• Tim Griffin asked the question in a comment on a recent post - "what difference could you notice with the 8 strand over the 4 strand braid ?" And it got me thinking...........I am not a technical wizard on all things braid, not in the least bit in fact, but I know what I like, and I very much like using 8 strand braid for a lot of my lure fishing. But not for all of it.
• Above is a close up of this brand new Daiwa Tournament 8 Braid that I picked up in France (don't worry, you can get in green as well) - two years ago and this sort of line would have freaked the hell out of me, because firstly you need to get your head around how thin a true 8 strand braid is when you compare it to a more "regular" (but very good) 4 strand braid. A lower diameter mainline makes sense to me when you are casting and working all kinds of lures, and especially in cross winds and fast currents. Much as I can't speak highly enough of the awesome Varivas Avani Sea Bass Max Power PE in 20lb that I have been using and abusing for a while now (and I love it to bits and will continue to use it because it's just amazing stuff and I trust in it completely), in a perfect world I would love to be able to get hold of it in 30lb and then really take advantage of extra strength and a bit more "ruggedness", but still having an incredibly low diameter. But you can't get that particular Varivas 8 strand in 30lb - the new Daiwa stuff comes in a huge range of breaking strains though, and in due course I will get my hands on some of the 30lb stuff and see if it does for me what I think it will. I need to use and abuse the new Daiwa stuff long term before I am able to trust it like I trust the Varivas stuff. But both brands' 15lb and 20lb must be just about perfect for "finesse" bass fishing - the new me perhaps ??!!
• Do we need 30lb mainline for bass fishing ? Well the fish aren't going to break it, that's for sure. But when fishing over what might be termed "heavy ground", I can't help but want a little "extra" to help me wrench lures out of snags and also to provide that little bit more abrasion resistance. I might be wrong, but I believe that 4 strand braid has the edge over the 8 strand when it comes to abrasion resistance - and there are times when I am still going to choose to fish with the really good 4 strand braids because they offer me a bit more of a buffer. But let's face it here and admit that braids just aren't as good as mono for overall abrasion resistance. But I do have a very specialist braid here to test out soon that might just be worth looking at for something like fishing soft plastics for wrasse right into the middle of the rough stuff..........

• 8 strand just feels like silk to me, whereas 4 strand feels a tiny bit "coarse" (above) - not that this matters one bit I grant you, but I am utterly convinced that these 8 strand braids cast better. This might be because they seem to lie on the spool very well (if that makes sense), but they just fly off when you really launch into a cast. I just don't get wind knots if I underfill my spools (check the line level in the top photo) and make sure to wind in under some kind of tension from time to time if I am imparting a lot of different movements to a lure. As I said, I am not into the technicalities of braid, but fishing with 8 strand braid just feels a whole lot "better" to me - kind of like I would imagine going from my Ford Focus Estate (radical) to something like a top of the pile Range Rover. Both will get you from A to B perfectly well, and both will do so with a degree of "feel", but the Range Rover is just going to be a "better" all round experience. The actual choice comes down to personal feelings and finances. That's my take on it anyway. Nothing right or wrong about using either of the different kinds of braid, just a feeling kind of thing.

• Check out the size of this thing !! My mate Cato emailed me this photo of an angler with this 80lb cod (yes you read that right, eighty pounds !!!!!) that was taken the other day from a boat somewhere in the north of Norway. Plus there was a ling caught that was somewhere between 80-90lbs - and Cato I believe is up there now, so here's hoping he is smashing some silly big fish. They have also been getting a lot of pollack in shallow water from 10-20lbs, and that is world class light tackle sport in anybody's book - presuming you are man enough to take the cold weather. Me ? I need to toughen up a bit !! Imagine actually seeing a cod like that one in the flesh - for all the problems we have with our cod stocks around here, it certainly makes me feel better about the world in general to know that there are still fish like that swimming around not actually very far from the good old Blighty.
• On Sunday I am heading up to the B.A.S.S. AGM - in their "wisdom" they asked me a while back to give a talk at their AGM, so I am going to attempt to enlighten/send them to sleep (delete whichever is most applicable) about bass fishing photography. I passionately believe that I am of most use to the future of fishing if I can make our sport look as visually impressive as possible, and I try to do all I can to make it appealing via my photography (I have put some new bass fishing photos into this gallery here). Without wanting to sound all kind of "professional", I would like to try and use this talk to help point the people who have to sit down and listen to me in the direction of starting to understand  more about how to take better and more visually arousing photos of the fishing that we all love. I am really looking forward to seeing a bunch of people I already know up there, and also to meeting a load of new bass fishermen. Let's face it, we don't need much of an excuse to yap fishing do we now ??!!

• I got my first ever front cover the other day for the Danish magazine "Fisk & Fri" - which I am kind of presuming means "Fish and Fishing" (not bad eh ?).This shot was taken out in the Bolivian jungle last summer, and still it's about the most impressive freshwater fly fishing I think I have ever been lucky enough to have seen - these golden dorado rampaging around crystal clear jungle rivers is an experience that will never leave me, and hopefully I will get really lucky and head out there again one day. World class fly fishing, talk to Aardvark McLeod about it here. I shot the photo as a potential cover in the back of my mind, things just lined up right for me to be able to do it, but then you rely on the magazine people to pick up on it. I still get just about the biggest kick possible in my work when I see my photos on the covers of magazines, catalogues and books. "Fisk & Fri" made a really cool looking six page feature out of my Bolivia experience.

• If you virtually live in your breathable chest waders as I seem to have been doing for both my fishing and a lot of my work for years now, then wearing clothes like jeans or trackie bottoms underneath them for moving around a lot and fishing hard will result in you ending up a bit damp and uncomfortable. I actually know of some fishing tackle companies who have waders returned from customers who are convinced that they are leaking - when in fact it is because they are wearing the wrong stuff underneath the waders and end up sweating. And this can feel like there is a leak in the waders.......
• The trick to being comfortable underneath breathable waders is to wear the right clothes - what you wear next to your skin is really important if you want to remain dry, comfortable and easily mobile. I don't know about you guys, but a lot of my bass fishing for example involves a fair amount of walking and/or climbing and scrabbling around, and even when the weather is really cold this can build up a lot of heat underneath one's waders. For years and years I was wearing some very old cotton-based thermal tights (ok, don't think of me in them, it's not a nice thought) that would end up literally soaking wet if we went yomping. But more recently I have become a lot more interested in looking into, wearing and testing different, more "technical" clothing that I reckon will benefit my fishing, and I can't believe how awesome these lightweight thermals are that I have been using for a while now.
• We have a very good Cotswold store here in Plymouth, and from my initial research I found that Helly Hansen are doing a whole load of different "base layers" (also thanks to my mate Andy, he was raving about the stuff), and I ended up getting their HH Warm Pant (see here) and their Ice Crew top (see here). Have a look around and you can always get a good deal on combinations like these. Now I do accept that a lightweight, warm base-layer is hardly as exciting or glamorous as a new fishing rod, reel or even shiny lure, but personally I am always on the lookout for anything that works better for me. I don't know exactly what it is about these Helly Hansen base layers I have been using, but they are just awesome to wear and move around in when I have got my waders on. No more soaking wet cotton thermals, no more damp jeans. They just seem to work really well - easy to overlook this kind of thing, but to me it's really important, and they are without a doubt the best lightweight thermals I have ever worn. Great for wearing at the moment as well as the weather hovers between winter and spring.
• If we take this Helly Hansen thermal base layer as a really good starting point for a lot of conditions, I was also wearing the Hardy EWS Fleece Joggers on top of them when it was brutally cold at times this winter. Wear this lot underneath breathable waders and I can't see how you can get cold - unless you fall in that is. Still easy to move around in, and very comfortable and "efficient". I don't think I would have got through my Mongolia trip last September without those EWS Joggers to sleep in every night in my tent !! Modern technical clothing is the way forward for me when it comes to my work and fishing.

• I thought you might like to see this new lure that I picked up the other day (not that I have a problem or anything like that) - you might remember me talking about a very similar looking one on this blog very recently (see here). Well, there's me rather smugly thinking along the secret squirrel lines of having stumbled upon a potentially lethal bass lure that my mates had never even heard of, and then at the Hooked Live show the other day in Dublin I walked onto the Henry's Tackle Shop stand and saw this thing above !! It looked similar to the one I had rather sneakily acquired, but the damned thing was actually a bit different. Slimmer, more aero-dynamic, and definitely a bit more "subtle" than the one I had already got. So I had to get one..........
• I had no idea that anybody in Europe was actually doing any of these F-Tec lures, but a bunch of them look awesome for our bass fishing (F-Tec website is here). So I am really pleased that the guys at Henry's Tackle Shop have them in (see here for the one I got) - the lure you can see above that I picked up at the Dublin show is called the F-Tec S-four Mark II 128 (128mm, 18g) and although I have only played around with it for a little bit, that cut-face promotes a massive side to side, head shaking kind of action, plus it swims really, really shallow. Nice and noisy as well, my hunch is that it casts better than the other one I was talking about the other day. A bit like a Tackle House Feed Shallow on steroids. Out the window goes my chance of a secret squirrel success with these ones then...........onwards and upwards though !!

• I did fish for a while, but in reality I had photography on the brain as the light began to get good - much as a shot of a spinning reel is often just what it is, I love it when the light gets low and soft and you can use the angles of the rocks to cut the shadows and the actual light across something as inanimate as a reel (ok, so it's my beloved Stella 4000FD, but it's still just a reel) and make something far more creative out of it. I don't know if anybody saw me crouched down on the rocks concentrating intently on bits of gear, but if they had I am sure they would have wondered what on earth I was up to. It's easy to get lost in what you are doing when the quality of the light just gets better and better. Although I am a fishing junkie, I guess that photography gives me as much of a kick - a different kind of kick, but it gets me going in a big way.

• OK, so the photo above is not much more than "lure sitting on rod handle", but it's the quality and the softness of the light that makes the already classic MegaBass Zonk 120 Gataride look as awesome as it does. Notice that there are no blown highlights off the flank of the lure, a problem that often arises when there is any kind of direct sunlight on a subject matter like this. I tend to travel quite "camera and lens light" when I am out fishing/photographing, much lighter than I would when out photographing only, and I don't have space for diffusers and things like that. Underexpose a bit to help retain the dark background and let the subject matter (the Gataride) stand out, get your own shadow out of the way, use that stunning light, compose, and snap away - and you thought it was just a photo of a killer lure !! OK, so it is.....

• Tom asked what braid it was on my reel in the comments section of my last post (lure colours) - I picked this stuff up in a really good tackle shop in St. Malo before we got the ferry back to Jersey after the Nantes bass show. Some of the guys switched me on to it at the actual show itself, but I was managing to resist. Until I got in that shop !! If you have used true 8-strand braid for your lure fishing then you will know all about how good this kind of modern mainline is. Very different to your more "regular" 4-strand braid, but it tends to cost. For a long time now I have been using (and seriously loving) the grey 20lb Varivas Avani Sea Bass Max Power PE (see here) and I simply can't fault it.
• But this multi-coloured braid on my Stella at the moment is the brand new Daiwa Tournament 8 Braid in 20lb breaking strain, and my initial impressions are that it is simply awesome (almost freaky thin, seriously, you can't believe this can be 20lb). I do like coloured lines, indeed I always have for various reasons, but it also comes in a straight green if that kind of thing freaks you out. I bought a 150 metre spool of this new 8-strand braid at that St. Malo shop for around 25 Euros I think it was, and that is seriously good value for money for a product like this. In the Daiwa France catalogue there are a big number of breaking strains and spool sizes available. I am not sure if anywhere in the UK is doing this braid yet, but I would hope that in due course that a modern 8-strand braid like this becomes available in shops and online in the UK. We shall see......
• Thanks for such a good response via the comments to my last blog post about lure colours - I am not even remotely close to knowing that much about the success of different colours in different places and situations, but I am of the feeling (and in agreement with many of the comments) that the lure type and actual action are perhaps the most important things to consider (but note the word "perhaps"). Colour has to be of real importance, but I can't help but feel slightly that colour means more to us than it does to the fish. Or is that completely wrong ? Fishing is what it is, and we will simply never know all the answers - and I find that hugely reassuring in this day and age.

• I know there are some "hard and fast rules" to various lure colours for different light and water clarity, but often I wonder how much logic there actually is to using different colour lures. Take a lure like the Maria Angel Kiss 115mm that you can see above - the colour is what I might term a kind of "ultra-realistic" effect (any guesses as to what the lure might be trying to imitate ??!!) that in my mind is just hugely logical. If this prey species is around, then I would kind of expect bass to nail a lure that looks like them. The Angel Kiss is not an expensive bit of kit, but over the last few years I have developed a real respect for some of the Maria lures, and I like the fact that anglers can get hold of known killers for very sensible money (check here). But how often does the logical thing actually happen in fishing ?

• I would guess that a big number of UK and perhaps even Irish bass anglers have at one time or another over the last few years either used the seriously killer Maria Chase BW in the holographic silver colour you can see above, or at least have a mate or two who have caught consistently on them. Personally this is the main lure that really begin to switch me on to lure fishing for bass in a really serious and addictive way, and for me the Chase BW has just killed in all different kinds of conditions - from flat seas and bright sunshine through to murky water, almost too rough to lure fish days when you are not that far away from getting washed in. But what on earth does the colour resemble in the natural world ? Beats me........
• As with the Angel Kiss, this Maria Chase BW once again is a killer bass lure for not very much money, but for the life of me I can't see any logic as to why this particular holographic silver kind of rainbow colour works. I have never seen a bait fish resemble this lure in the UK or Ireland, but it just kills. Why ? I don't have a clue, but I do know that I always have a huge amount of confidence with bass lures that are similar to this colour, because I know from personal experience that I have caught bass in all kinds of light and conditions on this colour Maria Chase BW. I am into all kinds of modern lures in a big way (not that I have a problem or anything like that), but it would be foolish for me to forget the stuff that has worked so well for me in the past. Like guys with lures such as the Rapala J13 and the original Storm Jointed Thunderstick. Bass don't suddenly like hugely expensive new lures and nothing else.........

• So once again we are onto the subject of "confidence" - does past history with certain colours predispose us to choosing one colour over another, more than taking heed of these "hard and fast rules", and does this mean we end up catching more on specific colours because we are very simply fishing better and for longer periods with certain colours ? Which then breeds confidence in that or those colours. I always like to have something in my lure box that really does resemble a natural prey species of the bass (like the Angel Kiss above - guessed what it imitates yet ??!!), but I do also like to have some lures that are based around silver, pink, holographic, and reflective. I personally think that the reflective thing is very important for bass fishing, but again that is purely because I have done well with reflective, "shiny" lures. I am confident when I am using them. But then I reckon I have met different bass anglers who all swear by very different colours. Who is right and who is wrong ? Who really cares if you are catching fish. Think out of the box.

• Who really knows ? Although there are these "hard and fast rules" to lure fishing, personally I am a firm believer in throwing all rule books out of the window and going on instinct a lot of the time. In fishing as much as life. Trust yourself, speak to bass anglers either in person or on really good forums like the one here (you need to register, but it is worth it, great bunch of guys) about the colours they like, and then experiment as much as you can. I am sure we all base a lot of our lure buying (or lust ?) on whether the thing just looks right to our eyes. If anybody could ever give me a scientific explanation as to why bass like the colour you see above then please let me know, because it has always struck me as completely illogical. But it just plain works. The subject of lure colour is a monster......

• And on the subject of monsters - I have been waiting for the new Rotting Christ album for ages now, for this Greek metal band gets to me in a huge way. Their last album "Theogonia" was my album of the year for 2007 (see here, where on earth does time go ?), so their new one has one hell of a reputation to follow for me personally - this always worries me with new releases when I so liked the previous one and then wonder how on earth the next one can live up to it. But Rotting Christ's new monster that is "Aealo" is just insane. How this band from Greece keeps on doing it I will never know, and I am not even sure how to describe their music - a kind of melodic black metal is along the right lines, but it does not come close to describing the unique, almost tribal vibe and feel that you get with these guys. Their music gets in my skull and pounds around in the best way possible. I would hazard a guess that a band name like Rotting Christ seemed awesome as a spotty teenager (hell, one of my bands at school was called Ritualistic Abuse, and yes, in case you were wondering, we did manage to offend the right people), but the band name now does no justice to the immensity of their creative output. Unquestionably one of the finest metal bands on this earth, and like with the recent  new Fear Factory album, one that I just can't stop listening to over and over again. "Aealo" just keeps on growing. Check out a few tracks right here.

• You go to a fishing show like the one at Nantes that a bunch of us have just come back from and you naturally come back all buzzed up about lure fishing in general. All that (lovely, shiny) gear, all that knowledge, and all that atmosphere under one roof really gets to me, just like it did last year. But however you look at it, we are playing catch up here in the UK. I am not for one second damning the UK tackle trade or even where we sit with regards to modern lure fishing. More so I am saying that the French lure fishing scene is where it is now for what must be a bunch of different reasons, and it strikes me a very exciting time to be into lure fishing over there. As it is over here. We are where we are at here in the UK and Ireland, but the big problem seems to be that more and more anglers are hearing about, looking for, and asking about items of tackle that are for the most part a struggle to get hold of here, and more often than not we are forced to buy abroad. Frustrating to say the least......
• And especially when you know that so much of this gear is for sale and in use just over the Channel - hardly very far away as regards geography, but in fishing tackle terms it might as well be another world away. I accept that what I tend to call "modern lure fishing" is in its infancy here in the UK, but I am guessing as well that it must have once been like this in France. I am sure that a few years ago there were anglers getting frustrated because they could not buy the gear they wanted to in their local tackle shops. But their market has changed so much, or at least my research leads me to believe so. Nothing is ever perfect and the grass is always greener and all that kind of thing, but I sense such a reluctance within parts of the UK tackle trade to embrace what is so obviously going on in lure fishing (for bass especially) and either develop or at least import more gear for us to buy and use. That is why I have such a huge amount of respect for the people and companies who have taken this all forward so much already in the UK.
• Is it a monstrously huge market at the moment that is going to make everybody very rich ? No, obviously not. But it could get really big. Think about where carp fishing once was, and look where it is now. Who would have predicted that explosion in growth in what is essentially a static kind of fishing ? Where could lure fishing go in this country ? Questions that I accept are impossible to answer, but surely the UK tackle trade has to sit up and take proper notice sometime soon.........

• Take something relatively simple like this stunning looking Jackson Athlete Slim 12SS (sinking) minnow - this kind of thing floats my boat in a major way, and up until recently I think I am right in saying that the best way to get hold of something like this was to buy direct from Japan. But not any more. Shops and internet sites like the ones here and here (check out the new website) are now stocking these Jackson lures. These guys here are stocking an increasingly large number of Japanese and US lures that nail our bass. But what about having more choice with modern lure rods, reels, braids, clothing, etc. ? More switched-on shops and internet sites are doing what they can, but even then I know that a bunch of them are often having to beat their heads against brick walls in frustration. One problem we seem to have right now is that the modern-thinking lure angler is far more aware of what is out there than the bulk of the UK tackle trade. Whether this be because of forums, internet searching, shows such as the one at Nantes, or simply word of mouth and personal experience, I am sensing more and more that more anglers are getting really frustrated at the tackle trade not keeping up with them. So we need to support the ones that are keeping up. And we need to hassle the ones that are not into getting us the stuff we want.
• But although it all looks very logical to anybody outside of the tackle trade, it is never that easy - we might want more and more gear at all kinds of prices, but what companies are going to take the bull by the horns, take a bit of a punt, and go for it ? All financial risks aside, it strikes me that this "modern lure fishing" is very "modern" in the way that it is snowballing. Information is travelling faster and faster, and more and more anglers are trying different stuff and using ever more efficient ways to tell people about their exploits. And unless you are in the middle of it and working at the coal face, it can actually be quite difficult for a company to keep up unless they are either actively interested in the fishing, or are working with well informed people who are in on the ground and keeping a close eye on what is happening. - and even then the company needs to trust these "well informed" people and roll with their information.
• The Nantes show opened my eyes up a whole lot more once again, but in a very different way to the first time I went there last year. I have come back with so many different ideas that my brain is fit to leave my head. Quite where I fit into all this "modern lure fishing" is something I am not completely sure about, because I come at it from different angles - first and foremost I am a fishing junkie who has fallen for this fishing in a huge way (fish, methods, gear, locations, people etc.), but also I am a fishing writer, photographer and sometime TV presenter who has to make his living within fishing. All I can do is do what I think is best and hope that it is doing some good for fishing in general, while at the same time making me and my family a living. It is not always an easy balancing act.
• The guys at IrishBass.org are still working around the clock to do all they can - I did a brief phone interview with the Irish Sunday Times just before I left for France, and I also uploaded them some photos to use for the article on the understanding that sport fishermen would be fairly represented within the piece. I reckon a very good job was done overall, and you can check out the article here. Different photos of mine were used in the paper copy of the article, and I hope that they have gone some way towards helping the IrishBass.org people out in their fight to protect sportfishing for bass over in Ireland. We can all do our bit in different ways.

• Us lot who travelled over from Jersey on Thursday night got to the show just after midday after spending the night in St. Malo. Any time you come to France is always a blast, I have always loved this country and I have a huge amount of time for the French people. Last year was a massive learning curve for me out here, indeed it essentially blew my mind to the point where I hardly slept for the three days. This time around I feel much more “up” on things, but there is still a huge amount going on the show that is new to me. And of course there is a vast array of some of the most incredible fishing tackle you could ever hope to see. You will have to go a long way to find a more friendly or open bunch of fishermen than the French, and the more I get to know some of these fantastic anglers, the more lucky I feel.

• The Ultimate Fishing stand is very different from last year, with more guys working it, and a bigger range of red rods and more new lures and patterns that you could shake a stick at. They are now doing a whole range of the stunning red Tenryu Injection “finesse” rods, and believe me when I say that I am doing my utmost to avoid simply giving in and getting one of them. My worry is that I just don't have enough of this “finesse” to my bass fishing, but perhaps I could justify the purchase by making myself adopt a more subtle approach. I seriously fancy one of those new Shimano Rarenium in the 3000 size on a rod like this – what an awesome looking reel for the money.

• One of the Ultimate lures that really stood out for me straight away is the new DUO MOAB (Mother of All Baits – great name !!). My mate Bruno Pebe was showing me this thing working away in one of the tanks and it was all I could do to stop my jaw hitting the floor. It's a very good looking DUO minnow with a fibre bib that just seems to have an action all of its own, plus it can be jerked very effectively. Leave it alone and it just suspends there nice and stable. Very impressive. There was also a really interesting looking DUO lure that was some kind of mix between a vibration lure and a jerkbait, and Bruno could get this thing turning backwards on the retrieve. I can't for the life of me remember that name of it, but I will find out. There are a lot of new lures on the very impressive looking Ultimate stand, with some truly stunning colours to them. There is a very good looking kind of casting/vertical jig that also has a loud rattle in it that has my name on it big time. Not that I have a problem or anything like that.
• Now although I do like good fishing rods, I actually consider myself “relatively” under control with my urges for them (a new Tenryu Injection aside, loved them since Belle-Ile last May). But then Ben took me over to the Daiwa stand to show me their rods – why on earth Daiwa UK aren't bringing some of these “modern style bass rods” into the UK is beyond me. We looked at a lot of what seemed to be really, really good rods at lots of different price points, but then Ben took me over to a special range of rods on their own little Daiwa stand in the corner. Thanks Ben, and you can now stop that smirking. The “Morethan Branzino” range of Daiwa lure rods are just off the scale stunning bits of kit. They are seriously expensive, but in particular the 7' and especially the 7'6'' models were just some of the finest feeling lure rods I have ever had the fortune to pick up anywhere. Are they worth the money ? Only the anglers who buy them can answer that one, but I have a serious case of rod lust going on now. Do I need one ? No, of course I don't. But do I want one or even two of them ? Yes. Very seriously yes. You simply can not believe the balance of these things. Just the sheer smile it puts on your face when you pick one up. You know how some of these modern lure rods feel like wands when you pick them up and fish with them ? Well these Daiwa “Morethan Branzino” lure rods go way beyond that feeling. There ain't ever anything wrong with dreaming......

• Sakura have a big, very impressive looking stand at this Nantes show, with a whole bunch of rods, plus lures from the likes of IMA, Sebile, and Molix. The Sakura soft plastics (Snoop and Magic Eel I think they are called) look really good to me, and in the demo tank they were stunning. It is really getting to me all over again how well the French guys fish their soft plastics, and how confident they are to use them so much of the time. I have not seen it yet, but some of our lads were raving about some demonstration going on where a bloke was fishing with two soft plastic shads on the same trace that were almost pirouetting across each other on the way back in. Sounds strange, but I saw some video footage and it looks incredible.
• The show seemed to be packed for most of the afternoon, so I would imagine that over the weekend it's going to be really hectic. I am loving being here amongst all this “buzz” about bass fishing, and it really makes me think a lot about where it might all end up going in the UK. Take where we are now and then think about where it could go. Will the interest levels keep on growing ? Will anglers keep on looking for different gear to use for their fishing ? Will we still have enough decent bass around us to catch in ten years time ? I personally believe that if we have the fish, then this more modern approach to bass fishing is going to go to places we could never have imagined a few years ago, and its influence will spill over into other kinds of fishing as well.

• I was out on a photo job last week, shooting another winter fly fishing feature for Trout Fisherman magazine - Russ smacked a load of fish and I got a good set of photos to illustrate his words, but I also had a bit of fun shooting some "detail" stuff with my 100mm macro lens and available light. It was always my intention to convert these detail shots to black and white, and while I know these photos are essentially worthless when it comes to magazine features, when I "see" something like this I just have to shoot it. I have always loved the fact that digital photography is a license to try different things, and the photo above is simply a close-up of the scales of a rainbow trout in a net. 

• Another black and white "detail" shot - fly reels always look good to me, and they lend themselves to being photographed in all kinds of ways. Both these photos have very deliberate shallow depths of field that I have used to bring the eye in on specific points and then let the rest of the image literally "melt" through the frame if that makes sense. Thinking along these lines is giving me a bunch more ideas for shooting bass lures in various different ways as well - granted, I always have to shoot them more "regular" for magazine features where you need to see the whole thing plain as day, but I reckon there could be some cool ways of showing off various lures.

Photo courtesy Cato Bekkevold

• I got an email from Cato Bekkevold talking about some more of this insane ice fishing they get up to in Norway - how about this for a fish to catch from the shore (ok, so it's on the ice in the middle of a fjord) !! Not only is the guy one of the most awesome drummers in metal (for the mighty and peerless Enslaved), he is also one hell of an angler. This halibut weighed 36lbs and it was 111cms long, plus they also had pollack to 12lbs and a mass of cod up to around 16lbs. That's it, I have made up my mind to go and do this next winter..............just need to take some properly warm clothing !! Mad fishing. Oversized flounders on speed.
• Anyway, it's going to be a great weekend in France, and I am also looking forward to seeing the Jersey lads and hanging out for a while in Mick's tackle shop before we get the ferry - this is a time for me to show great self-control, because I have a sneaking suspicion that he has a whole load more lures there than I ever realised. Feel strong, look but don't touch and rattle, no more than a casual glance at any new lures, and try to get out of there with my card intact. As if.........

