Feeling topey?

You know what? I love taking people fishing for Tope. And the best people of all to take aboard 3 Fishes and go after them are people that have never fished for them. The expectation builds as we travel out to the grounds some nine nautical miles west of harbour. A couple of quick drifts for Mackerel is always fun and then its anchor down and then begins the waiting. And it is almost unbearable for all, myself included - that tension building, nerve jangling tease that always takes what feels like an eternity before the first run comes. Only once last summer did we get a hook up as the bait hit the bottom on the first drop down; its more normal for the fish to take their time to scent the baits and start working up tide towards us. At this point I say to all aboard 3 Fishes that it will be 45 mins before the first run, secretly I hoping that it will come sooner than that but most of all I'm hoping it happens! God of fishing please let it happen.

And then it does happen. The rod will nod once, twice and off goes the fish on a searing adrenalin pumping super charged run. Line spooling off your reel at breath taking speed. Chaos... other rods are wound in, drags are set and reset and then we tighten into the run. I use circle hooks and a hook up top the corner of the fishes mouth is normal its either that or its a lost run and for a couple of seconds my heart bangs as I hope beyond hope that the fish remains hooked. And when it does, well its amazing...Tope may not be the world biggest sharks but they can put a hell of an account for themselves. Young lads and lassies struggle to hold the rod and the fittest and strongest of us know that they are in a true fight.

And then comes the best bit. Its pure shock and awe that first sighting of a hooked tope deep beneath the boat in crystal clear water. Its at this very point that you realise that you have hooked a shark. Yes Shhaarrrk. No messing, no b*llocks, a true all singing all dancing, all teeth and shark skin, shark.

And that is why I love taking people Tope fishing. Sure the fish are stunning but its the look on a customers face that is priceless!

Bonny Scotland

I've always loved Scotland. Spent many good years living and working on the Isle of Mull (yes fishing!) and its always a pleasure heading back there. As I will be on Friday to attend Glasgow Angling Centre's open weekend.

If been invited up there on two previous occasions and it will be nice to be there again. I'm there to talk all things bassing - but I will have some Epic Fishing stuff with me as well! You'll find me on my own stand in the sea angling section or outside doing lure casting demo's. If you are intending going do pass by and say hello.

Check out who also is there using this link....

http://www.fishingmegastore.com/feature-openweekend.html?&owpages=guests

Pretty aren't they?

I love the look of treble hook guards. They are sexy, you have to admit it. They are a new necklace for your misses. Nice to buy, good to put on, looks great on and even nicer to take off! But that my friends is where the parallel ends because they are a waste of money. Sorry but they are and I'll tell you why.

Its nothing to do with their actual design function, as they do as they should. They cleverly protect your hooks from fleshy things like fingers, clothes and from blunting themselves on everything they rub against. In every respect they are a Ronseal piece of kit. They do exactly what it says on the tin.

And then they do one thing further that you really do not want and do not need. They create the dogs b8llocks of a perfect environment for your hooks to rust in. You may as well wrap your very expensive trebles in a salt bath and then warm it gently until it reaches the critical temperature where the chemical reaction known as rusting happens even quicker!

I have learnt this lesson and nice guy that I am, I'm happy to share it in order to save you £'s. A nice airy lure box with individual containers is the place to keep your lures safely. Always rinse them in cold water after use, always air dry them somewhere warm and always reload them in a nice dry lure box.

I'm giving away my treble hook guards so that I can not succumb to their temptation. The first person to ask for them by commenting here (you'll have to be fishing with me this season so I can hand them to you) will have them. But don't be tempted, no matter how sexy they are!

Always check your ring(s)

I can be a bit premature. Well the season is still a couple of months away and here I am worrying about an issue that will only become an issue in the future. However lessons are learnt in life the hard way and once learnt you ignore them at your peril.

Rod rings need love; well they need a check every now and then. Come on when did you last check your rings? Thing is they take some wear and tear during every outing and it does not matter whether you are a boat man or a shore man they will get damaged.  3 Fishes lovely stainless steel railings are hard, a dam sight harder than rod rings and as for barnacles!

