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.

Best breathable chest waders of 2008

• Granted, chest waders may well not be the most exciting thing that any of have in our fishing tackle collection, but for mobile bass fishing they are in my mind about the most important thing to get right. Being dry and comfortable whilst being easily able to roam around is so important to our fishing, and I know that decent chest waders help me catch more fish and also get a whole load more photos than I would without them. I wear chest waders for so much of what I do, both fishing and photography wise, indeed using them for bass fishing is just a part of the hell I put them through.

• A lot of people know that I do some work with Hardy & Greys Ltd., and these people will also know that I am always honest and forthright in my opinions on fishing gear. I am not about to use anything that I don't reckon works properly, whoever makes it. So, bearing in mind that I do some work with these guys, logic decrees that I should be telling you that the most expensive Hardy EWC waders are my favourite for bass fishing, and that you should go out and buy them. Yes, they are fairly good waders, but are they what I tend to turn to for my own mobile saltwater fishing ? No, not generally.................

• There are a couple of ways to look at buying chest waders for bass fishing (and if you are clever, for a hell of a lot of UK shore fishing) - either spend serious dosh on a top of the range pair like the Hardy EWS, or various Simms or Patagonia models. They will be awesome to use and they will last very well over the course of many years' regular fishing if you look after them.

• But when was the kind of bassing a lot of us do ever going to be regular fishing ? It is easy to slip over on rocks and weed, and I am sure you will agree that sharp rocks rip and tear expensive waders as easily as they do somewhat cheaper ones. Believe me, I am talking from experience here.

• So my theory tends to be to use really good cheaper breathable chest waders - easy to patch up with either the excellent Aquasure stuff (see here) or else simply use a load of good old fashioned gaffer tape. Better still, don't slip over in the first place, but that is often easier said than done !! The good news is that there are a lot of good quality chest waders out there from lots of manufacturers such as Greys, Orvis, Snowbee, Wychwood, Vision and Scierra.

• But without doubt the standout pair of chest waders that I use for my bass fishing more than any other are the outstanding Greys G-Series ones - these are the cheapest waders the company does, and I really like using them. I am not paid to say this if that is any help, but I stand by how good they are, and that they are excellent value for money. A really good tip for the G-Series waders is to buy one size larger than you would usually take - for some reason they are cut slightly differently to other waders that I have used, and while I tend to take an XL in virtually everything I wear, in the G-Series I use an XXL, and I find them far more easy to move around in for long hours and many, many miles. Get hold of the excellent Hart Fly Shop right here and ask them to get you a pair.

• So there you have it - my favourite waders of 2008. Not very sexy, but vital to lots of us. A bunch of guys I fish with also use and abuse the G-Series waders to great effect. As for wading boots, well in my mind the jury is still out on this one. I am hugely in favour of some kind of studded sole, whether it be on rubber or felt, but I am not completely sure if I believe in either buying the best you can afford because they will be more comfortable and durable, or otherwise buying cheaper and accepting that they will not last so long. Sounds a bit like my thoughts on the chest waders I know, but the wading boots issue is a bit different (they don't tend to tear and then leak for starters). I wear shoes and boots very hard anyway, so I go through most things eventually. Still to decide..............

My favourite bass lure of 2008

• As we move swiftly into a chilly 2009, here are some thoughts on my stand out favourite bass lure of 2008. Anybody who has been following this blog will know that I have a bit of a problem when it comes to (shiny new) bass lures, but there was without doubt one single lure that stood out for me last year. Bear in mind that I am talking about a combination of what I saw caught, plus what I caught myself, for most of the time I tend to put my fishing gear down and take photos when the fish come on the feed.

• So my top bass lure of 2008 has to be the Tackle House Feed Shallow, as you can see in these photos. I saw a huge amount of good bass taken on these lures last year, and I actually managed a few myself as well !! Lures like this are not easy to track down, but you can get them from Mick at Mr. Fish. No, they are not cheap, and yes, you would be well advised to replace the (rubbish) trebles with some decent ones, but the lure kills, plain and simple. But why on earth does a company like Tackle House put such awful hooks on such a good lure ?

• There are of course many outstanding bass lures out there, and some need not cost a bomb. The continuously outstanding Maria Chase BW in holographic silver is going to keep on catching plenty of fish (get them here), and last year I really learnt a hell of a lot about modern bass fishing, and some of the tools we can use to improve our catch rates. Lures such as the various and outstanding Duo Tide Minnow and Terrif range, the Xorus Patchinko, of course the excellent Lucky Craft Flash Minnow, GunFish and Sammy (see here) are always in my lure box now, together with an expanding range of soft plastics such as the Slug-Go and the MegaBass XLayer. If you want to see a load of decent bass taken on various lures last year, there are loads of my photos here, here, here and here.

