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Posted 08:44, 30 October 2009
- A recent thread over on the lure fishing section of World Sea Fishing has got me thinking a bit about the whole “working in fishing” thing. I do what I do in fishing. What I do isn’t particularly special or noteworthy, but I love what I do, and I am keeping my head above water and looking after my family by doing so. And I can’t believe that there is anything more important than family. I go about my working life trying to be the best that I can be, and I have learnt the heard way how to understand the difference between work and play/fishing and business.
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- But from time to time I go get emails and questions about how to go about working in fishing. I reply when I can, and of course I speak to anybody who is kind enough to come up to me and yap about fishing. Why wouldn’t I ? If my business were to fall about my ears tomorrow, I’ll still go fishing. First and foremost I will always be an angler. But I usually feel somewhat inadequate in trying to give help and advice about trying to work in fishing, because what I do myself in fishing is not exactly “common”, and as a result, I am not sure how to advise going down the path I have chosen. Indeed, there have to be far better ways to go about working in fishing than what I have done, and who is to say that I have got it anywhere close to being “right” ?
- The fishing industry in this country needs more and more young, talented and enthusiastic people coming into it. The recreational fishing industry is a business, make no mistake, but it needs new talent, new ideas and new opinions all the time. I get the impression that a lot of talented people out there (men and women) look at the recreational fishing industry and think that it’s a closed shop. But it isn’t. If it was, how on earth would people like me be doing what I do ? New blood is vital to the ongoing future of recreational fishing. Granted, it is always important that the business of fishing is frequented by lots of people who actually have a sounds business background, for it is a business after all. The problem is though that a lot of these business people don’t actually know much about grass roots fishing. Hence the need for a mix of business and passionate fishing people. Any business such as fishing needs those people who are what I would call “creative” or “on the edge” or “free thinkers”. The hard part is that to get into fishing under these categories often take a huge leap of faith and all amounts of guts and determination. Working in fishing is more than possible, but never for one second presume it is all going to come and land in your lap. I know of no other way than to go out and get it.
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- Can you do this ? You are the only person who can answer that. If you are happy to take “no” for an answer and then move on, don’t even bother. But if the word “no” gets you even more determined and full of drive, then you are on the right track. The word “no” drives me mad. I bet there are a load of people in fishing who have had quite enough of me trying to metaphorically bash down their doors over the years, but I just don’t like to give up when I have absolute faith in something I am trying to do. I don’t mind being proved wrong, and I hope I have learnt a degree of humility as I have got older, but one thing you will need to work in fishing is a skin as thick as an elephant. If you reckon you can do it, then go for it. If you have the guts and the ability to take a gamble, then take that gamble. There are plenty of people in fishing who took a gamble, and I would hope that these same people are able to recognise what they did, and also recognise that there are other people out there trying to take a gamble as well. It’s part of the future of fishing.
- I would guess that virtually all anglers who started working in fishing began by thinking that “wow, this is it, I’m going fishing for the rest of my life, and somebody is going to pay me for this”. I did. For about ten minutes. I very quickly realised that the only way to get any work was by creating it for myself. Whilst I would encourage you to have a go at working in fishing if that is your undying passion, what I can not do is advise on what you might try doing. That’s up to you. If you reckon you can do it, then why not ? But if the idea of never having a guaranteed pay cheque at the end of the month scares the life out of you, then whatever you do, don’t go freelance. All self-employed people out there I am sure know all about “the fear”………..
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Posted 12:19, 28 October 2009
- I have spent a bit of time creating a new bass fishing gallery of photos on the Fishing Pictures page of this website - there are some shots there you will have seen before, but I thought it was about time to put a bunch of new images up there to reflect the kind of stuff I have been shooting more recently. Check the gallery out here. You can see a screen grab of it above. Any comments on the photos are more than welcome, and in due course I will also put a bunch of them in the "Prints for Sale" part of the site.
- I spend a lot of my working time photographing all kinds of types of fishing all over the world, but at heart I will always be a UK saltwater fisherman, and as such, I love it when conditions get really good and I can try to show off "our" fishing as best I can. So much of photography is about the quality of the light, and just sometimes it gets really special and all comes together. The more you are out there, the greater your chance of these very special moments happening. The same with fishing, and that is why I believe that photography and fishing go so well together.
