I must admit that I hadn’t thought much about this at all until the other day over in the US - do you know where your reel hand sits on your rod when you are fishing? Not casting, not fighting a fish, but simply fishing away. I had (wrongly) assumed that essentially all anglers held a lure rod/spinning reel combination as per the photo below - two fingers either side of the reel stem, and like this for both casting and retrieving lures etc. I fish like this when there is a spinning reel and I am lure fishing, but I only got to thinking about when I handed Matt a rod I had taken over to the US and said “nice rod, shame about the grip where your hand sits”............

Is this a "normal" grip?

To which Matt replies along the lines of “what’s the problem with it? It works great.” But how? If your hand sits like mine does around the stem of a spinning reel, then an annoying lack of grip where the rear of your hand sits when you’re fishing away kinda bugs me - as per the outstanding HTO lure rod I reviewed recently. Serious rod, but yes, that lack of grip for the rear of my reel hand to me is a mistake. But it’s only a pain if you hold your rod like I do, and whilst I did assume that most anglers do indeed wrap their hands around a spinning reel like this, I now wonder if in fact anglers like me are the odd ones out?

So I really watched Matt cast and then work his lures a few times, and whilst he probably doesn’t even realise he is doing it, in fact he casts with his hand in “my” position (two fingers either side of the reel stem), but then changes over to the grip you see below at the end of the cast - whole reel hand in front of the reel when working lures, with no fingers split around the reel stem. Which of course means that a lack of duplon or cork grip behind the reel where the back of my reel hand would sit matters not to an angler like Matt who holds his rod in this way. If the old and now discontinued 8’ Daiwa France Branzino was one of the best 8’ lure rods I have ever been lucky enough to fish with, then the grip behind the reel seat was to me just a perfectly crap design when your hands got wet.

But was I the one at fault for lure fishing the way I do, with my two fingers spread either side of the reel stem? If I had naturally held a lure rod/spinning reel combination the way an angler like Matt does then I would never have even noticed that crappy bit of plastic, because my whole hand would have been in front of the reel stem and therefore gripping onto a nice bit of duplon that doesn’t then become really annoying when it’s peeing with rain or you have wet hands from releasing fish etc. But I naturally hold a lure rod/spinning reel combination with that split-grip as such and as far as I can remember this is the way I have always done it.

Gripping a lure rod/spinning reel combination like this does throw up another issue that I have found on a few spinning reels. I was having a look on the rather large Shimano stand at the iCast show in Orlando the other day, and especially their new and rather smart looking Stradic FK spinning reel (check here, is this a US model?). I picked a few up to have a bit of a feel, and whilst they felt nice and light and smooth etc., the main thing that struck he was how short the reel stem was compared to most other spinning reels I have used, and therefore how uncomfortable a reel like this would be for me to lure fish with - with my split-grip, I find that the knuckle on my third finger rubs uncomfortably against the bend on a shorter reel stem. And no, my knuckles don’t drag on the ground when I walk, just in case you were wondering.

I had this problem when I was doing some work with Shimano UK and they sent me the (new at the time) Exage to have a play with, as per the photo above - seemed to be plenty of reel for the price, but I had to give up using it because I just could not fish remotely comfortably with that shorter than normal reel stem. I asked the question why was it shorter and possibly wider than say on the (comfortable) Sustain 4000FG, but basically never got an answer to it. I’d have been fine if my natural grip had my hand in the same position as Matt’s - fully above the reel stem/foot, but I don’t naturally grip like this. And in turn this would have stopped the lack of anything but a screw fitting behind the reel foot on the 9’ Graphiteleader Argento Nuovo in the photo above eventually bugging the hell out of me (give me duplon or cork or something!). But my hand naturally sits the way it sits I guess, and I wonder if any of you are conscious of where your own hand naturally sits when you are retrieving lures? I am going to try lure fishing a bit with my hand completely in front of the reel stem and see how I get on……….

And then of course you have special cases like my mate here who shall remain nameless but I am still pretty damn sure he nudged me head first into an electric fence a couple of years ago. This guy casts like I do, as in right handed/“normal”, but then as the lure flies out he changes hands with the rod to retrieve left handed, or cack-handed as I tend to call it. This bloke was convinced he did not change hands on the rod during the actual cast, until I showed him some casting sequences. It matters not of course because he casts a mile and hammers bass, indeed it’s only me taking a bit of the proverbial here, but upon examining a few photos of his hands on a fishing rod I now see that he in fact grips the rod as you see above. Help!

And then you've got the hanging on for dear life grip as a serious fish (bluefin tuna) sees the boat and crash-dives - a combination of back-saving grip together with braced legs that alleviates a bit of the glorious pain! Vive la France.............

I love that feeling you get when you’re doing something worthwhile - and it’s fishing here of course - yet virtually everybody else isn’t because you’re out and about at some strange time when non-fishing people are tucked up in bed and missing out. Bait or lure fishing doesn’t matter to me here, but I find it so satisfying to feel like I am almost stealing a bit of time and getting more out of a regular 24hr day. Imagine how much more we could get done if we didn’t have to waste time sleeping?

I don’t mind whether it’s staying up to whatever o’clock or getting up very early to go fishing, but I must admit to a particular sense of satisfaction at having fished a session and got back home before “normal” people would even consider getting up. And yes, whatever way we look at it, us anglers aren’t exactly “normal” in one sense of the word, but I would then argue that spending proper time in the great outdoors when most other people are in the land of nod is something that a lot more people should experience. To be out on the coast as the first hint of a new day makes itself known gets me every single time………..

The alarm went at 2.30am on Sunday morning, and whilst for a second or two Storm did wonder why I was downstairs so soon after I had gone up to bed, once she sees me strapping a rod to the rod racks on the car she’s bouncing around all overexcited and I am trying to stop her making too much excitable noise and waking the rest of the house up! I picked Mark up and we’re off to the coast which ain’t exactly very far from where we live, and as expected we see nobody else around. Calm seas, clear water, still dark, it’s got to be a white senko.

Give me a few marks over in Ireland where we have hammered bass at night and I’m feeling as confident as an angler could, but I need to do a lot more of the night stuff around where I live and build the confidence and experience up. I used to do a hell of a lot of night fishing in my bait days, and I am really enjoying the night lure stuff and how it’s so much about a heightened sense of feel once you take away your vision and tune in so much to retrieving a lure.

There’s a certain part of where Mark and I were fishing that I really like on the first of the ebb tide, and with HW on Sunday morning at 4am, I fancied that we’d have enough darkness left to get a bit of time on the drop. And yes, a couple of bass later on the white senkos simply wound straight in at a medium sort of speed and I’m absolutely frigging bouncing. The best fish might have nudged 5lbs, but to be honest I’m just so damn pleased to catch bass at night close to where I live on the white senkos. You know how your head plays tricks with you, and especially at weird hours when other regular people are fast asleep?

“Change lures, change  the retrieve, change location, do something different” goes the voice in my head, but I trusted in the lure and the (simple) technique, applied what I know about the location from mostly daylight fishing, and nailed a couple of bass. I love how the hit from a bass on a lure is so amplified at night. Back for breakfast, barbecue for lunch, on the beach with the kids in the afternoon, a stunning summer’s day, yet I’ve “stolen” those few hours when everybody else isn’t up and about and it never feels any less special.