• I just got hold of the cover of a new fishing book that has just come out, with a photo of mine on the front cover as you can see above, plus I believe over two hundred shots of mine inside. This was a project I was asked to get involved in last year - initially I was asked to write and photograph the whole thing, but for various reasons I decided to supply two thirds of the photographs and then pass the rest of the work on to some friends of mine who I knew would do a really good job. I have not actually seen a copy of the book yet, indeed I have not even seen any inside pages yet - only this cover which I am really pleased with. I hope it just "says" that fishing is a whole heap of fun (which of course it is when you are literally falling on the hungry bass on a big blue sky day over in Ireland). I have been told that the book is on sale (see here for more details). Looking forward to seeing a copy........
• I have not made any TV fishing programmes for a fair while now, and I have to be completely honest and admit to being stunned that so many people at the Dublin show came up to me because of them. While it strikes me as slightly mad that anybody would contemplate watching the stuff that I have done any more than once, I guess that the endless repeats and the fact that some (very kind) people keep on watching them means that there are fishermen out there who are hungry for new fishing shows. I guess we all are in fact. I was asked so many times over the weekend when some new programmes are coming out, but I simply do not have a clue. There seems to be an audience out there who want more new shows, but the TV stations obviously don't think so.
• I did get to see a few people who I have been looking forward to meeting for a while now - I wish I had got more time to speak to Bob Moss, the ex-pat fishing junkie from Dingle (see here), because in the brief time we had to yap about fishing I got the distinct impression that he was a seriously nice guy. I just hugely respect the fact that he fell in love with the Dingle peninsular over in Ireland so much that he decided a long time ago now to relocate there. Too few people in my opinion ever follow their dreams, and I have a lot of time for people out there who don't do what everybody else does. I really hope to get the chance to fish with Bob one of these days.
• Paul Young, the fly fishing guy who makes a lot of TV programmes, he was great to talk to - he was at the Dublin show as well. I also got to meet the two main guys behind the increasingly well known Dublin bass fishing emporium that is "Henry's Tackle Shop" - they had a big stand at the show and they also had some seriously good lure fishing gear there. Rods, reels, and a big number of some lethal nice bass lures. Check out some of the lures they do here. I have not been able to find anywhere "local" to get the F-Tec lures that I was on about here, so it was a good surprise to walk on to their stand and see a load of different F-Tec ones on display. Nice one guys. Not that I have a problem with lures or anything like that.........
• Great also see that the IrishBass.org stand was getting so much interest - loads of Irish anglers were signing the petition and taking leaflets away that detailed what we need to do to try and stop the Irish coastal bass fishery being opened up to the commercial sector. If you have not done so already, please go to their website and follow the advice. Make sure to "Become a Friend of Irish Bass" as well by signing up online here.A great weekend meeting loads of very cool people. My thanks to all the people over there who made me feel so welcome - only about 99% of them on Sunday mentioned the fact that Ireland beat us in the rugby !!

• Arguably the finest magazine on this earth runs an outstanding website (see here) that is just outstanding to spend some time looking through – anybody with any interest in our world and some of the best photography out there should be reading National Geographic every month. I came across a part of the National Geographic website recently called “The Daily Dozen”, where people submit a photograph and then a photo editor at the magazine picks out twelve images and puts them up on the NG website – no payment or anything, but very cool to have anything at all to do with this publication and their website.
• So I submitted a crashing wave/bass fishing shot from last weekend for a bit of fun, just to see if anything happened. And somehow it has been picked as you can see above (check this link here, look at February Week 4 in the little drop down menu and then scroll along to little old me) ………now that just about makes my week. It says that the odd shot from this “Daily Dozen” ends up being published in the actual magazine. Now I don’t for one second ever expect to come close to having a photo published in there, but if you don’t at least try then you will never know.
• I hope to see some of you at the Hooked Live show over the weekend. Roll on the rugby. One thing is for sure – the game has to be more exciting than the drivel that was England v Italy a couple of weeks ago. OK, so we won, but if we play like that they the Irish are going to do us properly. Best go get my plane……

• Here's another "not dodging the waves very well" photo from last Saturday morning - sometimes I actually have trouble holding the camera still because I am so stupidly excited by the light or the conditions that I am literally shaking with adrenaline. Or otherwise I don't breathe properly because I am so desperate to try and capture the moment in a way that can visually excite people that I forget to inhale and exhale one after the other. Daft I know, but I mean it when I say that good light and conditions for photography mean as much to me as smashing a few fish, and I get a huge kick when I can make my local patch look as impressive as some of the far-flung fishing destinations that I am lucky enough to go and shoot as part of my job.

• I get a few emails asking me about camera gear, and while I use big, heavy and somewhat expensive professional Nikon gear for my work, these photos you see here were shot with one of their cheaper lenses. The pro Nikon lenses are simply awesome (and they take the abuse that I dish out to them), but they are an expensive luxury if photography does not earn you a living - I love their 70-200mm f2.8VR lens, but it is not something that I am about to want to carry around in my backpack when I am out bass fishing and photographing for example (too big and heavy). I use it for certain jobs only, but when I need to remain very mobile or I am travelling overseas and need to cut down on gear, I use Nikon's 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 AF-S VR lens. This thing is a complete steal - very light, very fast focusing, and if you keep it at 70-200mm then it is just off the scale sharp. I don't like it very much over about 200mm when it begins to really soften up, but shoot at say f5.6 to f8 and keep it at 200mm or below and you are going to get photos that just sing - if you are shooting with a decent technique that is. As a medium fast telephoto lens that does not break the bank or weigh you down, I just can't find fault with this thing. Sometimes you can find outstanding products that kind of jump across their price points if that makes sense. 

• Chris and I went out to fish a few hours of the drop on Saturday morning - ok, so it might be February, and I had to de-ice my car before we could head off, but the actual conditions were just fantastic for lure fishing (plus I have various toys that need to be tested/played with). I had to put my rod down for a while though and pick up my cameras when the light just went insane for about half an hour or so. We had sleety rain all the way there, but when we started fishing the clouds broke and it began to look like you see above. When it's like this I get as much kick out of photographing as I do fishing. Winter light can be so dramatic. Chris has got himself one of the new Teklon lure rods, the 8' Concept Spin 802ML 10-40g, and he is as impressed with it as I am. The more I fish with it, the more rod for the money I think it is. An 8' rod might freak a lot of UK sea anglers out, but fish lures with a rod this length for a while and you will understand why I keep banging on about it.

• I got banged hard by a fish about an hour after high water, and Chris also got a hit from a bass on a Tackle House Feed Shallow (the black back, silver sides one, killer colour) - plus we saw a bass turn and swim away from us. Not a big fish, but it's good to see signs of bass around in February, and although the fish we felt did not hook up, it certainly gives one a bit of confidence to keep at it during our more rubbish sea fishing months. If anything, it was just cool to be out on such a stunning bit of coastline when the winter light was firing big time. Part of me wants to do nothing but take photos, and part of me wants to fish my socks off.
• I am starting to fall hard for that Jackson Artoron lure that I was waffling on about the other day (see here) - it's good to go out and "test" lures, but you learn so much more about them in a proper fishing environment. I need to get hold of some different colours of the Artoron, but the action is just incredible, and any of you who come from a jointed-lure bass fishing background but want a jointed lure that casts really well, then you need to check this one out. It was flying out there, and I was able to force it up very shallow indeed to deal with the ground in front of me. As I said, I have no history of fishing with the older jointed lures, but this one does it for me in a big way. You can see why bass love that action.

• A very good reason to wear good breathable waders and a proper waterproof jacket - look on the right side of the photo and you will see Chris taking one for the team. It might look dangerous, but it wasn't that bad at all. Or at least Chris said it was ok, but then he's a good mate and he knows what I am like with my cameras. Stuff like this makes the heart race, and that is what fishing is all about to me. I'd have been there in a flash if Chris had got into any trouble - after getting the photo of course..........

• Fliegen Fischen is an outstanding fly fishing magazine from Germany, and I am really pleased to have a big feature in there on my Bolivia golden dorado trip from last year. OK, so I don't understand a word of German, but it all looks good to me. Above is a screen grab from their website. Really interesting to be getting more and more photos published with the Nikon camera gear that I invested in heavily last year (see here) - it just seems that the Nikon system as a whole really suits me and my work in fishing.
• I do a fair bit of work for a magazine called Chasing Silver that hails from Finland, and this publication just rocks my world - the kind of quality really makes you look at yourself to do all you can to keep improving. The new issue is just out and there is a big feature in there from that incredibly wild and out there trip to Mongolia I went on last year. It's always a buzz when you see your stuff being published in different publications - freelance work is what it is. You don't get paid unless you get material published. Nice and logical, a little bit scary at times, but I know no other way and I love being my own boss.
• Alt om Fiske is a very cool fishing magazine from Norway, and there is a big piece in there on my Mongolia trip - they have really gone to town with the article and I am over the moon at their choice of photos. Quite aside from seeing my work published like this, it's great to see fishing magazines from different countries. I have also had some nice articles in magazines such as Trout Fisherman and The Field recently. I still reckon that a few people watch the (endless) repeats of the various TV shows I have done and most likely think that all I do is make the off fishing TV programmes from time to time, when in fact the bulk of my work has always been freelancing for any number of fishing magazines. Much as I like the process of actually making the shows, they end up being a somewhat distorted reflection of what I actually spend most of my time doing - but it suits me just fine to do what I do and remain under the radar with a lot of it.

• So what does one of the finest drummers in metal do when he is not pounding the skins ? He gets himself on the cover of Alt om Fiske !! Very good to see Cato Bekkevold from the unbelievably awesome Norwegian metal band Enslaved on the front cover of the magazine - he writes and photographs a lot about fishing. Cato has recently laid down the drum tracks to the new Enslaved album which is going to be another massive release, just like their last one in fact, the mighty "Vertebrae" (see here). How they go and top that one I have no idea, but I can't wait to find out.........
• I also got a copy of the new issue of Sea Angler magazine through the post today, and there is a feature of mine right at the back, all about the issue of confidence in fishing. I love what they have done with the opening DPS photo of the bass being held in the water across the page - the quality of modern digital images just takes my breath away at times, and I reckon Sea Angler has got some very good people writing and photographing for them.

• Anybody into metal will I am sure remember the time when Fear Factory's massive album "Demanufacture" first came blasting out of your speakers - if there has ever been a better slab of "cyber-thrash" (not bad eh ?) then I am not aware of it. The Fear Factory albums since then have been very up and down, almost as if they were unable to top "Demanufacture" (kind of like Metallica and their "Master of Puppets") - some were good, some were interesting to say the least. So when I heard they were getting back together and releasing a new album, I was hardly waiting with baited breath. But their brand new album "Mechanize" is an absolute monster of a thrash metal CD. Like with any album that really gets to you, I wonder if I should be listening to it so much, but it is immense - easily their best music since "Demanufacture". So cool when an awesome band gives themselves a kick and stirs it all up again. Just an incredible album. Check out some Fear Factory tracks here.

• I don't quite know why it's the ultra-shallow diving bass lures that tend to get to me the most, but they do. Lures like the tackle House Feed Shallow, the IMA Komomo SF-125 and even the MegaBass Zonk Gataride 120 (if you force it up) just do it for me. OK, so I tend to like fishing a lot of really shallow water for bass where lures like this are always in with a shout, but for me I suppose it tends to be that I just really like the idea of a very intense silhouette working just beneath the surface. In my mind this appeals to bass, and also in deeper water where the fish I am guessing can really make out a lure very clearly that swims very shallow.
• I stumbled upon this F-Tec S Four 13 Real Head (130mm, 24g, floating) the other day and decided that I had to get one to have a play around with - this lure has actually been around for a long time in Japan I have found out, and when you look at it you can see why a lure like the Feed Shallow exists. This F-Tec ultra-shallow diver is a substantial lure, and it is very noisy - you are not going to put this thing on when you want to get all subtle on the bass. It casts great, looks awesome, and I know it will catch me bass in certain situations. If it is any help, I got this lure here, and you can check out F-Tec's website right here. They do some really good looking lures......

• This F-Tec S Four 13 Real Head (phew) is stated to swim at no deeper than 15cms however fast you wind it, and from playing around with it a bit I tend to agree. This is my kind of bass lure for a number of different situations. As with many cut-face lures, this one has a very intense head-shaking action, and I mean really intense. This F-Tec is mesmerizing to watch when you wind it back, and I do reckon that a lure like this does in fact like nothing more than a straight-retrieve. Nice and easy. It's loud, it has a wide profile, and it definitely lets the bass know something is there. My personal opinion with this one is that the action intensifies hugely when you wind it a medium to medium-slow pace.

• It's a very buoyant lure, and you can wind it really slow and get it to wake right across the surface as well - thinking about it, the new IMA Komomo II strikes me as a smaller version of this kind of lure. The more I learn about bass lures, the more I am seeing why some of the ideas and thoughts have been implemented. Is this (new to me) F-Tec lure going to catch me a bunch of fish ? Only time will tell, but considering that a lot of this lure fishing comes down to confidence, then it makes sense that I often turn to an ultra-shallow diving minnow - because they make me feel so confident. We shall see..........

• I shot another winter fly fishing feature for Trout Fisherman magazine last week, and for the first part of the morning the corner of this particular lake up at Tavistock Trout Fishery was frozen over - note the fly line lying on top of the ice above. The only way to get this shot was for me to get into the water in my waders, move some ice aside, and make damned sure not to slip and fall in. I would say we have been having a properly cold winter down here in the south west, indeed I can't ever remember seeing this many early morning frosts. But the place was still fishing really well....

• I have a lot of time for fisheries like the one up at Tavistock - plenty of fish in good condition, very reasonable rates to fish, and just a very good excuse to keep on fly fishing all year. Granted, it ain't the "wildest" fishing going, but small stillwater fly fishing serves a huge purpose here in the UK. It was great to see a few fly fisherman out and about when Russ and I were up there last week. I waded out into the (freezing) water to line this shot up you can see above - a case of deliberately underexposing by one stop to hold that nice dark background and allow the fish to be gently highlighted by the winter sun shining through the trees off to my left. It's the eye of the fish that is pin sharp, and the rest fades out gently via the use of a large aperture.
• I would hope this kind of shot gets used across two pages in a magazine article - note the room for text around and laid over the back half of the fish, and the fact that the spine of a magazine would run down roughly in a line through the middle of the photo. We shall see. All these different thoughts charging around the head when you are lining up photographs. I find myself actually "captioning" photos as I shoot them a lot of the time - mentally putting captions to the photos and "placing" them in a feature or the pages of a book, in a way that works with the rest of the material I am shooting. Perhaps I just need help though ?

• We had essentially done the job, but I asked Russ to position himself where you can see him above, in order for me to be grab a few more "long loop" casting photos against that  backdrop - might as well keep the fly on, because I was having to wait for the light in between a few clouds that were passing across the sun. Just as I was about to ask Russ to rattle off a few casts, he goes and hooks a train of a fish that ran off across the lake. It's great when something like this happens.

• The end result was this pig of a rainbow trout - you can't end a shoot on a better note. Check out the size and condition of the fish's tail. Stocked rainbows don't come much better than this. Wouldn't it be a great place to go and "test" various bass lures out ?!! I kept thinking that all day in fact - looking into the clear water and imagining "playing" around with various lures, purely for "research" purposes of course. Not sure that would go down too well with either the owners of the fishery or their clients.....

• I don't come from a lifetime of trying to smash bass on lures, so I am not in the least bit able to look deep into the Misty Mountains and way lyrical about my use of such legendary jointed lures like the Rapala J13 and J11, or the killer Storm Jointed Thunderstick. If the truth be known, I don't actually carry any jointed lures in any of my lure boxes, and mainly for the single reason that I just don't like the way they cast. Too much wind-resistance and all that kind of stuff I would assume. OK, no great problem for nailing them close in, but they just aren't a kind of lure that I have been using - this might be heresy to many bass anglers, I do know that, but I am only human !!. Might be a mistake me not carrying them, I accept that they can have an incredible action, but jointed lures are just not really me..........
• Until I came across this one - the Jackson Artoron JF125 (125mm, 14g), a floating jointed minnow with a big difference. I tend to be somewhat cynical of such claims as a "two-piece lure casting more like a one-piece lure". There is some kind of techno-wizardry with an internal weighting system that somehow "locks" the short tail section into place during the essential cast, and then "releases" the tail during the retrieve and then lets the thing behave like a jointed bass lure. Hold the lure head up and then tail up and you will see what I mean. It's explained here if that is any help. But it works, and it actually seems to work really well. No, the Jackson Artoron will not cast quite as well as a one piece minnow, but from a bit of messing around with it, I would say that it casts say half way between the level of a jointed lure and a one-piece lure. Very well essentially. Does that make sense ? It flies out there just fine, and that internal weighting system just seems to get on with its magic. I am not obsessed with how far lures fly, rather I am into lures that cut it when there is a bit of breeze around. It's on the retrieve when the true magic of a good jointed lure comes to life.....

• You can get this Jackson Artoron to swim fairly shallow if you get your rod tip up, or you can just leave the tip down and make the lure swim a few feet under the surface. This lure may well respond to a twitch/pause retrieve, but my initial impressions are that it actually works the best via a straight forward retrieve, with perhaps a few hard twitches put in as you crank it in. The action is hugely intense, and my initial impressions are that  although this lure in theory has a big plastic bib, in fact it has an action more like a cut-face lure - a strong head-shaking that produces a real waggle (not bad eh ??!!), and it really seems to look the best in my eyes when you retrieve it a medium to medium/slow pace. It just looks very good to me, and I am pretty sure that this little stunner is going to be the jointed lure that ends up getting me into carrying a jointed lure in my lure box. With some lures I guess you just get a good gut feeling, and this Artoron is one of those. I fish with a few guys who do have a much longer bass fishing history than me, and they have always loved jointed lures. They need to see this one.
• If you read this blog from time to time, you will be aware that I am a huge fan of bass lures that either naturally swim or can be made to swim very shallow, for I am convinced that the intense silhouette near to the surface is what does it for a bass when the fish views the lure from below (lures like the killer IMA Komomo SF-125, Tackle House Feed Shallow etc.). OK, so I tend to fish a lot of shallow water and I guess this steers me towards certain kinds of lures a lot of the time, but if there is one thing that is utterly vital to fishing, it's an open mind. This Jackson Artoron seems to me to give the action benefits of a true jointed lure, together with many of the casting attributes that a one-piece lures gives us. Into the (growing) box it goes......
• It's really interesting to read all the comments on the metal vibration lures - thanks to you guys for putting so much good info up on this blog via the comments section. I suppose the photos of the vibration lure I put up are what might be termed a "standard" one, but go looking around and you will see that there are so many different kinds out there. I have a couple of far more "minnow-looking" vibration lures here that I need to play around with some more. I have really taken on board what's been said about them.
• Check out Danny Parkins' new lure fishing blog right here - the guy is a hugely talented lure angler who has a passion for freshwater lure fishing, but he also gets out on the coast as much as possible. We have fished together a few times, but one thing I so want to do is to spend some more time chucking lures in freshwater for species like pike, perch and chub. Time is a constant problem for all of us though, even if this does sound daft coming from somebody who works in fishing full time. Still day-dreaming of dropping out completely, moving over to Ireland, keeping my wife at work while I just go fishing (!!!!!!!), growing my hair again and just letting it be. Now that would be very cool.........

• I have been looking around at some of these (lipless metal) vibration lures, where you attach your mainline to the top of the lure, and I was wondering if any of you have been using them for bass fishing ? Strikes me that there might well be a bit of mileage in using them.......
• The vibration lure above is a Zip Baits VIB 80 20g, and the more I think about the potential applications for these kinds of lures, the more I think they should work in certain situations. Obviously a metal lure is going to sink like a stone, and from what I can see after a bit pf playing around is that they literally vibrate like mad when you retrieve it (hence the name !!), but then some of the more specialist ones will do something enticing when you pause and let the lure drop down. Deeper water is the obvious place to go using them, where you should be able to play around with retrieving and also jigging it. Do a bit of digging around and there seem to be a whole bunch of these vibration lures out there, at all kinds of prices.
• I also really like the idea of "bouncing" it in the tidal flow of say an estuary, where you could bounce it off the bottom and really draw/lift it up hard  to get that vibration, with a sink and draw method similar to using a fluttering lure. But the vibration lure works on the draw/lift, whereas the flutterer works on the sink. The intense vibration on some of these lures reminds me a bit of a soft plastic shad on steroids if that makes sense. I would hazard a logical guess that pollack go mad for these metal vibration lures.......

• The fact that you attach your line to the top of the lure I reckon will aid in more precise depth control when you are fishing off rock edges into deeper water and really using the lure to help search out specific areas. I might well be barking up the wrong tree here, I accept that, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I am not about to start carrying fifty million lures when I go fishing, but what I am working towards is a very specific collection of lures that I can turn to for various situations. But one really important thing is to remember to throw the rule book out of the window as often as possible and use various lures in situations where perhaps the literature or available information says not to bother. Gather all the info you can, but make sure to keep that brain ticking over to other possibilities. That's what's got me thinking about these vibration lures.........

• I have recently come across what I believe is going to be a seriously killer bass lure - the O.S.P. Rudra-SP is one of the most incredibly "stable" jerkbaits I have seen so far, and that stability is a huge part of the appeal to me. The fact that this stunning looking minnow/jerkbait does what it does without getting knocked off course is really important, and I fancy this thing to do the business in some fairly rough conditions as well.
• A couple of guys I know whose opinions on lures I trust implicitly took a number of bass on the Rudra at the back end of last year, and they are as excited about it as I am. You have to bear in mind here that I have only been out to "play" with this lure and I have yet to fish with it properly, but I hugely like what I am seeing so far. There is a bunch of info on this OSP Rudra right here if that helps.

• The OSP Rudra-SP (suspending) is 130mm long and weighs 20g - fairly substantial, and it casts really well. Do a straight retrieve and it dives to around 4-5' I reckon, but you can get it up a little shallower by varying the angle of your rod tip. On a straight retrieve the lure has an incredibly intense wobbling/rolling action that we all know the bass love. If you are going to crank this thing, I reckon a medium kind of pace is the optimum speed, and I can think of all manner of places where it will work well. But it's when you jerk and twitch this Rudra that it really comes to life...........it's a true jerkbait in my mind.
• Wind down hard after the cast to get the lure to depth, and then really start jerking and twitching it, with plenty of pauses - it's here that the huge amount of stability gets to me, for you just seem to be able to work this lure as hard as you want and it just looks better and better. Getting this lure to work via your rod action results in the most jaw-dropping darts from angle to angle, across to across if that makes sense, and the sides of the lure really flash very intensely when they catch the light. Pause and the lure will just about hold in place - it's a suspending jerkbait after all, and I reckon it does a hell of a job at staying in position when you pause. And in theory, this is when a bass comes out and nails it. I have a lot to learn about varying my retrieves, but what I do know is that the longer you can make yourself pause a lure like this and let it sit there after darting from side to side, so much the better in many situations. Think about a bass holding back because it does not want to expend too much energy chasing a fast moving lure. Now give this fish some proper time to weigh it up and decide that the "little fish" is having a rest, so this is the time to attack. Makes me very excited just thinking about it !!
• If you are looking more and more into all manner of minnows and jerkbaits like I am (not that I have a problem or anything, had to get that in there !!), I believe that some of these OSP lures will be available here in due course. It looks as if there is a good range of colours, and I reckon the colour I have as you can see in these photos here will work especially well when there is a healthy population of pollack around for the bass to kill. Bring it on as they say.
• I have created a new category over on the Links section of the website, called "Fishing Tackle - bass fishing lures" - I thought it was about time to start pulling various links together that are all about bass fishing gear. If you know of any that you think should be there, please let me know. I will do what I can to keep this updated with stuff that I find out about and think might be of interest to people.
• Can we start to hope once more ? Was England's victory over Wales in the Six Nations a one off, or is it the start of the team gaining momentum and confidence and actually starting play some rugby again ? November 2003 was a long time ago now, and whilst I have THE FINAL and THAT WORLD CUP CAMPAIGN saved on my Sky+ hard drive and watch them whenever I need some former glories to make me feel better about English rugby (a lot over the last few years), like any supporter I am hoping that greater times lie ahead. There was lots of poor stuff in the game on Saturday, but there were also some healthy flashes of a team that is finding its feet once again. Is this the new start ?

• There is a worrying proposal being put forward by the Federation of Irish Fisherman (FIF) to go and allow commercial fishing vessels to land bass that are caught in offshore fisheries, and they claim that the 2007 CEFAS report states that this offshore fishery is in a healthy state. But the report does not say this.
• And I quote from IrishBass.org : "In addition the FIF propose that they alone engage with the Marine Institute under the Industry/Science partnership in an assessment of the Irish inshore bass stock with regard to future exploitation. IrishBass.org believes the FIF proposal poses very significant risks to inshore Irish bass stocks."
• The thought of such an inshore bass fishery as they have over in Ireland being opened up to full-scale commercial exploitation just does not bear contemplation. If you go fishing in Ireland, you will know what I mean about their stunning coastline offering some of the best bass fishing there is - and if you don't go there for the fishing, then you should think about going. But whatever your status on fishing in Ireland, please do what you can here to help prevent these fisheries from being trashed. Sport fishing is vital to a country like Ireland - think about what you spend on a trip over there, and then think about the numbers of anglers who head over there every year. Without a doubt there are more people heading over there for the bass fishing alone. Less fish means less anglers, and less anglers means less tourism money going into their economy. Less fish has effects way beyond the more obvious repercussions......
• IrishBass.org has laid out a load more details and concerns right here.
• Here's what to do for starters - click on this link here, it's an online petition, and just fill out the boxes on the screen. I am not sure how useful these things are, but it can't hurt. Then do all you can to raise awareness on any fishing forums you might belong to.
• The most important thing is to write a letter that states your concerns about any threat to Irish bass stocks - send it to this address : Mr. C. Lenihan, Minister for State. Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, 29-31 Adelaide Road, Dublin 2, Ireland. (check here for further details). Please, please take the time to do this. Anglers need to stand up and do all they can to take some kind of responsibility for what is going on, and at the very least it's vital that the bass stocks in Irish waters are afforded the highest degree of protection possible. If a country is helped along the way to recognising that recreational angling really does have intrinsic value to the economy as a whole, who knows where ideas like this might lead....................

• Take a situation like you see above - a somewhat lively sea state, rocks everywhere, and a very serious need to keep one eye on the waves at all times. You want to fish it, indeed your right arm is getting all twitchy because you feel so sure there has to be a decent bass or pollack somewhere around. But it's not at all easy to effectively go about lure fishing a situation like this. A problem has arisen, in that you need to work out how to fish it  effectively  to be in with a shout. The solving of this kind of problem or situation is a huge part of going fishing is it not ?
• I've fished and photographed with all kinds of people over many years now, and the fishermen I most admire are those who look at the situation, weigh it all up, and then work on solving "the problem". All manner of different aspects come into confronting a problem and getting through it so that you are in with the best chance at some fish - anything from watercraft through to lure or bait selection to different states of the tide etc.
• There's no getting away from my lure problem, so I won't try, but a lot of this research I do for my work revolves around my fascination with always believing that there might well be a better solution to the problem or situation. On the flip side I might well already have the perfect solution sitting in my lure box, but my head is a busy thing that churns round and round all the time, thinking and looking for another potential solution. As I said the other day, it's all about learning all the time, and the successful anglers I know and work with are guys who are learning constantly. Standing still is never going to get us anywhere in life or fishing.

