JOURNALISM TARGET Bucket List status – result Angling journalism has long been a passion of mine. Not so much from the perspective of being in the public eye, because I hate being on photographs, as anyone who has ever seen my trade mark miserable face in the magazines will probably well appreciate. I am however a creative person at heart who likes nothing better than to get up early in the morning, park myself in front of the computer with endless cups of coffee trying to wake up while all around me sleep, and put my thoughts, findings, and aspirations out there into the public domain in the hope that others might benefit. In the early days - the self taught no prior experience learning phase if you like when I can assure you nothing comes easy, particularly to an educational stray as I was in my school years, to actually get something published was an achievement, and a very occasional achievement at that. Every article accepted rode on the back of several that weren't, which you had to take on the chin and learn from, or could have learned from, if only rejection came with some measure of constructive criticism to help avoid making the same mistakes again. But, editors being busy people, and in particular the case of Peter Collins who back then headed up Sea Angler, some simply wouldn't like you for whatever reason, despite never having met you, and as such would tell you nothing, making guidance of any sort very difficult to come by. So you would plod on, learning by a combination of default and reading what other people got published, until eventually getting a handle of sorts on what it was that editors were looking for. Probably my biggest step forward came not from the right words, but from my illustration. Few if any of the all time greats I either met or fished with, such as Clive Gammon, even owned a camera, let alone took pictures. In many cases their descriptive writing was so good you could conjure up suitable imagery in your own head without the need for pictures. 530
But endless pages of print unfortunately doesn't draw in potential spending browsers in places like WH Smiths. Good illustration on the other hand does, and magazine editors were well aware of that fact, even back in the days when black and white pictures looked little better than ink poured onto blotting paper. You can't beat a big eye grabbing catch to stimulate the urge to read on and spend money. So investing in a quality SLR camera certainly helped me, followed later by a second for transparency work when the occasional colour page started to creep in. And the rest as they say is history, leading up to digital where we find ourselves today. No more waiting for colour transparencies to come back from the processors only to have the disappointment of not a single one of them good being enough to use. The digital age has well and truly seen off disappointments and set-backs of that sort, and in that regard, I did a bit of the pioneering leg work there too, having the first ever fully digitally illustrated fishing article published of a wreck fishing trip out of Pwllheli aboard 'Judy B' skippered by Dave Carey. This was a pre-planned article trip sanctioned by my then boss Jim Whippy, who at the time was editor of Boat Fishing Monthly. As usual, I covered the trip on colour transparency film, but also took along an’ early days’ 3.3 megapixel digital camera which I used to duplicate the coverage in the hope of building a digital library for the days when this medium would eventually become the norm. On the Monday morning, I mentioned this to Jim and asked whether he could use it, to which he replied he didn't know, but if I put the pictures onto a disc and sent it through with the transparencies he would ask the publishers, who amazingly said yes. And so in 2001, the first full digital fishing article was published in BFM. Some years later, before smart phones with their onboard high resolution cameras hit the scene, I also had the first article illustrated on a mobile phone camera in 2010, again in Boat Fishing Monthly, and again from Wales, this time fishing Holyhead Deep aboard Gethyn Owen's boat 'My Way'. As you might expect, initially in the very early days, I was happy to get anything published anywhere. But with success comes bigger objectives, and when the opportunity presents itself, obviously you make the progression upwards, which usually comes as a stepped affair covering a lot of different, and in many cases now extinct magazine titles. Picture from first ever digital article So much so, that when I started to think seriously about drawing up the tick list which would eventually become my bucket list and the basis for this book, I got to thinking how satisfying it would be to target having something published in every sea angling title, which as far as I am aware I have managed, plus as many of the various freshwater titles as I could provide material to of a suitable standard beyond simply having it there just for the sake of it. Books then become an evolutionary next step in that process, though until now, with just the one under my belt, and with having had so much else on the go including my research and historical archiving, time has tended to steer me away from that particular medium. 531