Holy cow when it’s done right, fishing looks frigging awesome. Check out this short film on one of the most special places in the world that I have ever been lucky enough to visit a few times as a photographer, the ultra remote Cosmoledo atoll in the wilds of the Indian Ocean. Made by the US company Yeti (coolers) and involving a few of the lads I have worked with in this saltwater fly fishing paradise, I don’t see how any angler into any kind of fishing can’t get something out of this short film that causes the heart to race. Surely dreaming is an important part of fishing? And yes, I will always wonder how good bass fishing in somewhere as stunning as say Kerry could be made to look with this kind of time, budget, skill and energy……..

The first time I glimpsed the mighty Cosmoledo atoll. 

As much as the IMA Salt Skimmer is nearly always the first surface lure I will turn to if conditions allow me to, there’s no getting away from how deadly the Xorus Patchinko is when you need to get out there into a headwind and then fish away in some seriously lively seas. As with trying to find a comparable lure in size and weight and casting ability as the Salt Skimmer (I have given up because the little Salt Skimmer is a freak of nature if you ask me), so I have kept my eyes and ears open for another surface lure around the dimensions of that Patchinko that can keep up with it. And I am starting to think that the IMA Little Stik 135 (25g) can live with it………….

A rather kind angler in Wales sent me the white IMA Little Stik you can see above, and whilst I took it out and gave it a few chucks straight away, I find that with some lures you need to come back to them a while later to fully appreciate what they can do - and this thing is seriously growing on me, to the point that I am now inclined to take it with me when I think the Patchinko might be needed. I have had a couple of sessions this week in some strong crosswinds when to fish surface lures I essentially had no choice but to turn to either the Patchinko or indeed the Little Stik which I had finally remembered to take out with me when the conditions looked nice and bouncy. And it works.

I’ve caught bass and mackerel on the Little Stik, plus had the usual early morning pollack leaping right over the top of it but fail to actually hook themselves - do you laugh every time this happens? All that effort seems so wasted when they miss the lure so well! I have a sneaking suspicion that the Little Stik was actually dealing with the crosswinds a little bit better than the Patchinko, but bear in mind here that I was catching fish on the Little Stik after raising nothing on the Patchinko, hence I fished it that bit more and could have talked myself into thinking this. But holy cow is it getting out there, and it does seem that the face design on the lure helps it to grip in pretty well when the wind is catching your braid and trying to skate your lure across the surface until it finds the right angle. Does that make sense?

Most lure anglers I come across either use or have heard of the Xorus Patchinko, and by no means am I saying that this beautifully designed surface lure is suddenly any less effective. Sure, I don’t actually use one that much unless conditions dictate, but wow has this lure caught some bass over the last few years, and I give a lot of credit to Mick at Mr.Fish in Jersey for bringing them into the UK and making them so readily available. It’s the way my head works though - I like looking around specific lures to see if there is anything comparable out there. Give me a lot more time with the IMA Little Stik, but I am really starting to think that it’s something pretty special. US designed I believe under license from IMA Japan or something like that, made for their freshwater bass, but as with so many lures, it seems to have some serious applications for how we do our thing………..

If you use weedless hooks for your lure fishing, have you ever come across or used the rather awesome Lunker City Texposer hooks? A weedless hook that I believe was thought up nearly twenty years ago now, so it’s hardly new or cutting-edge, yet without a doubt it’s the one hook I use in saltwater that as good as refuses to rust up. OK, so it’s not as if hooks are the most expensive thing we might buy in our lure fishing, but yes, it pisses me off no end when hooks rust up and need replacing for the most part a little too quickly for my liking - and especially treble hooks on expensive lures……...

I am kinda assuming that the weirdly shaped but highly effective Lunker City Texposer hooks ain’t made out of moon dust, but why on earth do these not exactly very expensive weedless hooks hardly seem to go rusty at all, and if they eventually do, it’s either a long way down the road or otherwise you’ve lost the hook somewhere along the line and you’re using a newer one anyway. I happen to especially like the largest size Lunker City Texposer hooks for any soft plastics around 5’’ and larger that I might fish weightless and weedless, and I can buy a packet of five of these hooks for £2.99 right here - and going on how few weedless hooks I lose before I begin to think of how they almost refuse to rust up anyway, well I reckon that’s some decent value for money.

But if a hook design that is nearly twenty years old can and does last so long in saltwater use, then why on earth can’t other hooks do the same? It may be a little sad I know, but I actually dream of modern treble and single lure hooks that are made from exactly the same material as the Lunker City Texposer hooks. It’s obviously some sort of steel, but what on earth do they do to it to get it to last so long? Even when I crush the barbs on these weedless hooks (and I always do, and no, I don’t lose fish because of it), this doesn’t create a “rust spot”, yet crush the barbs on most treble or single hooks (and I always do) and I bet you that’s the first area which will show signs of rust.

I have a bunch of different weedless hooks and I especially like a certain Mustad one that fits one of those hitchhiker things on there (hook code 91768BLN if that helps, I picked a bunch up in the US a couple of years ago, I prefer the 6/0 for 5’’+ soft plastics), but as good as these hooks are, they will rust up around the eye area especially after a bit of time. Again you can argue that it’s hardly a big deal, but then I would ask why on earth the Lunker City Texposer hooks don’t seem to ever go rusty? I know that hook companies don’t exactly want their hooks to last forever and that saltwater is the ultimate killer of gear, but a twenty year old hook design lasting as well as it does compared to so many other hooks? And yes, I am waffling on about weedless hooks because the whole senko thing at night is becoming more and more addictive, and when something really gets to me like that, my brain goes a wandering!

I’ve been looking forward to this for ages, and yes, whilst it might be considered a bit strange by some to actively look forward to more work, these trips I do with John Quinlan of Thatch Cottage Fishing Lodge are an absolute blast and I love it. I leave home early on Saturday morning, do the roughly 4.5hr drive to Fishguard in my gloriously ugly but so bloody comfortable to drive new car, catch the 14.30 ferry to Rosslare in south east Ireland, and then if all goes to plan it’s another 4.5 to 5hrs of driving the other side to get to Kerry. Not the shortest journey in the world, but I’m used to it, and waking up to a Kerry dawn on Sunday morning will make it all more than worthwhile…………..

Our two girls have just got back from spending a week in France with a French family we know, so whilst I have only the one day with them before I have to head off to Ireland and I will miss them like mad, as a parent it makes me so happy to see them having such an awesome summer holiday. We don’t do wasted days here and I reckon they will need to go back to school for a rest at the end of these holidays! They do sometimes ask me why I am not on holiday with them, but they understand that dad has to work.

Anyway, as per usual when I am away on these trips, I will put stuff up here when possible, but please accept that time is somewhat limited. I would also like to apologise that I sometimes am simply unable to reply to all the emails and messages I get via this blog and website - I try my best, but I work on my own here and I just can’t answer everything that isn’t directly work related. I try, and I don’t like not sometimes being able to reply to people, but I can’t see a way round it. Please don’t think me rude if I have not been able to get back to you. I had best go sort the gear out for this Ireland trip now. Have a good weekend, catch up soon. Roll on Test Match Special for my journey tomorrow (another epic summer of cricket), and then the fascinating first season of the Serial podcasts that I can bluetooth from my iPhone to the stereo in my ugly as sin Berlingo - is that progress or what?!

