Don Griffiths

Am I missing something here ? I caught my first bass in 1956 with me dad, my youngest lad Sean caught his this year at the age of 8. If I asked a question about fishing or my lad did now I'd try and answer. Deffo do not need smart arse replies - Sam is your dad part of Cox&Rawle ? - How come your a clever dick ? ask daft questions ?

Can't think of a fish that needs as many different types of approaches. It all depends on the bait your offering (and what they're feeding on) At the top end of the Menai Straights yesterday, in a 29 foot tide, and the best results were either freelining live sandeel or trotting them down the reef with a 1oz Ardsley on a short drop with an eight foot trace. Same mark two months ago and they were only interested in crab ledgered. Ten miles up the coast at Llandulas the surfers were only catching on ledgered blowlug. I personally find that the stage of the tidal cycle is most important and once the spring's passed you're scratching till the next run of making tides. Last month a guy caught a 9 1/2 lb'er on Colwyn Bay front with a £30 combo set up he'd just bought and the head end of a stale mackerel. Such is life but generally speaking you should look at what they're eatin and why , then give them what they want with the right presentation.It's a lot more enjoyable if you get down to the lightest tackle possible.

A mate and me ran out of bait in Lanzarote last September. Managed to keep a big shoal of garfish happy for an hour with loose fed sweetcorn and caught a few black breamm with it as well. Never had the courage to try it here though.

Carp rods are designed to sit in rests with bait runners. Get a BALANCED bass set up and you'll not notice the weight.

I've fished The Canaries over 30 times over the past 8 years and slowly but surely have left the boat trips alone and concentrated on the shore fishing. A lot of this trolling up and down the coast is rubbish and a waste of money, the blanks really outweigh the good days. The daylight fishing is brilliant but the clarity of the water makes it difficult. Make sure you take fleurocarbon trace line and believe it or not we've ended up swearing by clear bubble floats over there (take them with you). Squid is easy to get hold of and is the most reliable bait for the breams and wrasses, every kind you can think of. Take small hooks with you, they're not easy to get hold of. My missus goes up the wall but try and get a night on the beaches and use a wire trace the eels are amazing and sooner or later someone is going to land the world record eagle ray from a night time beach in The Canaries.