1
THE ACTUAL BUCKET LIST 100 species
Colin Penny: skipper of the Weymout
TABLE OF CONTENTS Page The Actual B
Long Rough Dab 153 Turbot 154 Brill
Introduction to the Gobies 251 Blac
Bitterling 322 Gudgeon 323 Bleak 32
Spain 479 Thailand 479 Tunisia 484
As always, with any sort of ambitio
Working in conjunction with these i
viviparous reproduction, and the me
possible, use a landing net, and th
Only when a world record claim was
pectorals, with the second dorsal d
The harbour itself completely dries
Nor can weights be estimated by usi
shark and porbeagle exploits, all o
Mincing also makes demands on the m
Plymouth and some of the surroundin
That however isn't the entire story
Mark Ward, 71 pound Norfolk Tope I
off around Shell Wharf to the south
Network (SSACN), and it was on thes
COMMON SMOOTHHOUND Mustelus mustelu
But you would be wrong. Because exp
There are lots of good smoothhound
But it was a long hard fought campa
The object of the exercise was to c
LESSER SPOTTED DOGFISH Scyliorhinus
One of the few occasions when I can
When they were more numerous than t
With its recent history, can there
Getting back to the history of thos
Ross Johnson, skate from the shore
From the shore, obviously, it won't
I remember one particular fish that
have a lot to do with numbers, dist
That said, I have on occasion been
I once took a bucket full of live m
With fast tides, a profusion of ban
igger than ten pounds, then it's a
Spotted Rays also lack rough prickl
A strikingly beautiful fish which e
An occasional specimen might even t
Most of the time we spent fishing i
Another of those at best rarely rep
A much smaller fish of more souther
As with all species, and for a rang
Our first trips didn't exactly ligh
etween Christmas and the last big t
The Fylde would fish best after a b
Muppets too began to appear in a ra
own boat over there to fish the rou
Colouration and lateral line are tw
Deep diving plugs too, providing th
pollack have a protruding lower jaw
The upper flanks and back have been
From my own experience, certainly f
photograph of a whiting he'd caught
s monofilament to help eliminate se
fishermen, presented as a flapper,
mouth is noticeably dark. There can
LING Molva molva Bucket List status
Mac McAllister, Whitby Ling Now, th
GREATER FORKBEARD Phycis blennoides
In common with all the rocklings, t
SHORE ROCKLING Gaidropsarus mediter
I used to tag along to collect dise
As with the more familiar flounder
fish, little realising that they we
Though it was still very early in t
A fish with a distribution potentia
aits, and a tiny sliver of squid or
e enough to push them right out wit
Hooks obviously can be bigger where
He also uses this description for t
I spent some time chatting to Paul
fin extending right around to the h
Whatever the reason, it did actuall
From the shore it's slightly differ
161 And if you are not holding your
MEGRIM Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis B
Colouration is brown with some dark
Dan Burrows, Fleetwood Because of m
Where there are still a few bass le
ecruitment in the face of imminent
As ever, there was always the dange
The EU is relying on existing enfor
The total reduction in fishing mort
south, as it is a common enough fis
A fish with a large mouth and power
weaning these otherwise algae graze
spots, and put in the time both swi
Ollie Stenning, 8.7.4 Thin Lip reco
Despite living nearby in Hampshire,
Simply fold the pectoral fin forwar
Otherwise, a family of fishes of vi
epeated off the Yorkshire coast. Ye
were forced to remove their fightin
So far as I can ascertain, this is
different scales starting at the gi
everywhere as was once the case. Wi
Quite an unusual visitor to our pat
Four of us we were drift fishing a
Physically, the almaco is a slightl
Already we are seeing that, not onl
the end of the trip, still with no
I've had it happen to me on more th
What clinched that line of thinking
much stronger sharper hooks, and bu
Mike Thrussell, Gilthead Bream I ha
BOGUE Boops boops Bucket List statu
AXILLARY BREAM Pagellus acarne Buck
Caught out, instead of reversing th