• The essential question - which lure should I use for this given situation ? I am really working hard to better understand when to use what and why, both for my own interest, my own fishing, and also so that I can keep on developing my writing about all kinds of fishing. All I can do is work my socks off and hope that I am always improving what I do.
• I think it is absolutely fantastic that somebody takes the time and makes the effort to publish such a detailed bass fishing resource as this e-book you can find here. Jim Hendrick is a full time professional bass guide who lives and works along the Wexford coastline over in south east Ireland (see his blog here). Anybody who has been in the business as long as Jim knows their stuff in a serious way, and he's gone and put together an online book that contains a wealth of information that anybody with any interest in bass fishing would do well to absorb. The fact that Jim has done this is a huge credit to the guy and I take my hat off to the man for putting this kind of thing out in the public domain.

• Fishing to me is just so much about learning all the time, indeed just as I think at times that I am coming to some kind of “comfortable plateau” where I can rest up a while and feel secure in how much I already know, then something comes along to show me just how much more I need to learn. Kind of like life if you ask me. We get to 18 and we are convinced we know it all. Hell, we do know it all. The arrogance of youth. Then we get to 21 and realise just how little we actually knew at 18. And on it goes…………much like fishing is it not ? I love it.
• I’ll tell you how much I love this learning curve in fishing – the actual act of catching fish means a lot to me, but if my fishing was only about actually catching fish then I think my interest would have waned years ago. The fact that fishing offers so much more than just the actual act of catching fish is part of the reason I am sure why so many anglers out there have this lifelong addiction to this wonderful sport. Think about all that we learn. Think about how this growing knowledge allows us to grow as people, and how it helps us to appreciate the simpler, less complicated things in life. Fishing connects us with the outdoor world.
• But, as in our everyday lives, there is always a percentage of people who will never strive to learn any more than they already know (or sadly don’t know) and who will never be able to open themselves up to new experiences. Being closed off must be so boring. Doing the same things all the time would drive me completely mad. Change is good. An open mind is vital. Fishing mirrors life does it not ? I think I need a bit more sleep !!

• Lure category - jerkbait, minnow or minnow-type lure - in my mind these are the huge family of minnow or sandeel shaped diving lures that so many of use so much of the time. If it dives under the water, needs to be retrieved, and looks remotely like this sort of lure above, the Duo Tide Minnow 120 Surf (thin to thinnish and long, like a sandeel or minnow), then in my book it's a jerkbait, minnow, or minnow-type lure. Nice and easy.
• Lure action - rolling, rocking or wiggle - really hard this one, but most of these minnows tend to have some kind of rocking, rolling or wiggle from side to side action. I accept that this is a huge generalisation, and some minnows have far more pronounced actions than others, but in general the shape of the lure's face promotes this kind of rolling, rocking or wiggle. Hold your hand up sideways and roll or wiggle it from side to side - this is what I am trying to describe.

• The name for that jutting out bit at the bottom of the face of the lure above - has to be a "bib" in my mind. Nice and simple. The fact that there are so many different shapes and angles of bib is a whole other matter, but the actual bit (whatever it looks like) is a "bib" to me.

• Still a minnow or a jerkbait, but you will notice that there is no "bib" jutting out - this specialist ultra-shallow diving minnow in my mind has a "cut face" instead of a bib (the IMA Komomo SF-125). Again, nice and easy. From now on, any lure I see that has sections cut out from the face rather than a bit added (the bib) has a "cut face" to me. And note that I am calling the front of any lure the "face" or "head".

• The Tackle House Feed Shallow is a jerkbait or minnow, and like the Komomo, it has a cut-face and not a bib - but this cut-face creates a different kind of action when you retrieve them through the water. Can you see how easy it is to end up completely confused and going round in circles ? A cut-face promotes a far more head shaking kind of action that creates a kind of optical illusion that looks a bit like a fast moving snake when you watch the lure swim in the water. - it is not a wiggle and it is not a rolling action though, not to me anyway. I have made up my mind to call the action on these cut-face lures a "head shake" or a "waggle" - not a wiggle though. Hold the middle of a pen between thumb and forefinger, waggle it from side to side, and this is the kind of action I am trying to describe. 
• There is masses more to it (various surface lures, flutterers, tremblers, plastics, jigs, the list goes on), but I reckon that will do for the moment. Please do comment here if you strongly disagree with any of these terms that I am trying to standardise on, or especially if you have any more logical suggestions that we should be looking at. I passionately believe in making fishing come across as simple and as logical as possible, and one thing I do not want to do with all this explosion in lure fishing interest is to assist in confusing people. Ain't my style at all. Life's complicated enough already......

• I know what goes into producing books, so I take my hat off to the guys at the Bass Anglers' Sportfishing Society (B.A.S.S.) for bringing this outstanding publication out. If you have any kind of interest in bass fishing then I implore you to click here and order this book right now - and then settle down and lose yourself in the world of fishing while all that cold weather swirls around outside. BASS and B.A.S.S. is something that all bass fishermen should take a look at.
• What I admire most about this book is that they have not gone down the obvious route and simply produced a book full of bass fishing stories and anecdotes and nothing else - sure, there are plenty of "articles" by many of the classic names in bass fishing, full of passion and dreams, and there are also a number of articles by BASS members who successfully convey their love for chasing bass. But the clever thing about this book is that they guys have successfully woven in a huge amount of information about the kinds of things we need to know more about - bass habits and behaviour, what the society gets up to within sportfishing and conservation, all kinds of tips and techniques for all kinds of bass fishing, plus research and views on sustainability. This is all done in a way that feels very natural to me, in that I found myself wanting to read as much about actually catching bass as I did about say research and bass characteristics. Learning as much as possible is my goal in all this, and this book is a mine of information and enjoyment.
• One of the sections I enjoyed the most was reading about various BASS members' striped bass fishing exploits over in the US - that is some very serious fishing when it fires, and it's great to hear about UK bass fanatics taking their skills and knowledge over the pond and scoring on the stripers. Something I simply must do in due course. There are also some great articles on some of the members' many trips over to Ireland - seems like anybody with bass on the brain is going to end up fishing those hallowed waters at some time or another.
• It is impossible to come away from reading this book and not feel inspired, and I can't personally think of a bigger complement to give it. I am proud to be a member of BASS and I would hope that more bass fishermen out there will think hard about joining up and giving these people as much chance as possible to actually make a real difference. There are some good people out there doing a huge amount of (unpaid) work on our behalf, and whilst they mostly go unheralded, the least we can do is to join a society like BASS and help out a little bit. They have kindly asked me to give a talk at their AGM on Sunday 21st March and I am looking forward to meeting a bunch of the members then. Hopefully not too many people will fall asleep during my talk !!

• While I fully accept that my photo on the front cover of the current issue of Trout Fisherman magazine is not about to win a load of awards for photography excellence, it's always a buzz to get a cover - but the fact that it's a shot from a point on that particular day when we had lost any decent light and I was forced to really look around for impact shots is what pleases me the most. I love big blue sky photos as much as the next bloke, but I do get a bit of a kick out of making rubbish light look kind of ok. When you are out on a job like this one, you can't sit around moaning about stuff that is not quite perfect - you need to get in there and make it look as good as you can.
• A couple of hours before and the light was going off big time, but not the fish. Typical, but that's part of the job. Russ nails this fish right at the death, but the last thing I want to do is to frame him up all wide and bring in loads of scudding, grey sky. Bake Lakes in Cornwall is a great place, but there is hardly any backdrop to put guys against when the light goes down the pan. Solution ? Shoot from very slightly above Russ from a spit of land in front of him, framing him nice and tight to take as much of the slightly dire sky out (note the bent fly rod does not extend about the trees below, this is very deliberate), but just wide enough to get a proper kind of "trout being netted" photo. Underexpose slightly to hold as much of the contrast in the sky as possible. Below is my original shot, so you can see how Trout Fisherman has cropped it slightly and made it work with all the necessary cover stuff around it. I like what they have done.

• What a stunning weekend down here - had all kinds of plans to head out bass fishing on Sunday, but the water where I wanted to go was still full of weed and very coloured from the blow up we had last week. Some places just take a bit of time to clear up, but I did head down to the Tamar for a couple of hours to "play" with a few lures I have been photographing here. Some very cool stuff indeed. On Saturday I went to the beach for a picnic with my eldest daughter, and it was just magical to sit behind a rock, get out of the wind, and sit there with the sun on our faces while we had our sarnies and a flask of hot chocolate in that awesome new Thermos I was on about the other day. Pure heaven. We saw not one other person down on the beach. The simplest things in life are always the best. I simply can not imagine living away from the sea.

• I feel like a bit of a fool for not having stumbled upon the new Thermos Ultimate Flask when they came out, but thanks to Steve I have now got the little 0.5 litre one. Honestly, I can not tell you how good these things are, indeed if we were to get into flask technology (but let's not because I know nothing about it) then I am guessing that these are the next generation. Excuse the garbage photo, but I took a screen grab off the internet. You can also get a larger 0.8 litre version, and while I will end up getting one of them as well, the little 0.5 litre one fits perfectly in my camera rucksack for my bass fishing trips. How can this new flask be so much better ? Beats me, but you seriously have to give this one a go if you are like so many anglers and struggle to spend too much time away from tea or coffee. A flask is the kind of thing we overlook and just accept as working as best it can, so I can't thank Steve enough for putting me on to these little beauties. All I have to do now is turn my back when I am out fishing so I can keep all the hot coffee to myself !!
• For the moment I am not aware of any fishing tackle outlets selling these new Thermos Ultimate Flasks - you can get them from Amazon here if that helps. Sure, they cost more than a regular stainless steel flask, but they just plain work, and that's enough for me. Make sure to preheat them with boiling water for a while before you put your tea or coffee in them. I love it when such simple items like a flask can be made just so much better.

• What's the thing you notice most about these two anglers in the photos ? OK, they're both wearing red tops, but that aside, do you see anything else ? Neither of them are wearing "regular" fishing clothing. Nothing revolutionary to those of you who already have one foot in the technical outdoor clothing market via activities like skiing, trekking, climbing etc., I accept that, but the whole idea of looking for clothing outside of the more traditional fishing market is really beginning to appeal to me more and more.The old brain is whirring away........
• The easy thing for a keen bass angler to do is to simply go and poach clothing from the fly fishing market, as indeed lots of us have been doing for ages now, but the more I look into it and the more I think about it, why should those of us who love our mobile bass fishing be only looking at fly gear ? Breathable waders and wading boots aside, who says that fly gear is the best stuff we can get our hands on for our fishing ? A few friends of mine are really into the whole "technical clothing" thing, and it is really starting to set light bulbs off in my head - just because we go fishing does not have to mean we have to wear fishing clothing does it ? There is some great value for money waterproof clothing in the sea and fly fishing market places, but how well suited is it to potentially walking miles and miles over all kinds of ground, or for packing away in a small rucksack to use when required ? Part of the joy of going lure fishing for bass is being able to cut the gear right back, and it makes sense that one's clothing fits the same bill. Strikes me that there is a lot of this "technical clothing" out there that we might start looking at in whole different light for fishing - check out my mate Andy's blog post here for some fantastic reviews and thoughts on a few technical outer shells (waterproof tops to you and me). This is the kind of stuff I am on about for starters.

• I have recently got to thinking a lot about the different layers and clothing systems that we could be wearing for something like bass fishing. Whether it be proper technical base layers to wear under your waders or a variety of layers to put on top - anything I can do to cut down on the amount of clothing I need to wear and the stuff that I need to carry to go fishing is going to get my attention in the near future. Anything that makes it easier and more efficient for me to move around and enjoy my fishing even more deserves my attention. Of course there is some great fishing clothing about that does really well for all kinds of anglers, but there is no getting away from the fact that a lot of it is somewhat behind the times if that makes sense. Sure, a lot of this modern "technical clothing" is hardly that cheap, but some of this stuff is just so advanced it staggers me. How well will some of it translate over to fishing ? Only time will tell.......
• I might be talking mainly about clothing to look at wearing for bass fishing (mainly because I have got it so bad it's untrue), but whatever you do, thinking out of the box is vital. I am guilty of asking far too many questions, but that is because I am genuinely interested in learning all the time and increasing my knowledge base. Some people might be happy to sit there and accept that everything in life is as it should be. But not me. Rightly or wrongly, I am always thinking about stuff that could be done better, but am I close to getting it all right ? Not a chance. But I will keep on trying because it's who I am.

• The first great metal album of the year - sometimes you stumble on a CD that just completely blows you away from the first listen, and while it was very obvious how good "Kold" was from the off, it's only after repeated spins that I am really starting to appreciate what the Icelandic band Solstafir have produced. I can't really describe what sort of metal genre it sits in, but parts of it sound like a metal version of The Cure if that makes any sense at all. It's chock full of different moods, speeds and emotions. Sit back and let this one wash over you and I guarantee that you will never think of Iceland in the same light again - good though it is for fishing. Solstafir are utterly immense - listen to a few tracks here, and there is a good review of the album here.

• Check on the MegaBass website and you will find news of a simply incredible looking new lure that is set to come out sometime this year - and it's given me a serious case of lure lust. Have a look at the screen grab above, or check here. I am heavily into the idea of slightly heavier casting minnows that will flutter very enticingly down through the depths if you stop winding and let it go, and it looks to me as if this new MegaBass Flutt'A Bait could be something seriously special indeed. Yes, I know I have a growing problem with lure love, but from a serious fish catching point of view, I really can't wait to fish with this one. Just look at it. One word - killer. I can think of numerous locations I fish where a lure like this will do serious harm........

• MegaBass always do awesome colours, and it seems to be no different here - hints of silver, black and pink do it for me in a big way when it comes to bass lures, and while I know that lure colours are a very personal thing, it looks like a strong range to me. Just so you know - I don't do anything for or with MegaBass, but I believe in being honest and saying it how I see it. I just like a lot of their gear, indeed I think they do some of the best bass lures out there. The Zonk Gataride 120 anybody ? I wish I could understand Japanese though, because their website looks to be so full of useful and helpful information, but hardly anything on there makes any sense to me at all !!

• I don't know if you can read all the screen grab above, and it seems to be a bit of a dodgy Japanese to English translation anyway, but there seem to be three main ways in which this new MegaBass Flutt'A Bait can be worked. Like any angler who wants to catch more and better fish, I always keep my eye open for stuff that I believe might give me a bit of an edge. Plus I need to try and keep abreast of what is going on for my work. How many times do you fish somewhere and wish you had a lure or some piece of tackle that would let you do something a bit different ? Problem solving is a big part of fishing.
• It seems that a slow retrieve causes the Flutt'A Bait to twitch and jerk like a dying bait fish. Perfect. Cast it out and leave it to sink and apparently it will flutter down with a stunning action. Perfect again. MegaBass seems to imply that this "leave it alone to flutter down" is the lure's strongest ability. And then retrieve it fast and it will vibrate and "panic". I really like the fact that it is obviously quite heavy for its size (100.5mm 27g) and therefore should cast a long, long way and enable us to cover a lot of ground with it. Will this new Flutt'A Bait be anything really special or different to stuff that is already out there ? Who knows, but it sure gets me going in a big way. I am as weak as the next angler when it comes to good looking gear, but the new MegaBass Flutt'A Bait looks really special to me.................
• Please make sure to check out a truly fantastic and informative comment left on this post here by Pedro from Portugal - they have got some very good bass fishing down there and he has kindly left a long, fascinating comment that talks about some of the ways that they like to retrieve their bass lures. I can not thank Pedro enough for taking the time to comment like this, it means a huge amount that this blog is being read all over the place and also that people are prepared to take time to leave comments. For all the arguments that the internet is a "faceless" world buried in cyber-space, I personally love the fact that it works so well in bringing all kinds of anglers together from all over the place. Thanks Pedro, outstanding stuff. I so need to get myself down to Spain and Portugal for some bass fishing..........

• I was writing a feature for Sea Angler magazine yesterday, principally about the simple art of cranking bass lures across shallow ground - just about the easiest and arguably most effective way to go lure fishing for bass. But then I got thinking about all these different kinds of retrieves and "twitchy" ways you can fish various hard and soft lures. I feel that a whole new world is opening up to so many of us, and the more I learn, the more I am realising just how little I actually know. It gives me a huge buzz. Nothing to do with size or numbers of fish, more the fact that bass fishing is such an involving way of life and fishing that keeps my brain so occupied.
• In the photo above, my mate Andy is casting and retrieving a shallow-diving minnow (jerkbait) type bass lure - we were out last weekend for a few hours, and beautiful though it was, conditions were a bit bright for my liking. Going to keep at it though, and Nathan lost a nice fish at his feet (have to mention Ben's mighty mullet that was around the size of his lure). For all I hear and talk about different ways to retrieve lures, there is nothing wrong with simply cranking various lures back in. The key though is to be able to vary things to find the feeding fish.

• Take the lure that I said the other day was my best bass lure of 2009 - the MegaBass Zonk Gataride 120. This thing can kill by doing no more than casting it out and winding it back at a medium to fast kind of pace, indeed the lure loves being worked like this. But there is just so much more that can be done with a jerkbait/minnow type lure (note the name "jerkbait"), and while a lot of it comes down to skill on the angler's part, more than we give it credit for is down to confidence. Having the confidence to do something different when you know that simply winding your lure straight in has caught for you before. Change can be a good thing.
• The eternal question - might a different way work better today ? How about winding the Gataride back in really slowly so it rolls very gently from side to side ? How about a mix of straight wind with the odd twitch ? How about twitch, twitch (jerkbait) all the way in ? Or what about jerking it hard and then letting it do nothing more than slowly float back to the surface ? Leave it for a few seconds, and then do the same thing. Jerk it, let it float back up. How about holding the rod tip up, winding real slow, and making the lure roll from side to side just below the top ? I am not even scratching the surface here.........
• Bear with me on this one, for I am sure many of you out there are applying a whole lot more skill to your lure fishing than I am. But one of the wonderful things about this form of fishing is the way in which anglers are so keen and willing to share information that furthers the sport. Look at all the different bass anglers I fish and photograph with - French, Cornish, English, Welsh, Irish, Channel Islanders, etc. An awesome bunch of people who are really on the ball and moving this fishing forward in leaps and bounds. A part of me wishes I could jump forward to this time next year to find out how much more I have learnt.............

• It's expensive, but I still can't find a better braid mainline to use for my bass fishing than the eight strand Varivas Avani Sea Bass Max Power PE in 15lb and 20lb breaking strain - see here. But if you avoid wind knots (underfill your spool as in the photo above) and look after this stuff, it should last you for ages. Eight strand braid is just incredible stuff to use, but it does cost.......
• Varivas also do a more "regular" four strand braid that is also insanely good and it's also somewhat cheaper - check out the 16lb and 23lb Varivas Avani Sea Bass Braid right here. There is plenty of good braid out there, but part of the reason why I have not exactly been looking around too hard for other kinds to use is that I just can't find fault with the current Varivas stuff that I have been using for so long now. When something notably better comes along, I will give it a try, but the Varivas braids have never come close to letting me down. As with all things in life, the best stuff always costs a bit, and all I can do is be completely honest with you. PowerPro is one of the really good, consistent alternatives out there and you will never go wrong using it. I am seeing a bit more high-end 8-strand braid coming onto the UK market place, and over time I will try some other ones out and report back.

• As with decent braid, the best sunglasses cost proper money - but when you see the world through the awesome Costa del Mar polarised sunglasses, there is no going back. Their scary-good 580 polarised lenses are without doubt the best I have ever, ever come across. Sure, tell me all you like that you will never spend that sort of dosh on a pair of sunglasses, but it's amazing how many more anglers I am seeing out there who have done exactly that. The best is always going to cost. Decent polarised sunglasses are essential in fishing. I especially like the Copper, Silver and Green 580 Costa del Mar lenses for my fishing - the Silver and Copper for all kinds of conditions, and the Green for those really bright days.

• I did what I should have done ages ago last year, and that was to buy a proper BogaGrip, the 15lb model - I picked mine up from BassPro when I was last passing through Miami on the way back from Bolivia. There are plenty of fish grips out there that do a good job, but the Boga just keeps on going for so many fishermen I know all over the world. Buy wise. Buy the best once. The only place I am aware of that does these fish grips in the UK is here. The Boga is without doubt one of my best buys from 2009.
• I don't use a headlamp that much these days, but the other day I went wading with an old one of mine and trashed it good and proper. Cue a new headlamp just before I went over to Ireland at the beginning of December - I went and got the very lightweight but powerful Princeton Tec Apex 3 watt LED headlamp here, and it seems a stunning bit of kit to me. The fact that I can run it on (cheap) AA batteries means that I won't be killing a rechargeable battery by not using it for long periods. And to think of the days when we used to wander up and down cliffs in the middle of the night with great big mining-type headlamps and huge great batteries strapped to our waists. This little Princeton Tec one is an outstanding bit of kit.

• Bearing in mind that I do some work for Hardy & Greys Ltd., it's hardly surprising that I end up wearing their waders and wading boots most of the time. But that aside, they do some outstanding wading gear that continues to serve me really well for my bass fishing and also for my fishing photography in a lot of different places. And if it's any help, I still firmly believe that the "budget" Greys G-Series breathable waders are the best value for money ones out there. You simply will not go wrong using a pair of these things - see my thoughts from last year right here. To people who don't wear breathable waders for their fishing, then I can understand you are wondering why on earth so much fuss can be made about waders. But for those of us who virtually live in ours, they are just completely vital.
• But my best waders of 2009 go to the Greys Platinum breathable waders - I have used these products over and over again throughout 2009 and they are doing really well. I have fallen a few times on sharp rocks and put various holes in them, but it's nothing that a bit of decent wader repair stuff doesn't sort out (see here, outstanding value). They fit really well and they are good for walking long distances in all kinds of temperatures, but one thing I don't understand is why they have put somewhat pointless gravel guards that don't work very well at the bottom of what are actually fairly expensive waders. The gravel guards on the Hardy EWS2 breathable waders are really good and do a fantastic job, so why not put those on the Greys Platinum ones ? I can accept the gravel guards on the far cheaper G-Series waders being of little use, but not on a far more expensive pair.
• You also can't go far wrong using the rubber studded soled Greys Platinum wading boots for all kinds of surfaces, indeed you would not believe the grip these things give you on wet rocks for starters. I am seeing more and more anglers wearing these wading boots, but make sure to hose them down after fishing. Very good value for money, especially if you look around for a good deal. Lots of big fly fishing retailers offer really good deals on waders and wading boots - always worth checking out the adverts in a magazine like Trout Fisherman as well.

• A decent pair of breathable chest waders do tend to be better cut than the cheaper ones, but whichever way you look at it, buying these kinds of fly fishing waders to use for sea fishing means that you are using a product intended for freshwater in saltwater. This is no great problem, but at the very least you should look to hose them down after a day out (saltwater) fishing. It makes sense to look after items like these. Not the most exciting of products, but utterly necessary for mobile bass fishing in the UK and Ireland - unless you fancy wet wading in cold water or sweating horribly in a pair of neoprene chesties.

• The news that one of Norway's mightiest black metal bands was getting back together and recording a new album to follow their outstanding "Sons of Northern Darkness" was one of the best bits of news in 2009. I would have been completely gutted if their new CD had not been at least close to my top album of last year, and all along I was hoping that it would fly in via my letterbox and just blow me out of the water with the sheer might of it. Immortal's "come back" album of last year is without any doubt my favourite release of 2009 - "All Shall Fall" is just pure and utter class from the first riff to the last second. Insanely catchy yet wonderfully brutal black metal done in the way that only Immortal can do, with a massive production that likes roaring out my speakers and shaking our floorboards. Honestly, you don't even need to be into black metal to have this album freak the living hell out of you. It's that good. Perhaps not quite topping "Sons of Northern Darkness" from one of my top ten metal albums of all time, but very, very close. Don't believe me ? Check out a few tracks right here. Just immense. Immortal are at the peak of their game. Metal all the way.

IMA Nabarone 150F

• My top lure company of 2009 is IMA lures - I first really got wind of these lures out at the Nantes bass show in February of 2009 when I first saw their stunning looking IMAGene 130, but for all the looking around and "research" that I did after that, it was not until the summer that I actually got hold of my first two IMA lures, the Komomo SF-125 and the Sasuke 140. Whether you like it or not, a big part of fishing gear is how you react to it visually, and these IMA lures just looked the part straight off. I got a couple and went straight down to the fishing demo platform at the Game Fair and started playing around with them. i just knew they would kill.......

IMA Sasuke 140

IMA Komomo SF-125

• I am completely in love with ultra-shallow diving IMA Komomo SF-125 for those really snaggy, shallow marks where you need something to swim really close to the surface. You can hold the rod tip up and get this one to carry out its very seductive snake-like wobbling action literally just beneath the surface, and it works great in deeper water where I imagine the silhouette is very pronounced indeed.
• And my gut feeling is that the brand new IMA Komomo II is going to do serious harm on the bass during 2010 - see here for a few of my thoughts on this stunning looking shallow diver.You can also experiment with making it wake right across the surface.

IMA Komomo II

• I could go on and on about these IMA lures, but I just reckon the company does a number of hard lures that are proving to be very good bass catching machines. I also put MegaBass and Duo lures right up there at the top of my favourites pile. You can check out a number of low-res videos of various IMA lures and how they work by clicking on the different models right here. And it's these guys here who are bringing these lures into the UK.

IMA/Duo Nabarone 125F

• I have a good feeling that the IMA/Duo collaboration that is the Nabarone 125F (floating) will also do some proper damage on the bass for me this year - it's a typically modern looking Japanese minnow-type hard lure that casts like a bullet and has a truly mesmerising action when you crank it or twitch it. I am going to try and get hold of the sinking version of this lure as well and give it a proper go. I would guess that the minnow-type lures are still the most popular ones in the UK and Ireland for bass fishing and there are any number of really good models out there. The various Duo Tide Minnows have already and quite rightly achieved an almost legendary status. Coming up with minnows to compete against them is a seriously tall order, but I do really like the look of so many of the IMA lures and I am also getting more and more reports of very good results when using them. All I have to do now is control my lure-gathering urges.......

IMA Popkey

IMA Skimmer (see here)

IMA Honey Trap 95S (sinking) - looks really interesting

IMA Calm (sinking) - bring it on......

Atlantic surf bass fishing - Tony Jones

• I wanted to say thanks and well done to all of you who submitted your best photos to me - it is always very cool to see bass fishing done in a variety of different ways, and there were a few stand out images that really "jumped" at me. I did not realise how hard it would be to have to pick a winner, but I did, and I chose Tony's photo for various reasons.......
• Bass fishing is all about excitement to me, and that is the first thought that came to mind when Tony's entry came in via email - there are any number of ways to photograph bass fishing, of course there are, but when a photo makes me want to almost leap into the picture and get in amongst the action myself, then I know it is doing its job. And that is to inspire. There were a few photos that came in and made me think long and hard them as potential winners, but I guess Tony's photo has just grabbed the kind of moment we all like to be in. Crashing water, good conditions, pumping heart, big blue sky and a possible soaking down the front of the wading jacket. Excitement, excitement, that is what it is all about to me.
• That is the first competition I have ever run on this blog, and in due course I will look to running another one. The response was fantastic, in fact I was really surprised at how many entries came in. I guess that most people out there carry some kind of camera with them when they go out fishing, so keep on snapping away. It does not take a mass of heavy camera gear like the stuff I carry to take decent photos that get people going. I need to say a big thanks to Veals Mail Order for being so incredibly kind when I rang up and asked if they might sponsor this competition - thanks guys.
• I guess that Nathan's 9lb Cornish bass that I photographed earlier this week really struck a big chord with you guys - as indeed it did for me. A fantastic response via the comments, thanks for this, I love reading them and I always try to respond if I can. A fish like that at this time of year really seems to have fired a lot of people up, and what I hope is that perhaps a few of you will head out yourselves and see what happens. I will be - lots !!
• Now I am not one for any kind of this modern health and safety garbage that the authorities keep throwing at us, indeed if we took proper notice of all the warnings that keep coming our way then I reckon we would never do anything at all. We would merely sit there slowly turning into lethargic vegetables in our centrally heated homes. But I took my sheepdog Jess for a walk at 6.30 this morning and I simply can't remember such lethal conditions underfoot - big time ice, and that's in and around Plymouth. I dread to think what other parts of the country are like this morning, so if you are heading out and about, please take huge care and play it safe. Leave the rough and tumble for your next fishing trip.......

