For those who have no experience of web site design, the first page you land on, the ‘front page’ (or home) has a ‘theme’. It is the design scheme that gives the site its identity and you recognise subconsciously. Unfortunately ‘themes’ are like clothes – they go out of style fairly quickly. New fashions arrive and if you’re not careful your web site gets left behind. There are thousands of fishing web sites around each striving for attention and if you fail to innovate then folk will soon switch off.
I redesigned this site in the early part of 2011. The old design was great but was getting a little tired. It was time for a new look but that gave me a few headaches. The layout I chose required images that would fit into a specific template. Images had to be 583 x 300 pixels and this presented a challenge. The photos we anglers normally take are not necessarily that prescriptive. We tend to take square or slightly rectangular shots whereas the front page template required a letterbox format.
The solution was to shoot specific photos with an end objective in mind. Either that or trawl the archives for shots that might crop to suit. Lately I’ve taken to creating collages instead. Where would we be without Photoshop, eh?
Unfortunately you only get a glimpse of the images as they constantly revolve and no-one sees more than the first couple anyway because they’re using the page as a gateway so I’ve decided to pull them all together in one gallery that I can update periodically for no other reason than I actually like some of these shots. Who knows, one day I might just create a slideshow for them, too…
Wye action, a record grassie and a silver bream(?)
Hemp and tare fishing on the Trent, Shakespeare and Mick Brown
Barbel, bivvies, cod and roach - now that's what you call a mixed bag!
Record barbel my ar**, forum fools, kingfishers and a bit of codding
The highlights of a hectic summer
How much gear do you really need to have a good time?
Misty mornings, red tipped floats, carp on floaters and the rivers open - bliss!
Step back in time to a land that anglers have forgotten
Doesn't get much better - big carp and big tench
Back to my roots and the stupidity of running a closed season match
Too little time, too many fish...
'Ere Stu - that ain't a trout! Plus Tutank-arping
Right then yow lot, ah reckon ah can drink the pair of yers under this table...
Time for a commercial break
Coo-da, I've caught a barracuda! Proper 'un, too...
Oooh Grandma, what big teeth you've got!
A pristine Yorkshire chub on a tough old day
Its below zero, there's a full moon and still the chub fed
Tiny stream, lovely chubley, happy chappy!
The enigmatic prince? Nah, a river pig...!
What do you mean, where's the background...?
Trent beauty, caught by design, on a stick float. Bliss.
Winter common and a lake record
Sturgeon fishing hurts, you know!
- A frosty morning chub session in the grim north
Now That's A BIG Orfe
A nice grayling from the Scottish Borders
114lbs of Nile perch caught below Murchison Falls Great mates, even greater fishing
A winter's tale - dawn on the Swale
Opening day on the Trent before the bivvies ruined it
A magnificent middle Trent sunrise
Float fishing for barbel near Stoke Bardolph weir
Wobbling deads on a Lincolnshire drain
There's nothing quite like a big canal perch
Cauvery River beauty
Himalayan magic
Dove Delight
The perfect lure throwing party trick
Served me well on rivers, lakes, canals, Lake Nasser and the North Sea!