What a blast. A thoroughly nice bunch of people, a quiet corner of Ireland that continues to grow on me the more I get to know it, and my time to work with anglers face to face and try to help them a bit with catching a few fish and lure fishing in general. Did I tell you that I love my bit of work I do out here with John Quinlan? Anyway, because it’s hectic and I have very little time, below are a few photos from the first couple of days of the trip - more to come……...

First light, first morning, Kerry showing off!

Richard with a bass of 5lbs, taken on the most stunning looking white coloured IMA Komomo Slim 130 - yes, I am going shopping..........!

So much fishing out here, and it never ceases to amaze me how few anglers you see out and about.

Bass on!

Water tends to find a way in...........

Dan with a bass he nailed on weedless soft plastic. The lad can fish!

Another perfectly ordinary spot to stop for a bit of lunch and a cup of tea! Look at that ground behind the guys.

How did that get in there?! Ugly as sin but the best car I have ever owned. Drove for ten hours on my own in it on Saturday and it was as easy as you like. And now I am photographing my car - is that daft or what?

I don’t drink so I am merely an observer here, but out here in Ireland we have been on the end of a few days of truly dreadful weather - the sort of weather that winter would be proud of - and I have noticed an interesting correlation between when the weather just gets that bit too much and retreating to the pub to partake of a bit of Guinness which every single person who comes to Ireland tells me with joy in their eyes is way better than the Guinness they serve in the UK.

We made firm plans to go out bass fishing on the last night of our first group’s trip, but we went down to the beach where we had been getting a few and it was as good as unfishable. The wind’s seriously picking up, the sea is mildly alarming, but at least it’s not raining. No worries, this is Kerry, John knows every single nook and cranny, and off we went to find a bit of shelter. So we’re heading out there, I am driving behind John, but now it’s blowing at least a constant force 8 and the driving rain is doing that horizontal thing straight across the windscreen. We pull up at the mark, but John doesn’t turn his car off so I pull in alongside - there is dissent in the ranks! An executive decision has been made to give fishing in this truly horrendous weather a bit of a miss and retreat to the well known Rosie’s pub and see whether the stories about Guinness in Ireland really were true. I nurse my really exciting orange juice and wonder if I should think about taking up drinking again……….

Now I seriously feel for our second group who have so far been desperately unlucky to have their first two days essentially ruined by a perfect summer storm of serious wind and silly amounts of rain. We have tried our hearts out but almost everywhere we have fished has been in bad condition via the winds and rain water pouring into the bay via the rivers and streams. It’s looking a lot better out there today, but yesterday afternoon the executive decision was made to retreat to Rosie’s for a while, and yes, sample their Guinness which I am told is about as good as it gets, even in Ireland. Bear in mind that when the decision was made to retreat, we have been trying our hearts out for hours in some of the worst rain you can imagine, combined with a howling bit of breeze that of course drives that rain in and finds the gaps in your waterproof clothing (this new Vision Kust wading jacket I have been trying out for a while now is doing really well, but yet another pair of wading boots I have also been trying are on the way out). Credit to the guys for going at it as long as they did to be honest. Slapping on the suncream the other day out here feels like many moons ago, but the weather changes fast round here and conditions are starting to look rather interesting. Summer eh?

This is an email I received from one of our clients the other day! Absolute bloody class…….

“Dear Mr. Gilbey - Whilst I am undoubtedly already overexcited about the forthcoming trip to Thatched Cottage in October for the excellent fishing tutorage, hospitality and camaraderie offered by John, Lynn and your good self, regretfully I have to raise with you a matter which is causing me much unease and distress about this particular trip….. your recently acquired French Pope-mobil like ‘vehicle’.

Upon brief research of various social media, including your very own blog, I don’t believe I am the sole incumbent of this feeling of disgust and revulsion at the sight of the %%$£@&* (French!) manufactured abomination you appear to find it acceptable to transport your paid up clients around the Kerry coastline. I note the undercurrent of ridicule that appears to be prevalent across many of these social media streams. Indeed, a recent contributor to your blog who refers to himself simply as ‘Joe’ comments “Am I really going to have to get in that ugly thing in October?”.  He is obviously too embarrassed to reveal his surname because he too is going to have to suffer the shame and indignity of being chauffeured around in this Citrus Berlusconi monstrosity (or whatever it’s called) which I am quite frankly flabbergasted you deem acceptable. I can only hope you are providing passengers with paper bags to cover their faces as they travel between destinations?

However, I do not wish to be perceived as a negative pariah towards this heap of French poo on wheels you are driving, and worryingly photographing with an unjustified amount of love and affection. Indeed, with this in mind, I am offering you a solution which I believe will satisfy future clients, save you from further social media ridicule and importantly save John and Lynn from any further agonising embarrassment when you rock up at Thatched Cottage. If you would kindly refer to the below picture I am offering you a suggested ‘paint job’ that I believe all clients, and indeed the angling community, would find acceptable for a man held in your esteem in the industry.

I believe it would somewhat hide the vehicle’s true origins and it could be easily rebranded as a ‘Berlinkomomo’ with minimal eyebrows being raised – in fact, I am sure it would be positively welcomed. Please note the lure inspired roof rod tube offered as a sensible ‘option’ for this customised vehicle. Your comments on this matter would be truly appreciated and I hope you can complete the suggested remedial action for all your client’s benefit before your October trip to Thatched Cottage. Yours sincerely…………”

Have a good weekend!

The following is an email I received from the excellent Save Our Sea Bass website (SOS) - below their email I have provided links to the very well laid out and easy to follow instructions for sending your email to keep on pushing for better protection for the fish that so many of us love. Please, please do this, and let’s keep on trying to get better protection for the fish that so many of us love…………...

“Dear Save Our Sea Bass Subscriber - We have some important news for you.

On 30 June, ICES issued a new bass assessment.  It warns that the bass spawning stock is now at an all-time low and that there is now a risk that the stock's ability to regenerate itself is compromised.   ICES have therefore recommended a full moratorium for 2017.

We have previously advised the Fisheries politicians and managers that we should restrict the bass fishery to sustainable fishing only: recreational angling and commercial hook and line fishing (excluding long-lines).  This advice was not followed and, predictably, the stock is now in deep trouble and so a moratorium is needed.

We are concerned that, even now, the Fisheries politicians may give in to commercial lobbying pressure to allow unsustainable commercial bass fishing to continue.  We therefore need to send a strong and clear message to the Fisheries politicians and managers, telling them that their existing policy has failed and that from now on we want the bass fishery managed so as to deliver the greatest long term benefits to society, and that means restricting it to sustainable fishing only.

We hope that a moratorium will create some breathing space for the bass stock to recover.  But if it does, will we just see the fishery re-opened to unsustainable commercial fishing, so that the destruction of the stock can start over again?  We must not let that happen.

You will see that we have just completely updated the Save Our Sea Bass website.  We have also started a brand new campaign to email the Fisheries politicians and managers now that they are digesting the ICES advice and are considering how to react.  We would ask you to support this email campaign by sending an email and encouraging members of your family and friends to send an email too.  If you can help to promote the email campaign via social media too, that would be fantastic.