• Their mate Steve had already landed a 4.5 bass before we even got there, so I guess you could say that I was sitting up properly now and really paying attention. Put lots of warm clothing on and then make our way down to the water's edge - great clarity, nice bit of lift on, looks pretty good to me - even if it is early January and there is a forecast of loads of snow for southern England over the next 24 hours.

• Nathan can't have had more than ten casts with his beloved Tackle House Feed Shallow (one of the classic bass lures of recent years, see here) before he's hooked up into what looks like a proper fish that nailed him right beneath his feet. The bass goes 8lb 10oz on Nathan's scales that have been under-weighing fish by a few ounces, so I feel it's right to give the guy around 9lbs for the bass - it's what I would have guessed it at anyway. What a spectacular fish, and I just did what I could as regards photos - the rain was coming down fairly hard at that point and I had to keep water off the front of the lens. Plus Nathan wanted to get this fish back as quickly as possible (always good to see) - it swam off strong. In a perfect world you want to whack on a wide-angle lens for a fish like this, but needs must. Can't believe it really, what a result for a plugging session right in the middle of this proper winter we are getting.

• In between taking a whole load of photos in some really interesting and up and down light, I fished as much as I could, and I saw one good bass turn on my lure but not hook up - again, really close in, saw it plain as day, wish it had got nailed !! The lure ? My lure of 2009 - the MegaBass Zonk Gataride 120. Perfect depth and stablity for the conditions and location we were fishing. Nathan's dad Robert also had a bass come off, again on the Tackle House Feed Shallow.

• I have to say that I am pretty amazed by Nathan's bass - sure, this is a great time of year to head over to Ireland and chase some really big bass, but I don't tend to associate January in the UK as a time for big bass on lures. Bait fishing is a different matter, but a fish like that on an ultra-shallow diving lure when the temperature had to be struggling to get above zero ? Just plain awesome. Huge thanks to the guys for having me along. And as I am always saying, one of the best things about this sport we all love is that we are never going to come close to knowing it all - learning all the time is key to becoming a better angler, and it is something I strive for all the time. Cornish winter plugging eh ?

• Is it possible to be in love with a spinning reel ? Even if it's not possible (but I have my suspicions), is it normal to be even thinking like this ? But true love runs deep when it comes to my 2009 fishing reel of the year - the Shimano Stella 4000FD (see here for lots of info, a lot of which goes right over my head). Later on  in 2009 I finally gave into my longings and got one of these little spinning reels to mainly use with my Tenryu Super Mix 240 as a kind of "ultimate bassing" combination, and it's like they were meant to be together. Made for each other in fact. All I did was to facilitate their union and then pleasure in the use of two such incredible fishing products. But that's quite enough of that....

• I don't drive a flash car and I don't believe vinyl is better than CDs, but I can tell you that the pleasure derived from fishing with a top of the range spinning reel like the Shimano Stella 4000FD is a totally sublime experience. There are some outstanding reels out there for not very much money at all, but you pay your money and make your choice. I wanted the best and I got what I deem to be the best. Fishing is everything to me and I took the decision to acquire the smoothest, most enjoyable reel to use that I have ever come across. Everything about it just feels perfect to me.I just like using it, plain and simple. It works really for my bass fishing, whether working surface lures, cranking minnows, twitching stuff or playing with soft plastics. And that drag system is just sublime - wind it up tight, give the fish some proper grief and let the reel do its work.
• I reckon I have heard more garbage in 2009 about spinning reels than I have ever heard in my life. Sure, a very small number of reels simply don't work properly from the box (and the onus has to be on the manufacturer to front up and mend reels when this very rarely happens) but whenever I hear stories of various reels breaking down, my first thought is always angler error. Right or wrong, that is my opinion. Bass fishing is great, but the bass is hardly an outsize species that is going to put undue strain on a decent modern spinning reel. Monster tarpon over a season maybe, but not a few bass. How about excessive saltwater, sand and grit in a spinning reel  though ? A recipe for disaster unless you go the whole way and use something like a waterproof Van Staal. It's up to us the anglers to look after our gear the best we can and then accept when we have messed up and caused problems with the reel. If you want to go swimming with your reel, buy a proper waterproof one. Otherwise wash it off with a bit of freshwater, put some oil in it from time to time, and make sure to get it regularly serviced. I presume you service your car each year ? Do the same with your reels if you want them to keep on working properly for a long time. It's a special order, but ask these guys here about a Stella 4000FD if you want to give in like me and get one.

• Make sure to start the new year off with a huge slice of one of the most consistently awesome online fishing publications out there - the first issue of Catch magazine is out now, so make sure to check it out right here. Honestly, I can't work out how the guys keep on getting so much talent together within these virtual "pages", but what I do know is that Catch mag fires me up every single time I look at it. Check out how good fishing can look.
• I am going to publish the winner of the photo competition later this week, so make sure to check out who has won one of those awesome Grauvell rods that are fast making a good name for themselves. Somebody out there is going to get a very cool late Christmas present.......

• My lure of 2009 is the MegaBass Zonk Gataride 120mm (a floating, shallow-diving, minnow-type lure) - take it from me, it doesn't matter if you crank it or twitch it, this thing just slays bass. I don't fish half as much as I used to or as I would like to, but the Zonk  Gataride 120 has done well for me during 2009. So have a number of other lures as well, including the outstanding IMA Komomo SF-125 and the IMA Sasuke 140, but I am basing my conclusion on my own experiences, on the fish I have seen caught with the lure, and how much so many anglers I know are raving about the Zonk Gataride 120 as a bass catching machine. Some lures just work from the off and this one is going to go down as a classic. A few Irish friends of mine especially go all dewy-eyed when they speak about this MegaBass lure, and if they love it and smash almost unfair numbers of bass on it, then I am utterly and completely convinced as to how good it really is. It just works.

• The MegaBass Zonk Gataride 120 casts very, very well, indeed at times it astounds me how well it cuts into and across the wind. There is a very good range of colours available as well. The lure swims nice and shallow, with a strong degree of stability in rougher conditions, plus you can also hold your rod tip high and get it to swim even shallower without the lure coming up to the surface and "dying" for want of a better word. OK, so the lip on the Zonk Gataride 120 is not the strongest thing going, and if you bounce it off the rocks too many times you are going to break it, but I have not actually broken one yet. I know guys who have (and I also know these guys cast into and over anything, but then they catch a lot of fish), so it is something you need to be aware of. But virtually any bib on any hard lure is going to get damaged if you bounce it on the rocks, so I don't see it as any kind of major problem at all.

• Why do some lures just work so well ? I would really like to learn more about the design of fishing lures, for there has to be something unique about the ideas and concepts that go into lures that slay fish. How does one sit there and come up with the idea for a lure like the MegaBass Zonk Gataride 120 ? I even know a couple of guys who have been buying up serious numbers of their favourite colours because they want to stockpile them just in case we get a world shortage !! It makes me a feel a whole lot better about my own personal lure problems, I tell you. The people who I know are doing these awesome lures are here and here. Soft plastics are becoming more and more important in my bass fishing, but the hard stuff that rattles and rolls just gets me every time. I like lures. In fact I like lures a lot.........
• And in joint second place are the IMA Komomo SF-125 and the IMA Sasuke 140, a couple of lures that have proved deadly for me this year. If more of my fishing mates had been using these particular lures, who knows what would have happened, but up until very recently I have been the only one of us using IMA lures. I managed to grab a couple off the Bass Lures guys at the CLA Game Fair back in July, right before they started bringing in proper numbers of IMA lures. I knew they would kill from the off, and ever since then I have been casting them out, catching fish, and just praying I did not lose them. But it's all fine now, I have stocked up on a few more. Just in case of a world shortage......

IMA Komomo SF-125

IIMA Sasuke 140

• Anybody who has been following this blog throughout the course of the year will find it no surprise that my standout favourite rod of 2009 is the Tenryu Super Mix 240. Never in my fishing life has one single length of hi-tech carbon so changed my opinion on what constitutes a decent fishing rod, and first and foremost I have to put the "discovery" of this 8' length of magic down to Bruno Pebe of Ultimate Fishing over in France. Not only is he one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet, but Bruno is also one of the finest, most forward-thinking bass fishermen that I have ever had the fortune to come across.
• Bruno is the guy who first showed me the Super Mix 240 back at the Nantes Salon de Peche fishing show in February 2009, and after spending far too long talking back and forth about the reasons for using a rod like this for our bass fishing (give the guy his dues, he never tried to sell it to me, it was me pressing the poor bloke for information), I took the plunge, gave Mick a shout, and got one for myself (see here). And the more I fish with this outstanding bass rod, the more I keep on wondering how on earth Ultimate Fishing could go about improving a rod like this.........how many rods can you say that about ?

• Debate all you like on the pros and cons of an 8' rod versus say 9' or 10' for bass plugging, but as yet I have not come across one single convincing argument as to why an 8' rod can't do all (and in fact plenty more) that a more "traditional" longer rod that we are all so used to using can do. I fully admit that this Tenryu Super Mix 240 has completely changed my views on what makes for a good bass plugging rod, and while my near 10' Tenryu Red Dragon Express is a perfect out and out hard plastic lure fishing rod that is off the scale brilliant, increasingly I am after one single fishing rod that can be used very effectively to chop and change methods and techniques at will. I don't want to carry two rods when I am out bass fishing. I want one that can fish all kinds of lures, both hard and soft, in a variety of different ways. Show me a better rod for doing this than the Super Mix 240 and I will bite your hand off. I don't have a very good technical knowledge of fishing rods, but there is just "something" I can't properly describe in the tips of these red rods that makes them incredible to fish with.

• A part of me does not feel right making my rod of the year an expensive one, but I believe in being completely honest and simply giving it as I see it. I am not saying that the Super Mix 240 is the best bass rod out there, but I am saying that it is easily the best out of the rods I have personally fished with or come across. I have been using and abusing the Super Mix for the better part of 2009 and so far I can't find any flaws or problems, indeed I just like it more and more. If I had found something wrong with it, I would tell you - I really enjoy fishing with and spending time with the Ultimate Fishing guys I know, but they do not pay me to say what I am saying about their rods and I don't do any work for them. Still the cheapest guy I know for these awesome red Tenryu rods is Mick over in Jersey (see here). He uses them, his mates use them, and lots of his customers use them. What more can I say ?

• I am going to be really interested to see more and more specialist bass plugging rods coming onto the market here in the UK next year, and already I have come across that lighter 8' Grauvell rod that I believe is something seriously special (see here for my early thoughts). More good rods at various price points is good for anglers, and anything that enables more anglers to start using better and better bass rods is a great thing in my mind. Hold and fish with a rod like the Tenryu Super Mix 240 or the 8' 10-40g Teklon Spin and I can bet you that within about five minutes you will be wondering how on earth you survived without them. There is nothing wrong with change. Change is a good thing. Learning new things is so important to becoming a better angler. The guys who want to bury their heads and hark back to the good old days when spinning rods were like tank aerials and 12' carp rods worked surface lures  nice and easily - let's leave them behind and embrace all that is good about this rapidly evolving bass fishing world.

• OK, so I won't be spending my Christmas in a tent, but I wanted to find a decent photo of some snow to put up on the blog for Christmas - we had a few brief snow showers here in Plymouth on Saturday, but other than that it's just been cold and icy. Kinda different to other parts of the UK as I keep seeing on the news. Whatever the case, have a good break if you aren't working (hope not) and here's to 2010 and whatever it may bring. Sometime after Xmas I will start posting about my favourite fishing items from 2009, including rods, reels, lures etc. I guess this bass fishing thing has brought out my true tackle-junkie nature that I thought had been successfully suppressed !!
• As regards the Photo Competition I have been running on the blog (see here), there is still plenty of time to send me your best bass fishing photos (by end of 31st December). Thanks for all the entries so far, and there have been a few crackers sent in - there are a few posted below. What has made me especially happy about it is that there have been entries from the UK, Germany, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands - simply fantastic.

Adrian Rogers (above)

Andrew Morrow

John Griffin

Paul Jennings

Tony Jones

• Nice one guys - I am really pleased that there is a good variety of types of shot and I can see that it is not going to be at all easy to pick a winner in early 2010. I will announce the winning photo sometime during the week starting Monday 4th January, and take it from me that those Grauvell spinning rods are something a bit special, especially the slightly lighter 8' model that does so much so well. Happy Christmas all of you.
• You might want to check out a report on one of the most incredible bass plugging sessions I have heard about for a long time - have a look here. A big number of bass, biggest 9lb 14oz, taken somewhere in Cornwall I am being told. That is some serious fishing and so cool to hear it happening right in the depths of our winter. Outstanding stuff guys. Just so good to hear about.

Photo courtesy John Crabb

• And I will leave you with this report that has just come in from my mate John Crabb down in South Africa - John took a kob (kabeljou) that from the measurements comes out at around 82kgs, and in my basic maths that works out to around 180lbs !!!! This simply outstanding fish measured 197cm with a 116cm girth, and after a few photos this magnificent creature was returned safely to the sea. John says the fish swam off very strongly. Kob are one of my most favourite species on earth and this one beats the current South African record by about 10kgs - note that John took it right off the beach (not a boat) down at Jeffrey's Bay. I can not tell you how special a fish like this is and my utmost respect goes out to John for managing to catch such a fish. Like I have said before on this blog, he is one of the most talented rock and surf anglers I have ever been lucky enough to meet. And he says that there are places around Jeffrey's where big kob can also be taken on lures. To think of edible type fish swimming around so close to the beach just blows my mind. Awesome stuff.

• If you had asked me ten years ago where I thought my fishing might be at the end of the decade, I never for one second would have predicted this bass fishing addiction. Sure, I used to catch a fair few "by mistake" when out ray and cod fishing with the more usual 6oz beachcasters, tripods and rig wallets, but me getting all loved up with light tackle fishing for bass ? Never for one second. Not me. That lure fishing is for people who can't handle big rods isn't it ? Proves how good I am at predicting the future.........
• But, and it's a big but, for all my love of fast-action spinning rods, shiny Japanese lures and Shimano spinning reels, I still get a huge kick out of pulling the 3-4oz bass rod off the shelf and doing a bit of bait fishing. In my mind, this is where "our" bass fishing comes from, and while there might not be any shiny things involved, (Van Staal spinning reel aside) little beats standing in the water waiting for bass to move through. I love it. I might not spend much time these days staring at two scaffold-pole type beachcaster tips in a tripod, but I will always get off on various forms of bait fishing. It's where I come from. OK, I do like shiny new lures though.

• There is often the most wonderful symmetry with an angler cradling a light beachcaster - it's a bit of an "obvious" shot above, but I thought a black and white conversion might really bring the eye on to the fisherman lost on quiet concentration. Or at least he would be if he didn't have the great big me waving my cameras around in front of him and making purring noises at the quality of the light. My mates have the patience of saints to not mind me doing what I do around them.........

• As we get close to the end of the year and most bass anglers would naturally be putting away their gear for a few months, I am hearing some reports of good bass fishing from various locations. Typically it has picked up over in Ireland, literally a few days after we left, and although the fishing is not how it should be, I am told the inshore waters are clearing nicely and the bass are hungry. Nathan told me of some good lure fishing down in Cornwall over the last week or so (check here), and I would guess that the Kerry and Dingle peninsulas over in Ireland are starting to fire on bait. This cold snap is so much better than the weeks of driving rain, grey skies and gales that we had been having. OK, so snow and ice is causing problems for parts of the country, but it is winter after all.
• I reckon 2010 is going to be one hell of an interesting year on the bass front - there is so much going on out there, with all manner of people starting to discover what the fuss over light tackle fishing is all about. Where is this all going to lead ? Your guess is as good as mine, but I do have a few hunches though. One thing that is utterly vital is that we as anglers give the right people at least half a chance to do what they can to help protect our fish stocks. If there is one thing you do at the start of 2010, join BASS and the Angling Trust - we all know that sea fishing is one thing that we can actually do for free, and I wholeheartedly support our right to fish, but as anglers we need to think about the future and at least do something to help support some very good people who are working to try and safeguard what we take for granted.
• I do not like banging the political drum, but all you need to do is to take a proper look at the striped bass fishing on the east coast of America - look at what nearly happened, and look where it is now. Nothing is ever perfect, but it's a classic example of recreational fishing being of such economic and social importance that something simply had to be done to rebuild the striper fishery. Sometimes I let my mind wander and imagine what it could be like over here if we had lots and lots of big bass for everybody to catch..................

• There is plenty of decent fly fishing around during the depths of winter if you are happy to fish the smaller stillwaters that stay open right the way through. I shot a job for Trout Fisherman on Wednesday up at Bake Lakes in Cornwall (see here). This big complex of different lakes is a very well known coarse fishery, and especially for big numbers of very good conditioned carp, but there is also a popular fly fishing lake there as well. Russ and I turned up at exactly the right time to take advantage of some really good light early on as you can see above. Easy for me to line it up, dial in a stop underexposure to hold that moody sky and retain overall contrast, and then blast away on the motordrive as Russ nails a cast. I love those coloured fly lines that literally "jump" at you. I could do this stuff all day long............

• The best of the light was early on, but the weather conditions were somewhat raw, and this made the fishing pretty tough - I work on shooting as much "establishing" material as I can when the light is good, and then be prepared to get the fish shots as and when it happens. I am not over the moon that I had to place the horizon half way down the photo as you can see above, but I was having to make sure to keep my shadow out of the frame. Hence the rather "safe" horizon placement. Bake Lakes is a great place and I can see myself spending a few hours up there on a summer's evening chasing carp on the surface with my mullet gear. Anything up on the surface floats my boat in a major way.

• When Russ nailed the fish, we had essentially lost any decent light - this is the time to come in really tight and get away from the grey, overcast skies and concentrate on the detail shots like with this rainbow trout above. Again, dial in a bit of underexposure to darken the background and make the fish really stand out. Bringing the main subject to life in the frame is not always about making the overall photo big and bright - darkening the background around a subject is another way to give an already fairly standout subject a bit more impact. OK, so it's hardly an award winning shot, but it gives a magazine designer plenty of options for fitting into a feature.

• I am not entirely sure about the photo above - part of me really likes the brief window of incredible light we had that allowed me to shoot this one above. I was able to retain the correct exposure on the fisherman you see in the bottom left corner, while bringing the moody sky right down to an inky grey. This was the result of dialling in minus 2 stops underexposure against the suggested meter reading from my Nikon D3. I think I like it, but I need to spend more time with it if that makes sense. It screams winter flyfishing at me, but I will be interested to see what the magazine designer makes of a shot like this......

• And here's a front cover of mine from the other day - I do a fair bit of work for the German fishing magazine Blinker, and from time to time they ask me if I have any shots that I think might work for their cover. It always strikes me when photographing different kinds of fishing how the various species "like" to be held or cradled for photos. Bass obviously grab me in a big way, but I do see some photos of them that leave me really cold for want of a better word. People like me owe it to fishing to make the fish look as good as possible.

• OK, so last week a bunch of us were sitting in the pub one evening, talking a whole load of stuff about bass fishing - as you do. Whether that discussion be complete rubbish or utter genius, I suppose only us lot could decide (but I have my suspicions). I can get wi-fi on my laptop in the pub, so I break away from the conversation for a while and check emails, do the blog etc. Andy then pipes up (not that he has a problem with bass lures or anything like that) - "Have you guys seen the new IMA Skimmer ?" Cue somewhat blank looks from us lot.....
• "What's that ?" One hell of an exciting conversation it might seem to the non-angler, but to us it's the regular kind of thing. The guys are on the Guinness and I am on the orange juice and lemonade. Andy ("Honestly, I don't have a problem") has just brought a brand new lure to our attention that we had never even heard of. Andy ("Cian has a worse problem than me") even knows where to go looking on the internet for a video on how this good looking new IMA Skimmer works on the water - it's a surface lure by the way, and by all accounts it has been doing a bit of damage in the US.........
• So what do we do ? We all crowd round my little laptop and watch this video here (scroll down this page here as well). I am guessing that the other people in the pub were wondering what on earth was going on with a bunch of grown men suddenly taking a serious interest in a computer and making all kinds of "ooooh" and "aahhh" sounds as this little lure is worked so seductively across the surface. Honestly, when you can stand back and think about, it can't be that normal that blokes can get so excited about a bass lure - it had to look like we were watching a somewhat "dubious" video clip on my laptop rather than an innocent video of a fishing lure.

• We managed to get hold of one of these new IMA Skimmer lures while we were over there last week (don't ask), and considering the bass had decided on a no-show, we went and messed around with it on some calm water we found up an estuary. While this lure might not look like much when you hold in your hands, what it does on top of the water is simply staggering. I can't vouch for its bass-catching abilities yet (but my gut feeling is that it's going to kill, just like the IMA Komomo II that I told you about the other day), but all of us were once again making strange "ooohh" and "aahh" sounds as we took it in turns to work this lure. I can almost picture the setting when a lure like this is going to turn the bass on big time - it is so much more than a lure that simply walks across the surface. Make sure to check out the video, but I bear no responsibility if you are caught by your better half making strange sounds at a computer screen. Try telling her that it's over a new lure !!
• These guys here are the people bringing this new IMA lure into the UK for addicts like us to get our hands on. Check out the IMA Skimmer right here. If you have been following my blog this year, you will be aware by now that I am falling for the IMA lures in a big way (plus Duo, Maria, MegaBass, Tackle House, Xorus, etc.), but then perhaps it's best that I admit my problem and come clean. I am a lure junkie. There you go. And I once rather smugly thought I was never a tackle tart.........

• OK, so we got done by the weather and conditions over in Ireland last week, but that didn't stop us from playing around with various bits of kit - not that every angler is a child at heart or anything like that !! I really wanted to give the lighter Grauvell Teklon Spin rod a proper work out, and I also wanted to get some other opinions other than just my own. I had a hunch from the off that the lighter 8' 10-40g 802ML model might be the one.......
• First off, and bear in mind that this is only my opinion, but at the moment I reckon that the best all round bass plugging/spinning rod that we can get our hands on is the Tenryu Super Mix 240. If money is no object and you want the best rod to fish all kinds of lures (hard and soft) in all kinds of conditions, then so far no other rod I am aware of is as good as the Super Mix 240. But, and it's a big but, not everybody wants to or indeed can spend that kind of money on a fishing rod - the best prices I know of are still to be found right here though. You will never for one second regret investing in a rod like this. Just ask the increasing number of anglers fishing with them.

• OK, so what about the lighter, slightly shorter Teklon Concept Spin ? At the price it is, can it possibly be one of the most impressive bass fishing rods that I have come across so far ? I was beginning to think so, but to confirm my suspicions, I asked Andy and Graham to give it a proper thrashing over in Ireland last week. Bear in mind that a lot of us these days are after carrying one rod that essentially does the lot for us - from casting and working surface lures (note working, you need a high degree of "feel"), cranking shallow divers, working jerkbait type lures, and doing all sorts with all kinds of different soft plastics. And feel is vital for working plastics. No shore bass anglers I fish with carry two plugging rods when they head out, so the more we can do well with one rod, the more effectively we are fishing. And the more effectively we fish, the more bass we should be catching - if all goes according to plan !!
• If you had asked me a year ago, I would have told you that my optimum length for a bass plugging/spinning rod was around 9.5-10' (learning all the time), but having used the roughly 8' Tenryu Super Mix 240 for most of my bass fishing this year, I am completely and utterly sold on the idea of using a shorter rod. That 8' length just starts to feel more like a "wand" in your hands if that makes sense - the ease with which you can cast and vary your retrieves just seems to be a whole load easier to me, and I have never for one second subscribed to any notion of needing a longer rod for fishing higher up or in rougher conditions. And I am seeing more and more bass fishermen going over to the shorter rods and coming to the same conclusions as me. The 8' Teklon Concept Spin 802ML just feels perfect in my hands. Put a small spinning reel on it (like my beloved Shimano Stella 4000FD) and it feels extremely well balanced. The kind of set up that wants to be taken out fishing big time.
• But the action is very, very important when it comes to working different bass lures - even with a rod as powerful as something like the Tenryu Red Dragon Express you still get an incredible degree of refinement and feel in the fast tip. The same goes for this stunning little Teklon rod we have been playing around with - Andy and Graham will not mind me saying that they were blown away by how much feel the rod gave them when they were playing around with different lures. The red rods are what they are (insanely special), but I am really happy that a few more rods are beginning to trickle into our UK bass fishing market that offer a truly high-end fishing experience for a low price. I would say that the lighter Grauvell Teklon Concept Spin has a wonderfully fast action that blends into a tip with real feel and subtlety. Plus the rod looks good and seems to be very well built, with Fuji eyes and a reel seat that is very comfortable to fish with.

• From what I know about bass fishing at the moment, I would say that the lighter Teklon Concept Spin model (8' 10-40g 802ML) is one of those unique and somewhat rare plugging rods that you can take out bass fishing and do everything you need to do with it. I don't say that lightly either, and I am sure you guys know by now that I am not about to talk something up on this blog when I don't believe it. That's simply not my style. I put gear up here that I either own myself or have used and like. I have one of these Teklon rods and I am going to use it a lot - if the idea of one floats your boat as much as it does mine, then check them out here. As it stands right now, I am not aware of a better bass fishing rod out there for the money. I am not by any means saying that a rod like this does not exist for the same kind of price, but I can only talk about the gear I know about. I have to give the guys at Veals Mail Order huge credit for going out and finding a rod like this.
• And just about the best thing is that you could win one of these little stunners by entering the photo competition that I announced on this blog the other day - check my post here. There has been some really good stuff sent in and I can not wait to be able to announce the winner early in the new year and be responsible for putting one of these stunning bass rods into somebody's hands. What a start to the year that will be. Keep the entries coming in..........

• We are on the ferry back from Ireland, and although it's been a really tough trip on the fishing front, already a bunch of us are planning a load of return trips for next year. Just because we have been beaten up by the weather and the conditions this time around, this awesome coastline is still my most favourite place on this earth and I can't wait to get back here as soon as I can. Winter bassing can give outstanding rewards if you take a gamble and get the right result with the weather (as we did this time last year) - we gambled and lost this time around. So be it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. There is always next time......

• The conditions for photography were simply off the scale yesterday morning especially - the wind had dropped right off and there were some big blue winter skies. Surf was still pounding in and throwing up a fine mist that held the colours in the sun and allowed me to set the guys against it and hold the exposure. The moment we pulled up in the car I was hurrying to get the guys in place and nail these photos. Tough fishing but just about as good as it can get for pictures. 
• On the photography front, it's been great to get a bunch of entries for the photo competition I announced the other day. There has been some really good stuff emailed in to me, so keep it coming. Make sure to read the requirements for sending me photos (see here) and then let me see them. Next week I will let you know a bit more about what I have found out about these new Grauvell spinning rods - one of them especially is one of the most impressive bass spinning rods I have come across so far. The winner will be announced early in 2010.

