I’ve made a fairly drastic decision in my sea fishing recently and that is to go down the ‘continental’ style of beach / shore fishing where the rods are longer and softer and used with a fixed spool real. The reasoning behind this is that although I love my 2 Century Tip Tornado’s coupled with the 6500 Mag Elite multipliers unless I’m going out fairly consistently my casting with these rods (pendulum style) goes to pot.

With a fixed spool set up casting is generally easier, and new rod technology means the newer continental style rods are a lot better and are now suitable for fishing UK beaches.

After visiting Gerry’s of Morecambe last weekend and talking to Chris who was very helpful, and handling a few different rods I came home with a Tubertini Boomerang, a lovely looking rod of 14’5″ long (4.4m) and last night was the first time I tried it fishing.

Having loaded my old Penn Surmaster 70 fixed spool reel with some Berkeley Whiplash Crystal braid on 30lb (but only 0.1mm!! thick) and a suitable shock leader I was ready to go and launched a bait a long way, in fact it went a very long way with no effort at all. Now sea fishing at this time of year is a bit rubbish as we wait for the summer species to arrive but all I needed was one fish to see if the setup, with braid as recommended, was as good as it was said to be. Then a small knock, another – leave it to develop as braid is far more sensitive than mono, another knock and hey presto – a small Dab.

For such a small fish to give such great bite indication from what must have been close to 100 meters range was amazing so overall, the night was a success. The rod was great and bite detection with the entire setup amazing. One small gripe is the reel seat is too high up but I’ll get that moved when I get another one.

So I’ll definitely be getting another Tubertini Boomerang with a couple of the newer wider spool fixed spool reels, possibly the new Penn Affinity 8000′s but they’ll have to wait a while.

After eagerly watching the weather and ordering 20 peeler crab and 20 black lug from Blackpool Angling Centre on Wednesday I woke up Saturday morning to find the wind hadn’t died down as expected and with the Westerlies blowing onto the Lancashire coastline the chances of catching a Smooth Hound sea fishing from Cleveleys, between Blackpool and Fleetwood, was slim at best.

But I’d got the bait and armed with a few extras from the freezer we made our way to the beach to be greeted by a surf that could only be described as ‘Bass like’. Good job we’d brought the lug, maybe a fish was on the cards after all.

After a bit of trouble initially with our two hook rigs getting tangled in the surf we both elected to fish single hook pulley rigs, armed with a 2/0 wide gape hooks, Wendy using Black Lug, me with Black Lug on one rod and Crab on the other.

Casting over the weed that the wind had brought into the shallows we left our baits for about 15 minutes before changing, any longer than that and the tide would have washed out any scent. It was getting a bit difficult to tell a bit from the movement of the rods due to the waves but suddenly there was a  thump on Wendy’s rod and a small Bass was landed, her first this year.

As high tide drew closer the wind did drop a little until on the ebb you could just make out some calmer water past the breaking waves.

I fired out a crab into what I hoped was a weed free zone, into this smooth water and left the other rod closer in, hoping for a Bass from the surf, then it happened, a bite that in no way could be mistaken for a wave. I wound down onto a solid weight, fish on! The line started kiting to the right and then I saw it in the last of the waves – a Smooth Hound! Carefully I lifted the rod high to avoid the weed and at that moment it went weightless as the fish either let go or wasn’t hooked properly.

I was gutted! To miss a fish is one thing, to actually see it then it get away is almost heart breaking.

Shaking I baited both rods up with crab and launched my baits into the same area as before, this was to be the last cast as the tide was ebbing quickly now and soon there wouldn’t be enough water to fish into to make staying any longer feasible.

Fifteen minutes later it was all over, no fish for me this time so I packed away one rod while leaving the other out as long as possible. Wendy had packed up a few minutes before as it was getting a bit chilly now but as I wound in the last rod I felt a slight weight on the line and as it got closer in again it started going right.

Odd, this doesn’t seem heavy at all I thought, and then it broke the surface, the world smallest shark…

Yes, once again fishing during the summer on the Lancashire coast I had caught a tiny Tope, I think they’re getting smaller.

When you consider these fish, a top UK predator, can grow to over sixty pounds in weight this one was minute, it must have been one of this years young. After a quick photo (I’d shouted to Wendy to witness my fish…)  I slipped him back into the sea to start his reign of terror and after packing up and checking that we’d not left anything behind I made my way up to the car.

So, not a total disaster by any stretch, out of a lot of anglers on the beach that evening I only saw our two fish landed and although they were not the weeks target it was great to be out and we’d made the best of the weather we’d got.

Young Tope - I'm sure they're getting smaller...

Sometimes the weather or that annoying thing called real life can get in the way of our fishing or walking but even when busy it’s always great to get out and about, even if it’s for just a little while.

