No fishing chat this week as I haven’t had the chance to get out. I’ve a busy few weeks coming up and had loads of work to get through.

It all kicks of this weekend where I’m heading up to Oban to fish with Ronnie Campbell on the Laura Dawn. Common skate are on the cards, but although I’ll be working a bit while up there I’m hoping to get a chance to drop a line and see if I can add a black mouthed dogfish to my all time species list. Fingers crossed on that one! It would be nice to re-acquaint myself with a big skate too.

I might try and feed in a live blog from Oban if time allows, just to keep you up-to-date with what’s happening on the trip.

There’s only a few hours to sort things out and get some fresh clothes when I get home from Scotland before I’m back in the car and heading up to my birth county of Yorkshire and the European Beach Championships at Bridlington. Along with Barney Wright and Roger Mortimore, I’ll be representing TSF magazine there, plus there’s also a stand carrying product from ABU, Penn and Shakespeare, so I’ll be splitting my time between the TSF stand and the Pure Fishing stand. If any readers are fishing the Championship in Bridlington, then I’ll look forward to seeing you and maybe having a chat.

I’ll be burning up the road miles as just after I get back from Bridlington, then I have to head back to Scotland for the Glasgow Angling Centre open weekend scheduled for the 5/6/7th of March. I’ll be there both Saturday and Sunday and anyone dropping in to shop, then do make yourselves known and I’ll look forward to having a chat and maybe showing you some of the Penn, ABU and Shakespeare products that will be on show.

Looking further ahead, by the time I get back from my travels, I’d expect the first peeler crab to be showing in North Wales, though the persistent cold weather we’ve had, I think will mean a slow start to the season. Once the crabs start to peel, I’ll be looking to bang a plaice out and I’m looking forward to that!