• Even though the fish did not play ball for us, we still went out and played with a whole bunch of new lures, rods and reels to see what they can do. Are we all the same when it comes to shiny lures and decent fishing tackle ? How many of you have held up a lure, wiggled it around, and pretended you were a bass looking at it from below ?  A friend of mine (who small remain nameless) admitted to me the other day that his wife regularly walks into his officer and catches him in the process of being a bass and pretending to chow his lures from below. I am glad to report that they are still happily married and that she now thinks this is perfectly normal. I have learnt plenty more about various bits and pieces, indeed I have come to the conclusion that a huge part of what so turns me on about light tackle fishing for bass is this continual and hugely exciting learning process. The more my brain is working overtime, the more I enjoy what I do. 

•  If and when we start nailing fish, I will post the results here, but it's tough at the moment. If the fishing turns on I will post the results up here, but the feeling is that it's going to take a long time for these rivers and estuaries to clear of all this freshwater. And as for the open coast for any meaningful fishing - forget it !! 
• This time last year we smashed them, but this time around it's completely different. We came over mainly to fish one specific spot, but even that is blown out with freshwater and weed. We'll keep going, but the frustrating thing is that this place is ready to fire the moment conditions improve. Winter in Ireland is the time for big bass, however us guys are doing and whatever the weather throws at us.

• Even though these couple of photos show the guys fishing with lures, it was more in hope than any kind of reality - a case of playing with bits of plastic. These conditions are all about bait fishing, and thanks to Cian we have some outstanding Irish crab. I am always blown away by the kindness and hospitality of these Irish anglers. The guys are diamonds and I love fishing with them. Some outstanding bass anglers as well. A couple more days to go, and as it is with fishing, you never know when it might switch on........

• I have spoken to Veals Mail Order, the people doing the fantastic new Grauvell Teklon Concept Spin rods that I referred to as Rod “X” while I played around with them. And as I suspected, the more I play around with the slightly lighter 8’ model, the 802ML, the more I am really liking it for all round bass lure work - hard lures, both surface and sub-surface, and soft plastics, jigs etc.). Anyway, Veals Mail Order are donating one of these rods as the first prize for the photo competition. How cool is that ?

• Here’s what we are going to do – I want to see your best (European sea) bass fishing photo. It can be anything to do with bass fishing, I don’t really care, but I want to see some good stuff – it really can be anything connected with bass fishing, as long as it’s in focus, properly exposed, and it grabs my eye. I mean anything – the fish, the people, the places, the lures, boats, seascapes, baits, you name it, I want to see it.
• These are the rules for entering – please submit only one photo. Do it via email from the “Contact Me” page on this blog – in the subject line of the email, put your first and last name and photo competition in there, like this “Joe Bloggs, photo competition”. Make sure to put your full postal address in that email in case you win – then the rod can be posted out to you. Your address will go no further than me and then Veals Mail Order if you end up winning. Tell me which one of the two rods you would like to get if you were to win – either the 8’3’’ 15-50g or the 8’ 10-40g version (see my thoughts here). Decisions, decisions !!
• Now the really important part, as I do not want to have massive photos coming into my inbox that clog it up and give me grief. It is vital that you resize your photos to specific dimensions – anything that falls outside of these requirements will be automatically rejected. Any problems with resizing, either search around online for various (free) ways to do it, or check out these two links here that will provide a bit of help (here and here) Resize your photo via these instructions :

Longest side dimension (width or height) to be no more than 640 pixels (same size as the photos you see here).

The photo resolution must be no more than 72dpi.

Give the photo a title, no more than ten words – put this in the email.

Attach your resized photo as a JPEG to the email and then send it to me.

• I have to ask this purely on trust, but I would appreciate it if nobody who works in fishing enters this. I want to see photos from fishermen who have no feet in the trade so to speak, and I want the rod to go to somebody to whom a brand new, modern-style bass plugging rod will really make a difference.

• I hope that all makes sense – the closing date for entries is Thursday 31st December, and I will then pick and announce the winner at the start of 2010. The winning photo will be posted up on this blog and I will give my reasons as to why I chose it. In essence I am the judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one !! Your chosen rod will then be sent to you direct from Veals Mail Order. By emailing me your photos, you are agreeing to me showing some of them on this blog – what I would like to do is to put the odd one up here as the competition unfolds. My side of the bargain is that the photos emailed to me will go nowhere else other than this blog. Best of luck, and please start those entries rolling in…..
• The guy who helped us out with the shore fishing in Norway when we filmed around Saltstraumen has just started a blog about his exploits (check out the Element Fishing - Norway blog on the right side of this page), and if you want to get an idea about how insane the fishing can be over there, then check this post out here. Eirik took a 50lb cod off the shore a couple of days ago – yes, you read that right, 50lbs !!! Now that is a proper fish. Check out the halibut he is taking off the shore as well. Such a nice guy, a hugely talented angler, and he has very recently become a father for the first time. Nice one !! Plus he listens to proper music as well.............
• Anyway, I am off to Ireland tomorrow morning. Andy and I are taking the StenaLine ferry from Fishguard to Rosslare as per usual, and if all goes according to plan we will be out fishing early on Sunday morning. As to what the weather allows us to do, time will tell, but whatever happens, it’s always awesome to go over to Ireland. Going bass fishing at this time of year is always a gamble with the weather, but the biggest fish do tend to come out during the colder, stormier months. If you don’t give it a go then you’ll never stand a chance. Taking lots of waterproof and thermal clothing !!

• Loathe though I am to have to say it, it's getting fairly close to Christmas - so where has this year gone ? Most of you probably don't know that it is now possible to buy some of my photos as prints, canvasses, framed prints etc., all by clicking on the black banner in the top right corner of the website pages that says "Prints for Sale". Check here and let me save you the hassle. I reckon they would make great Christmas presents - but then I would say that !! Seriously though, fishing can be such a visually impressive thing when it all comes together, and being out there all the time also gives one a far greater range of photos than simply fishing.
• I have made sure to put loads of different kinds of photos up there for sale, including lots of bass fishing, landscapes and seascapes, fly fishing, saltwater fly fishing and even some music stuff as well. Check out the above photo here. I don't like banging the commercial drum on this blog, but I kept getting asked about buying prints of my photos, so I then took a bit of time to find the right people to do it for me direct from my website.

• By no means am I am a wildlife photographer, but by virtue of some of the places I go the opportunity to nail some different stuff comes around from time to time, like this booby that was sitting in a tree on one of the outer atolls of the Seychelles. Note that big blue sky and lack of rain. Have a look at this photo here.

• This is without doubt in my top five favourite bass fishing photos that I have ever taken - it just did it for me the moment I visualised the shot over in Ireland a few years ago. Big bass, just the right amount of sunlight to allow this shot without all kinds of crazy reflections and burn-out going on, and I also happened to be carrying my macro (close up) lens at the time. That predator eye seems to follow me around when I look at it - check it out here.

• When conditions go off it can make for the most extraordinary scenes - a flat calm morning, really warm, with a heavy covering of sea mist just allowing the sun to burn through and enable me to silhouette the rocks and the fisherman and retain all those stunning colours in the sky and the sun. See this photo here.

• Or how about this kind of photo ? Kind of menacing I thought when I framed it up, but I just have always had a thing for crabs anyway. Not sure how normal that is, but any angler knows all about peeler crabs and their allure for so many different fish. Check this photo out here.
• The gig at the White Rabbit on Monday night here in Plymouth was just awesome - Insomnium was the main band I wanted to see, but I was a bit worried about their intricate melodies on their recorded albums coming through to the live environment. They were simply outstanding though, and the whole vibe came across big time. The sound was good, the band was giving it everything, and the whole thing just blew me away. Some bands seem to transcend their albums and come across really well live, and I would now put Insomnium in that bracket. How cool is it that we get one of Finland's best metal bands coming to play here in Plymouth ? Another reason why the south west is a great place to live. 

• I liked the IMA Komomo SF-125 the moment I laid eyes on it, and it works as good as it looks if that makes sense - as a result, the moment I heard about the new IMA Komomo II you can see above, I had to get hold of one (these guys here do an increasingly large range of IMA lures). Conditions have hardly been hugely favourable for chucking lures recently, but I really wanted to see if the new lure swam as I thought it might. It never hurts to start "banking" a lure's action in your head before heading off on a fishing trip. I went out and played with a few lures in fact, but this new Komomo II just got me going from the off. This lure has an action that I really believe is going to do serious damage on the bass.......
• Much as I am learning all the time about bass fishing, and specifically sinking hard lures have been on my radar recently (especially the awesome Duo Tide Minnow, see a recent blog post here), there are still lots of times when we are going to turn to the reliable, ultra-shallow minnow-type lures that enable us to fish really shallow and snaggy ground so effectively. That is where the Komomo SF-125 has done well for me, with it's kind of loose, wiggling/side to side action.

• This new IMA Komomo II has one of the most insane actions I have seen on this kind of ultra shallow-diving hard bass lures - I guess you could describe it as having a more intense action than the SF-125, a kind of mesmerising, fast, very intense snake/wiggle. How do you like that for a description of a lure action ? Not bad eh !! But you need to see this thing to get your head around what it does, and it swims really, really shallow, indeed the packet says down to 20cm. I have heard a little bit about making the lure break the surface from time to time to turn fish on even more, but I guess my greater understanding of this one will come via time spent fishing with it. 
• So how would you go about fishing a lure like this ? My hunch is that you are going to need relatively calm conditions to fish the IMA Komomo II properly, for I could see that a pronounced chop on the water drove it to the surface and killed the action. But this comes as no surprise, for a lure that is designed to swim this shallow is of course going to be increasingly buffeted by rougher conditions on the surface. Remember, specific lures for specific jobs. Give me calm to a slight chop and I reckon this Komomo II is going to slay bass big time. That action over shallow ground is going to drive them nuts, but I also reckon the intense silhouette brought about by the lure's action will also work well over deeper terrain as well. We all know that bass will happily come up from depth to hit a lure near or on the surface.
• Give me some proper time with this new lure and I will be able to tell you a whole lot more, but personally I think that you can simply crank it a medium to medium-fast pace and it will work well. It's action is one that bass fall for big time. I like lures that I know are going to work if I simply crank them. Yes, there is loads of talk out there about always imparting action to sub-surface hard lures, but on the flip side, I also believe that one can suddenly forget that good old cranking can and does work very well for bass (the Tackle House Feed Shallow is a great example of this). Some lures just "sing" when you wind them. I did play around with twitching this Komomo II a bit, but I found that jerking the rod tip continuously knocked it off its stride and made it flop onto the surface - bear in mind this is a lure that is specifically designed to swim just below the surface, so you would expect this to happen. But it does respond to fishing it very slowly as well, with the odd twitch on the rod tip, let the lure float to the surface, turn the handle a few times, twitch again kind of thing. It's fun playing around with lures !! And so much of it is about confidence - and even before I take this new IMA Komomo II out and use it for real, just the action alone gives me huge amounts of confidence. If we get the right conditions in Ireland later in the week, it's going on......
• I went to see the US symphonic black metal band Abigail Williams on Saturday night at the White Rabbit in Plymouth, and it was very good overall. The support bands didn't do it for me, but Abigail Williams were very good.  It always interests me to see how a band that radiates such an intense feeling on their album can translate it  live. It's a good venue, nice and small so you get some decent atmosphere, and overall the sound was good. I am going to the White Rabbit tonight to see another gig - Swallow the Sun is the headlining act, but I really want to see Insomnium, the second support band. Their latest album "Across the Dark" is without doubt one of the best metal releases of the year. Check here and bow down in worship. The amount of good metal coming out of Finland is just incredible.The fact that bands like this are coming to Plymouth is very cool.

• I went over to south east Ireland at around the same time last year, and this is what I mean by nothing ventured, nothing gained - Tom on the left landed this incredibly well conditioned 11lb bass on his first ever cast in the Emerald Isle. You can go fishing anywhere on this earth and get messed up with the weather, so in truth I don't see it as much of a gamble to be heading over in winter. If only more bass anglers actually began to realise that the biggest bass tend to come out of Irish inshore waters during the colder months. Just ask south east locals like Patrick and Cian about the numbers of big fish they have taken from say October onwards, or ask Kevin over in Kerry about the bait fishing after Christmas and into late spring. Winter fishing for big bass is still some kind of unknown thing, so you could do worse than to contact Patrick Gallagher and ask about some guided winter fishing. Check here to get hold of him.

• What amazed me last winter when I was over there for a few days was how brutally cold it was - we had northerly winds for four straight days, and although we had to wear a hell of a lot of clothing to be able to fish properly, it was perfect for me and my cameras. Plus we nailed plenty of bass as well. I am notoriously wary of long-range forecasts, as indeed I think we all are these days, but the weather guys do say that the winds are going to swing around from these relentless south and south westerly gales and that it's going to get much colder. We shall see what happens........I can't wait to get back over there, my most favourite place on this earth. 

• If you are still mourning the fact that Black Sabbath have not had the once mighty Ozzy Osbourne in their ranks for ages and ages now (hell, he was fired from the band when I was only six years old !!), then you seriously need to check out the new album from Sweden's quite frankly awesome Count Raven. These monsters of Sabbath-inspired doom/heavy metal are back with "Mammons War" and you can see what I am on about by listening to one of the tracks here. If this does not give all Sabbath fans something to smile about then turn me over in my grave and rip my headphones from my cold hands. I am not going to try and describe how classic this new album is. Anybody with any interest in classic heavy metal with strong doom influences should just buy this one as matter of honour.
• Much as I love living in Plymouth, there is no getting away from the fact that we don't exactly get a lot of decent metal bands down here playing gigs. But the next few days are a time to rejoice and sing praises to the one who resides "down there" - at the White Rabbit in Plymouth they have got the symphonic black metal band Abigail Williams on Saturday night (plus support), and on Monday night they have got the truly mighty Insomnium (plus support, Swallow the Sun are headlining). I will be there. Rock and roll.........

• I am not one for banging the political (fishing) drum, but there are a lot of us here who spend the majority of our actual sport fishing lives obsessing about that wonderful species we know as the bass. OK, so the current weather is hardly allowing us to indulge that passion much at the moment, but nobody could deny that here in the UK and Europe, all that can be done to protect and look after these fish needs to be done. As I have said before, I do not believe that there can be any "perfect" angling body as such, but the more I learn about the organisation known as BASS (Bass Anglers' Sportfishing Society), the more I feel that grassroots anglers (like me) need to give these kinds of people more and more opportunity to try and make a difference.
• I hear all kinds of arguments for and against joining such an organisation as BASS, and I can understand many different points of view. But the simple fact is that a large proportion of our fish stocks are in real trouble (cod in the Bristol Channel anyone ?), and my own personal view is that sitting on the fence and burying our collective heads in the sand is going to get us nowhere. BASS is not a big organisation, but they pack an increasingly strong political punch.  They know what they are doing, they are very well connected, and they are doing what they do because they are the same as us. In reality it is a small organisation run and populated by a bunch of bass freaks. Kind of like a lot of us here then. But what humbles me hugely, and quite frankly it also embarrasses me, is that there are people within BASS who are doing a scary amount of unpaid work to try and make a difference when it comes to the future of our bass stocks. You will hardly ever get to hear about these people, for they do not court publicity, and they go about their (unpaid) business in a way which quite frankly astounds me. I had a meeting with a couple of BASS guys last week.
• I wish from a personal point of view that I could say that I have been a member of BASS for many years now, but in reality I only joined up this summer at the CLA Game Fair. Like many anglers, I suppose I sat there for too long and thought that any kind of specialist organisation had to be some kind of closed shop to the regular angler (such as me). I am not a club kind of person, but we are at the stage now in the UK when I passionately believe that it does not matter what kind of person you are - the people who are doing all this work for us need to be given as much opportunity as possible to make a change. We can moan all we like about any organisations' rules and regulations,  their forums, their competitions, their meetings, whatever you like, anglers can moan about it. We can all stand there and question why we should be spending a bit of money to join a club such as BASS, but these unpaid and unsung people need our help to keep doing what they are tirelessly doing already for the good of our future sport. It costs only £20 a year to be a member of BASS (check here for all the details), and before anybody moans about that, think about the cost of a modern hard plastic lure.The stronger an organisation such as BASS, the more seriously they are taken on the political stage. The stronger collectively that anglers can be, the more seriously they will be taken. Do you see the correlation ?
• I apologise for getting on my soapbox here, but anybody who spends a lot of time travelling around the world for their job and gets to see all kinds of fishing, all kinds of fishing related problems, and also all kinds of fishing related success stories is going to form an opinion on where our saltwater fishing in the UK is right now, and which way it is headed in the future. At the very least we should be giving the right people at least a sniff of a chance at making something happen. The days of getting a chance for free are long gone......
• The RISE fly fishing film event in Exeter on Monday night was fantastic, and I take my hat off to Nick from Gin Clear Media (see here) for making these films and also for having the guts to organise the UK's first fly fishing film festival. He promises to be back next year with his new film from Iceland, plus various others I am sure - at the end of the main films, we had a ten minute taster of some of the Iceland footage they have shot this summer and it was mind-blowing stuff. Wouldn't it be cool if there was a UK produced short fishing film showing next year ? Do what Nick did - get a video camera, get out there, and teach yourself how to do it. Never has there been a better or easier time to get your material out there into the public domain. I tell you, it gives me a few ideas on doing some proper bass related stuff................if the TV stations won't commission proper fishing shows, surely the only avenue left is to go and do it yourself.
• A bit of an update to my working in fishing post from the other day (see here) - I was really taken aback by the numbers of emails I got about this, and I can assure you that all of them have been forwarded on to the right people at the company that asked to see them. Thanks for sending them in to me. Please rest assured that I did not go through the emails or the CVs to check you guys out, for it is none of my business - I simply collected them together and forwarded them on. I have been told that they will be looked at properly from next week, and the company will contact those people they wish to speak to further. I want to wish those of you who applied the best of luck again, and I am so hoping that the open position gets filled by somebody who responded via this blog. 

• I am heading to Exeter early this evening to go and see the awesome RISE fly fishing film festival (check here) - are any of you guys going ? Hope to see some of you there. I can take a couple of people up from Plymouth if anybody is looking for a lift, but you will need to email me before midday today (see the Contact Me page on this website). I can't think of a better way to cast off this grey gloom brought on by this filthy weather than to sit down and watch some outstanding short fishing films that have been made by people with real passion.
• The show starts at the Exeter Vue Cinema at 7.30pm (see here for details), and for those of you with a sat nav, the postcode is EX1 2DD. Tickets are £15, and you can book them in advance here. I just like seeing any kind of fishing done really well, and I still reckon it is rare to see short films or TV programmes about fishing that can really get you going from both a visual and an excitement point of view. I know that the DVD of "The Source - Tasmania" will be on sale at the show, plus a load of other bits and pieces. Fishing and the internet together combine to make it a truly accessible and global thing, and we should be supporting those people who strive to do something a bit different. Imagine if we all did the same thing all the time........

• Here's another photo of that IMA Sasuke 140 lure that I was talking about the other day - I have always believed that my strength in photography lies outdoors, but so many of these lures look so good before they become battered and bruised with extended use. Hence me taking some "controlled" shots under lights of a bunch of different bass lures. As with photographing a fish, I make sure to focus on the "eye" of the lure as this is always the point that our own eyes are naturally drawn towards when we first look at the photo. My close up stuff is done with various lights and reflectors, but I have a lot to keep on learning about it - the most useful thing is a decent macro (close up) lens, and these days I am using the awesome Nikon 105mm f2.8VR macro lens attached to my Nikon D3 cameras. The quality of these images at full size is insane. Check out these IMA lures right here. Is it wrong to love your lures ?
• Can anybody remember such a sustained period of relentless strong winds ? I can't. It wasn't long ago that we had a couple of winters down here without a decent storm, but the last couple of weeks here in the south west have been just off the scale in terms of sustained wind strengths. It's howling again this morning, and the forecast for the next few days is lively to say the least. The chances of me getting out to play with some new bass lures before I head over to Ireland in early December seems somewhat remote.

• Is it normal to take a shiny new lure out of its box and simply look at it with a feeling close to love ? Racing heartbeat, sweaty palms, you name it, us anglers who suffer from lure love need help. I don't fancy my chances much of actually getting to fish with this new lure at the moment, not with these insane winds we have got, but I have to say that lure love is back again with a vengeance - I have finally got hold of another colour of the killer IMA Sasuke 140. I don't know why the colour combination you can see above seems to work so well, but I can't get enough of it. I know how much this particular lure kills for bass already, so I can't wait to see how well this particular colour will do for them - I am  heading back over to Ireland in a couple of weeks, and while we are taking a gamble on the weather (but then isn't it always ?), we should get a crack at a few decent bass. Please also note that the barbs you can see on the treble hooks will be crushed good and flat before this lure ever hits the water.
• Granted, most of us have our "go to" colours for our bass fishing, and it really interests me to hear about different colours working so well for different anglers - is it once again a lot to do with confidence ? Love the colour, put lots of love into fishing it kind of thing ? Whatever the many reasons for various colours working or not working, this mix of what I term holographic silver and pink has really worked well for me ever since I started using the killer Maria Chase BW in a similar colour to the IMA Sasuke 140 you can see above. The IMA Sasuke 140 is without doubt one of the finds of the year - the moment I saw one on the Bass Lures stand at the CLA Game Fair back in July, I just knew it had to work. The more I learn about these IMA lures, the more I like them for our bass fishing. You can get an idea on how a lot of the IMA lures actually "swim" at this link here - click on the various lures and you will see short underwater video clips. I have a few more "new to me" IMA lures here that I will get out and play with as soon as possible and report back (see a fantastic selection right here), but another one that I am dying to get my grubby mitts on is this one here, the IMA KO 130S. Looks like an awesome minnow to me..........the first step on the road to a cure is admitting that you have a problem. I ain't even close yet.

• I want to tell you about what I reckon is one of the greatest albums released so far this year - "Night is the New Day" by the Swedish band Katatonia is just off the scale good, and for those of you who shy away from the much heavier side of music, then you owe it to yourself to take a listen to some tracks off this immense release right here. You can also see a video of one of the tracks here. I am not sure what you would call this music, and there is not one hint of any harsh, screaming vocals. I suppose it might be classed as a classic kind of heavy rock album with slightly melancholic strains running through it. Definitely a "moods" album if that makes any sense. Whatever you want to call it, this new one from Katatonia is just outstanding. Anybody with any interest in "proper" guitar orientated music will find something here that floats their boat. I can listen to this one again and again, and every time it takes me some place else. Kind of like bass fishing does to me. Gotta give me a bit of credit for being able to tie music to fishing !!

• The east coast of Canada - very few people, outstanding fly fishing, and I also hear of some very good saltwater fishing down nearer to the US border, including runs of big striped bass. I think the Canadians are fantastic people and I love their zest for the outdoor life. But this part of the world gets horribly cold in the winter, to the point that the rivers and big parts of the sea freeze over !! I suppose you could just spend the winters skiing though.....

• The Bahamas - so many people think that the Bahamas are merely a few little islands stuck in the of nowhere, when in reality they could not be more wrong. There are masses and masses of islands of all sizes, and most of them receive little serious fishing pressure. A paradise for saltwater fishermen, both inshore and offshore, and if you go looking, you can go right off the end of the map.It's the same with a lot of places - do the research, speak to the right people, and you can find open space and good fishing in so many places. Ireland anyone ?

• The west coast of Canada - just an outstanding part of the world. The first book I ever did for Dorling Kindersley (Adventure Fishing) was project managed by such a nice guy who then went and emigrated to Vancouver Island with his family soon after the book was published. Perhaps he could not take any more of working with me !!, but I still hear from them and it sounds like paradise to me. I have been the to the west coast of Canada a couple of times, and it just strikes me as a great place to live. All kinds of fishing, all kinds of weather, lots of skiing in winter, and some of the most unspoilt and pristine landscapes you could ever hope to see. I can see why so many Brits move over there.

• Iceland - world class salmon, trout and sea trout fishing, and we are starting to hear more about some very cool shore fishing for species such as cod. An easy place to get to, with plenty of wide open spaces, very cool people, outstanding fishing, seems kind of tempting. Cold and dark winters, especially the further north you go, but then they do have long daylight hours during summer.
• Australia and New Zealand - two countries I have never been two, but I so badly want to go and spend some proper time down in this part of the world. Some friends of ours recently emigrated to Australia, and the more I hear about the shore and boat fishing all around the coastline, and the sheer variety of species on offer, the more I want to take myself off down there and see a bit of it. Not sure I could take the Aussies and the Kiwis stuffing us in the rugby all the time these days (not looking forward to Saturday), but I could forgive them over time !! New Zealand just looks off the scale when it comes to landscapes and fishing. We hear so much about their trout fishing, but it is easy to forget that they have saltwater fishing that would just blow our minds.

• Anyway, I don't have any photos of the storms we had down here, so I thought a bit of big blue sky fishing might brighten up a very windy Monday morning. This photo is of one of the outstanding FlyCastaway guides spotting GTs for his clients on the remote Cosmoledo atoll in the Seychelles - and believe it or not, the Indian Ocean gets some seriously major storms from time to time.But they do also get a lot of big blue sky days when the heat is so intense that it feels like stepping into an oven. I love it.
• My weekend revolved around a birthday party for my youngest daughter who has just turned three, and also having to suffer another turgid, dire and frustrating England rugby international. I am not sure how much more English rugby I can take if they are going to continue to play with such fear and such a complete lack of attacking know-how. Martin Johnson is my biggest rugby hero of all time, but I get the impression that he must be close to hauling his players outside and physically beating a notion of how to play rugby on the big stage into them. We came horribly close to losing to Argentina, and there was me thinking that the previous performance against Australia was as bad as it could get. I am dreading this coming Saturday's game against the All Blacks. November 2003 seems like a hell of long time ago now.

• Still, there is always the new Slayer album to bring a smile to one's face - if we are going to be perfectly honest here, there is no getting away from the fact that the greatest thrash metal band of all time have not actually released a world class album since the mighty "Seasons in the Abyss". Any band that has the best thrash metal album of all time  ("Reign in Blood") in their back catalogue can be excused most things, but the last twenty or so years have seen a real mix of releases. I hate saying that, but it's the truth. There has been some really good stuff from Slayer since "Seasons",  but there has also been some "treading water" thrash metal - go back and listen to their early stuff and you are going to have to agree with me. This also makes me feel a bit old, because we used to cover some tracks off "Seasons" in my band at school !! Their new album "World Painted Blood" has taken a long time for me to get into - at first I was not overly impressed, but the more I listen to it, the more it has grown on me. It is not their best, but it is better than a lot of stuff they have done recently. In fact I would say it is pretty awesome. Check out a few tracks here and see if you agree with me. This one takes a lot of listening to get your head around it, but it's worth it.And nobody does it live like Slayer. Thrash metal is alive and kicking. Life is good.
• Thanks to those of you who have responded to my last post "How would you like to work in fishing ?" - I have your emails here, and rest assured that they will be forwarded onto the right people. They will be looked at, and if the fishing tackle company sees something or somebody they want to talk to further, they will be in touch. Keep the emails coming in if you want to be considered.

• South Africa - awesome country, home to some of the most extreme rock and surf fishing on earth. And we hear virtually nothing about it here in the UK. The place where you need to fight fish properly hard otherwise they might never come in. The place where fishing competitions are usually measured in hundreds of kgs rather than a few pounds and ounces. "Scratching for rockling" of "flobber bashing" for them is having a hundred yards of line unceremoniously ripped from your reel. Fishermen who know how to put a bend in their rods.