And finally, a special word for our French Subscribers and comrades in arms!  We understand that your Fisheries Minister, Alain Vidalies, is only interested in supporting the commercial bass fishermen and has no interest in listening to what French anglers or conservationists want.  However, he cannot act alone, he has to make his case on bass to other EU Member States and the EU Commission.  The more French people send emails objecting to unsustainable commercial bass fishing, the more difficult it becomes for Vidalies to sustain his argument - the other EU Member States in the negotiation will be able to tell him that he is not properly representing the wishes of the people of France.  We urge you to take part in the new email campaign and to spread the message widely across France. 

Best wishes from the Save Our Sea Bass team”.

Full details on how to send this email can be found here. Details in French are here. Many thanks.

With my recent experiences of wading boots, I think I should start an advisory service on what not to buy! Whilst I accept wholeheartedly that the bulk of these wading boots and lightweight, “breathable” waders are made for the freshwater fly fishing world, how bloody hard can it be to make (not sodding cheap) wading boots that might stand up to at least a decent amount of saltwater use without failing in some stupid way that could have so easily been avoided?

I am still kicking myself that I didn’t act fast enough on some advice which a couple of anglers who I know fish hard over some serious ground gave me - they have been doing really well with the original Patagonia Ultralight wading boots, but by time I got around to buying a pair to try out, they had been “upgraded” to the newer Ultralight II model. I wanted to buy the previous version but it was my bad luck that when I ordered them - the shop hadn’t yet changed their website to reflect this “upgrade”. To be fair to them, they kindly offered to refund me my money or else send me a pair of the new boots once they were in stock. OK, so I regret it now, but I said yes please, let’s try the brand new Patagonia Ultralight II wading boots, because surely the brand new version is going to be even better?

Well they’re not, or at least they are not better if you fish in saltwater as I do the bulk of the time. First off I would hardly term these wading boots “Ultralight”, as in once they are wet they feel just as heavy and cumbersome as most other wading boots I have fished in. I went one size over my UK size 11 feet to allow for socks and waders and the boots were a good fit and really comfortable to walk around in. I put those Orvis Posigrip studs in the soles as per usual and it was all fine on that front. Things were looking pretty sweet and I was really starting to like these wading boots……….

But then a lace broke on me when I was doing them up one early morning over in Kerry the other day, and as with my other bad experiences with wading boots when this happens, the alarm bell sounded straight away. I put my glasses on (it’s called getting older) and had a close look at the eyelets. Bloody sod it if they aren’t starting to rot! Check the photos out and you will see exactly what I mean. Now you might say Henry, what do you expect, you are using them in saltwater, and metal eyelets are of course going to start rotting away (I wash my wading boots in freshwater fairly regularly by the way). But I don’t agree, and it’s because my old and now pretty much knackered Simms Rivershed and previous version Simms Guide boots both had metal eyelets on them, and after heaps of use in saltwater they are still showing no sign of rotting away, so it can be done.

So why the hell would a big company like Patagonia in all their wisdom go and put piss poor quality metal eyelets on an upgraded version of a wading boot that previously came with what looks like hard nylon eyelets that from what I hear don’t fail with saltwater use? I understand that companies need to refresh their product lines, but why make something new worse? Or is it simply a case yet again of gear not being tested properly before coming to market? A few months with a prototype pair of Patagonia Ultralight II wading boots and I could have told them they had a bit of a problem with the boots if anglers were going to use them in saltwater. Am I the only unlucky sod out there who has found a problem with these new boots, or am I simply the first person to put them through some hard use in saltwater and find the fault?

It’s no different to those rubbish Simms G3 Guide boots that I had a problem with last year - their discontinued Rivershed and Guide boots were superb for hard saltwater use, but in their infinite wisdom they upgrade to the G3 Guide boots and actually made them worse than the models they were replacing! Why? Why the hell make something worse? When you’re charging what these companies do for their wading boots, why aren’t they properly tested in and around saltwater before going on the market? And if not, why not at least say in big letters on their websites that so and so models of wading boots are not designed for saltwater use, and that if the consumer chooses to use them in saltwater then their warranty is void. Not exactly rocket science is it?

Patagonia have offered me a full refund on the faulty boots - which of course they should - but there has been no explanation about why the eyelets started to rust, and whilst I did provide photographic proof of the problem (the photos that you see here), nobody has come back to me and asked my thoughts on the matter. I expect that though. Why would a big company ask the little people such as you and I what we thought of a product? Anyway, if you are looking for a pair of wading boots to use in saltwater, allow me to advise you against buying the Patagonia Ultralight II, Simms G3 Guide, and Simms Vapor wading boots. All three models have failed on me (twice with the G3 Guide boots), all three models ain’t cheap, and basically it annoys the hell out of me. What can I do? Squat, except for trying to help a few of you out by giving you my bad experiences and hoping you might benefit from them. Have a good weekend and may your wading boots see a bunch of fish and not fail on you!

If I was involved in selling Major Craft rods, I’d either be begging Major Craft Japan to never, ever stop making the Skyroad range of lure rods, or else I’d be stockpiling them just in case they were ever discontinued - what a range of fishing rods, and I am still stumbling across different models that make a lot of sense to me for how we go about our lure fishing.

The slightly shorter and lighter rated 9’6’’ Skyroad Surf is a ridiculously good lure fishing rod, and when I have been away from the rod for a bit and then come back to it, I am reminded just how special a lure rod it is - and the longer 10’ Skyroad Surf is cut from the same cloth so to speak. Sure, it’s a bit longer, but you can feel that these two rods are close bedfellows. The Major Craft Surf rods are built for targeting flatfish on lures over in Japan, so there must be something about how they go about this fishing which really suits the way many of us target our bass on lures. Fastish action rods, easy to load up, nice and light, plenty of power - easily efficient?

Until I recently got hold of this Major Craft Skyroad SKR-1002 Surf 10' 7-35g lure rod for a bit of a longer play, my experience of the rod was about three hours of fishing with it over in Ireland back in early July, but that was long enough to tell me most of what I needed to know - and my thoughts haven’t changed at all really. A mate of mine who runs Absolute Fishing over in Ireland was looking for a longer lure rod for a couple of locations he is starting to fish, and with us lot raving about the stunning 9’6’’ Skyroad Surf, he decided to take a bit of a punt on the longer and slightly more powerful 10’ version. Because of the two marks we initially went where I got a chance to first fish with the rod, I ended up using a number of different lures and methods. Surface lures at range and into a decent breeze, shallow divers, larger senkos, medium divers and then bumping Black Minnows and other plastics down a very strong current where feel and control is everything.

The 9’6’’ Surf will punch the Xorus Patchinko out without too much fuss for example, but you can feel the rod working harder - clip the same lure on the longer and slightly more powerful 10’ Surf and this rod’s not even trying when you need to launch this surface lure into a decent bit of breeze and sea as we found ourselves needing to do over in Ireland. Slow down a bit, let let this slightly longer rod load up properly, and let those lures fly. And they do. Holy cow! 5-28g and 7-35g is hardly a serious difference, but it’s there, and it’s noticeable, and whilst at the lower end this 10’ version can do the lighter stuff pretty damn well, for me I still prefer a lure rod at 9’6’’ or shorter for fishing say with the white senkos at night. Would I buy this rod if I fished lighter lures all the time though? No - I’d go for something shorter and and rated to cast less, but then that’s just common sense. This 10’ Surf can’t be quite as “precise” as the ridiculously precise 9’6’’ Surf - it’s 6’’ longer and rated to cast heavier lures after all, but from what little I know of lure fishing with 10’ rods, this 10’ Skyroad Surf is pretty frigging amazing.

