout, and it looks like Tasmania is another place to put on my list of "have to go there". Check here for a small selection of my own fly fishing photos. Brad Harris is one of the guys whose work I really admire, and it is also worth tracking down the magazine FlyLife that he works for.

• And my thanks to the guys who have posted comments on my previous post about me playing around with black and white photography - more than kind and I really appreciate all the comments. It is only a bit of a sideline interest to what I do day to day at the moment, but I am enjoying exploring what makes a decent black and white photo, and also what does not. Throughout my career so far I have always been looking for a colour photo when I am out shooting, but perhaps I need to see with different eyes ?

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.

Great day fly fishing yesterday

• Just look at those big blue winter skies that greeted Nick Hart and I yesterday as we began shooting a feature for Trout Fisherman magazine up at Exe Valley fishery - wow !! Time to whack on the polarising filter and get weird and wonderful with my 16-35mm lens. Above is a shot of Nick setting up for the fishing with a Hardy Demon rod and reel - the Demon reels are always good to photograph, and I know that Nick really likes using them for a lot of his fishing. Being able to so easily change lines is a real bonus in fly fishing.

• And then we got all kinds of weather, from big blue skies and relatively calm conditions through to torrential rain and driving winds. About the only thing missing for us yesterday was a bit of snow. Challenging for the both of us, but ultimately very rewarding to shoot and fish in such varied and interesting light.

• You can see the rain coming in the photo above, but when you get big black clouds lit up by the sun, it often makes a very cool photo. Nick is bringing another rainbow trout to the net for the obligatory photo call. A few minutes later and I was taking pictures from underneath a big golf umbrella.....

• If you are up that way, make sure to check out not only Exe Valley fishery, but the extremely well stocked and far too tempting Hart Fly Shop that is slap bang next to the lakes. I succumbed and bought myself a fleece in there yesterday. They also have a very good online store here.

• Talking of Trout Fisherman magazine, have a look in the current issue at pages 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 for a winter stillwater feature that Nick and I did - there are also some mighty big blue winter skies in there as well. I know it is tougher for the fishing, but from my point of view I'll take them as much as we are given them.

• I have recently added a way that you can subscribe to this blog via email updates - if this is helpful to you, fill out the "Email Subscriptions" box on the right hand side of this page, and my ramblings will be delivered right to your Inbox. Is this a good thing ? I will let you decide.....

Stunning winter weather

• The weekend was about the most beautiful weather imaginable for December, and I have rarely seen the north coast of Cornwall looking so good (we certainly got no days like this in the summer !!). Friday was a howling west/northwest wind that was snorting into the Camel estuary, giving awesome conditions for the numerous windsurfers and wake-boarders who were out around the famous Doom Bar. And then on Saturday and Sunday there was hardly a breath of wind, with big blue skies and no clouds - the swell died right off and my two girls had a blast playing on the virtually deserted beaches, plus Jess could chase sea gulls for hours. A perfect weekend, especially with a round of golf at Trevose. I also reckon I found a couple of potentially interesting places to try for bass.......

• I heard from Graham over in Ireland, and he nailed five bass yesterday up to about 5lbs - great fishing, and all the fish came on these MegaBass XLayer soft plastic lures, on very neap tides. Modern hi-tech lures like these do not exactly come cheap, but they are proving to be lethally effective for the bass. You can get hold of them right here. It seems like the bassing over these has not slowed down at all.

• Monday morning could not pass without a decent dose of proper black metal to get you through. Check out a great black metal band from Germany called Paragon Belial - listen to some tracks here. I love coming across some of the more obscure metal bands out there, and the actual CD can be hard to track down. I got mine here. This is a website worth noting down if metal is your thing. I love the album artwork below. Classic extreme metal.

• Another great thing for a winter Monday morning is the news that there is a new video out out from the band who has in my mind released the metal album of the year (see here). Check out the video to the song "The Watcher" here, off Enslaved's very recent masterpiece "Vertebrae". Awesome video, and what a truly outstanding metal album - I am loving it that much that I am actually trying to limit the amount I listen to it for fear of overplaying it. Vertebrae seriously is that good. This one gets inside your skull and will not let go.

• I am out photographing with Nick Hart tomorrow, for a Trout Fisherman feature. The weather forecast continues to look good, so hopefully we might get those big blue skies for the shoot. There is something very cool indeed about being out and about when the winter weather is showing us just how fantastic this country can look.

Front cover in Germany

• I have been working on a freelance basis for the big German fishing magazine Blinker for some time now, and above is my first front cover with them - it is of Nick Hart holding a well-conditioned rainbow trout. I reckon the photo works well on the cover and I am always over the moon to get a cover. Blinker has a huge circulation throughout parts of Europe and it is always full of really good looking articles - I wish I could understand them as I reckon I could learn a lot, but my German is seriously non-existent !!

• This shore fishing for bass with soft plastics has got me really intrigued, and I have already been looking around for different lures and jig heads. Just how easy is it to spend too much money on our fishing ? I reckon Graham, Patrick and Cian are going to land some truly monster bass right through the winter if they get the right conditions over in Ireland, and I would bet that the majority are going to come on the plastics. Not that hard lures are suddenly not lethally effective (of course they can be), more that a couple of locations they are fishing demand some different tactics. I truly believe that they have the potential for awesome bass fishing right through the year, taking into account the Irish close season of course.

