I’ll cut straight to it: if you want to trigger estuary bass under marina lights with soft plastics you need two things to line up — the right tide and the right light window — and then you must present your lure like a wounded baitfish. Over the years I’ve spent more than a few cool...
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How-To Guides
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve watched a bait roll helplessly along a...
How-To Guides
I’ve spent more mornings than I can count standing on Welsh cobbles, watching...
How-To Guides
I won't pretend there's a single magic trick to pull double-figure rays off...
How-To Guides
I always get a buzz when the harbour lights start to bleed into the water —...
I won't pretend there's a single magic trick to pull double-figure rays off slippery tidal ledges — but after a few seasons of stubborn dawns, soaked waders and the odd ecstatic shout when a big shoulder rolls at the surface, I've learned a...
I always get a buzz when the harbour lights start to bleed into the water — there’s something about that contrast between artificial glow and moving tide that turns a quiet spot into a pollack magnet. Over the years I’ve learned one simple...
I spend a lot of spring mornings standing on low, wind-scoured sandbanks, watching the tide line for rolling bass and trying to place a lure where the fish will meet it. For several seasons I’ve relied on a Daiwa Saltiga 5500 to turn those long,...
I fish harbours at night more than I admit to my smartphone’s location history. There’s something addictive about the way pollack light up under quay lamps, how a single glow stick makes the water read like a topographic map of current and...
There are mornings when the estuary mouth looks like someone flipped a coin and the sea chose "empty": flat water, no bait flicks, and that sinking feeling that today's session is going to be a long, cold lesson in patience. This particular morning,...
Winter cod sessions around Wales mean cold fingers, early high tides and kelp that seems determined to eat every rig you send out. Over the years I’ve lost more than my share of rigs to sharp kelp blades — especially when casting heavy leads...
There’s a particular hush that falls over a tidal ledge just before first light — wind down to a whisper, water tucking around the rocks, and the promise that a double-figure ray could be cruising somewhere in the incoming. Over the years I’ve...
One of my favourite night sessions in an estuary involves watching a bank of streetlights smear across the water and waiting for the telltale slashes of pollack cruising the lit edges. Over the years I’ve learned that the right glow-stick...
I’ve lost count of the number of times a promising session in a rocky Welsh cove was spoiled by marauding mackerel taking my bait clean off the hook. They’re fast, curious and relentless — and if you don’t set your gear up to deal with them,...
I’d been battling Southerndown’s long, wide beach for years. Some days I’d put out 140–150g leads and feel like I’d sent the bait into the sea, only to reel back line that had piled up in the spool or tangled at the swivel. Other days my...