In many respects this work I am doing with Savage Gear is the most rewarding stuff I have ever done in fishing
Some of you here might be old enough to have watched some of those rather minor TV fishing shows I presented back in the day, and as much as I always loved being on location and actually putting the shows together with a film crew, in all honesty I was always uncomfortable about being on television because I always found the idea of me on the box and being known or recognised by a few anglers to be mortally embarrassing! Nobody could ever accuse me of going looking for any of that old TV work because I wanted to be some kind of minor fishing “celebrity” (one of the worst words in the English language, surely?), indeed the TV work I did found me.
Fishing photo journalism has always been a huge part of my working in fishing, indeed for many years I was spending about three to four months a year out of the UK on photo jobs all over the world. A lot of my writing and photo work has never been seen here in the UK because I would offload so much of the material to different fishing magazines around the world and so on. Trying to make what we so love doing as sexy and as appealing as possible has always been a primary motivator to me. I do remember getting back home after a trip to India when my wife and I hadn’t been able to speak for a couple of weeks because it was so remote, and the first thing she told me was that she was pregnant with our first child. I nearly turned around and went back to India because I didn’t think I had been around enough to get the job done if you get my drift! I am now the father of two girls of 14 and 16 years old and I still don’t really feel grown up enough.
The guiding work I do with John Quinlan out in Kerry has come along in the last few years and pandemic aside it’s something I love doing with a passion. Not fishing myself was never going to be a problem due to rarely ever even picking up a rod myself on most of the big photo jobs I would do in what were often some pretty remote parts of the world, and getting to work with John and his wife in such a special place and help put anglers onto fish and help them out with their fishing skills is such a buzz. I am missing this work like you would not believe and I so hope we get to do it again at some point during 2021.
At the end of the day though I got into working in fishing because I am an obsessed angler who loves fishing so much that I couldn’t contemplate anything other than trying to make a living from being around the sport all the time. I have worked with and for numerous fishing tackle companies over the years. I have always been completely open about it, but of course the fishing general public never has much of a clue about what goes on within the actual business of fishing. Some of the conspiracy theories I see on various social media platforms honestly get me giggling at times with how far away they are from the truth, but at the end of the day the fishing tackle trade is populated mostly by really good people who love fishing as much as we all do.
And the work I am getting to do with Savage Gear these days is one of the first times I have actually been able to get 100% involved with thinking about, designing, testing, modifying and bringing to market actual items of fishing tackle that I can and want to use for my own fishing. I got into working in fishing because I love going fishing so much, but a lot of my work with tackle companies over the years has been on the photography or marketing or consultancy side of things. I have loved most of it, but a few times it’s gone bad because I won’t do certain things which I don’t agree with on the fishing tackle side of things. Principles cost you earnings in the long run I can assure you, and the flak that one cops from a few jealous or unpleasant anglers is part and parcel of this line of work as well.
The work I did with the French company Fiiish was a blast, and they are such good people, but I was never, ever going to be involved with the actual making fishing tackle side of things. I knew that and it was never a part of me signing on, but I am and always be an angler first and foremost. Lure fishing for bass has got me by the proverbials, and Savage Gear has been THE chance I have got to work with good people on items of fishing tackle that I want to fish with myself.
I get to do so much of my working with Savage Gear with a guy called Mads Grosell over in Denmark, and he is without doubt one of the most intelligent and open minded people I have ever met within the fishing tackle industry. Between us we come up with so many different bass fishing tackle ideas, and because Savage Gear are big enough to get things done but also small enough to be able to move fairly quickly and also diversify if they see an opportunity, nothing I ever suggest or talk about is ever dismissed out of hand. Not everything I think of is worth exploring a lot further of course, but the fact that lure ideas and modifications can be sampled so quickly really helps the whole process. I was watching a swim-video the other day for example of a modification to a lure which isn’t on the market until next month but which we are already working on different versions and so on - and it absolutely blew my frigging mind to the point where my sleep has been affected. Samples are on their way to me and I am as excited about testing them out as I ever have been. Fishing is a drug and there is no known cure.
Many of you I am sure have seen the fruits of our labour so far, and some of you I know have fished with the newer products and also caught fish on them. As with guiding and helping other anglers catch a few fish, it’s the most amazing thrill to know that items of fishing tackle which I have been so actively involved with are helping to catch fish for other anglers. When I get messages and emails from kind anglers telling me how they are getting on with various items of Savage Gear fishing tackle which didn’t exist until Mads and I started working together is just frigging awesome, and it really helps inspire me. I feel proud, and why the hell not? I will leave the cynicism to the unpleasant brigade and instead I will continue to find joy in fishing and working in fishing.
We have got so much new gear coming out next month which I have obviously been fishing with in various guises for a long time now. I will gradually give you all the details along with various videos we have been shooting and so on (above is a video on the brand new Savage Gear Sandeel V2 and a video on the weedless version of this new lure is coming out later in the week), but we’ve got lures and rods and so on, and I can’t wait to get those rods out and into the hands of anglers. I still have to pinch myself that I got to work from scratch on what are essentially my perfect bass lure fishing rods. I have listed the rods and specs via the screenshots below - the SGS5 range will be around the £150 mark, and the SGS8 range with Fuji Torzites etc. will be around the £300 mark.
As stunning as the more expensive SGS8 range is and I now choose the SGS8 9’2’’ 9-42g rod over my far more expensive Shimano Genos 9’ 8-48g rod every single time, we have done a huge amount of work to make the cheaper SGS5 range fish as close to the more expensive SGS8 range as possible. I don’t like trying to compare fishing rods because I am not quite sure how to do so, plus bearing in mind (as ever!) how personal fishing rods are, but these SGS5 rods are ridiculous. I pushed and pushed to keep the price at around £150, and whilst yes, I do this paid work with Savage Gear which I am nothing but open and honest about, I have yet to fish with lure rods for a fair amount more money that I have liked more than these new SGS5 ones. Yes the SGS8 range is a step up, of course it is, but I defy any angler who likes these sort of lure rods to fish with any of the SGS5 rods and for one second think there’s anything remotely “budget” about them. I love working in fishing and this work with Savage Gear motivates me like you would not believe. Lots more to come, hope you all had a good weekend…………..