• Sometime next week I will do my best to get a couple of photo galleries up here from my September and November Irish bass trips - I came away with plenty of photos that I need to illustrate my articles etc. Fishing can be such a visually stunning thing to do, and most times I consider what I do to be the best job in the world - ok, so not every day is going to go great, but just having the chance to work around the best sport in the world is a privilege, and my focus is on making it look better and better all the time.

• Have a good weekend all, I am off over to north Cornwall with my family to spend a weekend walking, golfing (yes !!) and messing around on the beach - whatever the weather, we don't care, my two girls have got full waterproofs and they love being out and about. Jess can chase seagulls for hours on end. I might also get the chance to check out a couple of potential bass marks I have been thinking about, under the pretext of "let's walk this way, it looks nice" sort of thing. You always need that fishing head on.....

Irish bass fishing - some thoughts

• I continue to be amazed at the overall quality of the shore fishing over in Ireland - but perhaps what amazes me the most is that I still meet fishermen who almost don't want to believe how good it can be. Nowhere on earth offers good fishing all the time, but if you get the conditions close to right and do your research, then Ireland can offer some truly outstanding shore fishing for a huge variety of species. And you will catch a lot more if you are prepared to work hard and walk/hike a lot.

• I am aware of some very good bass fishing in certain areas of Europe, such as the Channel Islands (awesome, go there), France and Spain, but I can only speak from personal experience when I say that so far I have yet come across anywhere that offers such consistently incredible shore fishing for bass as Ireland's somewhat "secret" and little-known south east corner. Ireland overall is an incredible place to visit, and in my mind the bass fishing is the pinnacle of it all.

• Above is a shot of my mate Graham Hill with another quality bass that we caught the other day - the sun was just creeping over the hills to our right, and I used a large aperture on my 16-35mm lens to really make the head of the fish stand out in the frame. It's the kind of shot that a magazine could easily use over two pages, with the text running down the right side....

• Using direct flash is something you can't really avoid when photographing fish in the pitch black, but you always run the slight risk with a reflective fish like the bass of losing a bit of detail in the flanks. Direct flash is a very harsh light, but when an incredible fish like Tom's 11lb monster comes out on the first morning, I'll use all the flash I need to try and make a half-decent shot. What a perfect start it was to another outstanding trip over there. I would hazard a guess that Tom is still in a state of shock back home in Frankfurt !!

• Barely a cloud in the November sky as Patrick Gallagher fishes for bass with modern soft plastic lures - without a doubt it is the French bass anglers who are the most experienced at fishing these methods, and we have a lot to learn about it, but the guys I know are doing extremely well already. Fishing keeps me hooked because I am forced to learn new things all the time, and this drives me forward. We have all used soft plastics for years to nail fish like cod, pollack and coalfish, but using them for bass in very specific locations and ways is a new thing to me, and I can't wait to see how it keeps developing.

Tough last day, but what a trip......

• Graham and I decided on a bit of a gamble today as regards the bass fishing - we knew we could probably nail a few where we have been fishing over the last few days, but I was after some different photos and we both felt like covering some more locations. Another stunning winter day, hardly a cloud in the sky, very cold, and just about perfect to be out and about it (when you've finally climbed into multiple layers). We had a few small pollack on the lures early this morning, and Graham hooked a good bass that came off, on a soft plastic lure fished right in amongst the rocks. I was fishing away and saw a bass of around 5lbs swim right below me, seemingly oblivious to my good looking Tide Minnow 120 Surf lure that had just gone right by his nose. We then fished another few different locations, but never saw another sniff of a fish - these northerly winds are great for my photos, but they have really cleared the water up and flattened the sea off so much that the bass are momentarily switched off. Who would have thought the seas could get too calm for bass fishing in winter ? Doesn't really make sense....

• Above are a few of the soft plastic lures that we have been messing around with to great effect over the last few days. When the winds swing around, I am fully expecting the bass guys to keep on nailing big fish right through winter - I know the phone will be ringing soon with an excited Mr. Hill and the capture of another prime bunch of oversize Irish bass, and I will be left working out how on earth I can get back over here again as soon as I can. I love heading back to see my family, but I also hate leaving Ireland. Graham Hill is one of the finest blokes you could ever hope to meet and he is a complete pleasure to fish and spend time with. I cherish my fishing/photography days in Ireland more than most people could possibly imagine.

• Our cod fishing last night did not really amount to much, but to be perfectly honest we were both completely knackered and wanted to get our heads down so that we could have another early start on the bass this morning. They do get some fantastic cod fishing around these parts, but again, we could do with some wind and rough seas to get them moving properly. But this is winter !! This morning were some of the most treacherous, icy roads I have ever driven on, but I'll take those big blue skies all day long please. Lots of coffee and thermals and I can face almost anything !!

• Anyway, I thought another couple of different photos of Tom's magnificent 9lb 8oz bass from the other day would be worth putting up here. I know he had a bigger 11lb fish on his first morning, and I got a few nice photos, but you can always make such a special fish look a whole load better in the day time, when you don't have to chuck direct flash on them in the dark. Well done Tom, a cracking couple of days. Catch you next year ?

• I am on the 9am Stena Line ferry back over to Fishguard tomorrow morning, and then it's about a four hour drive back home to Plymouth. I got done for speeding last time I was coming back from Ireland, so I could do without that again. What an awesome few days, but then it always is over here, however the fishing goes.