It’s up to the individual angler to decide what length of lure rod suits them best, but with what I hear about some anglers needing to really bang lures out or at least have the option to do so when needs be, there is no getting away from what a casting machine this 10’ Surf is. I never thought I’d say how easy it was to fish say an IMA Salt Skimmer surface lure on a 10’ lure rod, but this one does it just fine. I like the duplon grips, the handle is the right length for me, and the small Fuji guides work perfectly - do note though that if you don’t wash these Skyroad rods down that you might end up finding some rust on the metal parts of the guides. I do tend to hose my gear down after use and there isn’t a spec of rust on the Skyroads I have here, but a mate of mine never does and there is some rust appearing. I note that there’s no rust at all on the Torzite guides on his Major Craft Truzer, but then that’s one scary expensive set of guides on the rod with an overall price to match. How a rod like this Skyroad Surf 10” can come in at under £200 UK price is beyond me, and it’s another brilliant lure rod from the Major Craft Skyroad range. Please, please Major Craft Japan, never stop making the Skyroads! And if it helps, I have found two places in the UK that list this rod for sale - check here and here. Make sure to also call Absolute Fishing over in Ireland.

There are a number of reasons why this whole surf fishing with lures thing has been bouncing around my brain for a while now, and especially with spending more time down in Kerry where a few switched-on anglers sometimes do incredibly well on the bass with launching the discontinued Bass Bullet lures a country mile into heavy surf conditions and cranking  them back at a speed which actually causes what is a fast sinking lure to skip along the surface. I have only seen a little of it, but it’s some exhilarating stuff, indeed I can’t really see how much better lure fishing can get than fishing heavy surf as birds hit bait and bass smash into surface lures in amongst all that turbulence. Talk about adrenaline.

Look how far away the breakers are!

But how many of us purposefully target surf beaches with lures when it’s pounding in? The sort of conditions that a bait guy might get excited about for bass is I bet when many of us would turn away and head somewhere else with the lure gear. Granted, some beaches will colour up or fill up with weed much faster than others, but it’s amazed me how readily bass will hit lures in big surf conditions - and wow am I wondering how much of this style of lure fishing there is out there that most of us simply aren’t doing………….

And I don’t mean standing in a bit of surf and whacking lures like my dearly beloved IMA Hound 125F Glide out - nope, I mean needing to get lures out there a serious distance because you’ve most likely got a decent headwind, the tables of water are just too powerful to go wading very deep at all, and the bass are feeding just behind the breaking waves. Hence the need for serious distance. So as much as I love lures like the Hound Glide, Sasuke, Tide Minnow Slim etc., the fact is that these long-casting lures simply ain’t getting out there when the going gets that tough.

Hence the question - are plenty of us missing a trick here because we aren’t geared up to deal with it? And please note the question, because I suspect the answer could be yes, but I don’t know. A lot of you might well live in areas where you either don’t have storm beaches, or else rough conditions means it’s blown out anyway (always thinking of you Richard and Tim!), and of course punching specialist lures out on specialist gear into heavy conditions could be a very localised thing. Or is it? More to come on that.

I had a very interesting conversation with a lad I crossed over with as I was leaving Kerry - he had just turned up to fish with John Quinlan, and he was telling me how his few days of guided fishing last year ended up essentially completely changing how he approached his own bass fishing. Back home he went after last year’s trip (another part of Ireland), invested in some Major Craft Skyroad light shore jigging rods and spinning reels to match, experimented with a bunch of different casting jigs that could really get out there in heavy conditions, and he told me his catches of bass have gone through the roof. If that didn’t cause me to stop and think for my entire journey back home then I shouldn’t be an angler in the first place!

OK, so the Bass Bullet the Kerry based guys are using isn’t made anymore, and the lad from the paragraph above went down the bigger casting jig route rather than go for lures that can be cranked along the surface - so the way I look at it is that there’s quite obviously a whole bunch of different ways in which these heavy storm beach conditions could be dealt with, but the simple fact is that I think I’m going to find it the case quite often that I need specialist lures that really do get out there and fish in different ways to our more regular minnows which mostly won’t get out there, and secondly are going to struggle in the maelstrom. Sure, I might love the Hound Glide, but up against a Bass Bullet and it’s not even fair - and yes, the Bass Bullet looks like nothing and it does very little save for splash a bit when you crank it as a surface lure, but the bass obviously home in on it. I had a couple of bass on Sunday morning in fact from a local rock mark where it was pumping in, and I couldn’t believe how easily the bass hit my Bass Bullet.

I have taken a punt on some South African style chisel plug lures to see if they might work, and from what I remember of using these kinds of of lures in Angola and Mozambique, I have high hopes. I ordered a few of the wonderfully named and not very expensive GT Ice Cream lures from this UK based online store here and when they arrive I will take them out and cast them against my (only!) Bass Bullet to see how they compare. They are designed as a long range (sinking) surface lure that comes up nice and easily when you start winding, and because of the weights of these sort of lures I will be turning to more powerful lure rods such as this Major Craft one here that I reviewed, and also the rather sublime Skyroad 9’6’’ 15-42g which I will review in due course. What a rod, holy cow it gets lures out there.

I have also been going through old boxes here to see if any strange stuff I have bought over the years might actually end up working. I am also wondering if these really heavy, sinking minnows like the 30g IMA Sasuke 100HS above might also work well in a heavy surf? It casts very well, it’s heavy for it’s length, and on a slow retrieve it’s got a nice tight action that I know bass will hit, but I know little about these more specialist “solid” minnows. I also keep thinking about those slow jigs which do so well from the boats and I am pretty sure can be found in shore sizes, plus I also have a bunch of prototype lures here that I have a feeling could end up killing in heavy surf conditions. I caught bass, pollack and mackerel on some of them the other day when fishing from the rocks, but I can’t wait to try some of them out in the surf. Anyway, I hope that might be some food for thought, because it’s got my brain bouncing big time. Am I way off the mark here, or are a lot of us missing out by turning away from the sort of conditions that some of the guys I know are literally praying for? Sure, it might take a bit more of a specialist approach, but that’s a part of fishing is it not?

As much as I do love messing around with different bits of fishing tackle, I can’t help but default to certain lures that continue to catch me fish. Allow me one surface lure and it’s going to be the IMA Salt Skimmer every single time - it’s incredible how well this lure casts when you think about the dimensions (110mm, 14g), and it just keeps on working for me. I like the fact that the Skimmer performs so well with the sort of lure rods I am most likely to take out bass fishing with me (somewhere in the region of say 8-30g casting weight), and I have caught bass on it in some surprisingly rough conditions. Yes, there are any number of surface lures out there that slay for bass, but I can only tell you as I see it, and the Skimmer’s my go to weapon.