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Posted 08:49, 27 October 2009
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- Bearing in mind that I am on a steep learning curve here, I am starting to understand more and more when using a sinking hard lure can be really useful - granted, there are loads of times when the shallowest swimming floating hard lure is the go to option (rough as rats shallow ground for starters), but how about fishing slightly deeper bass spots when there is a bit of a sea running ? We are now in the middle of prime time around virtually all our bass holding areas for nailing a big fish, and last week over in Ireland I fished a fair bit with various sinking lures. So far I can't find a better sinking hard lure than the Duo Tide Minnow 145S (see above, you can get them here. Not cheap, but the quality of these lures is off the chart). Bear in mind that I am talking about "sinking" lures, and not "deep diving" lures - there is a distinct difference.
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- I began really thinking about sinking lures back on Belle Ile over in France, when Graham and I fished with a couple of the Ultimate Fishing guys in June on this stunning island off the coast of Brittany - these guys are more prone to fishing far rougher conditions for their bass than we might with lures. We all know that most shallow marks are going to become very coloured and weeded out when the sea is snorting in, but the French lads got me thinking because they looked for deeper spots that did not become so messed up by the conditions. And one of the really effective ways to fish in conditions like these is to fish with a sinking hard lure (plus small vertical jigs etc.) - whack it out and let it sink down for a few seconds. Vary the time you let it sink, for it will then begin to swim back to a shallow diving depth when you retrieve - this is where "retrieve, twitch, retrieve, twitch" is so useful and deadly.
- The deeper the lure sits, the more stable it "swims" when you retrieve it in lively conditions, and there is arguably no better lure for fishing like this than the Duo Tide Minnow 145S (check the top photo). Long casting and very stable, these things slay bass, and I for one have a load to learn about the use of sinking lures. I am talking here merely about the added stability a sinking hard lure gives you for fishing in rougher conditions, but there is so much more to it..........
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- OK, so this is not the biggest bass in the world, but this 6lb fish I nailed gave me arguably my biggest thrill of the recent Irish trip (along with the 7lb fish on a dead-drifted MegaBass XLayer and also a nice fish off the top in drop dead exciting water, thanks Tommy, you are a gentleman) - I got a Duo Tide Minnow 145S (sinking) lure specifically for a very particular location we were likely to fish. Nothing to do with rough conditions in fact, but I had it in mind that this lure would give me extra stability in some very fast current, when I wanted to let the lure swing around and then hold well and fish right inside the main current line (thanks Mark for getting me to think about this more and more). Shallow diving floating lures are often driven to the surface in conditions like I have been describing. When the sinking lure went and worked exactly as I hoped it would, you could see my grin a mile away !!OK, so I was grinning behind the camera, and Graham was cradling the fish for me.
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- We had a really interesting conversation with Yannick (Ultimate Fishing boss) one night over in Ireland as we all sat down to a quick supper - what he had to say about the work that goes into the construction of the Duo lures was a real eye-opener, and although these lures are not cheap (always makes me a bit nervous letting a perfectly good lure sink down towards the rocks !!), they are just utter class. I have total respect for the guys who are working hard to give us punters what we want - working in fishing is not just about earning money. If it was, every angler would be doing it. Working in fishing is about passion.
- Business is business, but part of what makes "modern" bass fishing so interesting is that there are a number of obsessed anglers coming into the industry. Mix a sound business brain with a healthy knowledge of modern fishing techniques and it becomes really interesting. A number of people and businesses will no doubt fall by the wayside because they don't understand how to correctly mix business and fishing, (not easy, takes a lot of learning and a lot of experience. Who is to say that any of us have got the right mix ?) but the ones that learn how to mix it all up properly are going to have some really interesting times ahead. Fishing is always exciting, but it's really fizzing at the moment.
- A bit of news about the "Rod X" that I took over to Ireland last week - it's a stunning bit of kit for the money, and I have just got hold of a slightly lighter version as well. This "Rod X.1" is 8' long and is rated 10-40g. I can't say what they are at the moment, but the one I took to Ireland has a lightening fast action and is fantastic to fish with when using decent sized hard lures. For the money it seems to be a hell of a lot of rod. More info in due course.........