• America - a country so vast that we struggle to get our head around the scale of it. Montana really got to me last year, and I have always had a soft spot for the well managed Florida Keys, but one thing I simply have to go and do is smash big east coast striped bass on the kind of gear we use for our own bass fishing. The more I learn about the USA, the more I fall in love with the place. So much fishing and so much to learn about how the American anglers fish with soft plastics for so many different species on both fresh and saltwater.

• France - I have spent a lot of time in France ever since I was seven years old, and I love the country and I really admire the French people. But now that the French bass fishing is coming to light more and more, this wonderful country has taken on a whole new appeal. Here in good old Blighty, we might well be able to cast little baits over the horizon on increasingly weird and wonderful rigs, but when it comes to lure fishing for bass and lure fishing technology, we ain't even in the same room.

• Norway - flat out the best music on this earth for starters. Give in to Norwegian black metal and your life will be a whole lot better. Just like me !! We hear so much about their outstanding boat fishing for giant cod and halibut, but there is a world of shore fishing over there that we are only just beginning to stumble on. I would even dust off my beachcasters on order to have a crack at their big cod from the shore, and I simply have to go and nail some monster coalfish on spinning gear from the rocks. Just the most staggering country. So close to us, yet we know comparatively so little about their world class shore fishing for starters.

• Ireland - essentially the same kind of fishing that we find here in the UK, but just a whole load better. More fish, far less people, so many spots still to discover, just so appealing in so many different ways. If you follow this blog, you will know all about how Ireland has so got to me over the years, and especially for it's bass fishing. Obviously. But there is so much more to it. Granted, you will get all kinds of weather, but so what ? Nowhere on earth fishes well all the time, but if you were to look for a place that offered similar types of fishing to what we already have, then Ireland would be the place. Is there any harm in dreaming ?

• Anyway, enough of that - how about these two rods I have put under the banner Rod "X" ? If you had asked me a year or two ago if rods around 8' long would be ideal for bass plugging I might have felt differently, but having spent the bulk of my fishing year using a rod around 8' long for all kinds of bass fishing (surface, sub-surface, plastics, jigs etc.), I am firmly of the opinion that it is a great length of rod for shore work. I have never subscribed to having to have a longer rod because you might be higher up off the water or the conditions might be challenging. - some feel that way, but  I don't. Believe me, use a plugging rod around 8' for any length of time and you will wonder how on earth you fished properly before.
• Grauvell Teklon Concept Spin 832M - 8'3'' long, casting weight 15-50g - very fast action, incredibly light, easy to fish with. Really well suited I reckon mostly to the more "substantial" sub-surface lures like the MegaBass Zonk 120 Gataride, Tide Minnow 145S, IMA Sasuke 140, Tackle House Feed Shallow etc - casts lures like these a country mile with ease. Fine for working poppers on the surface, but I would like more "subtlety" to the tip if I was going to use a lot of surface lures that required proper working (Xorus Patchinko, Zenith Z-Claw, Lucky Craft GunFish, MegaBass Giant Dog-X, etc.). You could fish soft plastics with this rod if you needed to, but knowing what I know now (remember, big learning curve), in reality you are going to struggle to really feel what is going on when you are fishing "avec la finesse". Both rods seem to be very well built, with decent eyes, good whippings and a really functional and modern looking real seat that just makes them very comfortable to fish with. Check the rod out here - from the off I believed these rods were a hell of a lot for the money and I stand by that. Hugely powerful, indeed I would happily press this rod into service for pollack and wrasse fishing as well.
• Grauvell Teklon Concept Spin 802ML - 8' long, casting weight 10-40g - without doubt from the same "family" as the other one, but this particular rod does have more of a "subtle" tip that I reckon makes for more efficient bass fishing. I am not into the idea of carrying around two different rods when I am on the move and hopping from rock to rock or sandbank to gully and these days I tend to look for a bass rod that will come as close to "doing it all" in one model (hence I use the Tenryu Super Mix 240 most of the time). This particular rod comes that bit closer to this ethos, but nobody would ever try to claim that it has all the feel or subtlety of a really high-end bass rod. But then it is nowhere near that price point. Still a really fast action, very light to hold and fish with, the same build quality as above, but you can press this lighter model into using plastics and topwater lures that bit more effectively. A whole lot of rod for the money, indeed I am over the moon that at last we are starting to be offered fast action plugging rods over here at different price points. Check the rod out here.
• I take my hat off to the people out there who are offering us more and more "modern" bass fishing gear, for it takes time and effort to research or build the goods and bring them to market. Nothing is ever guaranteed, but I reckon that these two Grauvell Teklon Concept Spin rods will do their bit towards bringing a greater degree of feel and efficiency in a spinning/plugging rod to a larger number of anglers. I am sure that plenty of anglers will happily fish with these plugging rods for a long time to come, but of course there is always a percentage who will use them, really like using them, but then might ask "what else is out there that might offer me that bit more and take my fishing to the next level ?". That's just a natural cycle. There, there rods have been revealed, and I hope my findings might prove to be a bit of use to some of you. It ain't that long until Christmas now...........!! Help.

• Via a friend of mine who has a daughter at the school, I was asked to come along to Bishop Cornish school over in Saltash to come and talk to a couple of classes about fishing - I went along on Tuesday morning and it was just huge fun. All the ten and eleven year old children (is that years 5 and 6 ?) at the school are involved in a big school project where they are learning all about their local waters, and this means the fish, the fishing methods (commercial and recreational), fish cookery, you name it, these kids are just into fish in a big way. All credit to the school and to their fantastic teachers - thanks so much for having me along for the morning. I feel deeply honoured to have come and spoken to a bunch of such fantastic children.
• We started off in their classroom where they went through a bunch of photos of them at the fish market, at the aquarium, and in their classroom with various kinds of fish, and they took me through what they have been doing for the last few weeks. I never remember doing anything half as interesting as this when I was at school. Fantastic stuff. You could feel the whole buzzed up atmosphere in the classroom - these guys really seem to be benefitting hugely from their experiences.
• I was then asked to stand up and talk to them all about fishing - I have only ever done this a couple of times, but I so love doing it, indeed if I can go some tiny way towards making the sport of fishing seem relevant and exciting to children like these then I reckon that is about the best thing I can do. We spoke about all kinds of fish and all kinds of fishing, and also I made sure to really get them involved and ask them loads of questions about their own experiences - the last thing I want to do is to stand there and send them all to sleep by just talking and talking all about me and my own fishing. A morning like this is simply not about me, it's about the kids in the classroom. What a bright bunch of children to spend time with. It makes one hugely humble to see youngsters on a learning curve like this, and without a doubt it rams home how kids like these are our future. The more we enthuse them, the better everything might just be....

• But I think that the real highlight for us all was when we got to go out on to their playing fields and start casting - yes, you heard right, we took them out, split them up into three groups, and set about having a kind of mini casting tournament. Bearing in mind that virtually all the kids have never even picked up a fishing rod, they were just awesome. It has always been my theory that basic casting is so easy, and these guys proved it again and again. The girls were easily as good as the boys, indeed there was one particular girl who was just a complete natural from her first ever cast - I placed her hands on the spinning rod, clipped the line into her forefinger, pulled the bale arm back, told her very quickly how to do it, and then stood back. Straight away she got herself into exactly the right position, turned around, looked up, and let fly with the rod. Poetry in motion. Seriously, when you suddenly see a complete beginner who picks it up so quickly it kind of takes the breath away a bit. But in truth, they were all just fantastic, and the time went  by far too fast.

• If we listened too much to the reams of experts out there, most of us would have always believed that the "dark art" of picking up a rod and casting was something that takes years to master. Basic casting is easy, and don't ever let anybody ever tell you it isn't. Left hand down, right hand by the reel, clip the line into your forefinger, snap the bale arm back, turn around and look at the sky - think about throwing a javelin. Bring the rod through, let go of the line, and watch it fly. Easy. Lots of the children were soon telling me that they were going to be asking for a fishing rod and reel for their Christmas present. How cool is that ? Made my week to be honest.

• Look up and just whack it !! What a fantastic school, and my thanks to Helen Jonas for asking me along, and for allowing me to use these photos on the blog. I am pretty sure none of the children fell asleep on me, and I came away feeling really proud to have spent the morning with them all. Thanks so much to all of you.

• As I said, the girls were just as good at casting as the boys. How they took to a great big bloke like me talking rapid-fire at them I will never know, but unless youngsters are encouraged to come into fishing (and into any kind of fishing), then there is no future to the sport. There generally is no more welcoming sport than fishing, we all know that, but at times fishing can be portrayed as something that is pretty difficult to do. And it just is not. Of course all these kids are not suddenly going to become lifelong anglers just because I went and spent the morning with them, but it seems to me that this project that are involved in is really giving them an understanding of the waters around their part of the world. The more they can learn about the outdoors and how invaluable it is, the better equipped they will be for life.
• Anyway, what's the most important thing this weekend ? England v Australia of course, and return of Jonny Wilkinson. I remember laughing a couple of years ago when virtually everybody said Jonny was finished and that he had no future in English rugby. Let's remember one thing here - class is permanent. He's fit, he's playing awesome down in France, and he might just be the catalyst for England to start the lengthy climb back to where they belong - as the number one rugby team in the world. November 2003 was a hell of a long time ago now........it's going to be a hell of a Saturday afternoon.

• There is nothing particularly special about this "grip and grin" shot above - ok, so I am using pro cameras and lenses, and I do know how to process and output my images on the computer, but you could easily take this kind of photo with a bit of thought. Note that although there is a decent bit of light on Andy and the bass, the light behind is pretty grim, and there is no background to work with and provide an extra degree of impact to the shot. As much as I love to shoot creatively, I also have to shoot plenty of "grip and grins" for the magazines I work for - they are often the "money" shot so to speak. I want my photos to be the best that I can make them be, whatever they are of and however creative they can be.
• OK, so we have fairly plain light and a garbage background - but we do have a bass in great condition, we have an easy angler to work with, and we also have a bright coloured waterproof top to lend a bit of colour to the scene. What is the main thing I have done in this photo ? Have another look. Do you see acres and acres of unused space around Andy and the fish ? Do you see any more rubbish sky and wasted pixels than there needs to be ? Bearing in mind that I tend to almost caption my photos in my head as I go along, and I also need to provide a bit of space around some of the photos for designers to work with, I would hope that you might notice that I have framed the photo really tightly around the "man and fish". The photo is all about the angler and his fish, so when conditions are like this, why not keep tight and make the viewer's eye come right in on the main subject matter ? The biggest single mistake I see in anglers' catch shots is that they just stand there and take the photo, without ever moving themselves or using the zoom button on their camera. "Fill the frame" and provide instant impact.
• What else do you notice ? I would hope you pick up on the fact that Andy and the fish are actually in the water - the bass can be lifted up for a photo and then put back in the water to keep it healthy. The fish is being held in a away that supports it, but also lets me show it off as best I can with the conditions I have. Nothing complicated, just common sense and a bit of thought. Look after the fish, prowl around and think a bit about how you might show it off as best you can, come down to the level of "man plus fish", and snap away.And then when you can get creative, go for it.
• One more really important point, and that's where to focus in a photo like this. Auto focus systems are so good on most cameras that it's usually pretty easy to take pin-sharp photos of a static subject like you have here - whenever you are shooting a "grip and grin", always focus on the eyes of the fish. Focus, hold focus, recompose the photo, and fire away. The eyes of the fish are always the most important thing that needs to be sharp in a photo like this. Keep the eyes sharp and you are on the way......

• It isn't always the biggest fish that provide the most impact when shooting a "grip and grin" - ok, so big fish can look really impressive, but when you get some decent light and exciting conditions, then you can make almost any size of fish look good. Give me smaller fish and fantastic conditions over huge fish and rubbish conditions any day of the week. Graham would be the first to admit that the bass above is hardly a monster, but for me it was always about the light and the swirling sea. I am actually lying down on a rock to bring myself down to almost water level, to try and provide better impact. Focus on the eye of the bass, ask the angler to give me a smile, wait a second for the wave to keep coming in (clocked it way back, never tell your subject when you think they might get wet), and then fire away.

• Sea Angler magazine then went and cropped in on (and slightly rotated) what was originally a landscape orientated photo and came up with the front cover above - I can't remember "seeing" the photo as a cover kind of shot, but I was over the moon with how they made it work. There was enough room in my original framing to allow this to work, and the eyes of the fish are pin-sharp. Graham's face is also in focus because I had deliberately asked him to cradle the fish right below the line of his eyes. As I said, not a big bass, but hopefully a very simple "grip and grin" that provides that bit more impact. I am not saying that you need to work on getting your mates soaking wet every time you look for a decent photo (ok, so it's fun to do !!), but look around for something else to bring into the photo to make it that little bit more exciting. Colour, light, scenery etc. Photography is all about light.

• And then sometimes the fish get so big and heavy that you haven't got much choice other than to ask the angler to cradle it as best he can, frame up fairly tight, and make a kind of "wow, this is just a huge fish kind of grip and grin" photo. This is a roughly 100lb cubera snapper that my mate James caught in the remote Iguela lagoon on the coastline of Gabon in central west Africa. Very big fish, but the same principles for the "grip and grin". The kind of photo that works really well as both a memory and as a big central image for a magazine article.

• Or you could just forget all about fishing and instead just involuntarily bang your head to the awesome latest offering from the mighty Hypocrisy. "A Taste of Extreme Divinity" is an album that sees this band back to doing what they do best - crushing and very catchy death metal that blows your proverbial head off at a hundred paces. Listen to a few tracks right here. The kind of album that grows and grows on every listen.

• I can't think of a better way to start the week off than by giving yourself a proverbial creative jolt in the arm - check out the new issue of the continually outstanding online Catch magazine right here. It does not matter one bit what kind of fishing you are interested in, because Catch magazine is simply one of the most visually stimulating fishing publications out there - it's about fly fishing, but in reality it's just about fishing. Makes no difference to me what kind of fishing anybody is in to, because in the end we all just go fishing, and I just love to see any kind of fishing made to look as good as the guys at Catch make it look. Virtually flick through the pages and I can assure you that the world will feel just a whole lot better......

• Here's a screen grab of the table of contents for this particular issue - click on the link here to open up the new issue of Catch magazine, let it load up for a few seconds, and then feast your eyes on it. I am still really proud of the fact that I had a big spread of my photos in their premier issue, and if you are so inclined, you can check my stuff out right here.You have got to give huge credit to the two main guys who put this thing together (Brian O'Keefe and Todd Moen), because they keep on finding some real talent out there in the fishing world. Just take a look at the stunning work by John Juracek in the current issue, where you can take a dreamy look at fly fishing in the breathtaking Yellowstone park in the American West. If his photos don't inspire you to want to head over their and see this place then you need your head examined !! Simply outstanding.
• Look at something like Catch magazine and it makes one wonder more and more what can really be done with the whole fishing magazine world. I recognise that there is a big difference between the online and the printed world, and I also know that magazines need a mix of articles for their variety of readers. But I also firmly believe that there is still plenty of room for making all kinds of fishing look better and better. This comes back a bit to my last post about working in fishing. OK, so it's not as if the world of fishing can suddenly take thousands of "new" photographers and writers, but there is always room for talented people to make their mark. I can't stand seeing fishing done badly. Anybody with half an ounce of talent can make good looking fish, good light and awesome locations look fairly good, but the wheat tends to be sorted from the chaff when things get more tricky. The people who work consistently in the world of fishing are those who consistently deliver good results. Whatever you do in life, that's always the case is it not ?

• 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.

• 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”………..

• 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.

• 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.

• 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..........

• 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.

• 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.........

• A hugely important part of my own fishing is about respect for the fish I chase and sometimes catch - chucking lures at bass is what really floats my boat these days, but it worries me increasingly that so many of our hard plastic lures come with at least two, and often three sets of treble hooks. And on these razor sharp treble hooks are barbs that I personally do not think need to be or should even be there - I have no research or data to back up any of my feelings, but I just don't like the thought of potentially nine little barbed hooks having to be removed from a fish. You can "slide" barbless hooks out, but whichever way you look at it, you can't "slide" barbed hooks out. I have crushed all the barbs on my treble hooks for some time now, and I can see no reason why we should not all be doing it.
• This has nothing to do with taking or not taking the odd fish to eat - however much we love fishing, at the most basic level we are still going out as hunter gatherers. I "hunt" for fish, but for the most part I choose to return them. The angler that hunts and gathers a few is doing nothing wrong at all. But I do firmly believe that getting rid of all those barbs on the hooks gives us a far better chance of swiftly and safely unhooking and then returning a fish such as a bass - if and when we choose to do so. The more I go lure fishing for bass especially, the more I feel "uneasy" about the damage that a bunch of treble hooks can do to a fish when it slashes and churns around - and I feel increasingly uneasy about the thought of having barbs on those hooks as well. I had to kill the first bass I caught in Ireland the other day because so much blood was pouring from the gill area. I could not understand why as the hooks were nowhere near that part of the fish, but these things happen from time to time. It's called fishing after all. I want to catch the fish, but I also want to give that fish the best possible chance of being safely returned to the water.
• At first I started off by removing a treble hook from a few lures that had three on them, but with so many of these finely tuned lures I found that this threw the thing off balance. OK, so it seems that a lot of the lures do actually need the presence of two or three treble hooks to work as they are meant to. I also want to catch the fish that grabs at my lure - what I am not talking about here is trying to lessen our ability to hook and land fish. I am an angler and I want to load the advantage as much as possible in my favour.
• I have heard all kinds of arguments and various reasons from a number of anglers who advocate the need for barbs on their treble hooks - but how many of those people have gone and actually fished without barbs on their treble hooks ? Some fish are simply going to come off whatever you do - remember, it's called fishing. Not catching. Fishing. I personally believe that some fish simply come off because the angler is not putting enough pressure on the fish, and they are not keeping the line tight enough. We come back yet again to people not knowing how hard they can push their gear, and how hard they can play a fish. I don't subscribe to such statements as "well, I might never see a fish like that again so I need the barbs", or "fish come off on barbless hooks when it's rough", or "bass thrash their head and throw barbless hooks" etc. Barbless hooks don't lose fish. Fish just get lost or anglers lose them. And let's think about the largely mandatory use of barbless hooks throughout the coarse fishing world. How many complaints do you hear about that ?
• I have photographed on the remote outer atolls of the Seychelles three times now, and the first thing that the guides do on the flats is to make sure that all their clients' (single hook) flies have the barbs flattened down. There is no other way these FlyCastaway guys will operate, and bear in mind that the clients are paying serious wedge to fish these waters. I have never heard one complaint, and I have never seen one single fish lost (on a single barbless hook remember) that anybody could put down to the fact that the barb had been crushed.
• Give me the fastest and most efficient way of unhooking a fish and I will take it - some guys will say about me "well, Henry then goes and works a lot of the fish for his cameras". But then go and ask anybody who has worked with me just how much attention is paid to the welfare of the fish, and how strongly those fish then swim off.  I will take on board any justifiable criticism, but that is not an argument that can be used when trying to justify the use of barbs on treble hooks. Having to rip three sets of barbed trebles out of all manner of places on a fish plain and simple is not the way forward for the good of the fish, and also the good of our sport. I passionately believe that not only should we be doing the right thing by the fish, but also that we should all be doing our bit to make our sport look as good as possible. The better we make it look, the more that people will look come into fishing. And the more people that come into fishing means the stronger voice we all have to try and safeguard both our sport and our fish stocks. This might be a hugely simple way of looking at it, I grant you that, but I firmly believe it.
• I have put a bunch of photos up on my website from my trip over to south east Ireland the other day - check them out here.

• Anyway, enough about barbs - how about a fantastic new album for a Monday morning ? Rammstein is the kind of band I imagine you either love or hate, but they do write some incredibly catchy and heavy music that gets inside your head in a big way. Their new CD "Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da" is, I reckon, their finest since the monstrous "Mutter" a few years ago now. Check out a few tracks right here. What I think is really touching is that these mad Germans all love their cats so much, they decided to write a song about them called "Pussy". What lovely guys.

• There is no doubt in my mind now that the MegaBass Zonk 120 Gataride is going to become an all time classic bass fishing lure - it just smashes bass, plain and simple. All the Irish lads I know carry them in their lure boxes, and I am at that particular stage now with this lure that I would feel somewhat "under gunned" if I went out bassing without one.They cast like bullets, but what is really impressive is how the lure cuts into and across the wind - meaning you can cover more fishing holding water, and also get the lure nice and stable when the sea is kicking off a bit. The action is what it is - it just seems to turn bass on big time. Crank it, twitch it, do what you will, the Zonk 120 Gataride just seems to find the fish. A classic example of a modern bass fishing lure - check them out here. But as with most items of fishing gear, there is a flaw to this lure - I know a fair few guys who have broken the plastic bib on their Gatarides, and this kills the thing stone dead. Granted, if you hit a rock with the lure, then expect some damage, but the bib is a weakness that you need to be aware of. Be careful though and you will have minimal problems. The lure is that good.
• I have now fished with the my new Shimano Stella 4000FD for plenty long enough to confirm what I already believed - that this stunning spinning reel is flat out the best plugging reel there is (bear in mind that this merely my opinion, fishing tackle is a very personal thing). I know that a lot of anglers would never consider spending this kind of dosh on a spinning reel, but if you are after the best then I can't recommend it highly enough. I will keep fishing with mine and deliver any findings I pick up long term, but you just can't believe how smooth a spinning reel can be when you fish hard with a Shimano Stella. I know we all suffer from the odd wind knot from time to time when using braid, but there has to be something in the intricate line lay that this Stella 4000FD has, for I never came close to any kind of snarl up last week. Bearing in mind that I was chopping and changing between surface lures, soft plastics and diving hard lures, I reckon this is deeply impressive. The drag is on the insanely smooth side, and you can also lock down hard and give the fish some proper grief. Every single thing about this reel just smacks of utter class. I still stand by the fact that a green fish goes back the strongest, and I am very much against playing a bass so light and for so long that they become completely exhausted. I want my fish to come to hand still full of fizz and fight. Photograph them, look after them, and then they swim off nice and strong. As I have said before, there is no going back once you own a reel like the Stella......

• There is nothing more exciting in fishing than smashing a fish off the top - that hit on a surface lure reduces most of us to a gibbering wreck, whether it be a 5lb bass or a 100lb GT. Doesn't matter. Surface fishing rules. But there seem to be times when a bass wants a lure fished literally just below the surface, and I imagine they are hitting them because the lure creates such an irresistible silhouette when viewed from below. There are some great shallow diving lures around like the Tackle House Feed Shallow and the huge range of Duo Tide Minnows (see here), but for those times when you want to force your shallow diver to swim literally just below the surface, I am now turning more and more to the IMA Komomo 125 that you can see above. It just seems to work for bass. You can force it to swim even shallower than it is meant to if that makes sense - cast it out, hold your rod tip up (but drop your arm down to your side), and crank it back at a medium pace. There must be a load of different colours that work well, but I only have the Komomo 125 in the shades you can see above - and it seems to work really well. You can get many lures to swim "artificially" shallower by holding your rod tip on the retrieve, but I don't own any lures that I can make swim as shallow as the IMA Komomo 125. Not a lure for all situations, but increasingly I am learning of different situations that require very specific approaches. This lure took a fish for me the other day when neither surface lures of soft plastic lures were working. I put this on and bang, bass on. Fishing is a constant learning curve, and I love it for that.

• The early bird catches the light - on a clear morning, there is often a wonderful period quite a while before the sun appears when the sky is catching the impending warmth from the rising sun, yet at the same time it still retains a degree of heavy blue/black from the night. This is an awesome time for photography, when you can simply silhouette the angler against the sky and let the light do the talking - the trick is to recognise that your camera wants to "read" the scene somewhat differently from how you actually perceive it. If you are using a digital SLR, make sure to focus on the angler and then dial in at least a stop of minus exposure compensation to retain all that contrast in the sky. I can't tell you how good these Nikon D3 cameras are at high ISO - this shot was around f4 at ISO 2000, and although you will not be able to appreciate the overall cleanness of the file at the small size you can see above, at full resolution I am just blown away. This was south east Ireland very early in the morning last week. I shot the stuff, put down my cameras, picked up my rod, and nailed a 6lb bass. Does me just fine !!

• Can you see the difference in the quality of the light in the two shots above ? I like the photo above, and it will work well in a number of situations for my work, but it does not do it for me as much as the "well before first light shot". Still, anybody into photography and trying to make fishing look as good as possible will know that the best light is usually at the start and the end of the day - various specialist situations aside of course. It just so happens that bass often like to feed around first light.

• The screen grab above is of these Sawamura One Up Shads that are starting to work so well for the bass - I don't know much about them, but I have seen them work, and I am going to try and get hold of some as soon as possible. The person you need to speak to about them is Patrick over in Ireland - check here. You can't beat consistent local information from somebody such as Patrick who is out there so much of the time. Seems that the One Up Shad works on Texposer hooks and on jig heads. Those tails go insane in the current. Lots more to learn.

• We have not had nearly as many bass as we might have expected, but fishing is never the same from one week to the next. There have been three proper fish lost though (vive la France !!) Still, overall we have had a fair few, and on lots of different methods. But one thing that has really struck me is that every single fish we have landed has been in the most incredible condition - plump, extremely well fed, and full of fizz and fight. This stunner above nailed Andy's MegaBass XLayer in the lethal Ayu colour  on a 10g jig head, as he let it swing round in the tide and just gave it a few gentle twitches now and then. We have so much to learn about fishing for bass with these modern soft plastics, and I know that there are plenty of us out there who are thriving on this huge learning curve. All anglers choose to go down whatever path best suits them, but personally I get the biggest kick possible from learning all the time - it's why I can see no reason why fishing will not be my obsession for the rest of my life........

• I am going to be completely honest and admit to you that I caught this prime conditioned 7lb bass above almost by mistake - from time to time it really strikes home that successful fishing is so much about confidence. Having the confidence to work lures "properly" is a big thing, but I am just the same as any other angler - it's hard to stop yourself from cranking hard lures nice and fast (because it works), and it's hard to really slow down and fish soft plastics with a proper degree of "la finesse" as the French guys would say. Bruno (from Ultimate Fishing) has said to me a fair few times now that a very, very effective way to fish with the MegaBass XLayer on a 3-15g jig head (depending on water flow) in a decent tide or current is to simply let it swing through almost dead-drift - by this I mean you essentially let it do its own thing and move/tumble with water flow only. But having the confidence to put no action into the lure and trust that it does it's thing by water movement only takes a bit to really do properly. To me it is very similar to the fly guy casting across the river for salmon and steelhead, and then simply letting the fly dead-drift around and down in the current. They know it works.

• So I'm fishing away and the tide is really picking up properly - I am casting out my white MegaBass XLayer and working it with what I like to think was a fair degree of finesse. But I then heard Patrick shout something about a fish in the distance, and it distracted me. I stopped working my XLayer and instead I could feel it simply tumbling along the bottom down the tide, doing it's own thing. Braid lets you feel everything, and I distinctly remember feeling the jig head nudge a couple of pebbles - bearing in mind that I am still trying to hear what Patrick was shouting about. I am putting no action on the soft plastic lure at all. And then this 7lb bass you can see above just impaled itself on the white XLayer and the rod tip slammed over. OK, so it's not the biggest bass ever caught, and it's hardly the greatest fishing tale ever told - but because the fish hit when the lure was fishing in a way that I have been told would kill, but perhaps did not have the confidence to do (thanks Bruno !!), I now have complete and utter faith to fish with the XLayer like this when the tide allows me to. And that made my day big time. It's always easier to work lures hard. It takes confidence to slow right down - "pecher avec la finesse". Another weapon to my bow.