When it gets that bit too much for the Skimmer though, what do I turn to then? Well of course there’s the Patchinko which is a proven bass weapon, and I am becoming more and more attached to the IMA Little Stik. I’ve also got a bit of a thing for the Tackle House Vulture and increasingly the Daiwa Morethan Scouter 110F. Hell, I’ve got a bit of a thing for a lot of lures, but nothing I have fished with so far that one would term a surface lure can touch these GT Ice Cream lures for out and out distance……….

I have some fond memories of fishing with these South African style chisel plugs as they tend to be known - a small group of us went into Angola some years ago, a few weeks after they signed the peace agreement to end thirty years of a brutal civil war in fact. Standing on a remote Angolan beach early in the morning and blasting out most chisel plugs for garrick (leerfish) is something that will stick in my head forever, and whilst those chisel plugs are a sinking solid plastic lure with what I assume is a bit of lead in the arse, when you retrieve them they come up on the surface - and to watch a garrick smash into them is something else. From memory I reckon we were casting chisel plugs around the 3oz and 4oz sizes, and I have also used them for GTs from the shore (animals, end of) - the lures have always stuck in my head as one of those “I wonder if they would work for our bass” sort of thing, but I was never aware of them being available in the sort of sizes and weights that we might use.

Well they are, and it’s a big thanks to a few kind people on Facebook who made me aware of the GT Ice Cream lures the other day when I was asking the question about long range lures that might work in heavy surf conditions. As I said in Wednesday’s blog post, I took a punt and ordered a few from here, and when they arrived yesterday morning I obviously had to go and give them a chuck to see how they might get out there. Holy frigging cow, I need more line on my reels, put it that way! It ain’t right how these things cast………..

I can’t tell whether they are going to slay for bass, and my experience with these bass size chisel plugs is the sum total of yesterday morning, but what I can tell you is that I have never, ever come across a bass size surface lure that gets out there like these things. Yes, the Patchinko is a long casting surface lure, but it’s nowhere close to these GT Ice Creams. They chew up a strong headwind and they seem to be working just fine in some very bouncy conditions. They cast at least as well as the Bass Bullet, and quite possibly a bit further again, but since the Bass Bullets aren’t made anymore it doesn’t really matter anyway. It looked to me like these GT Ice Cream lures easily left that Xorus Bad Boy behind, and it was pretty amazing how the GT Ice Creams just refused to wobble in flight and lose distance. Fast casts, slower casts, short drop, longer drop, bad casts, they just go.

Whilst I am most excited about how these GT Ice Cream lures might work in heavy surf conditions, I can’t help but wonder whether the smaller 3/4oz (21g) and 1oz (28g) versions might work for us on the regular lure rods when you really need to hit say a distant tide rip or are battling against a headwind on your bass marks. That 1oz GT Ice Cream on HTO’s new 9’6’’ weapon goes out so far that it’s almost not right, and the 1.5oz (42g) versions on a heavier class of lure rod? I don’t know how far it’s flying, but as I said, no bass size surface lure I have come across has ever got out there like this. They are sinking lures but come to the surface very quickly (it suggests here that they can be fished like jigs as well), and I am pleasantly surprised at how you don’t actually need to crank the living hell out of them to keep them up and working on the top - very briefly, and bearing in mind my extremely limited experience with these lures, it seems that the Needle Nose can be worked very much like a splashy walk the dog surface lure, the Skinny can be worked a bit but does like being wound straight in where it reminds me very much of the Bass Bullet but with a bit more splash, and the Cone can be straight retrieved from slowish to fast and splashes away plenty. Look here and here for info on them. As for rigging them, they do come with assist hooks on the rear, but again thanks to a South African bloke on my Facebook page, I have rigged them as you can see in that photo - split ring, swivel, split ring, single hook, which happens to be this one here in a size 3/0.

Please don’t shoot me down here - I am merely telling you about these lures because they really, really interest me for our bass fishing. I don’t know how deadly they might or might not prove to be. I am not sure if how I have rigged them will prove to be the best way for our bass, and what I really, really want to see is a day over in Kerry with John when the bass are on big time in some seriously fizzed up surf, the sort of conditions when they are smashing fish on the Bass Bullets because it’s the one lure they know about which will properly get them out there into the kill zone - will these GT Ice Creams do the job then? Time will tell, but wow they get out there! Have a good weekend. Please think of me with my bouncing brain syndrome which has got me up at silly o’clock all week because I can’t stop thinking about this stuff.

Still my little baby! 

Me, obsessing about certain things within fishing? Never! I thought it would be a bit of fun to put a short video up of my mate Mark larraping (yes, this is a technical casting term) the little 1oz/29g GT Ice Cream Needle Nose lure on the scarily impressive 9’6’’ 7-35g HTO Shore Game lure rod that I reviewed a while back - check here. What you aren’t seeing is a bit of footage I shot of Mark just before this stuff here when you can see his reaction to casting one of these lures for the first time and seeing it go so stupidly far! Let’s just say that Shakespeare would have been proud of such fine use of the English language………………..

Note also the recovery on that HTO rod, albeit it always looks a little strange to see the rod tip bounce down so hard during the cast if you haven’t seen it before or weren’t aware that it happens - and believe me, compared to older style spinning rods that I used to photograph at say ten frames a second on a stills camera, the speed with which these good modern lure rods snap back to parallel is quite remarkable. The slow-mo casting sequence is at 10% normal speed if that helps. Damn I wish I had sent that 9’6’’ HTO rod back straight away after my review rather than cling on to it and then come back to it like I have. What a bit of kit. Anyway, as per the other day, yes, these GT Ice Cream lures explore bits of water that I have never reached before with a surface lure, but over time will this somewhat different style of lure prove to be a bass magnet?

On our last evening over in Kerry the other day, John and I took our clients to a little bay because we needed to try and find some clean water - with all the rain we had got, Ballinskelligs Bay was in bad shape, but John’s knowledge of his coastline found our clients some good looking water and we could at least get them bass fishing with a decent degree of confidence.

Now bear in mind firstly that they are fishing in the dark, and secondly that there is a fairly large swell rolling in on a slightly more than gently sloping beach - which means we can’t have them wading out in case the water rolling back down the beach after a surge goes and knocks them off their feet when they can’t see everything going on because it’s dark. We’re talking about some pretty hectic waves rolling in further out, with those white tables of broken water rushing in at us - nice conditions but not easy to fish, and especially at night and just to get to where the bass might be is going to take a long cast before we deal with whether bass can actually home in on a lure in all that turbulence. And it’s dark remember……..

Now I’ve said it before on here - my co-guiding work with John I believe makes me a better angler, and bear in mind that I am never actually fishing with the clients. You know my feelings on “guides” fishing with their clients - you ain’t guiding if you are fishing with them, end of, but that’s not the point here. Nope, because I get to stand back and see so much of what is going on, what then sometimes unfolds can’t help but hit home to me in a different way to if I am actually doing the fishing myself, and especially when something happens that I haven’t seen before. Talk about filing stuff away in head.

Via my recent blog posts, you can probably guess the one lure that John wanted our clients to fish with - yes, the (discontinued) Bass Bullet. They needed to get a fairly long way out and we simply can’t get regular hard lures out far enough. Bear in mind as well that the guys are blasting out those (fast sinking) Bass Bullets and then cranking them in at a pretty fast speed to get them up on the surface - at night remember. They are not working the rods at all and all the lure is doing is skipping and splashing across the top, but of of course we can’t hear or see the lures actually fishing because of the crashing waves. Would you be confident in taking a bass off the top on a fast moving surface fished lure at night and in some pretty hectic conditions?

