Firstly, a bit late I know, but here’s wishing you all a happy new year. I hope 2011 is a great year for your personal fishing and I wish you and your families the best of health!

NEW LURES RESOLUTIONS
I’ve fished lure in both fresh and saltwater for as long as I can remember, but always as a second method to using live bait, so for the rest this year (as a NY resolution) I thought I would concentrate on modern fishing lure as my chosen method for every session I can, within reason. I have some great coastline within 30 minutes of my house and for the last few years I have neglected to fish it enough due to time, but hopefully a slick new modern lure rod and a selection of new high-tech lures, left by the front door, will encourage me to get out and see my local coast in a new light. To become more mobile, I’ve downsized my camera rucksack to one that will hold a DSLR, a few lenses and enough lures for a day, and I’ve acquired a 2.10m Hart Bloody Epitaph 14-40g super short lure rod (and Hart No3 reel) to test - the perfect combo for some coastal (and freshwater) roaming.

On the subject of lure fishing, I have here a bundle of lures by IMA, Megabass and Hart, to review for you guys over this coming season (First part of these reviews you can read here – Mike Jnr). WTS!

BOAT ANGLING EXPLAINED
After twelve months of pain, my latest book is finally complete! Boat Angling Explained will be a Royal Yachting Association Guide book that will teach you how to equip and use a private boat for sea angling, including chapters on boat handling techniques and using marine electronics to perform them, plus specific chapters for each of our most common fish species, where to locate them and how to target them. Boat Angling Explained uses a high volume of step-by-step illustrations to take the reader from complete boat fishing novice to a successful angling skipper, and these have been very time consuming to create. Nearly all of my time since Christmas has been spent working on this book (hence my late New Years wishes!!) and it is one project I’m glad to put to bed. Of course I can’t wait to see what the finished book looks like, but more so I’m looking forward to the extra time I will have to get out on the water! For those that are interested, Boat Angling Explained will be released later this year.

PINK IS THE NEW ORANGE
Having been around since the 1950’s, RedGills can be credited as the most successful boat angling lure in the UK. In this time many other lures have come and gone yet the original RedGill remains in every boat anglers tackle box, especially fluorescent orange coloured ones! For some absurd reason orange coloured RedGill’s are excellent for deepwater wreck and reef fishing for species like Cod, Pollack and Ling. A few years ago RedGill was purchased by Swift Fishing Tackle. Since then Swift has continued to produce the original RedGill but they have also developed a new version. If you haven’t seen them by now, the RedGill Evolution is the next generation of RedGill sand eel representation lures. Based on the Original RedGill, the Evo is made from a super soft special plastic compound and features an internal weight and a Sakuma hook, but the best thing about the New RedGill Evolution is that they come in a colour called Bubblegum (Pink!). Now if there was one colour deepwater lure I rate as much as orange, it’s pink! While visiting Swift this month, I managed to acquire a few packs to test. Will pink will become the new orange? I’m looking forward to finding out!!

TURBOT-TASTIC!
The last few years have been okay for Flatfish fishing, but nothing special, but 2011 is looking like it’s going to be the year of the Flatfish. On a recent trip, Turbot fishing from Weymouth with Josh Simmonds, aboard his charter boat “Fish On!”, we fished a secret mark near Weymouth’s Shambles banks. Josh put us over the best Turbot fishing I have seen in my lifetime! By the end of the day we caught several plaice and over twenty turbot – over half were in double figures, several over 15lb, with the best going 17lb 8oz. Now that’s awesome fishing. I was gutted I was only aboard with just my camera and no rods!! Check out TSF over the next few months for the full report!

FLORIDA 2011
Time flies and it only seems like yesterday that I was last in Florida. At the end of this month I shall be flying back to the Keys for this years Tarpon season – I can’t wait! I’m not promising anything, but if I get the time I shall try to do a blog or two whilst I’m away.     

It might not be Florida but to round up this blog, I thought I’d leave you with this picture of Alex McDonald (Sakuma UK) as we stood in awe, looking at the coastline on a recent session. Over the next month, before I jet off to the Keys, I shall be putting my efforts into catching a species that sums up this time of year – Plaice. The Plaice may only be a small flatfish, but they mark an important season change. This picture sums up Plaice fishing – brighter, warmer, longer days and flat calm seas - hello summer, goodbye winter!

WIN A SET OF MY RYA FISHING GUIDES
Courtesy of the RYA, I have another set of my Waterproof Pocket Fishing Guides - the RYA Pocket Guide to Sea Fishing Baits, the Pocket Guide to Sea Fishing Rigs and the Pocket Guide to Fishing Knots - to give away to a WSF reader who answers a simple question correct. To be in with a chance to win a copy of all three books, all you have to do is answer this question…

What do the abbreviations R.Y.A. and M.C.A. stand for?

You can e-mail your answers to ryacomp@worldseafishing.com please include your name and also your e-mail address. The competition will be drawn on the 31st May 2011 and the lucky winner will be notified via e-mail.