A great big New Year 2021 Thank You from me to those of you who kindly choose to buy some of your fishing tackle through my affiliate links

I wrote my first ever blog post on 16th August 2007 (check here), and I remember being inspired to start a blog when my mate Nick Hart landed what we reckoned at the time was the largest ever coalfish on a fly - a 29lbs+ monster. No records could be claimed because of the strength of the leader and the various IGFA rules which I must admit I have less than zero interest in, but it wasn’t actually that amazing fish which started me off on the blogging road. Nope, it was me watching our guide take a photo of Nick’s fish while we were out at sea, and then I asked him what he was doing while he typed a few words into his phone straight after taking the photo (bearing in mind we were a few miles offshore but out in Norway we still had fast internet) - “updating my blog”. You what?

The first photo I ever used on a blog post

And it really got me thinking. I looked around, found a blogging platform which I haven’t used for years now, and thought why the hell not start a blog and see where it leads. I never had any plans for my blog and I still don’t to be perfectly honest. I guess that my starting this blog was also influenced by me really starting to get into the whole bass fishing thing, which in due course became an addiction to lure fishing for bass. I knew that I never wanted this blog to become a catch report kind of thing, but I do love writing and talking about all things fishing. I guess I just hoped that a few anglers might stumble across it and find at least some of it appealing enough to keep coming back. Here we are then in 2021 and to be perfectly honest the main reason for me having a website is to run my blog. For sure I want to be found as a fishing photographer or writer or even co-guide by the people who might want access to that side of what I can do, but really it’s this blog which is the website, or the website is the blog. Somehow I have got to 2021 and I am still blogging on a regular basis, I truly love doing so, and a lot of anglers all around the world regularly read this blog…………….

Which obviously concentrates on lure fishing for bass because this is the style of fishing which totally consumes me these days. You don’t want to read about every fishing success or failure I have when I head out, so nothing has changed with me never wanting this blog to be a “look at my fish” or “look at my blanks!” kind of thing. It’s not my style and I feel better off leaving the endless hero shots and boasting for social media. When I talk about a fish I might catch on here it’s because there was something about the capture or session or thought processes and so on which I believe are of interest and I wanted to talk about them.

If you read this blog on a regular basis then it can’t have escaped your attention that I am absolutely fascinated by fishing tackle - which happens to be lure fishing tackle these days because that’s how I love going fishing. We are English and we are inherently cynical by nature. I understand that some people will always believe that my talking about certain items of fishing tackle and then linking to them is no more than a cynical ploy by me to make money. I don’t do this and I would never do this, but I also know that you aren’t going to change the minds of people who believe in conspiracy theories and that sort of stuff. Firstly I would suggest that affiliate links based on lure fishing for bass here in the UK is never, ever going to make anybody very much money at all, secondly I can look at myself in a mirror and know that I am always open and honest and you might also notice that I always put a disclaimer at the bottom of a blog post if there affiliate links in it, and finally, I put a hell of a lot of unpaid time and energy into this blog and if I am talking about fishing tackle anyway but by using affiliate links I can try to at least cover some of my time or equipment costs, then why not? A part of me is always going to feel uncomfortable using affiliate links, but I can’t keep spending this much time on my blog and not at least trying to earn something from it.

So I wanted to say a great big New Year 2021 Thank You to any of you kind people who choose to follow a link and buy some of your fishing tackle. You don’t have to, indeed I would always urge any angler to buy from a good local fishing tackle shop whenever possible, but the simple fact is that often we can’t for any number of reasons. I just wanted to say welcome to the new-look website, and a sincere thank you very much to any of you who choose to buy any of your fishing tackle via the links on this blog or website. Here’s to 2021 being a far better year than 2020 was………………..