Well that one single bass around the 5.5lb mark that Andy caught will stick with me forever, and I didn’t even get to see the fish because I was working with two other guys further along the beach. OK, so it wasn’t exactly a fish a chuck, but the simple fact that a decent bass managed to locate that simple kind of lure in those hectic conditions, and at night, well if that doesn’t get in my head as an angler then nothing will. By no means have I fully got to grips with chucking lures at night for bass, but if there is one thing that has struck home to me the last couple of years especially is to stop treating night fishing with lures as some big thing that revolves around doing everything completely differently. Since I said balls to that, I have caught more bass at night on lures. Nope, as ever it’s us human beings applying our logic if you like to the natural world, and just because we can’t see at night, we then think the fish can’t see or feel our lures in the water, and especially when conditions get a bit hectic. Crumbs, if I had known how fascinating lure fishing was, I’d have got into it many years before I did!

My first cast was at 5am, and on my second cast I hooked, landed, and released a bass. It was still dark, I was on my own, conditions were pretty much spot on, and I was using a white Wave Fishing 5’’ Bamboo Stick (senko) rigged on one of those “never seem to rust up” Lunker City Texposer 5/0 weedless hooks. There’s no belly weight on the hook and I am retrieving the soft plastic at a fair pace. The only sort of modification I had made is that I have put a rattle into the white senko that I caught the first bass on……….

So I take this particular lure off after that first bass and clip another 5’’ Bamboo Stick on, only this time it hasn’t got a rattle in it - fresh out of the packet if you like. Bear in mind that all I am doing is whacking the lure out and winding it back in, at a speed which I can assure you the thing is essentially waking across the surface. No twitching, no working it in any way, just a simple straight retrieve. Now I’ve obviously got my hopes up after landing a bass on my second cast, and I had timed my arrival to coincide with what seems to be prime time for this particular location.

Ten minutes or so of fishing away with the “non-rattle in it” white senko and I haven’t had a sniff, so I change back to the other white senko that has a rattle in it. A couple of casts later and a bass jumps on the end which I land and release. OK, so this is starting to mess with my head a bit. I keep on fishing with that “rattle in it senko” and in due course land another bass, so I change over again and go back to fishing with the “non-rattle in it” senko - and don’t get another sniff of a fish. Now my brain’s really starting to hurt………………

What does this prove? Not a damn thing of course, because there any number of variables that one could bring into the mix to try and prove or disprove whether sticking a little glass rattle in a boring looking bit of white soft plastic makes any different to the catch rates - but I can’t get away from landing three bass on a white senko that had a rattle in it, yet not getting a sniff on a white senko that was rattleless (is that a real word?). When I turn to a white senko for fishing in more coloured, bouncy water during daylight hours I will tend to use one that has a rattle inserted into it because I feel more confident that a bass can locate it, but when fishing a senko like that I will tend to work it a bit - twitch, pause etc., so of course the rattle’s chucking out a bit of sound.

But surely a white senko with a rattle in it that’s not being worked in any way save a straight retrieve ain’t exactly committing noise pollution? Or is it? Is there a little bit of sound coming from the rattle on a straight retrieve, or at least enough to pull the bass in? Does that bit of sound really do something, or was it a simple case of the three bass just happening to be around when I happened to be fishing the white senko with a rattle in it - and then not being around when I happened to be fishing the rattleless senko? See what I mean? Fries my frigging brain! On the one hand I will forever rejoice in the fact that we will never come close to knowing it all, but on the other hand it would sure make my brain hurt less to know for sure whether putting little glass rattles in a white senko for night fishing really does make a difference or not. It’s no great hassle putting them into a senko, and it obviously works or at least doesn’t put bass off, but I bet there are any number of you reading this who fish these kinds of lures with no rattles and hammer bass. Fishing eh? Talk about a lifelong obsession! Have a good weekend and may your brain hurt a lot less than mine………….

Below is my work in the new issue of Sea Angler that’s about to hit the shelves, and it’s interesting to see that my main feature in there is yes, you’ve guessed it, about fishing for bass at night on senkos.

I reckon it’s a bold move for a UK company to develop two lure fishing rods for shore based bass fishing that are retailing around the £300 mark, but then if you keep an eye on the TronixPro lot then you can’t fail to notice how intent they are on shaking up the UK fishing tackle market - and I take my hat off to them. Will they sell a load of these (not cheap) lure rods? I haven’t got a clue, but full marks to them for giving it a damn good go……….

First impressions of this rather smart HTO Shore Game S882LML 8’8’’ 7-28g lure rod are good. I am a sucker for a decent neoprene rod bag even if I don’t actually find the need for a rod bag very much, and via my love affair with the Major Craft Truzer range of rods, I can’t help but be drawn to a lure rod rung with Fuji Torzite guides. Do they catch me more fish? Nope, but that’s besides the point. I like them and they smack of quality. I can live with the reelseat but I do wish it had a bit of a grip for my reel hand (see here, it’s the same design as on their longer 9’6’’ rod), and the noticeably short handle length sits well with the rod and how it fishes (I bet this rod works well on a boat). There is a little clip just above the foregrip where you can clip lures into, and I can even clip these rather fantastic Breakaway Mini Links in there if needs be.

So how does the rod behave when you take it out lure fishing? Well I mean this as a big compliment - it would be a shame to buy this rather deft lure rod and do nothing with it but “whack and crank”, as in the rod’s so light and wand-like and responsive that it really is pleading with you to do so much more with it than simply blast lures out there and crank them back in. By all means clip something on like the IMA Hound 125F Glide hard lure, blast it out and wind it back, but you can do that just fine with any number of lure rods. Nope, it’s when you are casting out say a DoLive Stick, a senko, a lighter hard lure or smaller surface lure and you are lightly gripping the rod and deftly working the lures back to you (and yes, sometimes I do actually do this!) - this is when this 8’8’’ HTO Shore Game rod really comes to life, and it’s a frigging dream to fish with it like this. When a rod feels like a simple extension of my arm is when I know it’s a bit special, and this is exactly the feeling I get here - the tip tightens up to the braid after the cast as you start to work your lure back and rod simply comes to life. Wand-like. Rather bloody lovely.

It might well be rated 7-28g, but that stated casting weight I think in some ways does the rod a little bit of a disservice if that makes sense. The rod will deal with the heavier end of its casting rating if you really need it to, but to me this rod is more of a say 5-24g lure fishing rod, and I seriously like this. I have fished with plenty of lure rods that sit just above this rod on the casting weight front (the 10-30g Major Craft rods for example), but it’s not that easy to find a wand of a lure rod like this that so enjoys the lighter stuff. As with the majority of these rods we use for lure fishing, you have the ability to land any bass that swims on them, and this thing’s got oodles of power if needs be - but you’re not going to buy it as a skull-dragging weapon because this rod isn’t like that. I actually think it’s interesting how there’s such an obvious gap between the 8’8’’ and 9’6’’ HTO Shore Game rods, and I must assume that this is by design.

