Non-fishing (mostly) Stuff of the Year 2022
In non-fishing terms 2022 is going to stick long in my memory for various reasons, chief among them being that my dad died of cancer earlier this year and I miss him like crazy. Grief is a weird thing and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it at all. I had a strange week recently where every single morning at about 6.30am as I was walking Storm with my headlamp on, this feeling hit me like a tidal wave that I so badly wanted to be able to give my dad a call and talk about literally anything. I just wanted to hear his voice. I can’t explain it and that week has passed and moved into different phases, but the simple fact is that I miss my dad. We are obviously all going to die, but it doesn’t make it any easier to lose somebody who I loved so much and who was such a profound influence on the person I am.
Another more joyful memory I have from this year is going back to the cinema for the first time since the pandemic. Walking into the Plymouth IMAX screen to watch Top Gun: Maverick with my wife was an incredibly happy experience and it’s something I will cherish for a long time. Which leads me to my non-fishing Stuff of the Year 2022…………..
Film of the Year 2022 - Top Gun: Maverick, by a country mile as well. If you are of a certain age and can remember when the original Top Gun came out then I defy you not to smile and shed the odd nostalgic tear of joy at the sequel. A lot of reviewers have been referring to Top Gun: Maverick as the film that saved cinema (after the pandemic), and after seeing it on the IMAX screen in Plymouth I can’t really disagree. I want many different things from the many different films I watch, but sometimes I just want a purely joyful experience. Top Gun: Maverick was just that film for me, and I now own the ridiculously good 4K BluRay of it and it’s just as good the second or third time around.
TV Series of the Year 2022 that I watched with my wife - Bad Sisters. I would suggest that the prize for one of the biggest c&%$s ever committed to the small screen was the truly horrendous brother-in-law played by the magnificent Claes Bang. I also had no idea that the coastline and scenery up around Dublin and beyond was so beautiful. Dark comedy done really well.
TV Series of the Year that I didn’t watch with my wife - 1883. Magnificent, beautiful, epic, sprawling, tragic, cruel, but also strangely uplifting. There is something about the expansion across and into the wilds of the US which fascinates me. We Own This City was a very close second TV series, not least because much of the same team involved in The Greatest TV Series Of All Time were involved - The Wire in case you didn’t already know.
Book of the Year 2022 - Heat 2. What an ingenious idea to do the sequel/prequel to such an amazing film in book form. If you don’t know and love the film Heat then don’t bother talking to me, but presuming you do then the incredible book Heat 2 comes alive so much because you can visualise the characters within its pages so perfectly thanks to Michael Mann’s masterpiece film.
Non-fishing Podcast of the Year 2022 - Pilot TV Podcast. I will never get around to watching even a small percentage of all the different TV series they talk about on this podcast, but I really enjoy the irreverent but also very detailed and amusing chat between the three hosts.
Sport Podcast of the Year 2022 - Rugby Union Weekly, closely followed by The Good, The Bad and the Rugby and Test Match Special. Depends on the sporting seasons of course, but I have always loved plenty of fun and informative chat about my two favourite sports.
Fishing Podcast of the Year 2022 - Surfcasters’ Journal Night Shift Podcast, same as last year. It doesn’t matter that they have been off air since summer and they often talk about a species of fish which we don’t have - I enjoy listening to passionate and knowledgeable anglers, and the host Zeno is very good at keeping things down to earth and humble.
Album of the Year 2022 - “Mirage” by the Portuguese band Gaerea. The track of the year opener “Memoir” sets the tone for this truly awesome collection of crushing but incredibly catchy and beautiful black metal. Yes, I am using the word beautiful to describe black metal, a type of music which to the untrained ear may well sound like an impenetrable wall of noise, but which to the addict like me is a truly uplifting explosion of melody and harmony and aggression. Gaerea promised much on their previous album, but on 2022’s “Mirage” they have fulfilled their potential and delivered one of those albums which I actually had to stop listening to at one point because it was on so much.
Best Buy of the Year 2022 no.1 - Sony A7IV full frame mirrorless camera. I don’t exactly enjoy changing camera systems, and especially when your muscle-memory is essentially trained to a specific setup and customisation - but I finally had enough of the Fuji autofocus flaws and quirks. I did a hell of a lot of research which also involved renting a Sony A7IV camera body over Xmas 2021, and then in early 2022 I took the plunge and bought into the system. I am beyond glad that I did, and especially because I got some good trade-in prices for my Fuji gear. Wow. This kind of gear is not cheap but it’s a big part of my work and I take my photography very seriously. Being able to completely trust an autofocus system is such a big thing for a photographer like me, but there is far more to the way the Sony system works which suits how I work mainly around fishing. It takes a long time to get so used to a fully customisable button configuration that you don’t even need to think about when the fishing and/or the light suddenly goes off, but I reckon I am about where I need to be now and I could not be happier with the Sony camera system. Sony RAW files are amazing and they play so nicely with Adobe Lightroom which makes my life easier as well.
Best Buys of the Year 2022 no.2 - Tamron lenses for the Sony mirrorless camera system, and specifically their amazing f2.8 triumvirate, the 17-28, 28-75 and 70-180. It’s the first time I have been 100% happy shooting some of my work at f2.8 which I think can sometimes work really well for fishing. But I also needed a “do most of it” lens to have with me when for whatever reason I am only going to take the one lens, so I ended up investing in the Tamron 28-200 f2.8-5.6 as well. For what it is, it's seriously impressive. I like how lightweight all these lenses are, I really like how they all share the same filter size which makes for easy use of a polarising filter, and to me they all snap into focus at a scary-fast speed.
Best Buy of the Year 2022 no.3 - Cobra AM845 Weather Resistant Walkie Talkies. I can’t do without walkie-talkies for my fishing and photography and guiding, and when my last lot finally gave up the ghost I did a bit of research and ended up going for these Cobra AM845 ones. At about £70 for two I think they are really good value for money - I bought four, or 2 x set of 2. I take them with me and give them to whoever I might be fishing with to please shout if they have got a bass worth photographing and so on. John and I use them for guiding purposes all the time, and from a fishing safety point of view they can’t be a bad thing if you are fishing with a mate or two and something goes wrong like somebody falling over etc.
The rather good HUK face mask which I use for sun protection
Worst Buys of the Year 2022 - The Bassdash sun protection gear I bought and then promptly returned for a refund. The sizing of the Bassdash Long Sleeve Fishing Shirt was miles off, and the material itself was somewhat heavier to wear than the two amazing Columbia PFG Terminal Tackle shirts which I have had for years now but will need to replace at some point. I also bought and returned the Bassdash Altimate Fingerless fishing gloves which felt pretty cheap and nasty and badly fitting as well. I haven’t been to the US for far too long now, but I do now know that I can order stuff from Amazon US via Amazon UK without incurring any extra charges than what is quoted - as long as you make sure you are buying from Amazon US and not a third-party seller attached to Amazon US if that makes sense. I ordered the Amazon US HUK Men's Neck Gaiter (Face Protection With Upf 30+ Sun Protection Neck Gaiter) off Amazon UK and it arrived a couple of days before the stated date so I could take it over to Ireland with me. If I don’t get to the US next year I will order a couple more of the Columbia PFG Terminal Tackle shirts off Amazon UK (via Amazon US) at some point.
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