We’re very lucky in Lancashire to have near by the WWT reserve, Martin Mere which, like all the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust reserves is running events throughout June to help showcase the work they do and enable everyone to enjoy some of the UK’s fantastic wildlife.

The agenda for June is below but if you want more information you can visit Martin Mere’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ page here.

Guided walk of the waterfowl gardens: Every Day

Walk around the waterfowl gardens with a volunteer to learn all about the different bird species in the grounds. (Weather permitting) 1pm

Flamingo walk and dance: Every Day 12.30pm

Learn how flamingos walk and take part in the flamingo dance

Duckling nursery open weekends: Every Weekend 12-3pm

Follow the duckling walk to the duckling nursery and learn all about the egg to duckling process.

Burscough Bridge to Martin Mere Walk: Every Tuesday in June.

Starting at 10am walk from Burscough Bridge Interchange to Martin Mere and back again with a warden (approximately 2 miles one way – some rough terrain)

Community Reedbed Walk: Every Friday in June

Walk with a warden around the new community reedbed walk starting at 10am. Meet at the main reception and the walk has some rough terrain.

Walk to Mere Sands Wood: Friday 10 & 24 June.

Walk with a warden to Mere Sands Wood over a newly created trail – have a guided tour of MSW on arrival – starting at 1pm (will need 3 hours and over some rough terraine)

Big Toddle

We’re doing the Big Toddle in aid of Banardo’s and think you should too! Join our big adventure – the biggest charity event for 5s, this year with an animal theme!

We’ve not been sea fishing for a while but we’re making up for it soon with a week on Anglesey so we’ve been getting our kit together and doing all sorts of home and garden maintenance type things before we go away. Even though I’m supposed to be getting stuff ready for going away I couldn’t resist a quick walk along our local River Douglas, not for any specific reason, just because it’s been a nice day.

Nothing unusual to report although if the number of Small Tortoiseshell butterflies flitting round the nettles is anything to go by it looks like they might be making a bit of a recovery – at least I hope so. Birds are all doing the pairing up thing and it was good to see the Swallows swooping over the fields chasing the insects being thrown up as the tractors plough. Although not unusual in itself we have noticed a lot more Orange Tip butterflies this year – I’m not sure if we’re just more observant or if there are more than normal – I suppose we’ll see once the summer arrives.

Every time I walk along the River Douglas it reminds me just how lucky we are to live in such a fantastic place, not just Lancashire, but the UK in general and even on your local patch you can sometimes find something a bit different to photograph or a new look for an old subject.

Take the above as an example, looks almost alien – like some sort of science fiction film set but it’s the dried mud on the side of the River Douglas. I’ve been trying to photograph it for a while but it’s either too wet and messy or too dry and powdery, today it was just right…

If your in the area how about renting out a cottage at Easy Cottages for your walking holiday in Lancashire

Spring is in the air and it’s time for all creatures great and small to start doing what the birds and the bees do best – yes – it’s time for some good old fashioned sex.

Everywhere you look at this time of year you can see all types of fauna paired up and ready to make whoopie. During the past few days I’ve made the most of the weather and spent a fair amount of time wondering round Queens Park, Bolton. As well as the usual suspects of Sparrows, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Long-tailed Tits, Ducks and Geese the Green Dock Beetles seem to have come out of hiding earlier this year and are certainly making the most of it.

As well as these beautiful little bugs the new growth on the Hazel and Alder is covered in deep blue Alder Leaf Beetles getting busy in the making little beetles department.

No fishing for a while as we’ve been making the most of the weather and planting a few flowers and more veg. in the garden but we’re going to Anglesey soon for a week which theoretically should coincide with the Bass arriving – at least that’s what we’re hoping…

With the Daffodils showing and the wild Garlic and Bluebells just itching to burst into flower we’ll be seeing lambs soon and I can’t wait, this Winter seems to have been a long one…

The trees in Queens Park are showing catkins and all the wild bulbs of Garlic, Bluebells and Daffodils are now well on there way although not quite far enough to show any flowers.

Although the weather hasn’t been great and it looks like another cold period is on the way this week our Snowdrops are out and the Crocuses are almost showing colour. In fact things in the garden are definitely ‘on the move’ and we need to get out and do some after-winter pruning and tidying up before it gets to far ahead of us.

But there is a big fly in the ointment to our plans, whether it’s gardening, walking, fly fishing or sea fishing. This is the time (admittedly when the sea fishing is a bit naff) that we have our yearly ‘must decorate the <fill in a room> room’. Yep, we’re decorating. This time though it’s a bit of a big one.

