Waiting and in preparation

Whilst waiting for the bass shoals and the morels to turn up. I am out and busy gathering all I can for the next foraging and food guests.

The next few weeks of April will see another string of guests arriving to learn about foraging for wild edibles and to experience my food.

Gorse – Is a very important element to some of my dishes. Most people often walk past this humble thorny shrub.

Foraging can sometimes be a laborious task and there is no task more laborious than the picking of the new spring gorse flowers. I use these flowers to flavour, aerated parfaits, set creams, syrups for granite or sorbet and also for making vinegar.

The smell of the gorse that fresh banana come coconut fragrance that is quite unique, is what I get in return for the time taken to pick the flowers.

Picking the beautiful yellow flower is well worth the time and effort, for its fragrant taste.

Gorse is used to make some beautiful elements of my food, but it is also a very important shrub for birds and insects including bees.

 A look back at the 2012 season

Contained in this blog post are some fantastic photographs taken by my good friend David Miller

There is no denying it but 2012 was a very difficult year for bass angling.

There were moments of great joy, landing fish up to double figure size myself, and seeing customers’ landing bass and some of them their personal best bass on a lure has given me some of the best moments of my life.

Although a few good fish does not make a season, we must all stay positive for 2013, and of course try and do our best for the future of our bass.

These days bigger fish like this do not come easy, you simply have to put a lot of hours in.

Bass fishing is never going to be easy as it is probably the wildest fishing we have in the U.K., but the hours I put in on the shore should minimize blank days and almost always get people onto the fish.

For this and before I go on, I must first and foremost thank my customers for their patience.

I saw plenty of bass feeding and pushing bait fish up to the surface out in the distance. Although from the shore, they have just been too far out of reach.

The weather here in West Wales and the rest of the U.K was of course appalling. The jet stream stayed South and weather fronts were unbearable. The sea did not have any chance to warm up at all due to heavy rainfall and winds.

The winds in turn split up most of the bait fish shoals. Swells reached incredible highs and sadly stopped me from being able to even think of fishing. Although as I have said above there were some truly memorable days.

I learned so much more about my area in 2012 and not just from the shore.

Equipment I use

Over the next few pages I will share the equipment that I use for my lure angling on the Welsh coast.

For bass and wrasse fishing around rock marks and in the HRF style, you are going to need the right equipment.

The last foraging party of 2012 has just been done…and we are now in the last few weeks of the year.

The tree sap has long stopped rising.

Although there is still work to be done in the background, wood avens need to to be dried out.

I am also busy picking and drying the seaweeds that I use for seasoning meat and fish.

Sea buckthorn is being picked juiced, pasteurised and frozen for use for next year.

 Winter is a harsh time of year and in days gone by people would of been prepared for the winter “the great leveler” and the hungry time, they would of certainly dried edibles.

They as we do, would of been waiting in anticipation of the spring to come and the summer bringing times of plenty.

This is something we have lost today as it is convenient for us to go to the shops and supermarkets and buy what we need.

 This time of year is always a time for me to reflect on the past season, and prepare for next years guests especially on the foraging and food front.

It also gives me time to get new dish ideas written down for different seasons and of course the dishes need to be based around what we will find on our days out. I strive to push myself on the food front a little more all the time.

Nature never stops and neither do I.

Wales

Every oak’s high summit rings,with the young birds lusty carolling.

And every copse is sweet with song, and cuckoo calls and the days are long.

And a white haze when the wind dies, over the heart of the valley lies.

And evening skies so blue and clear and the rees are a shimmer with gossamer.

Daffydd ap Gwilym (circa 14th century)

It is easy for me to be influenced by the scenery here in Wales.

Hares have a connection to Welsh folklore. Their numbers are rising once again here, although not so much for me to ever think of killing one.
“Saint Melangell be with you”

Birch – I use this powerful tree to make syrup meringues and water. There are also medicinal properties to be found with in this mysterious tree. In Welsh lore birch was connected to love.

My style of food and creativity has deep roots in looking at the past to try and express a love for my country.

In each ingredient I take from the land, in thanks I try to give this love for my country back into my dishes.

Beech, lichen and porcini.

Chicken of the woods baked in birch bark, beef marrow, wood sorrel, fiddlehead fern, beech nuts and egg yolk @ 63oc.

Chanterelles (The Queen)

Porcini (The King)

Beech nuts.

Sea purslane in the morning light, the call of the oystercatcher in the background…

Bulrush

Bulrush, watercress and buckthorn.

Laver

All I need is the land, the sea, the rivers, the air, the trees, and the sky that surrounds me for my work and my inspiration.

A post from summer last year – June 2012

Well 2012 was an extremly tough year on the bass angling, but although there were moments of agony. There were some moments of extatic joy.

Although when your out here and “in it” then sometimes catching bass is not the be all and end all of everything. A lot of people will not see the sheer beauty of what is about me on this wonderful piece of coastline.

I am still catching bass and wrasse, but there are not as many as there should be around. I think this is due to the obvious poor weather conditions this summer has thrown at us, causing the sea temperature to be low for all of the summer.

The water temperature is actually two degrees lower here than in a normal year, and even though one degree in nature is massive two degrees is an unbelievable gap.

The “Chaos”

Probably the most important natural tool we have as lure anglers is water flow.

Water-craft tactics are really best taught on a one to one basis. After all this type of fishing is not just about throwing out a lure and hoping for the best.