• You know when a fishing guide is the real deal, because he likes to go fishing on a rare day off - Patrick came and joined Andy and I later on yesterday morning. It was our last day, so we had got up at silly o'clock and had set off on a pretty tough walk to our fishing spot. Patrick timed it far better and nailed a few fish on his way down to us. He also brought us some very much needed coffee and chocolate - thanks mate. Patrick is absolutely raving about a particular soft plastic lure called the "One Up Shad" from the Ultimate Tackle guys, and he has just got a load in. The tail action in the water is just insane, and if you want some, get hold of Patrick via his blog on the right side of this page. From now on is the prime time for really big Irish shore bass, and I also know that Patrick has a few spare days on prime tides - if you can get yourself over to this magical corner of Ireland, then get in touch with him and I guarantee your eyes will be opened right up. 

• As with every trip I do over to Ireland, I have loved every single minute of it. I really enjoy fishing with a bunch of mates, and the friends you make in fishing are so important. But I think that the real highlight for us all was having three days of fishing and talking with the French guys - they all work in fishing, just like me in fact, and they are all just obsessed anglers at heart. Just like us. My spoken French is not that good, but I can get by, and this year I have had plenty of time to spend with these guys and just soak up their methods and opinions. I am sure they have picked up various things from us guys as well (breathable chest waders, great English and Chinese food, cranking the hell out of the Tackle House Feed Shallow, Gold Blend coffee etc.), and to a man they are true gentlemen with nothing to hide about what they do. I think all the guys have been surprised about how open the French lads have been with what they do and why they do it, but then this is what makes fishing the finest sport in the world. No boundaries, no differences, just a bunch of people having a blast, catching a few fish, talking a fair amount of rubbish (we are blokes after all), and making plans for future fishing trips. And so much is based around Ireland, my favourite place on earth. The ferry has left Rosslare and it's getting good and rough..........

• The conditions have really changed, but still the bass fishing over here in south east Ireland has been unusually tough – not quite sure why, but it simply has not fired like I have seen it before. We have caught a fair few bass (plus insane numbers of pollack and also some wrasse) on hard and soft plastic lures. I even nailed my first ever wrasse on a little vertical jig.

• Seeing the way that wrasse engulf soft plastics especially is very cool indeed. The MegaBass XLayer just smashes all kinds of fish in all kinds of conditions, and over all kinds of ground. Watching the different ways in which the French lads work them has been a real eye opener for the rest of us. Spending time with other bass fanatics from across the Channel is a blast.

• But the real stories of these few days has been the bass that have been lost, including one particular fish yesterday evening that Yannick in particular will most likely never forget. We were smashing pollack like it was going out of fashion, mostly on the awesome little Bonito School 20g and 30g vertical jigs from the Ultimate Fishing guys. No really big pollack, but mad numbers around. Bruno also slayed them on XLayers. Yannick was reeling a small pollack in when a proper bass smashed into it and charged off. Now bear in mind that these French lads know all about big bass a load more than somebody like me, yet this fish was having none of it. Yannick held the bass for a second or two before it charged off for at least sixty yards. It then obviously spat the pollack out and left the poor Frenchman with just the remains you can see here. None of will ever know how big that bass was, and I guess we could speculate until the cows come home, but it was a serious monster. I have never seen a bass move off like that, and with such insane power. Gutted. Yannick was in a state of shock for a while – in all his years of bass fishing, he admitted that he had never, ever felt a fish like that.

• I did see a couple of pollack taken off the surface yesterday morning on the Xorus Patchinko (a first for me), and another of the French lads was smashed to pieces by a decent bass on the Zenith Z-Claw. I really like watching the different ways they fish with their various surface lures, and if I am honest, they are doing it with a huge degree more finesse than I do.

• We had a very cool couple of hours around low water today, fishing a completely new spot for me over here. It was kind of like the south east corner of Jersey on a far smaller scale – rivers of tide pouring between the rocks, creating the most incredible array of rips, back eddies, gullies, holes and other fish holding features. As we turned up, a mate of Patrick’s was into yet another bass that smashed into his Patchinko (a truly great surface lure, interesting that the French lads really like white, silver and yellow), and Andy and I quickly nailed a couple of decent bass around the 5lb mark. Any fish off the surface is always very special, and in that tide they came up and literally launched into the lures and then raced off. I can’t see how much more fun fishing can get. It went pretty quiet after that, but just those few moments have done it for me in a big way. We have one more day left to see what we can do – the wind is howling southerly at the moment, so tomorrow we are going to tuck away and fish somewhere that can chuck up some really tidy fish during autumn and winter. Tomorrow is always another day, and that’s a huge part of the buzz. I have seen my dream house over here – just got to find a suitcase full of cash somewhere……..

• It can't be that often that you need rougher conditions for shore fishing in the middle of October, but at the moment it is about as flat calm and crystal clear over here in Ireland as I have ever seen - we are fishing really, really hard, and we are getting a few bass, but it's fairly tough to be honest. I simply can't believe that October can be as flat as this - stunning weather, but not that good for bass fishing. Above is Graham with a 6lb fish I nailed this morning on the (lethal) MegaBass Zonk Gataride. This lure is just awesome for bass. Cian had a good 7lb bass the first morning, and Yannick Cordier (the boss of Ultimate Fishing) was torn to pieces by a proper fish on a brand new lure he was testing out. Guess it works !! He also had a big fish come off this morning. Frustrating, but that's fishing...some nice fish coming on surface lures as well.

• Tough conditions for fishing, but awesome light for photography. First light this morning, about as good as it gets for me and my cameras. We are having a blast fishing and spending some time with the French guys - they know their bass fishing big time, and all of us are learning plenty that we can apply to our own fishing when needs be. Meeting and working with different people in fishing is what makes it so interesting for me.

• I got the shock of my life when this 8lb pollack hit me the other morning - I was plugging away for bass with my beloved IMA Komomo lure, when this thing hit me like a steam train. I thought it was a seriously good bass because it was hooked right in the back and just snorted off at a hell of a pace and generally behaved like a (really big) bass. Thought this was it. Gotta say though, I never felt worried about landing it for one second with the Tenryu Super Mix 240. What a rod, it keeps on amazing me. And my new Shimano Stella 4000FD is just awesome to use for this fishing. Better than I hoped it would be, insanely smooth and with huge guts. That's Yannick kindly holding my pollack for a photo before we put the fish back.

• We have landed a fair few bass, but not in the numbers or size that this time of year usually produces over here. There are reports of some decent fish around and about, but it is taking a degree of hard fishing to get some reward. But it is huge fun and I am loving being here as always. Ireland is always hugely special. These French guys really are into their bass fishing in a huge way, and they are so interesting to talk to about how they work certain lures in specific situations - completely open with what the do and why they do it, and fascinating for all of us to spend a few days fishing together.
• I am sorry for not updating the blog more often out here, but we have been out and about virtually all the time, plus the internet connection is painfully slow. We have three more days fishing, so we shall see what happens. Rod "X" is a pretty special bit of kit for the money and I will keep playing around with it.

• I can not tell you enough about how good this little Stella 4000FD is. But the problem with this kind of gear is that there is never any going back - just like red rods, really good lures, decent braid etc. Help !! More to come.......

• Here are a couple of recent front covers of mine for Trout Fisherman magazine - the shot above I am really, really pleased that it was picked out as a cover. You are never quite sure how people will take your photos, but I do remember standing in the river on a small step ladder and lining this one up - the moment I nailed it I thought it would make a decent cover, so it's cool when that gets picked up on and used exactly how you envisaged it. Believe it or not, this does not actually happen very much.

• If you have any interest at all in how good fishing can look, then please take a look at this blog post and get yourself along to one of the cinema dates of the forthcoming RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival 2009, where they will be showing a bunch of short films that showcase some of the most stunning, outstanding and little-known fly fishing on this earth. It doesn't matter what kind of fishing floats your boat, because I bet that a bunch of us here are into the visual side of the sport  in a big way. Here are the dates and locations, but make sure to check out the website here as well :

LONDON SHOW
Vue West End Cinema

Tuesday, 10th November 2009

7.30pm-9.30pm

READING SHOW
Vue Cinema - Reading
Wednesday, 11th November 2009
7.30pm-9.30pm

MANCHESTER SHOW
Vue Cinema – Manchester Lowry
Monday, 16th November 2009
7.30pm-9.30pm

EDINBURGH SHOW
Dominion Cinema 

Wednesday, 18th November 2009

8pm-10pm

EXETER SHOW (I am going to this one)
Vue Cinema - Exeter
Monday, 23rd November 2009
7.30pm-9.30pm
 

• There are a bunch of people working in fishing who strive to do things differently, and personally I reckon these individuals deserve huge respect. I remember when I first started making my fishing programmes, when the cameras (BetaCam SP if I remember rightly) were massive, very heavy, and horribly expensive. Asking the crew to walk another two miles to the next headland made me feel kinda guilty (but I still did it !!). But look at how the world has changed, and then look at guys like Gin-Clear media who go out and make the most outstanding fly fishing films because they can, they want to, they are very good at it.The guys are doing these things off their own back, and they have proper talent. Technology is there these days to allow people to have a go, and I admire the hell out of the guys who go out on a limb - take it from me, it is hugely rewarding, but it is far from easy. There are a bunch of trailers  from these short films right here (you can also book tickets for the showings here as well) - I have seen their short film called "The Source - Tasmania", and it is just awesome.
• I will be going along to the showing in Exeter on 23rd November and I hope to see some of you there. Guys like this need all the support that fishermen can give them - we might not go and do some of this fishing, but surely a glimpse of other fishing worlds is vitally important ? I want to know about all kinds of places and all kinds of fishing, and I really like learning about the different ways of doing things. The whole world is of interest to me, and not just my backyard. I also just like seeing strong fishing visuals because they just give me a buzz. Here is the programme of events for the film shows :

Welcome
Introduction to first two films

Rivers on the edge (10 mins)
A short film by Charles Rangely-Wilson concerning the plight of the English chalk streams and what we can do to save them.

Raising the ghost (25 mins)
Chronicle 7 epic days of fly fishing on a remote British Columbia river. The Fly Boys team is attempting to catch Steelhead on dry fly.

Introduction to feature film

The Source – Tasmania (50 mins)
Strap yourself in for a breathtaking ride through Australia’s fly fishing wonderland.

Question and Answer
Prize Draw
Introduction to final film

The Source – Iceland (10 mins)
A teaser from the upcoming full-length feature shot on location in Iceland 2009

Photo courtesy Cian O'Halloran

• Now, how on earth am I meant to be able to concentrate on my work when my Irish mates keep emailing me photos like the one you can see above ? "I stopped for a little bit on the way back from work the other day" goes Cian O'Halloran, "and managed to catch a couple of nice bass. Biggest was this 8.5lb fish." Literal translation in my mind - "I decided to hell with too much work for the day, conditions were just so good. Made a couple of calls claiming to be ill, sneaked out somewhere along the coast of southern Ireland and filled my boots." Jealous, me ? Never......
• Check out the condition of this bass, now that is an autumn fish in prime condition. I note also that Cian is not showing off his pearly white teeth in this photo - perhaps they have just been done and he did not want to cause too much glare in his camera lens !! The fish went back unharmed by its experience with the whitest, shiniest teeth in southern Ireland. Don't believe me ? See below (sorry mate !!) See you guys later in the week, still waking up at silly o'clock with excitement - I am actually embarassed to admit to the time I got up this morning. It's not right. This week's bassing is going to be done on pure adrenaline and a whack load of coffee for me. Bring it on - Andy and I go and get the StenaLine Fishguard to Rosslare ferry on Wednesday, and like last time, we are staying right in the middle of bass heaven at one of the houses I told you about the other day (see here).

• Talking of short films again, check out a short trailer to a short film that my youngest brother made recently right here. I have seen the full fifteen minute short and it scared the hell out of me - it blew me away in fact, it was just awesome. Very, very unsettling and menacing, and really well put together. If he puts the whole short film up on the internet, I will let you know.

• I'm nearer 40 than 30, I have a couple of kids, a wife and a dog. I pay my taxes and my mortgage every month. I don't smoke, I don't drink, and drugs have simply never been my thing. I drive a really exciting silver Ford Focus estate (but it's got a wicked stezza) and I never swear in front of my girls. I would lay down my life for my family. We live in a nice house in a great part of the world.
• But I do fishing. I do fishing to the point that I had no choice some years ago now but to go hell for leather and try to make my working life revolve around the sport. There was nothing else that I could consider doing. I spend my working life around fishermen and fishing. I spend three or four months each year away from my family and home, either photographing or filming. I don't like leaving my wife and girls, but we do what we do, and we get on with it. You might think that from time to time I reach my limit and feel that I might have had enough of fishing and being around fishing and need to take a break away........

• Yeah, right !! As if. I don't fish nearly as much as I used to, but I get to be around it all the time. Occasionally when I don't pick up a rod for a bit, I then begin to wonder if I do actually love fishing as much as I used to. A bit of doubt begins to creep in now and then. I suppose it's perfectly normal, but it can freak me out a bit. 
• But then I start to sleep really badly and wake up at stupid o'clock because I am so ridiculously overexcited about heading over to Ireland next Wednesday to fish for bass. OK, so my cameras are always with me, and if the fishing goes off then photos are my priority (but then I love photography as much as I love fishing), but I know that all is right with my fishing obsession when I still feel like this about going fishing. Bearing in mind that I have been lucky enough to have seen some of the finest fishing on this earth in the last few months (Bolivia, Mongolia, Iceland), yet knowing that I have a week in Ireland with my mates to look forward to makes me feel like a child on Christmas Day all over again. I suppose we are what we are, and at heart I am always going to be a UK sea angler. Whatever I do and wherever I am lucky enough to go for my work, for my own personal fishing I still just want to go and fish for bass with my mates. And when it's a trip over to Ireland, then I just can't see how things can get any better.

• Should I be this excited, or am I slightly strange ? I am one of three brothers, and the youngest one of us has never fished in his life. He simply does not get it at all. He told me that last weekend he saw a some bass fishing programme of mine on the box for the first time and said that I had been drinking too much coffee !! But he is not an angler. He doesn't get how exciting going fishing can be. What you see with me is always what you get, and I guess that from time to time I just "click" with my fishing, and it fires me up big time. OK, so I do drink a lot of coffee in the mornings, but I also know that I will essentially be on a complete and utter adrenaline high for our whole week over in Ireland.  I'll walk , wade and clamber as many miles as it takes to do what we do. Whatever the weather does, however the fish behave or do not, it's all about what does it for you. And going bass fishing with a bunch of good friends in the country I love more than any other on this earth is what does it for me. Life's a pretty simple thing at the end of the day, at least that is what I believe, and going fishing is about as good as it gets.

• OK, so I buckled. I finally capitulated. I gave in to my cravings and allowed myself to be weak-willed. I showed a distinct lack of inner strength. I might well need professional help to deal with my problem. I went and got a Shimano Stella 4000FD. How could I resist any longer ? For years now I have held off from getting various Stella models for different kinds of fishing all over the world. I showed true resolve in not kitting myself out with at least four of them, and I saved my bank balance from a serious hammering. But no longer could I hold out, and I have finally got the perfect reel to use for bass fishing, and specifically the right size reel to pair up with my Tenryu Super Mix 240. There you have it. I am weak and I need help. I just could not resist getting my mitts on what is in my opinion (and many anglers the world over would agree with me) the finest spinning reel there is.

• Just reading the specification list makes my heart race a little faster, and I don't even know what most of it means. What I do know is that I have fished with some of the Stella models around the world, and they just feel about as good as a spinning reel can be. Stupidly smooth, insane drags, and a feeling of overall "tightness" for want of a better word. They're just plain different and awesome to fish with. There is no bass that swims in European waters that is going to trouble a half-tidy spinning reel, we all know that, but if lure fishing for these wonderful creatures is your thing as seriously as it is mine, then I would guess that your eyes have wandered over plenty of expensive catalogue pages before. I did my best to hold off getting a Stella, but finally I just thought "what the hell, you only live once" and got one. I have been tempted by the Stella 4000FD in particular as soon as I saw them, but it was not until Patrick sauntered down the beach early one morning in August with a brand new one strapped to his red rod that I mentally capitulated. A couple of casts and retrieves later and my resolve had melted as fast as a bass smashes into a hapless morsel of food.
• Obviously my new Stella is going to be loaded with braid for my bass fishing, and I owe it to the reel to use what I seriously believe is the best bass fishing braid we can get our hands on. It is not cheap, but the best never is - I have used it for a long time now and I just can not find one single fault with it. At first I thought that the Varivas Avani Sea Bass Max Power PE braid in the light grey 20lb might be too thin for our bass fishing, but I have been proved completely wrong. You can horse fish with it, cast miles, fish in and around horrible stuff, wrench plugs out of plenty of snags, and just keep on using and abusing it for ages. You can get this braid right here. I know technology marches on and on, but at the moment I am struggling to think of ways that a braided mainline can get any better - ok, I do really like bright lines, and perhaps if they did this specific braid in a bright green, yellow or orange then I would be completely made up. Just like the Stella though, it's top end gear that does the job.
• As an aside on braid, I am always in favour of using a short length of 20-30lb fluorocarbon leader that is tied to a small JB clip (see here) - some people tell me that I am weakening my overall line strength by doing this, but considering that I have stood next to anglers and literally straightened out treble and single hooks with my set-up, then I reckon what I am doing is plenty strong enough for our bass fishing. Some guys get worried about a knot that joins braid to fluoro and then use a little swivel, but all you need is a decent knot and you will be fine. Some guys like to use braid direct to their lure, and that works for them - I suppose it's horses for courses. With most braids (and especially with the Varivas ones) for bass fishing, I use what is generally known as a "modified Albright knot"  (see here) to attach my braid to my 30cms of fluorocarbon, and then I put a couple of half-hitches back around the braid mainline with my braid tag-end - does this make sense ? I then dab a little bit of superglue/angler's glue on the knot and let it dry. This connection is incredibly strong.

• Above is a Stella 4000FD in use - mine is still in it's lovely shiny box, but I am about to load it up with line and then use the hell out of it in Ireland next week. Expect a slew of photos of my new purchase all over the blog in due course, plus long-term test findings and observations. Reels like this are often a special order item and most places here in the UK will not hold them in stock. The guys here can order one quickly for you if needs be. I can not be held responsible though if you are as weak-willed as me when it comes to good fishing tackle......

• There's no getting away from the fact that decent polarised sunglasses are one of the most important things we can lay our hands on when it comes to fishing - whether you go for bass, bonefish, redfish or mullet etc., the extra vision that  good polarised lenses give you is invaluable. And not to mention the protection they afford your eyes during long periods on the water, plus the cover they give your eyes with hooks flying around. I am not one for jumping from product to product, but for a while now I have been wearing and testing some Costa del Mar sunglasses, and I simply can not speak highly enough of them. I mean it when I say that it's like seeing the world in high-def - their 580 lenses are off the scale they are so good.

• The "Man-o-War pair" above work just fine for me, but it's the different kinds of 580 lenses that need a bit of explanation for our fishing. I have used various colours of their 580 lenses and I reckon I have found the best ones for various situations that we face here and abroad. Bass fishing is obviously one of the things I do most, and whereas you might think that perhaps the 580 Copper lenses would give us the best overall feel for our northern European fishing, in fact I reckon that the 580 Silver lenses are the best all round ones. The Copper ones are stunning for bright days, but the Silver ones have the edge I reckon for all kinds of light - they have a slight warm-up feel to them that I like hugely, but they just seem to have this extra clarity for the various types of light we come across in our fishing. I am not convinced that "Silver" is the best word to describe the silver lenses if that makes sense, for they are like a toned down version of the copper ones. Whatever they are called though, mine are virtually welded to my face. And those extra rubber bits on the frames of the glasses above can be easily removed if you want to. I have used and abused mine in the UK, Iceland, Ireland, Bolivia and Mongolia so far and they are going as strong as they were on day one.

• If you are after a somewhat "warmer" feel to the world, then use the Costa del Mar 580 Copper lenses - if I had never come across the Silver ones then I would happily use these virtually all the time. There is some weird technology going on with these 580 lenses, for they just seem to give that extra bit of "lift" to what you see. I can't explain it very well, except to say that if you after some proper polarised sunglasses, you owe it to yourself to go and try a pair on. Everything just seems to become that much "clearer" if that makes any sense !! I know that Nick Hart does them at his shop, so give them a shout and ask them what they think - check here. Even better, drop in if you are in the area and try some on.

• Now there is one particular kind of Costa del Mar 580 lens that is an extra bit special for really bright conditions - if you fish the tropical flats or are lucky enough to get some big, blue sky days over here, then the 580 Green Mirror polarised lenses are insane. I don't know what it is, and I have no idea why green mirror should provide such a "snap" in clarity when fishing in bright conditions, but they do. I first played around with a pair back in Belize earlier in the year when a friend of mine had some with him, and although I was reluctant to admit it, they completely blew me away on the flats. They are that good. I still think the 580 Silver lenses are the best all round ones for us (and bear in mind that I have not yet tried the 580 Gray or Blue Mirror), but for certain specific applications I can't get over how good these 580 Green Mirror ones are. No, they are not cheap, and no, not every angler can justify buying a pair. But if you are after the best out there, then Costa del Mar is where it's at right now. I very much like the fact that virtually every guide and good fisherman I work with overseas is wearing Costa del Mar sunglasses, and this means to me that this company is deadly serious about working within the sport fishing market. "Costas" as they are known have been around for a while now, we all know that, but it's with these 580 lenses that I reckon they have hit the jackpot with anglers.
• If you managed to get out fishing over the weekend, I hope you did well. Autumn seems to have arrived literally in the last couple of days down here, and I am hearing lots and lots of good reports from all over the place. But you might like to check out Patrick's blog right here - they had a shed load of bass yesterday, with the biggest about 7lbs, all on lures, and all returned. I am off over to Ireland the middle of next week, and I can't wait. Might pop into a few estate agents and start dreaming !! Honestly, I don't know how much more I can take of not living over there.............
• How could we get through a Monday without a regular does of black metal ? IT HAS ARRIVED AND IT IS TRULY SPECIAL. The new Immortal album "All Shall Fall" popped through my letterbox late last week, and after repeated listens I reckon it's going to take something truly special to knock this masterpiece off my album of the year spot. I wanted it to be awesome, and I would have been gutted if it had not been. I had to give it multiple spins to convince myself that it really was as good as I thought it was first off, and that I was not blinding myself with the fact that Immortal are one of the greatest metal bands in the world (trademark ). "All Shall Fall" is just so good I am slightly at a loss for words. If black metal can take your breath away, then this album does that all the way through. Heavier than hell, catchier and more memorable than I ever thought possible, full of different moods, paces and feel - some music just has "atmosphere" in spades, and Immortal has always had this. This latest CD has heaps of it, indeed I can close my eyes, let the music thunder through my skull, and in an instant I am in the frozen, icy grimness of the north, waving my (once) long hair around and howling at the stars. Atmosphere ? Immortal puts you right there. If any kind of metal is your thing, then at least go and listen to the opening track "All Shall Fall" on their MySpace page here. I just can't see how music can get any better than this. Even my two girls love dancing around to this track when I blast it out downstairs. "Please Dad, can you put black metal on ?" I  kid you not. My wife thinks we are all mad, but you have to start 'em young. If any album this year can knock this new Immortal one of its perch then I will be amazed. I am a happy man.

• Had a blast plugging on the mighty Chesil Beach this morning with a fantastically talented local bass fanatic called Mark Padfield. Left Plymouth at 4am to take advantage of the tides, and it was a really fun few hours lure fishing. My thanks goes to Mark for taking me out and letting me work my cameras around him. Working with guys like this is what makes my job so special. Imagine meeting up with me early in the morning - it takes real courage !! Could drive any sane man to drink......

• Above is Mark landing another nice bass - we didn't get anything massive this morning, but bear in mind that Mark had one over 10lbs on a lure last weekend I think it was. That is one hell of a bass, and especially when you bear in mind that Mark knows exactly where to fish on a stretch of shingle that I believe is 17 miles long !! I felt rather "lost" for want of a better word, but Mark put me on the fish.

• A stunning fish that has just caught the first rays of a new dawn creeping over the shingle bank behind us. All the bass went back just fine. There was an incredible amount of bait in the water - mackerel hitting shoals of whitebait, garfish everywhere, and a load of bass that were most likely somewhat preoccupied with all the food on offer.

• This guy knows exactly what he is doing when it comes to bass fishing, and I learnt loads this morning - different lures, different ways to fish them off the beach etc. All good stuff, and more info to put in the memory bank and pull out when required.

• I am fast falling in love with this lure in a big way - "lure love ?" Is it just plain sad, or are others out there feeling the same things for their favourite bass lures ??!! I personally reckon we are going to be hearing more and more about various models from the extensive IMA range, and the lure that did the most damage for me on Chesil today was the IMA Sasuke 140 in the exact colours you see above. In fact this is the only one of these lures I actually own, and every time I whack it out I am hoping that nothing goes wrong and I get it back intact. It is a killer - belt it out and retrieve it nice and steady - seems to work just fine like this. Speak to the bass freaks at Bass Lures about IMA lures, plus a whole load more. Check them out here.

• Mark choosing another deadly lure from his extensive collection. He carries a fair few, indeed I felt rather inadequate when I first pulled out my lure box with a kind of "look at these beauties" glance at Mark - he just quietly pulled out box after box and I went all quiet !!

• Isn't it so often the way that the most uncomplicated bits of kit are often the best and most useful ? I have got hold of a brand new little book called the "RYA Pocket Guide to Fishing Knots", and I reckon it is just fantastic. Small, simple, uncluttered, very easy to follow and understand, and what's more it is waterproof - this kind of thing really appeals to me. And it's a very cheap book to buy, check out the price here. There are a lot of fishermen out there who could benefit from carrying a little book like this with them - I reckon I am ok on my knots, but there are various ones in there that I had no idea about. Don't they always say that you learn something every day ? The learning process never stops in fishing, indeed that is a huge part of the appeal to me.

• I have not seen the other two RYA pocket guides on rigs and baits, but if they are anything like the Fishing Knots book then they deserve a proper look at. Ex-Plymouth charter skipper Jim O'Donnell is listed as the technical editor /author for these books, and I know exactly how much work goes into a book of any size or length, so all credit due to the guy for helping the RYA get these things onto the market. From the three books that I have been involved in, I know how hard it is to successfully display diagrams on knot tying that can actually be followed, but this book has nailed it.
• One thing worries me though about my own knot tying abilities - the two main knots that I use in my fishing are not in there. Does that mean my knots are in fact rubbish, am I tying them wrong, or am I simply in need of a refresher course on tying fishing knots ??!! I will let those who fish with me decide on the right course of action for me to take........whatever the situation, it's a very good book. I like stuff that is to the point.

• I went out to Plymouth Breakwater on Monday night to photograph a bit of conger fishing from the shore - they had a big competition out there the day before, and Rob Yorke won it with a 34lb eel that he essentially sight fished to in the daytime !! He and Mark saw the fish, Rob put a bait out, and they watched the conger literally inhale the offering right beneath their feet - the fish was weighed and released. Nice one guys. So hopes were pretty high for Monday night......

