During the 1980s I was hooked on bass fishing. At the time almost all my fishing involved bait, usually peeler crab fished at close range in the gullies and reefs off the Gower coast, or lugworm or razorfish while standing amidst the swash and surge of a lively surf on one of the many wonderful beaches we have located here in South Wales or in the south-west of Ireland. It was inevitable that eventually I became a member of BASS, Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society, serving as vice-president for several years.
Like so many other members of BASS I became actively involved in tagging bass, and it was through this work that I got to meet Graham Pickett. Graham was a marine scientist based at the then MAFF, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food laboratories in Lowestoft, and we quickly became good friends. In addition to countless lengthy phone calls discussing all things bass and bass fishing, we used to meet up to fish and tag bass. Either I’d drive to Essex and we’d fish at Bradwell in the Thames Estuary, along with our mutual friend Bob Cox, or Graham would travel here to fish with me in Wales. Aside from being
