The videos on this page are mostly shot in 1080HD (except where stated) and, when viewed from a PC, are best viewed from a good internet link with a youtube quality setting to match

April 2017 saw yet another annual family pilgrimage to Mexico.  We started visiting Mexico in 1999 when there were just a few hotels in the jungle 40 miles south of Cancun.  Now it is so developed we have switched to the Pacific coast, and an out of the way paradise called Punta De Mita.  Here the inshore light tackle fishing is extraordinary - a perfect way to spend your holidays.

2017 had been a tough year for fishing with the wrecking season disappointing and the summer species hard to come by.  One notable exception was the Tope fishing which was excellent and also played havoc with the Bream.  In September however, it all turned on.  The Bream were back to their best and the Tope were there to be tackled on the lightest of gear.  We even had Sharks come to visit the boat!

This trip was a family affair on a beautiful day in July.  The weather enabled us to go 'west side' in to Lyme Bay and the Bream fishing was out of this world with one or two Conger to spice things up.  This was one of my first attempts at video and I only had a little pocket camera with a video facility (not HD) and it was starting to fail so some of the colouration was a bit 'off'.  The effect was to make it look a little 'retro' however and I was pleased with the end result.

Having missed out on a big Conger in 2012, Dave Pitman (skipper of Atlanta out of Weymouth) was determined that my wife Karan wouldn't miss out one year later and his plan worked perfectly.  Having been encouraged by my efforts the previous year I invested in a waterproof digital camcorder which took better quality video than the compact (720HD).  It was a cheap 'no brand' Chinese import and was a cracking camera until the waterproof seals on the lens gave up after 4 years of use.

This was the 2nd year I'd been fishing with Ivan, a skipper who now has a fleet of 3 boats in Playa Del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico.  I had been concentrating on bottom fishing on the reef when on my final trip Ivan said 'the Sailfish arrived yesterday, you have the best chance of catching one this morning you are ever likely to get'.  He was so right and I bagged my first (and only to date) bill fish - what a rush!  Again filmed on the cheap Chinese import (760HD).

2017 had such a poor summer I look back at this to remind myself that we did have some nice days!  Despite the extreme heat one poor chap had to keep his coat on all day as he'd had heat stroke earlier in the week.  Add to that we were joined by some Chinese students who didn't want to tan / burn so they also kept their Kagools on with the hoods up - it was 30 degree centigrade. Of particular note was the extreme water clarity which meant that the underwater footage was particularly nice.  Shot with my new Apeman action cameras it is in full 1080 HD.  Incredible to think these cameras are a 10th of the price of a GoPro.

This was all about the theme song.  I'd been thinking of using this track for a while due to it's ocean reference.  Karan kindly baked me a cake to take on the boat and it was just a matter of getting the skipper and crew to play along - not too difficult so it turned out. I even managed to sneak a personal best Bull Huss in to the trip alongside the cake munching.