I'm not going to pretend to know what the centre of each ring is made of - I guess I could google it but I'm not all that bothered. What worries me its that the stuff cracks, chips and falls out of its metal container; and the slightest blemish on an otherwise perfect ring will cause pain and discomfort!

If your reel line (braid or nylon) is going furry then the likelihood is that you have a damaged ring (the other place to check is the bail arm of your reel). But I have known no obvious warning to occur. A little chip on the outside of a rod ring sits there quietly waiting for its opportunity. An over powered cast and suddenly the line parts and your twenty five quid lure sails peacefully into the distance never to be seen again. Now that is a lovely feeling.............

The stuff that rings are made of is razor sharp when cracked or chipped. Its a ceramic like substance. Am I making this up or did I read somewhere that surgeons use ceramic blades in the operating theatre these days because they are sharper than metal? Whatever it cuts braid and nylon for fun. So please lads and lassies be premature and lads check your rings now!

Bruised, battered, blind but bloody brilliant

6 letter b's in one sentence = nice. I thought about going for 7 b's but writing the word baby at the end as in 'bruised, battered, blind but bloody brilliant baby' seemed to be getting a little too intimate! Maintain professional distance - don't refer to your readership as 'baby'!

Yup those of you that went for the Lucky Craft Sammy 110 mm were bang on. You are getting too good at this name the lure game. This lure has been my go to surface lure for....., well forever actually. Ever since I exploded my tenth Rapala skitter walk on a rock (good bass catching lure this but unfortunately made from the weakest plastic known to man). Oh yes whilst I'm onto old favourites; anyone remember the Storm thunder dog? There is a local guy who knows his fishing and swears by that lure on the surface. He was so devastated when he lost his last one a couple of years back that I gave him my last one. Now that is what bass club is for!

When surface lure fishing for bass was known to a very few people (only around 8 years ago did the dawn break on us Brits) there was precious little choice available on the UK market. It was Jim Hendrick the original, now much copied and still the best Irish bass guide (find him here www.probassfisher.com). That taught me the marvel, the wonder and the addiction of the LC Sammy.

In those early days I could only get the little beauties out of America. Never a reliable source of lures as both UK customs and exercise and the couriers did all they could to lose them. I'd shop at tacklewarehouse.com as a favourite as they proved to be better than the rest at actually delivering. Nowadays I still turn to America for some LC stuff and if you have five minutes spare I suggest a search in ebay.co.uk for the ebay shop i love hard bait. Yes I know slightly dodgy name but they are sound at what they do, cheap and up to now have always delivered. Be careful though as their stock is far better than anything you have ever seen here and you'll be surfing for hours.

The Sammy fishes superbly and I have not seen it out fished by another top water lure. Yes I've seen other lures trend - the Zorus Patchinko, the Z Claw, IMA have some nice stuff right now. All will catch but I will tell you this fact for free (well this is all for free) - If you pushed me into a corner and told me to walk out with only one bass lure to use for the rest of my bassing days it would be the Lucky Craft Flash Minnow! Ok ok If you pushed me into a corner and told me to walk out with only one surface bass lure etc etc it would be the sammy.

Warning the thing is as useful as floating sea litter unless you can fish it and to fish well takes skill, experience and coaching. Buy one and take it out by all means but you will not teach yourself how to fish the little beauty to catch fish consistantly. For that you will need someone who knows what a sammy needs. Anyone know who to ask?

Man with burnt orange and charcoal

Silly summer season is just around the corner and to celebrate its imminent arrival I've gone corporate! Yup, I guess it had to happen and so this is what my crew and I will be wearing aboard this summer. We've taken our Epic Fishing logo colours and chosen cloth colours that blend with it. We wanted something both 'boatey' and fishing; as the dolphin trip boys of the village had cornered the hues of blue market (from turquoise to navy they are in it) we felt rather than follow the crowd we'd stand out.

