Heading back home today, we have had a lot of fun out here, learnt loads more as always, so much food for thought

And just like that we came off the rocks yesterday evening and my guiding stint for July is done. I am going to nip out for a run this morning before saying goodbye to our anglers and then packing my Epic Berlingo up and driving across Ireland to stay with a friend tonight. Early Saturday morning I head for the ferry at Rosslare, hopefully pick up some sort of wi-fi to be able to listen to England v New Zealand on the radio, then drive through Wales and back home to Cornwall. I have one evening with my awesome wife before she then heads to France for a week because she’s leading a school trip…………….

Considering the conditions we have almost continually found, the bass fishing has been pretty good. The fish haven’t been easy to find, but when we find them we tend to bang a few out. If anything I find it even more enjoyable than I already did to be able to help and of course watch other anglers catch fish, and not for one second out here has it done me in that I don’t get to fish myself. With this co-guiding work I get to be in my favourite country with a bunch of good people and I get to be around fishing. For sure I was never going to get rich working in fishing, but what more could I want than what I already get to do?

When you do something which requires you to stand back and not fish yourself, you can’t help but pick things up and pass stuff on. Whether it’s how somebody’s casting might be easily improved, how an angler might deal with a bit of weed on the lure without then dunking their reel, how I see a number of anglers carrying their lures and making it pretty awkward to access them to change a lure, how to adjust casting angles and drop-lengths to allow for the wind and/or different lures on different rods, how to better move around on the rocks or over really slippery ground, how a wading stick can be a complete godsend and so on. And that’s not even getting to the whole finding fish thing. Just because we do this guiding work doesn’t make us better anglers, but it does make you continually watch and question and learn.

I don’t do football myself, but I obviously heard that England are in a big final on Sunday night. For those of you who will be watching and hoping, here’s me hoping it goes the right way. Personally I am hoping that the England rugby team can overturn some massive odds and beat the All Blacks on a ground where they haven’t lost for thirty years. It’s also very nearly a cricketing goodbye to Jimmy Anderson, surely our greatest ever bowler. To be still right at the top of his game at the age of 41 is ridiculous. You all have a good weekend and I will catch up with you next week when I am back home in Cornwall - seriously itching to go fishing myself of course!