About me and this site

As a lad fishing was a passion but through my working life it became an occasional thing. Retirement gave me the opportunity to return.

In my younger days I was a member of an angling club and we fished mainly in rivers, predominantly the Thames. There were no well-stocked 'commercial' lakes. Coming back to fishing I was seduced by the local 'commercial'. Carp were mythical fish when I was a lad and it was amazing to be able to catch them relatively easily in the 'commercial'.

My best was 19lb and I was hooked. But after a while things became a bit monotonous. It was to a large extent all so predictable.

I've now returned to the rivers, when in season, and in particular am seeking out smaller rivers and streams. I also have a bit of a thing about chub. Fishing in these natural environments brings with it the mystery of not knowing what the next cast will bring. And for me that's what fishing is all about.

In September 2020 I started videoing my outings. On the first trip I simply used my iPhone, either hand-held or on a tripod. As I filmed more trips I started to consider how to improve the footage. I carried on using the iPhone but dispensed with the tripod and started using a bankstick as a monopod. This was easier to plant on uneven banks.

On the earlier videos I added the commentary when I was processing the video for publication. This was because my iPhone was invariably too far away to reliably pick up my voice, while picking up a lot of extraneous noise. In October 2020 I bought a body cam and from that point recorded live commentary, which was far more chatty and less formalised. I think this was a great improvement.

The body cam, however, had limitations, the main one being that the view was often obstructed by my arms when I was playing a fish. In February 2021, therefore, I bought a miniature camcorder that is worn above the right ear, providing an eye-level view. The camera was very light and the results were impressive. The video could be started and stopped using a button worn on a wrist strap making it ideal for capturing action.

Unfortunately it stopped working in 2024

I was still using my iPhone more distant shots framing me fishing. However, in June 2021 I bought a Panasonic camcorder with an impressive optical zoom. I intended to use it instead of the iPhone and also to record ambient material, such as wildlife, or closeups of the float.

At first I mounted the camcorder on a tripod but to reduce the gear I was carrying I eventually used a bankstick as a monopod. However, I later reverted to using my phone when I upgraded to the iPhone 13 Pro, which is a 3-camera model with zoom and wide angle in addition to the standard lens.

I sometimes still take the camcorder, normally when I'm not intending to roam too much and am not as concerned about carrying the extra weight.

I also use the iPhone to record my introduction and sign-off clips.

Audio has been an ongoing challenge. The head cam had its own mic that worked very well and having added a muffle it was very tolerant of wind noise. But when using the Panasonic camcorder or the iPhone I struggled to find a good audio solution.

I bought an extension microphone lead for the iPhone which worked well after I had added an efficient wind muffle. However, I no longer use this lead to connect to the iPhone in a remote position but instead synchronise any iPhone video with the audio from another device during post production. This can be a bit tricky but the final result is very acceptable. I do, however, sometimes use this lead when recording the introduction and sign-off clips to limit wind noise.

I also tried a wireless connection between the iPhone and a lapel microphone but the sound quality was very poor, apparently because of a background noise filter according to the suppliers of the device.

When my trusty ORDRO EP7 headcam expired on the 16 August 2024 I was reluctant to buy a like for like replacement in view of the fact that it failed after just over three years use. I tried an alternative body-mounted arrangement using my iPhone on a neck mount but this was unwieldy and cumbersome. Also, the sophistication of the iPhone resulted in the camera focus not always being where I wanted it, and it didn't capture the action very well when actually playing a fish.

I also considered using a more conventional static camera approach but felt that the body-mounted views had become a feature of my videos and didn't want to change that. In the end I kept the neck mount but bought a GoPro Hero 12 Black camera that is considerably lighter than the iPhone, and far less unwieldy. It uses a fixed focus lens thus avoiding the inappropriate focusing problems while providing a wide range of lens angle settings that allow it to be set up optimally for my fishing.

The GoPro has proved to be a good solution offering quality video. Wearing it on the neck mount has the slight disadvantage that the view can be obscured while I'm playing a fish but on the plus side of things it stabilises the horizon, meaning that the view remains 'horizontal' even if I tilt my body. This certainly wasn't the case with the headcam, where on many occasions the horizon assumed quite an angle! Another great advantage is voice control allowing me to start the video without having to press a button.

But there were still some issues with audio. The internal microphone works well but the audio could fade as I turned my head. I tried various alternative approaches, such as recording the audio separately on my iPhone using a lapel mic, but that wasn't without its problems and made the video editing far more difficult. In the end I bought the GoPro 3.5mm Mic Adapter. GoPro accessories aren't cheap but with this adapter I can use an external mic fixed to the neck mount that provides a more consistent audio level.

The mic adapter, which is housed on a third party case, also has a through connection from the GoPro's USB C socket, allowing the connection of an external power pack that will eliminate the need to change the GoPro battery during a fishing session.