The biggest of the four was put at
So there I am winding in, certain I
CUCKOO WRASSE Labrus mixtus Bucket
For deliberately targeting them, th
The scientific wisdom suggests it t
As is the trend with most of the gu
In this particular case however, re
Although I've never caught one myse
So you can expect to see them in mo
The knock on effect would also sign
Phill Williams, Shad on fly Unusual
THE GOBIES Potentially quite a larg
Colouration varies between reddish
TOMPOT BLENNY Parablennius gattorug
BLACK FACED BLENNY Tripterygion del
A very dark blue-grey fish over its
If it's a conger, the eye will be l
Yes, conger can be a handful. Dange
to make a short flowing 10/0 hook t
Anyway, a good hour went by without
More recently, that trend has given
A fish well capable of weights well
eam covered in a mosaic of heavy sc
Trigger fish are not overly demandi
Distribution extends throughout all
exaggerated long filaments stretchi
sometimes lighter vertical bars on
GREATER WEEVER Trachinus draco Buck
SHORT SPINED SEA SCORPION Myoxoceph
The anal fin follows a similar patt
Colouration is sandy brown with a s
By far the biggest numbers I have e
RED BAND FISH Cepola rubescens Buck
FIFTEEN SPINED STICKLEBACK Spinchia
After spawning, the adults drop bac
So not a likely repeat prospect for
As for mirrors, commons, leathers a
That was it. We would film a demons
Granted, Richard Walker was from a
Anglers however tend to have mixed
It took us some searching to locate
RUDD Scardinius erythrophthalmus Bu
Match anglers love them too, as all
ait on their heads and immediately
BARBEL Barbus barbus Bucket List st
In addition to that, Mike also had
More towards the back-end however,
Looking at recent reports of catch
Let's start with the feel of the fi
distances on a regular basis to fis
I'd never been to East Anglia befor
Phill Williams, small Zander locati
Not exactly a fish to set the world
Dave and Paul went straight for the
For a whole range of reasons you co
Let's also not lose sight of the fa
You only have to look at the wider
villa I stayed in. Using worms boug
THREE SPINED STICKLEBACK Gasteroste
Included in the adipose finned spec
Other boats also came ashore with s
Theoretically, a very straight forw
particular tenkara fly fishing come
A scale count from the adipose fin
Living in a three dimensional world
the hook inside a small ball of the
Colouration is typically dark green
In Grayling circles, I have to say
around one hundred and forty or so
across the lake, and would therefor
There were certainly less fish abou
One day, Bob Fitchie and I decided
Inspired by Wally's catch, John and
PART TWO BEYOND HOME WATERS THE CAT
Cape Cod is a venue where bass in t
The obvious problem was that Dave,
FLORIDA - BISCAYNE CANAL When I fis
So why go to the trouble of fishing
It's just a pity that the hundred o
This is controlled by a single lock
idea was that as the light faded, t
You could drop a live mullet or blu
Having fished there on a number of
getting access to big fish too for
and reels supplied on-board, which
Paul Bennett hooked up a huge snapp
As one local party boat angler put
The entrance can get quite busy wit
Each morning at breakfast we would
407 What we had not expected was ei
cameras, this went into a rucksack
The fishing itself was straight for
ottom. It was all bait fishing with
Smaller asp on the other hand tend
also run this river in their millio
Surprisingly, for the size of these
Eventually it appeared within reach
On one occasion, as soon as I touch
shark, which, along with a fish I h
fixed spool reels. Fortunately we h
As it would turn out, this was the
A stretch of land separated from th
The food was very nice. Fresh lobst
What you needed to do was cast as f
He in turn blamed the local lads on
against the concrete above us and h
The one remaining option was to go
More important still, so too were t
Our problem was catching the necess
Unfortunately, everything seemed to
was emptied, carried to us by scant
me there from Calangute where I was
In less than half an hour it was mi
said, as I'm not one for aimlessly
This happened a couple more times b
inside edge of the reef. As the sto
limited time, we were satisfied, an
Phill Williams, Puerto Vallarta Jac
Some days he would even walk into t
Were it not for the many bite-offs,
Gurnards very similar to our tub gu
Cod though were always the number o
up into the jungle. So late in fact
As was often the case, the chat wen
things turned out, it was nothing o
Grass Carp: Photo Bill Rushmer. Vir
Char in breeding livery: Photo Phil
Danny Cove 200 pound Stingray: Phot
My angling hero & mentor, Davy Agne
The Lesser Spotted curse: Photo Phi
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