The “Chaos” Baitfish have no chance in this turbulence and bass thrive on these surroundings and lots of oppurtunities arise here.

Whether it is off a rock mark or off the beach.

A weedless Texas rigged Slug-go is always a winner. And takes can be at very close quarters and amazingly visual. Of course a weightless soft plastic is equally as deadly in this situation as well.

Shallow diving lures also work best here as well, you need something that is going to stay very shallow, zero to two inches.

When a lure hits the faster moving water use the water flow. Try and suspend it there for as long as you can.

The bass is after easy pickings, yes work a lure but work it properly, do not overwork it.

I see numerous anglers just chucking out lures and using the same old technique for each lure they do not see the flow of water as a tool. Slow down and let the lure do some work.

 Just let the lure work its way around in as naturally a movement as possible, hold it there and let it work its way around the white water and the rocks.

Bigger fish will hang around this turbulent water.

Sand-eels other small bait-fish, crabs alive and dead and other forage have no chance here and they get smashed around by this water flow.

 Big fish can be found hunting around “The Chaos” and it can be a challenge to land such beasts.

I spend a lot of time around this “Chaos” and my rewards outweigh the risks.

Use this powerful force to your advantage and reap the rewards.

Lures I use

These are some of the lures I use successfully for bass and wrasse on my stretches of coastline in Wales.

They are tried and tested lures which are a staple of my hard lure and soft plastic angling.

Although I am always testing new lures when I can, these lures are always in my box. And as someone who is in the business of catching fish, the lures I use have to work. This is what makes the little differences in catching and not catching.

Duo tide minnow surf 135 Yama Niji (J222)

I have been a fan of Duo lures for a while now as many people are. The Duo tide minnow is of course no secret to any lure angler. This lure though is just so good off the beach it is hard to put it into words.The model pictured here is the Duo tide minnow surf 135 Yama Niji (J222). The dark top and underside of the lure I believe create a brilliant silhouette, and the candy colours (See the blog post for November 2012 below) along the sides are not unlike the sandeels we see along the coast.

 Megabass Zonk Gataride 120 yoro yoro

I love this Megabass lure and it has been well known for a good few years now. I love its profile and fished in the correct way it will take bass when other lures will not. When you turn the lure over in the water the colours are just brilliant. In the cruising blue colour pictured the lure does not look unlike young joey mackerel.

Ima Komomo II 90

The Ima Komomo II 90 is a cracking little lure and has accounted for many good sized bass for me over the last few seasons. Again similar to a joey mackerel and with the red belly. I also use the same lure but in a 110 size and this lure is equally effective.

Storm Jointed Thunderstick

Ok all the tackle tarts out there may laugh at the old Storm jointed thunderstick. Although this lure is a “Golden oldie” (excuse the pun), it is the best lure in my box. Period. I have caught my biggest and most bass on this lure to date. Fished in the correct manner on a dead drift, come to think of it actually the less you do to this lure the better. This lure although so simple is just dynamite.

Keitech Easy shiner

The Keitech Easy shiner 4″  is a brilliant shad style minnow. Fished weedless, it swims beautifully and has a strong squid scent that wrasse just love.

Hawg wild Senko 5 “

The Hawg wild Senko is a great soft plastic worm . The plastic density is great for fishing for wrasse weightless weedless or wacky, just left to slowly sink wrasse cannot resist.

Gary Yamamoto Swimming senko 4″

The Gary Yamamoto is a staple of my tackle box and rigged weedless it has a killer action. The action for some reason reminds me of a reversed prawn kicking in defense. This tailed senko is impregnated with salt which adds its attraction to wrasse.

Getting ready for the 2013 new season

 It is that time of year again where I start to get ready for another busy season on the Welsh coast.

In just four weeks time I will be on the shore and again HRF/Lure angling for bass and other species, foraging and working my way across different parts of the South Wales coast.

Now I am chomping at the bit and I cannot contain my excitement at the prospects of the season to come.

The winter has flown by and its always nice to spend time with my family and friends.

Although my thoughts are never far away from the sea. The beating of the waves is now loud in my head and the call of the sea is becoming louder than ever.

I have been stocking up on lures in readiness to catch bass and other species please go over the page to view some of the ones I have purchased recently.

SEA ANGLER AND EARLY YEAR FORAGING

The heavy snow has given me a rare day off, and allowed me to let everyone know that I am in this months edition of Sea angler in the Bass angler section. If you haven’t already got a copy please do as there are plenty of interesting pieces in the magazine not just about bass lure angling but also other mediums of Sea fishing as well.

Back in October I spent a morning fishing for bass and then foraging and cooking with Dave Lewis.

Although it was a thoroughly enjoyable day, to begin with I felt a little bit nervous to be fishing, and then cooking face to face and photographed by someone who I have seen and looked up to in Sea Angler for all the years I have read it.

I did catch two bass, which were not particularly big, but as we already know last season was very inconsistent.

I would like to Give Dave Lewis and Mel Russ a massive thank you for their support and it will always be a huge memory and one to show the Grand kids in the future.

I am just looking out of the window here and we have had about 6 inches of snow. I remember that in 2010 when we had a lot of snow here in Wales the bass fishing in the summer turned out to be really good.

I hope and something is niggling at me and telling me that this weather could be a leveller and a sign for good weather and bass fishing to come in the summer of 2013.