• Whatever way you look at it, just being out on the breakwater at night is a pretty awesome experience - looking back at Plymouth across the Sound is a hell of a sight, and the weather was very kind to us. But for some reason the eels were not really playing ball in any big way - Mark Bryce landed this one you can see above, some more straps were also taken, yet the really big eels that have to live out there were keeping their heads down. Keep your eyes and ears open down here, for there are plans coming together to hold plenty more days and nights out on the breakwater - on Sunday they also had mullet and wrasse to nearly 6lbs, plus a nice plaice, so it's a place seriously worth fishing. When I hear more, you will see the news here on this blog.
• Congering from the shore is proper stuff, indeed they are one of the few species we have around our coasts that can get really big and hit back seriously hard. There were at least a couple of much better fish lost on Monday night, indeed that is always the case when going for them in a serious way, but I can't wait to get back out there and see the guys try again. When time was not an issue, I used to spend a scary amount of time chasing eels from the shore, and living in Plymouth gives us access to arguably the best big eel locations in the UK - namely Devil's Point and Mutton Cove within the River Tamar system. Hard fishing, lots of blank trips, but proven big fish marks time and time again. You need a huge amount of everything to come together just at the right time kind of luck to land big eels off the shore, and I know a few very good anglers who have done so consistently over the years. They have my utmost respect.

• Young (ok, not really), single (not really either), wildly attractive (girls ?), a mighty fine angler and one of the nicest guys you could hope to know (true) ,with the ability to stay alert all night long. Available to you at a special price. A top bloke, always good for "don't worry Henry, I know how to get home", and then starts snoring in the back of the van five minutes later. I know Yorkie won't mind me posting this stunning photo of him resting his eyelids for a couple of minutes on Monday night. I got his best side !!

• As the interest in what I would term "modern-style" bass fishing seems to keep on exploding, I am constantly being asked about the kinds of rods I might advise somebody to invest in for fishing all these different kinds of lures we are getting our hands on these days. Fishing rods are a very personal thing, and I am never sure whether I am actually qualified to dish out advice on these matters when there are guys out there who know more than I will ever know, but here's a few Monday morning thoughts....
• As yet, most of the more specialist kind of plugging rods that are being used are still coming to us via France or Japan - and if you do your homework these days, you can pick up some real bargains. And I mean the kind of plugging rods that really work well and will deal with all manner of hard and soft lures (plus land the fish of course). I would love to be able to say "go out and buy plugging rods from UK tackle companies", but so far I am unaware of any UK fishing tackle company who has grabbed the bull by the horns and delved into the rapidly growing sector of the market. Perhaps one day this might change ?

• Above is a photo of North Devon bass fisherman Nigel Gullon being guided by Patrick Gallagher (see here) over in south east Ireland, and Nigel was using a plugging rod that I first really became aware of over at the Nantes bass show earlier this year. Nigel knows exactly what he is doing when it comes to bass fishing - he did not want to spend what is a hell of a lot of money on a red Tenyru rod, so he did his research and bought the Sakura Shukan 8'6'', a rod that is not that expensive, and for the money is just insanely good for this type of bass fishing. We simply do not have a history of making spinning/plugging rods like this here in the UK, yet for sensible money, this Sakura Shukan is one hell of a rod. Fast action, light, powerful, very well built, and something to fish both hard and soft lures with ease. I know how much Patrick rates these Sakura rods because he now stocks them and is selling loads to his anglers. Talk to him about them right here. Mick also sells them over in Jersey, contact the guys here. Personally, if I had got one of these Sakura rods early last year and knew no different, then I would be more than happy to use them for my own bass fishing. A lot of rod for the money - apparently they are now selling for around £130, or the equivalent in Euros. I know of no other plugging rod out there that is such good value for money.

• ......but the problem is that I stumbled on these red Tenryu rods early last year, via Mick at Mr. Fish over in Jersey - and therefore I lay the blame for my red love affair firmly at his door. There are a huge number of rods in the Tenryu range, and arguably you could do no wrong with using at least five or six different models for our shore fishing over here, and perhaps a few more off the boat. I own two of them, and in a perfect world I would like to own a load more. If somebody comes to me now and says "what is the best bass rod I can get my hands on, cost be damned ?", then now I reckon the answer is a very easy one.
• The Tenryu Super Mix 240. There it is. In my mind, unquestionably the best all round modern-style bass plugging rod for fishing with hard and soft lures, from shore and boat. Of course, as I said earlier, rods are a very personal thing, but with the Super Mix 240, I seriously can't think of any kind of angler who won't get on with it, and so far I have yet to come across a bass fishing situation that this rod does not cope with. As a "do everything with hard and soft lures really well" kind of rod, it's the best out there - but only in my opinion. The Red Dragon Express copes a little better with the bigger and much heavier lures (as it is meant to), but it simply does not have the feel of the Super Mix - the new Tenryu Injection is obviously better suited to a higher degree of finesse fishing with smaller hard and soft lures especially (as it is meant to), but it is not designed to go much heavier. It's a bit of  a case of how specialist do you want to get ?
• I need to carry one rod with me when I go bass fishing, and this one rod has to give me the confidence to chop and change between methods at will, from rocks, tide rips, estuaries, beaches, rough seas, calm seas, distance and close range work, surface and sub-surface lures etc. I am not into carrying say three different rods, especially since I have always got various amounts of camera gear on my back as well, and increasingly the only rod I carry is this Tenryu Super Mix 240 (see some more thoughts on this rod here).
• I am not paid to say this, and I do not work for Ultimate Fishing. I bought this rod because I reckon it's the best one I can get my hands on (my thanks still goes to Bruno at Nantes for his invaluable advice on this rod, see you in October), and I can't be more honest than that. It is not cheap, and I even reckon that there are rods for less money out there that are finished off better, but the actual rod part is just plain and simply outstanding. I am not an angler who is into the really technical side of fishing, and the ins and outs of rods and reels don't do a huge amount for me, but there are various bits and pieces I am sure we all own that just fit the bill. This Tenryu Super Mix 240 is that bit of kit for me. You can now get Tenryu rods from Mick here, and also from Patrick over in Ireland here. Your money, your choice. Just don't blame me if you get into these rod rods and can't kick the habit.............

• I am usually pretty good at keeping up to date with processing photos from the various shoots I do, but I had to put my August Irish trip material on the backburner and concentrate on going to Bolivia and Mongolia, and then sorting out all the images from those trips for a couple of deadlines. But I have caught up now, and here a couple of little bass detail shots from August, on a fish that my mate Andy nailed on an Xorus Patchinko - one of the great surface lures. Whack it out, get the rod tip up, and "walk" it back - a high rod tip makes it far less tiring on your forearms, and the lure works just as well like this. Then drop the rod tip as the lures comes closer to you. Andy loves his Patchinko so much he even went after one when it cracked off - those with a sensitive disposition should avert their eyes, but here's the proof. A braver man than me.....

• And talking of Ireland, I am heading back out there in mid-October for a week or so - much as I love the place, I do actually need as much bass related material as I can get my hands on. I know of no better place to do this. Still trying to persuade my wife that we need to move over there for good.............
• Anyway, these two items are going to help you concentrate properly - a couple of new metal videos that are a load of fun. Kinda cheesy in places, but the songs are good. The mighty Dutch death metal group God Dethroned's new video is here, and Norway's Susperia has a new one here. Bang your head and be proud !! But none of these videos can come close to stirring the soul quite as much as one of my all time favourite death metal tracks - each time I blast it out of my speakers, I feel like becoming a Viking. Even my two girls love this song. The mighty, awesome, emotional and insanely good "Cry of the Blackbirds" by the one and only Amon Amarth. Watch the video here and let's all become Vikings together. Oh, and then I might take myself off somewhere and try growing up.

"Hi Henry, how's tricks ? No, not been guiding today, I had a day off".

"Nice one Pat, I bet you had a really boring day catching up on paperwork and doing emails etc."

"Ummmmmmm, not quite. You see, I have had a delivery of some new lures and I needed to go out fishing to see how they performed for my clients. I didn't really want to go out bass fishing, but I had to, purely for research purposes of course. And I by mistake managed to nail a couple of nice fish of 7lbs and 8lbs, product testing of course. And that new Tenryu Injection rod is something else as well."

"What a terrible day that must have been Pat. Going out product testing is a terrible thing to have to do. It must have been awful to have to have caught two such nice bass when all you wanted to do was see how the new lures performed in the water. I would far rather have done paperwork and emails."

• "Product testing" is one of those all time classic excuses for nipping out fishing, and I actually think that Pat for a couple of seconds thought I might have fallen for it !! But I think he knew he was rumbled as soon as the word "swine" tumbled involuntarily from my mouth when he mentioned those two cracking bass. And here's one of them (swine !!). Book some fishing time with Pat here and you too can learn some new excuses for those times when you might need them.......he even has the new Tenryu Injection bass rod in stock, and if subtle fishing with soft plastics and light hard lures if your thing, make another excuse and "by mistake" purchase one.

Photo courtesy Patrick Gallagher

• Anyway, onto more serious matters - thrash metal. Anybody into this form of music will I am sure have Megadeth's legendary album "Rust in Peace" in their mental list of top ten thrash metal albums of all time (along with Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets etc.). Hell, the song "Tornado of Souls" off that album is one of the best thrash tunes ever written - don't believe me ? Listen to it here and then bow down in worship. The problem with releasing such a good album is that it then becomes so hard to better it, indeed have Metallica for example ever come close to bettering "Master of Puppets" ? Let me answer that one for you - no, not even close.  And don't give me any rubbish about the Black album being their best, because it quite clearly isn't. The new album called "Endgame" from Megadeth is very good, and it is growing on me with each listen - it is not "Rust in Peace", and it was never going to be, but it is fantastic, and if your head does not start banging up and down in pure reflex at those crunching riffs, then you need to go and see somebody. Listen to a few tracks off the new album here.
• But I will tell you about the forthcoming metal release that I am seriously overexcited about, and I mean the kind of excitement that affects my sleep - the mighty and peerless Norwegian black metal band Immortal split up a few years back after releasing the seminal "Sons of Northern Darkness" album (without a doubt in my list of top ten black metal albums of all time). But they are back, and in a few days their new album comes out - mine has been on pre-order I think ever since it was announced. Any black metal nut is going to have a bunch of classic Immortal albums in their collection, and I can not tell you how much I am looking forward to spinning the new CD when it turns up like you would not believe. One of the truly great metal bands of our time.

• I do not come from a black and white photography background at all, but I am always looking around for opportunities that I think might work in this interesting format. When I finally got the chance out in Mongolia to shoot some really moody casting/fishing shots, I instantly had them in the back of my mind as black and white photos, as you can see here. They work in my mind because the fisherman is lit from the left, and since the flow of the river was running right to left in the photos, it means that only one side of them is lit up strongly - I think this gives them just enough prominence in the overall photo, but I will leave it for you to decide if they float your boat or not. Or have I simply disappeared up my own backside with the airy-fairy artiness of it all ??!!

• When there is such a narrow field of light to illuminate the fisherman, I really like the fact that only parts of the rod and the fly line are lit up. Double-handed fly casting always looks pretty good anyway, especially when you have somebody to work with like Pete McLeod above who knows what he is doing (gotta tell 'em what they want to hear eh ?!). Not only does the guy run one of the UK's best fly fishing travel companies in Aardvark McLeod, but he is also a fishing junkie like the rest of us - all I need to do now is to introduce him to some proper fishing. Lure fishing !! But the guy can fly fish pretty good.......

• The shot above is of Pete's older brother Alex bending into a decent lenok - I am not sure where to try and place black and white images like this as I don't see much of it around any more, but I do like the look of it sometimes. I like the challenge of pushing people to publish the more creative side of fishing, because we all know how good this sport can look at times.
• I have created a big gallery of a bunch of photos from this recent Mongolia trip, so take a look at the bottom of the Fishing Pictures page on this website and you will see a new category under "Recent Trips" - or simply click here to have a look. There are also a bunch of new shots in various different categories there. Now that I have finished processing all the photos from the trip, I can finally sit back and really take the whole experience in. I was not quite sure what to expect out there, but Mongolia and the taimen and lenok have really got to me in a major way. Speak to the people at Aardvark McLeod and get yourself out there if you can - the season is short, but the whole thing is a kind of glorious sensory overload. Wow, where are all these long words coming from this morning ??!! Feeling pretty erudite if you must know...........
• I had a good chat with Nick at Bass Lures this morning, and if you are a complete and utter lure junkie like me, then you should keep an eye on their website right here, for they keep getting in lots of new stuff that is smashing the bass big time. I have a feeling that we are going to hear more and more about the outstanding range of IMA bass lures for starters, because they catch fish and they are sensibly priced. You can read a little about the ones I have used and abused so far right here.

Photo courtesy Alejandro Bianchetti

• Talking about Bolivia and the outstanding guides, above is Argentinian guide Alejandro on one of his rare days off, with a local catfish species called "surubi" that he smashed on the fly. We saw plenty of these awesome looking fish swimming around out there, and Alejandro has proved yet again that they are catchable on the fly if you stick at it. A somewhat prettier looking catfish than our European Wels !!

• I don't get that far on a Monday morning without plenty of coffee and lots of metal - check out the new album from the Finnish melodic death metal band Insomnium, because it is outstanding. Their last album "Far Above the Weeping World" was one of the best albums in this particular genre that I have ever heard, and this new one "Across the Dark" is growing on me hugely with every single spin of the disk (ok, CD). Check out a few tracks here. The world is a better place for music like this.......

• It's often when you get home and life begins to return to a relative normality that a trip like this one begins to really sink in - usually I am able to download, view and roughly edit photos each evening when I am on a photo job, but we were without power when we were camping. I tend to remember most of what I shoot, but it's fantastic to be able to trawl properly through the shoot and almost rediscover all over again just what an awesome country Mongolia is. Have I done the place some degree of justice ? That's for you to decide.

• Taimen are no easy fish to take on the fly, but there is an abundance of a trout-kind of species in these rivers called lenok, and they tend to be willing, numerous and very strong. They have been taken to around 8lbs on the river we were travelling down, the Delga-Muron, and on its own this is world class fly fishing - they smash dries and nymphs, and yours truly even managed to hook a few on the fly. Yes, you read that correctly. Most closely related to the taimen, I am somewhat amazed that more fly fishermen have not switched on to the fact that these lenok are reason enough to do the kind of trip we have just done. Kind of like some of the finest fly fishing for trout (lenok) that there is, in one of the most spectacular places on this earth. Oh, and you can also catch massive taimen as well. A no-brainer if you ask me. Sign me up for a return visit.........

• We camped for two nights on the river bank you can see on the right hand side of this photo above - to sit around the camp fire as the sun went down over the hills and then wake up to this view was something truly special. Talk about a complete lack of light pollution. Aardvark McLeod run these trips via the outstanding Fish Mongolia guys (see here), and I can not tell you enough what a truly professional set up the whole operation is. To put us UK guys right into the middle of nowhere and enable us to experience what we did takes some doing, believe me, and once again I am staggered at what can be achieved by these kinds of people. Andy Parkinson and his team from Fish Mongolia deserve huge credit - my sincere thanks guys for having me along on this trip. I think you can probably guess what it meant to me.

• Up until this Mongolia trip, I had never seen the chance to shoot a certain kind of casting/fishing photo, like the one you can see above. See how the sun lights up the angler, and then because of the angle of the sun and the high cliff walls behind them, you can deliberately massively underexpose the photo and allow the parts of the background that are in shadow to go almost black, yet the shafts of light still bring out the fisherman and the line. Any camera sees a scene like this and wants to show it as a kind of uniform exposure, so you need to know when to take control and tell the camera what to do. I took a reading off the angler above and dialed in 2 stops of minus exposure compensation to produce the effect you can see. It might sound all weird and technical, but the trick is "seeing" the shot with the available conditions and then committing that shot to your memory cards. What is great about photography is that we all see a scene in a different way, and what you see here is simply my "translation" of it if you like. Another guy might have nailed it completely differently.

• It ain't all glamorous this working in fishing lark !! Above is a screen grab of my photo editing software Photo Mechanic (see here), with a bunch of RAW files on there to be edited, keyworded and then renamed. After that it's over to Adobe Lightroom for processing into JPEGs that can be sent to clients etc. There is no other way than to spend time in front of the computer monitors and get this done - with film I had to spend days hunched over a lightbox while I sorted out the trannies, and I work on my own here, so it is simply a case of eyes down and do what is needed. With multiple cups of coffee and black metal pumping out via iTunes of course..........!! How else do you think I do this stuff ?
• I have got a thing for a species called a "redfish" - I have never seen one in the flesh, but I am dying to fish for them and photograph them. They just look cool, they take flies and lures, and they catch lots of them in the south eastern parts of the USA. Redfish just look full of character to me, and I stumbled on a very cool promo video of some redfish fly fishing that takes place in the winter time in North Carolina I believe. Check here for the trailer - how badly do I want to see these fish ? I guess some things just grab you. Sit back and dream.......

• I have to pinch myself on a regular basis that I can get to call this kind of thing my work - the huge river valley where we rafted, walked, camped and fished in Mongolia truly is one of the most special places I have ever laid eyes on in my life. The fish that swim in the river are of course awesome, but the actual fish on a trip like this make up only a small part of the overall experience. Check out the little raft in the bottom left hand corner of the photo above - it was one huge landscape. Totally awe-inspiring and I only hope that my photographs do the place some proper justice.

• The trip worked so well because the people on it were simply fantastic, and the organisation that went into putting us lot truly into the wilds in a way that we could easily deal with it was seamless - huge thanks guys for letting me work my cameras around you all. I know it can be hard when somebody like me is jumping around all over the place to get my shots, but I am over the moon with the material - it's eyes down now to edit it down and process it all. Above is the main species we went to Mongolia to catch - the legendary taimen, one of the world's truly great freshwater species. This is Alex McLeod with a taimen around 35lbs, and what really makes it so special is that he sight-fished to this monster with a dry fly. Of course this amazing fish went safely back to it's haunt in the pool that Alex has now named "The Bus Stop".

• Around every corner there was another incredible view of this stunning river valley, and I spent most of the trip in a complete state of hyped-up excitement at the light and the scenery. For the most part the weather was fantastic, but I have never spent time in a place with such severe temperature fluctuations - at one time it got to 24C in the afternoon, yet we had hard frosts every night, the kind that when you wake up, your tent material is frozen. You can be really warm on the river bank, and then some cloud cover comes along, the wind picks up, and you are hurrying to whack some clothes on and get warm. The people who live in this part of the world are incredibly tough to take the winters out in Mongolia - there we are in shock at a hard frost and a bit below zero, but in the depths of winter we are talking scary cold and bleak out there.

• To illustrate my point about weather fluctuations, we woke up after our first night under canvas to find the whole place covered with a fresh dumping of snow !! I could not believe my eyes when I crawled out of my tent and took a look around. But by midday it was blazing sunshine, all the snow had gone, and the guys were back to fishing in t-shirts for a few hours. Mad. What a place. Honestly, we are truly lucky people to have spent time in such a location. If awesome fly fishing in truly impressive locations floats your boat, then I implore you to head to Mongolia and experience something truly magical. Speak to the guys at Aardvark McLeod about it all. This was one of those lifetime experiences that will live with me forever, and I know just how lucky I am to have been on a trip like this for my job.

• Check out the quality of the light in the photo above - I took this shot as we were driven from Muren airport out to the remote river valley that we were going to be calling home for a week. It is tough to show off a landscape that is just so vast and empty, but when the light goes off then the photos tend to come naturally if that makes sense.

• It was fantastic to get home late yesterday, but it feels a bit strange to sleep in a bed instead of a tent or a ger, and not have to wear thermals and a hat to go to sleep !! My body clock is all over the place at the moment as were seven hours ahead of the UK out in Mongolia, so I guess it's going to take a few days to switch back to our time and work out what time it is. There will be more photos to come in due course. Mongolia really got to me in a big way, and I hope that one day I get the chance to head back to this wonderful country. I have heard so much about the place and the fish for some time now, and I can see exactly why people fall in love with the whole experience. Masses to catch up on now, and later on this morning I will get to take my eldest daughter to school for the first time ever. How cool is that ?

• The people who I like to go fishing with in the Florida Keys have just been in touch to inform me that they are running an incredible deal for the rest of 2009 - essentially one person stays for free, so it can work out at £82.50 per person per day, and this silly price covers the boat, car hire, and accommodation right on the waterfront on a B&B basis. I have been with these people multiple times now, and I can not speak highly enough of the whole operation. The last thing I am going to do is to recommend a foreign fishing set-up that I have no experience of.
• Let's be honest, with the dire weather we have been having for most of the summer, how desirable is a bit of sunshine and awesome fishing in one of the most prolific and varied fisheries on earth ? You need to contact the people at Fish the Dream right here (or ring 01668 216173 from the UK), say you have come via this blog, and get yourselves some dates as fast as possible. Getting there could not be easier - loads of flights run direct from the UK to Miami, and then a hire car will be waiting for you to pick up. Drive on down to Marathon, perhaps stopping on the way at Bass Pro in Islamorada (resist and you are stronger than me !!), and get fishing. Simple as that.

• The number one mistake that people make about the Florida Keys is thinking that it's simply a tarpon-only destination, when in fact there is some incredible fishing all year round. Big numbers of monster sharks, the immense Goliath grouper, sailfish, jacks, barracuda, snapper, cobia, tuna, you name it, the Keys has the lot. Our autumn/winter is a great time to go as the temperatures are comfortable (i.e. nice !!) and the fish are prolific.

• The beauty about the Florida Keys for those who don't know is that there is quick and easy access to both very deep and very shallow water, and many of the biggest species are regularly caught on the Gulf side where the water tends to be really shallow. Big sharks (lemons, bull, hammerhead etc.) run like crazy when they are hooked in three metres of water, and I can not tell you how scary it is to hook a Goliath grouper in water like this. Mad stuff. I can't think of a better or cheaper way to access this world class fishing.
• I now need to get all my gear together again for a trip over to a remote part of Mongolia, where the emphasis will be on fly fishing for the legendary and original salmon, the taimen. I have wanted to see these fish for years now, and this should be my chance. I am traveling with a bunch of guys from Aardvark McLeod. The contrast between Mongolia and Bolivia I imagine could not be more acute, and I am relishing the chance to spend a little time "out east". We should be arriving in Ulaanbaatar (the capital of Mongolia) itself sometime early on Monday morning (leaving Heathrow Sunday morning), and we then have a day there before flying out again into the middle of nowhere. We will then be rafting and camping our way down a river that I am told is not that far from the Siberian border - think of me in my sleeping bag !! This should be a very, very cool trip for photos.

• The ultimate savagery - check out the new masterpiece from the Polish metal gods Behemoth. Called "Evangelion", this is one brutal piece of music, and it gets right inside your skull from the first note. Behemoth is one of the top death metal bands there is, and this particular album is just outstanding. Check out a few tracks here. I am going to really enjoy listening to this at full blast on my iPod as I fly from London to Moscow and then Mongolia this Sunday. A CD like this needs to be discovered and enjoyed when you have some time to yourself, for there is so much going on that it only really begins to open up after multiple spins. Awesome metal.

• Chasing Silver is a fantastic new fly fishing magazine that is fast creating a really good name for itself - the guys who put it together are all fishing nuts, writes and photographers from Finland, but the magazine is all in English. Hell, they even take some of my work, so they must be nice people !! But in all seriousness, this publication is looking better and better each issue, and the latest one is simply stunning. I love that front cover big time - nice one Toni, great shot. I love the use of a large aperture to bring you right in on that salmon's beady eye.
• In the current issue there are also a couple of really interesting interviews with US fly fishing photographers Brian O'Keefe (one of the guys behind the online Catch magazine) and Jeff Bright - these guys are at the top of their games, and it is fascinating to hear more about their own photography and some of their thoughts on what goes into it. Huge credit to the Chasing Silver lot for actually going "behind" the articles you see and speaking to some of the guys who produce these photos we see.
• Check out the Chasing Silver website right here, and then have a look at this link here to find out where you can get hold of this magazine in the UK. I see that there are a couple of places over here for starters. Much easier still, subscribe to it here. I am really proud to be a part of this. There is a big feature of mine on the awesome Bell II Lodge steelhead fishing in northern BC (Canada) - contact these guys here to go and do this outrageous fly fishing. True wilderness, great people, an iconic fish. Gotta see some more of the mighty steelhead. In the meantime, check out Jeff Bright's steelhead photography here.

• And talking of the outstanding online Catch magazine, there is a brand new issue out now - see here. In my mind this is without doubt the best looking issue that has been released so far, in fact I am utterly and completely blown away by the quality of the photography in Catch magazine. I see that Jeff Bright has got a stunning looking steelhead feature in there. I also note that a photo of mine has sneaked its way in there as well. Very cool to be featured amongst such outstanding work - the token Brit !! Take some proper time to "flick" through the latest issue, for yet again it proves just how awesome any kind of fishing can look if some time and talent is applied to it. This is about as good as it gets in my mind, and huge credit to the people concerned for putting Catch together.

• The results of long-term testing - the little Berkley "pistol" style fish grip is not that expensive, and it works well for our (sea) bass fishing. There is a big but in there though. It will cope with any size bass we are ever going to land, and it makes for far safer and efficient unhooking for both the angler and the fish. It sits by your side nice and easy, ready for use when a bass comes to hand. BUT - it is painfully obvious that this product was designed principally for freshwater fishing. Firstly, you might as well throw away the utterly useless holster it comes with and instead clip it to your bag or belt. If you are after a fish grip and do not want to spend that much money, the Berkley one is good, but you need to be aware that over time it will rust and it might actually break. I rinsed mine under freshwater after nearly every bass trip I did with it, plus I applied WD40 when it began to seize up a little, yet still it kept showing worrying signs of rust and a lack of "smoothness" over time. And then it simply broke in half on me when I went to "grab" a bass recently (just about where you see the angler's thumb in the photo above, that is where it snapped) - by pure luck the grip broke before I had a hold of the bass, otherwise the poor fish would have swum off with half a grip attached to its bottom lip. Not the kind of thing I want to see at all.
• I wish I could recommend this product without any kind of reservations, but I see no point in being anything other than completely honest. There is no future in being any other way. Look after your Berkley grip and it will last you , but you should be aware of what can happen. It might not happen to you, I know that, but it happened to me. So I have done what I have been telling myself to do for years now - gone and bought the original and the best fish grip there is. The classic and timeless Boga Grip. It is not cheap, but I know how they last. I  bought the 15lb model, and any bass that clunks that to the bottom is going to make my heart beat very fast indeed. I believe that various fly fishing shops here in the UK stock the Boga Grips - check their US website for the different models they do right here.

• In the Fishing Pictures section, under "Recent Trips" down at the bottom of the page - have a look here for a load of photos from my recent trip into Bolivia. This is just about the most insane freshwater fly fishing I think I have ever seen anywhere on this earth. More photos will be placed around the site in due course, but for now, please have a look through the extensive collection of Bolivia photos - if you have a spare minute, please tell me what you think. Either email me or leave a comment on this blog post. Sight fishing in crystal clear jungle rivers to huge golden dorado and Amazon pacu on the fly is about as good as it can ever get............
• I have also put a load of new bass fishing lures into the "Fishing Lures" part of the Fishing Tackle page, including a bunch that worked so well on my recent trip over to south east Ireland. Perhaps this part of the world should carry a trademark - "the best shore fishing for bass I know of" !! Photos from this trip will be up on the site one of these days. Things are a little hectic here before I head off to Mongolia on a photo job at the end of this week, and the Bolivia photos needed to be processed first.