We want a new carpet to cover the wooden floor in the lounge and dining room as it was a bit chilly last winter, which means we needed to work out what to do with the old hearth / fireplace. The hearth / fireplace is gaining a Stockton 5 wood burner so we’ve painted the dining room to give us somewhere to put stuff while that gets done then we’ll paint the lounge once the guys at Firebarn have installed it.

After last weekends painting marathon it was a relief to come into work on Monday – for a bit of a rest…

Our pre-Christmas fly fishing / casting tuition was cancelled due to the weather so Mike Roden re-scheduled it for last weekend. Four brave souls met up in some fairly nasty weather with Mike at Curley’s Fly Fishery nr. Bolton and after a quick natter moved over the road to the park as the lakes were still frozen.

As we suspected we’d picked up a few bad habits since our last lessons with Mike but after a couple of hours we’d managed to iron most of them out and arranged to meet up in a month to continue our lessons after we’ve had time to practice all (or at least what we can remember) Mike taught us. We were going to call back in at Curley’s for lunch but it was packed so on our way home we called in at the Blue Anchor in Bretherton for a bite to eat and a pint.

The following day (Sunday) as Mere Beck, our local fly fishing water consists of small lakes interconnected with moving water we went for an afternoon session to see if we could put into practice a few of the techniques for accuracy we’d picked up the day before and maybe trick a trout or two out into the open water from under the ice.

Alas, no fish wanted to come and play but we had a lovely afternoon, eventually calling it a day as the sun set and the temperature started to plummet.

So, unlike my first sea fishing trip of the year, my first fly fishing trip resulted in a blank but I didn’t mind, fly fishing is just as relaxing as sea fishing and sometimes catching something, although it would have been nice, would just intrude upon the peace.

After saying the weather in West Lancashire hasn’t been too bad mother nature threw the heaviest snowfall our way last weekend since I was a child. So, after struggling home on Friday night we did what any other like minded loony would do and went for a walk on the Saturday. We had such a good time tramping along the River Douglas through the snow I did it again on Sunday, this time with the ‘proper’ camera.

Instead of just going along the river I spent some time wondering through the boatyard until I noticed an odd sound coming from the river, on looking closer I was shocked to see ice flowing downstream, the noise being generated as it pilled up against the boatyards pontoons.

This may not seem such a big deal until you realise that the River Douglas is tidal in this area and contains mostly salt water when the tide is high (when it’s low water you can wade across it in places, at high water it is over 15 feet deep). I stood there and watched this spectacle for ages until I remembered I had the camera with me.

Dragging myself away from this highly unusual occurrence I continued my walk Northwards along the banks of the river, stopping every so often to see if I could get a half decent snap of the ducks on the river without falling through the snow into a hidden gully. Eventually I gave up on that idea as they were just to far away but climbing back onto the retaining bank I spotted a flock of birds feeding on the Hawthorn. Assuming they were Starlings I just watched them for a while until they flew overhead and I got my first proper view of a large flock of Fieldfare.

I’ve never actually been close enough to photograph these beautiful birds and they certainly played hard to get  as whenever I got close enough to attempt a picture they flew off but eventually I managed to get a shot of a group of them on the bushes, not quite as close as I’d have liked but still, not a bad first go.

After seeing them I slowly made my way back along the farmers track and down Marsh Lane, a short but wonderful walk along our local river. Amazingly the temperature has since got colder and driving over the river this morning there was even more ice so I’ll definitely be going back over the Christmas break for another look

I’ve not had much luck here this year either due to weed, weather or just being a bit crap but I was determined to catch. The sea was flat calm but there was no sign of the rafts of weed that have plagued us recently and the temperature was at least above zero (just).

The only drawback was lack of fresh bait due to the cold snap earlier in the week so armed with frozen Black Lug, Squid and Mackerel I set up opposite a small gap in the sandbank hoping that the smelly May 2009 vintage Black Lug and Squid cocktails would tempt a few Dabs.

Eight of us fished to the right of the slipway while the Fleetwood club, also having a match, set up to the right and the wait began. Shacky was first in with a double header of undersized Dabs  and soon everyone except Dave had caught some of these little flatties. As well as an in size Dab I managed a small Flounder on Mackerel (too small dammit) and Tom managed to snare a half decent Whiting on his last cast.

I had a great afternoon with good company which was made even better by finally breaking my run of bad luck, admittedly it was only a Dab but damn – it was good to catch a fish. I even came third and this being BLAS’s only cash match won a whole… wait for it… TEN pounds.

This is one of the reasons I love being a member of Blackpool and Layton Angling Society, there is some stunning silverware to be won and some of the anglers within the club are exceptionally skilled but being part of BLAS is all about mates, matches are realistically just a good excuse to get together and catch (pardon the pun) up.

The Fleetwood club set up to our right