Do I need a lure rod like this for my lure fishing? Well I could quite easily own this rod and end up using it for a fair percentage of what I do as regards bass fishing, but as for you? That would depend on where you live and how you either choose to fish or are almost forced to by terrain and conditions etc. I would love to spend time for example wandering a local estuary that I have my eye on for bass with this rod in hand, a soft plastic on the end, and say a light spinning reel around the Daiwa 2500/Shimano 300 size, indeed I have been using the 2016 Daiwa 2500 Certate on this 8’8’’ HTO Shore Game rod and they go very well together. If you need to fish with bigger lures and/or are needing to deal with bigger seas etc. then I would look at this rod’s bigger brother, the longer and absolutely outstanding 9’6’’ 7-35g version. As with that longer 9’6’’ HTO Shore Game rod, well done to the TronixPro people I reckon and I hope that anglers get to see these rods in the flesh because they are some seriously special bits of lure fishing kit.

As much as I love my UK and Irish fishing, angling to me is a global thing, and via my travelling for work especially I have a fascination with sport fishing all around the world - and as a result, I can’t help but be interested in other people who fish a bit in weird and wonderful places. Putting Dave Lewis and “fish a bit” in the same sentence is a bit like saying Mo Farah does a bit of running though - Dave seriously travels the world for his fishing and fishing related work, and I am thrilled to be able to tell you about a Destination Angler, a book he has written and photographed. Crumbs, I reckon I’ve been to a few places on this glorious earth for my work and fishing, but take it from me, Dave’s done a scary amount…………

Is there an angler out there who couldn’t get a kick out of reading about Dave’s wealth of fishing experiences? He writes in a very down to earth and approachable way, as indeed he has done so for many years in Sea Angler, and I like how this makes me feel very involved in the many stories that unfold through the course of the book. Most anglers will never get to experience even a small percentage of the global fishing that Dave has done, but he manages to put you right in the middle of his fishing trips, and at the end of the day us anglers are but dreamers are we not? There’s a big world out there and Dave’s book Destination Angler opens up some of the finest sport fishing there is to us readers - and yes, there’s plenty of stuff in there that is on my bucket list!

Kenya, the Florida Keys, Norway, Tanzania, Cape Cod, Argentina, Mozambique, The Maldives, Belize, Uganda, Panama, Sierra Leone etc., the list of destination based chapters in this book is quite something. I won’t go into the many species covered because I would need a book to do so myself, but if you have any interest in some of the best sport fishing to be found around our glorious planet, pick up a copy of Destination Angler by Dave Lewis and lose yourself for many wonderful hours. OK, as a fishing photographer myself I’d like to maybe see a few double page spreads that show off the stunning locations even more (but this of course adds to design and printing costs with a book), but this is just me knowing how frigging awesome some of these places can look - there are more good photos of serious fish throughout the book that anybody has any right to have caught and I can see myself coming back to Destination Angler again and again throughout the long winter months especially. Well done Dave, cracking book, that’s some air miles!

Details above on where you can buy this book

Well I know I do. Rightly or wrongly, I don’t mind admitting that I turn to certain lures and techniques at specific marks where they have worked well for me before, and I would hazard a guess that a lot of you do this - at least as a kind of default anyway, and then chop and change according to conditions and whether you start catching fish or not. Some locations by their nature tend to call for a certain approach, and we all know how the whole confidence thing is so damn important in any kind of fishing. If you have caught before at a specific mark on a specific lure and a specific technique, it’s only natural to do the exact same thing again and again……..

On the flipside though, how often do you fish a spot you know really well in the way that you have done so well on in the past, only this time you catch sod all? Talk naturally turns to something along the lines of oh well, there were obviously no fish there today because we didn’t catch them when on similar tides, conditions, etc. we smashed them before - but is that always the case? Would a very different approach have found you a few fish, or were there really no fish around? Do we become a bit blinkered sometimes because we naturally default to what we know has been successful in the past? I like to think that I am an open minded angler, and certain fishing related instances really bounce around my brain when they are actually based around spots that I know and fish myself - when somebody fishes a spot that I know in a way that I have never done and then catches a heap of fish, well I would be beyond stupid not to sit up and take notice and think about how I could then incorporate aspects of what they have done into my armoury………….

An angler I know who happens to firstly be bloody good at fishing, and secondly grew up spending a lot of (family holiday) time fishing the exact same area of Kerry that I am now lucky enough to spend time around with this co-guiding work I do with John Quinlan - well this angler fished the Irish Bass Festival this year and based himself in Tramore on the south coast of Ireland. He is getting to know this part of Ireland bit by bit, but he has no preconceived notions if you like about how certain spots “should” be fished (which of course makes no sense anyway) - a few days before the festival started, this bloke wandered down to a spot that is well known by plenty of lure anglers. I guess he would feel a little naked without a few of those discontinued Bass Bullet lures in his box of tricks (and yes, this blog post does link into my discussions about long-range surf fishing recently, check here, here and here for example), and why on earth would he know that many anglers who fish this particular spot will tend to turn to those orange, white and yellow Savage Gear Sandeels, or at least something along those lines. Why you might ask? Because they have smashed fish on those lures at that particular spot plenty of times before.

But on this particular occasion this UK angler saw loads of birds working in behind the pretty lively surf, and because where he grew up bass fishing it’s perfectly natural to firstly know how to read and fish these conditions when there’s obviously a load of bait around, and secondly he’s gone prepared to fish (surf) conditions with a sufficiently powerful rod (Major Craft Skyroad 9’6’’ 15-42g) to really get his Bass Bullets out there, well let’s put it this way - he frigging smashed ‘em. On that first session at this spot he landed 25 bass in the 4-8lbs range, and that in anybody’s book is some serious bass fishing. The next day he went back and found good conditions again and landed 20 bass in the 3-6lbs range, and on the third session down there the conditions weren’t nearly as good but he still landed 5 bass around 4-5lbs.

Now all these bass were taken by belting out a Bass Bullet and then cranking it back at a speed which makes it work as a surface lure - he told me that at some points there were so many bass around that they would hit the lure the moment it came up on the surface, and then if the odd fish came off another one would then smash into the lure. I don’t see how lure fishing for bass is going to get much more exciting than taking them off the top at range in a big surf, but the simple fact is that I have never, ever gone to this spot equipped to fish like this guy did. Have I been missing out? Well I have to assume a big fat yes siree, because the simple fact is that the methods that have worked so well for other anglers in the past at this spot don’t always work - granted, there aren’t always going to be bass there, but what about when the conditions look just about perfect but we struggle?

I bet most of us here have got locked into certain lures and techniques at certain spots, but how often you do go to these spots prepared to do something totally different to what you would have done before? What this guy did was not a fluke, but whilst I know a couple of guys who might do a bit of long-range shore jigging at this spot, I don’t know of another angler who has deliberately fished there with ultra long-range surface lures. This is but one example though, and my questions here of course revolve around any kind of lure fishing that you or I might be dialled into but are then ignoring another potentially more successful way of doing things. Does that make sense? Sure, we might already be doing exactly the right thing at the right time in the right place, but what are the odds of that? I sure as hell am happy to admit that the more I learn about this lure fishing thing, the more I realise how little I actually know, and it excites the hell out of me. Nothing floats my boat in fishing more than learning new stuff. Have a good weekend.