• But it was the Tackle House Feed Shallow that I saw the most bass caught on - bear in mind of course that a lot of the guys I fished with were using it a lot of the time, but there is obviously something about it. The lure casts well and fishes just below the surface at a fairly fast rate, with a stunning "side to side kind of slightly slashing" action, and this suits a lot of the bass marks I fish very well. The silvery/reflective colours are my favourites as I remain convinced that bass switch on to these colours both in bright and dull conditions. I remember one flat calm morning we fished in Ireland when nothing was happening - the sea was like glass and the clarity was almost too good, but eventually a nice fish obviously could not resist roaring out from behind a rock and smashing into my Feed Shallow. That was the only bass of the morning.

• If you have any interest in sharks and the sea, I really hope you watched the recent Natural World programme on the BBC - this was some of the most impressive great white footage that I have ever been fortunate enough to see, and the South African guy involved in the story has my utmost respect. This seriously was a hugely inspirational and stunning programme that every single person with any saltwater interest should make sure they watch. Great white sharks have always fascinated me, and they will continue to do so. If you live in the UK and missed this programme, you can watch it on the BBC iPlayer service right here. Immense in every way.

• Anyway, back at work and 2009 stretches out in front of us all - here's to the best possible year in what we all know are going to be some turbulent times. But if there is one thing to get us all through whatever happens, it has to be fishing. What else can provide such a release and a rush at the same time ? What else forces us to keep learning new stuff all the time ? Here is to a successful fishing year for us all, whatever you choose to fish for, and wherever you do it.

Distance casting - South African style

• I hope you all had a truly wonderful Christmas - we had a blast this end, it's such fun with the kids, and getting back to work is a bit of a shock to the system. Watching my two girls open their stocking on Christmas morning is something that will live with me for a long time. My thanks also for the kind comments posted on this blog.

• I have finally found some proper time to edit and process all my photos from a trip I did down to South Africa a couple of months ago - wander back through the blog and you will see how it went. What has really stayed with me is the ease with which the good rock and surf anglers down there can cast big baits and leads out, often to some extreme distances as well if the fishing calls for it. I have witnessed this kind of fishing a lot in Namibia - we have some great shore fishing around the UK, but what we do not have is lots of big fish that actually take a lot of line. And I mean a lot of line.......

• For the "smaller" species, the guys were using mainly Shimano Trinidad 20 and 30 reels and 0.50mm (roughly 30lb) mainlines. They routinely remove any form of braking systems from their reels and instead thumb the line down through the cast. It is mightily impressive to watch as you can see in these photos. Big rods, big reels, big baits and some silly big fish at times. Awesome stuff.

• But distance casting is obviously only relevant if you need to do so to catch fish - in these photos the guys are really whacking the rods because there is a howling onshore breeze and they need to put the baits right in the middle of a reef system that runs parallel to the shoreline.

• What a winter we are getting so far - I can't remember the last time we had proper rain or a big south west gale (August ?), but aren't we getting some proper cold weather ? I reckon a winter like this has been due for a while and over Christmas we wrapped the kids up and spent as much time out and about as possible before hypothermia began setting in !! We were down in the Isle of Wight with my in-laws, very close to the beach, and none of us like spending all day inside doing nothing.

• A Very Happy New Year to you all, and I hope that 2009 proves to be a good one. I know that there is a huge amount of doom and gloom around with every single newspaper and news station obsessing about the credit crunch, but it can't all be bad news can it ? I feel really positive about a lot of things in my working life and I am really looking forward to 2009, but I also feel apprehensive about certain things as well. Life is tough or tougher for a lot of people right now, but personally I reckon nothing in life is more important than family, and my personal goal is simply to continue to look after mine as best I can (and land a few big bass as well, of course !!).

• I will start off in 2009 by taking a look back over 2008 on this blog, and picking out particular bits of fishing gear etc. that I reckon have really helped my own fishing no end - reviews and conclusions if you like. Rods, reels, lines, lures, waders etc., plus a bit of music of course, all in due course.

