Last week I was delighted to be back in Ponta Delgada on beautiful Sao Miguel island in the Azores for the Azores Airlines 2016 Big Game Fishing Tournament ...
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Published work
Sea trout like their cousins the salmon make their way upstream to spawn.
I was very pleased to be able to help out the Institute of Fisheries Management with their need for a sea trout image to grace the Spring 2016 cover of FISH, their very interesting members magazine.
Visiting likely locations to view and photograph leaping sea trout the last 3 years takes a lot of time and patience and there are plenty more occasions where nothing is seen than the few where I timed it just right. Still, having the chance to witness such a spectacular sight local to me in Sussex even just once a season makes all the cold muddy hikes across the countryside in the dead of winter worth it.
Zambuni PR organised a recent press day on the Orvis beat of the famous River Test in Hampshire. A collection of my fellow journalists and anglers braved the extreme conditions early on and were rewarded with some healthy brown and rainbow trout which were all returned. We also got to try out some of the latest Orvis fly rods and reels.
Wildlife Photography World is a brand new quarterly quality glossy magazine whose first issue has just been published for Spring 2016.
It features 120 pages of beautiful wildlife images from all around the world and I was very pleased for them to include my image of a Peacock Butterfly photographed last year at the RSPB's Pulborough Brooks reserve.
A tailing redfish - the stuff fishing dreams are made of!
Paul Sharman heads to Florida with his fly rod in his case in the March 2016 issue of Eat-Sleep-Fish magazine.
The Boca Grande Pass from the Gulf of Mexico into the protected waters of Charlotte Harbour beyond at Boca Grande in south west Florida is famous amongst specimen tarpon hunters. Triple digit fish arrive in the high season which peaks around June, feeding on crabs and baitfish being washed out of the bay. During this time the pass can become like a parking lot with dozens and dozens of drifting boats hoping to hook their anglers into a fish. While you could try a fly on quieter days it is really a bait fishery best suited to heavy gear in the strong currents. Save the fly fishing for hunting along the beaches for pods of fish and inside Charlotte Harbour itself. As much as I love tarpon, it is the other species that live in the bays, channels and flats of Charlotte Harbour and Pine Island Sound to the south that really get me excited and none more so than the bull of the flats, the redfish.
Click on the photo above to read the full story - "Collateral Damage" on the Sport Fishing Magazine website.
FlyMage Magazine #26 - February 2016 issue is available to view free online. This issue includes my own feature story and photos from a very successful first visit to Eagle Brae near Beauly in the beautiful Scottish highlands last September fishing for salmon and pike.
Great hosts, wonderful luxury log cabin accommodation and some spectacular fishing on two local rivers - what more can you ask for!?
Full contact details are included at the end of the feature.
Click here to read it now -> http://bit.ly/eaglebrae
I was delighted to be interviewed by Media Kitty for their newsletter called The Instinct and talk a little about my writing and photography.
It was always going to be a difficult trip in some ways, getting the first flight back into New Orleans from San Diego after Hurricane Katrina had left devastation in her wake and the clean up was only just getting started, but it was one Conway Bowman and I wanted desperately to undertake.
The June/July 2015 issue of top French adventure fishing journal Magazine Voyages de Pêche carries the resulting feature from my long-awaited first trip to the fishing paradise of Finland. I only scratched the surface of the excellent predator fishing on offer there and can't wait to go back and explore and report some more.
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Pike Paradise - Kvarken Fishing
Kvarken Archipelago World Heritage Site
My latest published feature is a report on my first visit to the wonderful Azores last autumn taking part in the Azores - Big Game Fishing Tournament reporting for Magazine Voyages de Pêche.
Sadly we were hit by very unusual and badly timed weather for the 3 days of fishing but the chance to explore the main island of Sao Miguel was eagerly taken and I can't wait to get back and explore the rest of the islands with my camera and fishing rods. I can't recommend a visit highly enough - I can only equate the Azores to being Europe's version of the Hawaiian islands - stunning!
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The January 2015 issue of Sport Fishing Magazine included my international calendar feature looking at some of the best flats fishing around the world for each month of the year - perfect for planning where best to go at any given time.
Thanks go to all my sources named against each entry - do check out their websites too if you are interested in visiting. Maybe I'll see you there.
There were three excellent additional choices that could not make the main article but you can find them with the digital version of the feature listed on the magazine website... http://www.sportfishingmag.com/flatscalendar
South-west Florida is a new love of mine. Great beaches, quiet and laid back atmosphere away from the Orlando crowds and tons of fish to be caught in the Charlotte Harbor/Boca Grande/Fort Myers area.
I've been waiting a while for this one to get published but it was worth the wait as the guys at Fin Chasers Magazine have done a great job laying it out as always. Thanks to Mark A Spurgeon, Capt. Roger Crafton, The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel, Charlotte Harbor & the Gulf Islands, Capt. Tommy Locke and Capt. Mark Futch of Boca Grande Sea Planes Inc.
Really pleased with my spread in the October/November 2014 Magazine Voyages de Pêche covering the 2014 Saint Martin billfish tournament. If you don't read French then I hope you just enjoy the photographs of this beautiful island and its magnificent marlin fishing.
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Saint Martin Billfish Tournament
Want to improve your photography - check out this top tips list I was asked to contribute to earlier this year on the SPORT FISHING MAGAZINE website.
I was invited by the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau which covers the Fort Myers and Sanibel area to attend and cover the 'World's Richest' Tarpon Tournament in Boca Grande, south-west Florida. The resulting feature article and photographs were published on the Fish&Fly website.
After seeing reports and photos from the world-famous Boca Grande pass tarpon fishery over the years, it was a great experience to be a part of it and look forward to returning to this beautiful part of Florida.
Click here or on the map above to discover more about the Fort Myers & Sanibel area.
There is nothing better than fishing with friends and when my buddy Steve Edge offered me a chance to fish a beautiful little Surrey countryside stream I jumped at the chance.
Check out his blog entry here of a fantastic days fishing and then do yourself a favour and have a look at some of his other brilliantly creative blog entries. There is a reason his Edge Design business is always so busy and apart from being brilliantly creative he is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.
Check out page 62!
This particular image was also published in the New York Times and International Herald Tribune
The shot was taken on board Conway Bowman's boat offshore from San Diego, California and illustrates his chapter on fly fishing for mako sharks there which he pioneered and still guides for in season through his Bowman Bluewater guiding company.