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Posted 10:20, 31 December 2008
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.......
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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.
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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.
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Posted 16:12, 22 December 2008
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.
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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.
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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.
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Posted 10:27, 19 December 2008
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.
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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.
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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.
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