Happy Christmas to you all

• A very Happy Christmas to all of you - I hope you have a fantastic break, and here's to 2009. I am going to take some time off now to be with my family, so I'll post back here in a week or so. I can not wait to spend some proper time with them all and see my two girls opening their presents on Christmas morning. This is what it's all about. I have just spent the weekend looking after my daughters while my wife was in London, and we had such a blast. You will be glad to know that I have so far managed to resist jumping up down on their Iggle Piggle or Upsy Daisy teddies......

• I have managed to put another online photo gallery up from my latest trip over to Ireland, right at the end of November - click here to have a look at some of the photos from yet another awesome bass trip. I hope you enjoy them, and there will be plenty more to come next year I am sure.

• Check out the brand new issue of Sea Angler magazine - look on pages 46, 47, 48, 49 and 50 for another article in my modern bass fishing series. I am really pleased with the photos that their designer chose to use. Make sure to watch out for the next issue as well, for they are going for a big relaunch of the magazine, and I can't wait to see how it looks. The magazine goes from strength to strength I reckon.

• Above is another shot from my playing around with black and white conversions - I took this on my first ever trip to what I term the "ultra remote Seychelles", and it took me a couple of looks through my files to pick this one out. Personally I am blown away by this simple photograph in black and white, but I would be interested to know what you think.

• The photo below is also from that same trip, of my friend James holding onto a barracuda he had just nailed on a fly on the flats. An awesome angler and a very easy guy to photograph, and again, a shot that I really like in black and white - not something I would have picked put immediately, but the sunlight glowing on the tail I reckon gives a really strong "in" with one's eye.

• Have a good one - thanks for reading this blog of mine, it means a hell of a lot to know that so many people keep checking back here to see what is going on, and the numbers keep on growing. Remember that you can also subscribe to my blog via Feedblitz on the right hand side of this page. Have a wonderful Christmas.

New bass photo gallery online

• I have put a new bass fishing photo gallery online - you can see it by clicking here. These are selected photos from when I was over in Ireland in September - we had generally outstanding fishing and some very cool light for photography purposes. Is it just me or have we had less grey days in the last few months than we usually do ? Suits me just fine...
• There are loads of photos over on my website, and especially on this page here. On the right hand side of this blog page there are also some links to various online photo galleries that I have created this year. My website is currently being completely rebuilt and will go live sometime early next year. I am looking at offering various ways to purchase different kinds of prints (plus postcards, canvas prints etc.) of some of my photos, but I will not do this until I am totally happy with the end results.

• The photo above is the kind of thing that I reckon would work really well as a big print - it is a black and white conversion of a mountain range in British Columbia (BC), towering above the Copper river where we fished and photographed for the mighty steelhead last year. Check out a load of photos right here. I always liked this shot in colour, but it also really gets to me in black and white. Basically, BC would get to anyone.

• I noticed that over on the Aardvark McLeod website that the people we worked with over there have moved into a fantastic looking new lodge, check here for the details. I am going to do all I can to get myself back over to the west coast of Canada next year, for it is truly one of the most special places on earth, and fishing for steelhead and big Pacific salmon is about as cool as it gets. As a place to photograph, I have to stop myself hyperventilating all the time in a state of complete overexcitement !! Loads of coffee tends to do the trick.

• The photo above is also from British Columbia - now this is one that I reckon would work really well as a really big canvas print, for these is a huge amount of detail and depth to the photo that might not be properly visible here on the blog. I am sold on the merits of a shot like this in black and white. If I am feeling flush after Christmas I might pull the trigger and order a big canvas print for us here at home in Plymouth - my wife is not really into shots of fish or extreme metal (women eh ??!!), but she loves this photo. It is now up to me to keep looking harder and harder for shots like this when I am out and about. Just as fishing is a never ending learning curve, so I am continuing to find new things out about the art of photography that really keep me buzzed up. The only problem is that my brain goes into such overdrive (yes, I still have a brain after all my younger years' headbanging) that I keep waking up at silly o'clock times in the morning. As above, coffee is the key.

Winter bass fishing - what do we do ?

• Now that we are properly into winter, what does the bass junkie do ? On a personal level, I used to spend virtually all my fishing time in the winter chasing cod - collecting bait, fishing, surviving on very little sleep, fishing again, crabbing at strange hours, and trying a few rigs up. And then fishing again - a lot !! Times have changed though. But what are our options if we want to carry on chasing bass through the colder months ?

• Well, to be perfectly honest, I am not completely sure of all our options - there always seem to be bass around somewhere in the south west, and especially up the estuaries (bear in mind I am talking about shore fishing here). We used to sometimes catch schoolie bass in almost plague proportions when we were cod fishing in very rough seas just inside the Camel estuary (and especially off Flat Rock and Stepper Point), and I know of some really big bass caught when guys are flounder fishing. So it is not as if every single bass does a disappearing act until later on in the spring !!

