Quiet paths. Lonely stonechats, November gloom. Sneakily, late autumn is my favourite time of year to be by the Dorset coast. You can’t argue with the verdant furore of spring, of course, but there’s something to be said for the melancholy of a dank autumn day. Slow days with soft light, dark vignettes licking the […]
It’s no secret to say that it’s been an exceptional autumn for squid on the British south coast – that cat is already well out the bag. Dad and I have made a couple of trips to Weymouth to get a piece of the pie, paying a visit to the Stone Pier in both late […]
I had my suspicions that a shore caught cuckoo would end up being a tricky customer, and unfortunately, they were! The trouble is that cuckoos generally like to live in deep water, and that isn’t something that’s super abundant within casting range of the Dorset coast… I would guesstimate that most of my favourite Dorset […]
All things considered, Pembroke was kind to me. A really monstrous Ballan wrasse didn’t make an appearance (and nor did a Cuckoo) but I had the pleasure of fishing some lovely wild places – and I only saw two other anglers the entire week I was there. I met some friendly faces along the way […]
I’d love to know the origins of the rock cook’s name, but a search hasn’t thrown anything up. I wondered if cook had some second meaning in Old English, or Cornish – but it looks as if it simply means to cook and always has done, so I’m stumped! Whilst I didn’t observe this petite […]
Most people in England saw the New Year in with a prolonged spell of heavy rain, but we were lucky to have escaped the soaking and spent much of January in Poland – staying with family, enjoying the odd mountain walk, and, I should mention, getting married! The week of the wedding was Baltic, with […]
We’re three months into being first time parents and the novelty is just starting to wear off… We’ve survived the initial shock and we’re now settling into a new normalcy. It’s been brilliant, but the adrenalin’s ebbed away and I’m starting to feel it. In recent weeks I’ve learnt a new level of tiredness – […]
I really wanted to dislike Swanage Pier. I didn’t like the prospect of having to pay £6 to fish it between the confines of 9-5, and even less so did I like the cost of parking a car in Swanage – at £9 for the day! Adding to that £15 the cost of fuel, food, […]
Other than the abundant Ballan and Corkwing, the toothy Goldsinny was set to be my easiest shore-caught adversary – but it still gave me a good run for my money! Perhaps I was just unlucky, but it took a good dollop of persistence to track one down. My hunt began on a warm day in […]
We’ve a six week old baby at home – our first – so my days roving around the South Coast in search of big ballan wrasse are on somewhat of a hiatus for now. All things considered, I’ve been incredibly lucky to manage two days fishing this month. Instead of the usual roaming around remote […]