So burnt orange and charcoal we are... oh and I'm loving the UV buff. Its called Fish Guide and its covered in the world great sport fish; from GT's to carp (why carp?!). But buff's aren't pure vanity as this type is UV blocking and its brilliant at reducing the effects of the sun on your skin. At times this summer I will wear it like a balaclava - no burnt orange and charcoal ears! 

Hope that we'll now stand out when around the village and not at sea!

We rod and line anglers catch somewhere between 380 & 690 tonnes of Bass a year - And that's just non commercial fishermen

The Government department in charge of regulating our Sea Fisheries is DEFRA. And they have recently released the results of their Sea Angling 2012 Survey. You probably missed its release. I certainly don't recall Fiona Bruce mentioning it on the evening news - nope it passed me by to, well it very nearly did. If it wasn't for the boys at Sea Angler giving me the heads up then it would have escaped me entirely.

There is some amazing stuff within the report. For example just take my headline; apparently we rod and line sea anglers catch and take (kill) somewhere between 380 and 690 Tonnes of bass a year. This surprises me greatly; firstly because the margin of error is 310 Tonnes of bass which is vast and secondly because I don't believe even the lower end of the scale: Do you? It seems to me to suit the powers that be to big up the recreational bass kill so that they can better defend the commercial kill.

Apparently there are 884,000 sea anglers in England (yes just England). This merry band of brothers spent £1.23 Billion on the sport (I'm going to need a bigger boat). And this supported 10,400 full time equivalent jobs. And if you factor in something called 'indirect and induced effects'  (and yes of course DEFRA did factor it in) then sea angling supported £2.1 Billion and 23,600 jobs - b*gger it, I'll get two bigger boats!

Some of this stuff is simply astounding. I know that the sums are done with England in mind but let me draw a quick parallel. Here in west Wales, in the harbour towns of Cardigan, New Quay, Aberaeron and Aberystwyth there is precisely 1 person gaining full time employment out of recreational sea angling and that is me. And let me tell you this; I ain't earning much! Certainly my contribution to the £2.1 billion is less than 0.001% (Health warning follows - my math is poor. I got an e at o'level and I've done very little since so don't critic me if that is a poor stat)!

Next time you bump into a senior politician take the opportunity to remind him or her of how important recreation sea angling is to the UK's economy and how we should protect our fish stocks so that sea anglers keep going sea angling in to the future and so that Tim has a job.

Squids in

Squid - strange things really. Well we Brits find them strange whereas the rest of the world find them fantastic; Why? Because they are great to eat..they really are seriously good to eat. The height of squid cuisine in the UK revolves around covering them in a thick batter and deep frying them into rubber. The Japanese delight in sashimi squid (raw), the south east Asians barely cook them and make spicy lime and chilli laden salads with them. In the middle east and the med they are stuffed with meats and nuts and BBQ'd and the Spanish love nothing better than squid paella. Get the point? Eat more squid...

And why not because they are very catchable on lures all round our coast. Here, they arrive with the Mackerel shoals and stay until October. Sometimes they will venture close into shore and local clear water snorkelers report seeing them right up next to the rocks here. No surprise this as I have fished for them from the shore in Asia night after night surrounded by locals, stood waste deep in water, flinging lures just like the ones above.

Last summer I stumbled into a party of working birds about 3 miles off the coast. Sensing the opportunity for some mackerel (we were off after shark on this particular day) we stopped and bashed makkies for fun. Later whilst rigging flappers for shark bait I was amazed to find the mackerel stuffed full of squid. Now there was an opportunity!

There are many species of squid around the UK and there are also cuttlefish. We don't seem to get the big cuttles like they do on the south coast but I've seen many small ones. If there is babies...? There are some big squid though and the ones I've been catching seem to be around 6 inches long in the body.

Evenings are best when the light starts to fade. The fun is in the retrieve...dead slow with the occasional tap of the rod tip. A take is surprising positive there is a couple of pulls and then its a wet sack. But hell I don't care its fun catching something so surprising, so stunningly pretty (browns, reds, pinks and purples shimmer across them as they come in) and so dam tasty.