• So we know that bass are a distinct possibility when fishing with baits, and I know guys who love this time of year for going after big bass. But what about on the lures ? A tougher time without question, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it is worth a few attempts with these soft plastics that you can fish on jigs, bouncing them along the bottom. It is not going to be a bumper time of year on them, but I would guess that a few of us might get the odd surprise from time to time.............

• The most famous place for "depths of winter" bass fishing has to be the south west of Ireland (and specifically Kerry and Dingle), where the local bass freaks can experience some staggeringly good fishing on the right conditions. All the tourists and visiting anglers have long gone home, but when they get the correct onshore conditions into January and February especially, I know of a few guys who do really well when bait fishing for the bass - the Irish strands are of course the stuff of bass fishing legend, and sometime soon I simply have to get myself over to the south west to experience it. I reckon that classic fishing could look very cool in black and white as well.

• It is a real punt to go that far for winter bass fishing, for you are gambling with the weather in a big way, but it has to be worth it just for the chance to stand thigh deep in surf, waiting for a bite, and with nobody else around. If you are interested, the person I would contact can be found right here - Kevin is a professional shore fishing guide in Kerry, and he just happens to be a serious bass junkie. Check out some photos of him fishing right here. We never hear about a lot of their Irish winter bass fishing, but it can be very good.

• As for the south east coast of Ireland that I am head over heels in love with (the country as whole in fact), well it does seem that they can catch bass all year round, depending on conditions of course - on baits and on lures. I am sure you can sense from this post that I have a lifetime of information still to absorb on bass fishing, and then I could probably live again and still be left with more to learn. But isn't that what makes fishing such a profoundly absorbing sport ? I stand by what I have always said - walk away from the angler who professes to know it all.......

• I hope you like the two black and white bass photos here - they are such a magnificent species and in my view they deserve to be shown off in glorious colour. But I have stumbled on the odd shot in my (vast and ever growing !!) photo library that has jumped at me with my black and white eyes on. The tail shot especially is one I really like far more in black and white than in colour.

The Devil invented Christmas shopping

• This morning I had to head into Plymouth city centre with my wife and two girls to buy some Christmas presents - within five minutes I knew I was in a bit of a temper and I caught myself scowling as well, ostensibly because I had to go into a clothes shop and look like I was really interested in the clothes my wife was trying on. One eye was on the girls to make sure they did not trash the shop, and one eye was on the door for a fast escape once I was done. Patience is not something I am associated with when it comes to going into town, and especially when it is anything to do with clothes !! But we got the job done and I was able to escape back home......

• Shopping online was invented for people like me - no crowds, no cars, no parking, and no clothes shops. OK, so the parcels always seem to be delivered when you are out, but it's better than having to go anywhere near a shop. If only all shops were like a good fishing tackle shop.

• I can't believe how close to Christmas it is though - where on earth has this year been and gone ? Time seems to go so fast. At the beginning of January I will start the new year off by reviewing a load of stuff that I have been using this past year - rods, reels, lures, fishing clothing etc. There is plenty to talk about that I hope might prove useful to some of you.

• Below are another bunch of black and white photos that I have been messing around with - later on this week I will be able to get some recent bass fishing galleries up on here, in full and glorious colour I assure you, but this black and white stuff has really grabbed me at the moment. I am going to keep at it and then try pushing some material out there next year to a few publications that I reckon might be interested to try something a little different.

• Venezuela again - in my mind these shots of the local kids you can see above and below work properly in black and white, indeed I far prefer the look to the original colour ones I shot. In my mind they now work properly.

• Above are some youngsters from Uganda - it breaks my heart to see such levels of poverty, and I always make sure to find a way of asking if they mind me taking their photograph. The great thing about digital photography is that you can usually raise a delightful smile when you show them a photo on the back of the camera.

• This photo above is of Ian Gordon spey casting out in Norway on the river Namsen. The guy can cast big time and I love it in black and white. What you might not be able to see on a small JPEG here are all the water droplets flying up from the line that now really show up well in black and white. The bridge was what initially got me interested in photographing Ian in this position.

• I have found it really interesting that a lot of fly fishing gear shots seem to work well in black and white - even the really modern stuff like the reel you can see above, a Hardy Zane. I love shooting fly fishing gear anyway as the compositions are usually very visible in my mind, but there seems to be a whole different aspect to it here that I am really liking.