About
About the site
The site was originally (March 2006) compiled as a project for me to satisfy a curiousity about learning the basics of creating websites. The first effort was purely a collection of static pages, and very badly styled, but I was encouraged enough by the attempt to go for broke and register a domain name and upload it for the world to see.
Little did I know when I started just how powerful the 'basics' of website building would be, and how easy and appealing it was to add just 'one more page', and to learn 'one more thing'. As such, the site quickly grew into something much bigger than I had originally envisaged, and started to evolve into a more dynamic site with the intention being that the viewer would be able to interact with the site, becoming a user rather than a viewer. The catch report feature was added on 16 April 2006, and was a huge step in the site becoming dynamic and interactive (only time will tell if people actually choose to use it).
The forum was next to arrive (25 April 2006), and was soon replaced with a nicer looking version (June 2006). I never expected the forum to be busy, and had originally ruled out the idea of adding one to the site as I thought a fourm that wasn't used would make the site look bad. Anyway, the response to the forum has been better than I expected (although not exactly overwhelming) so it stays for now.
The next evolution of the site resulted in certain pages being automatically generated with scripts, this makes dynamic content more of an option, so for example as soon as someone posts a catch report, the home page automatically updates to show the date of the report and who posted it. The front page also automatically pulls in the information from the calendar to present the fishing prospects for the current month (without me having to re-write the page every month).
The catch reports section underwent major changes mid-October 2006. I was pleased to see that the catch reports facility was being used, but this presented me with a problem. The original script that dealt with accepting catch report inputs and then displaying the relevant output to a webpage was a bit basic and clunky. It worked, but as soon as there were a couple of dozen reports then it was starting to get a bit strained, so a radical overhaul was necessary. There is still much more development that could take place in this area, but it all depends on how much the facility gets used.
The next big step was adding a facility to allow members to upload pictures of their own catches - something that had been requested by a couple of people. This was a challenging one, but I got there in the end, and this feature went live in June 2007. At the same time I changed the front page to automatically display a thumbnail of the latest picture to be uploaded, and I also added a cropped version of the latest catch report to replace the previous line simply showing who had posted the last report.
A section devoted to the local angling clubs was the next thing to get done. This section automatically displays details of the next competition for each club, as well as showing a full listing of all upcoming matches.
Creating the site has been an interesting journey, during which I have used nothing more than a simple text editor (notepad). I could possibly have saved myself some time by using software such as Dreamweaver, but that wouldn't have really satisfied my curiosity about exactly how websites worked.
About the author
I caught my first fish on a hand line at about the age of 5. Since then I have quite literally been hooked. I am still
enjoying my fishing over 25 years later. I like to think that I have picked up a fair bit of knowledge in that time,
but the learning process is never-ending, which, for me, is one of the most appealing aspects to fishing. There are
always more species to try for, new places to fish and new methods to try. But hey, I don't need to explain that to
you, because after all, you are probably an angler just like me.
My favourite type of fishing is from rock marks. For me, there is something special about fishing from rocks. There
are usually a variety of species to target, and lots of different methods to use to catch them. There is also the
element of exploration that you simply cannot get from standing on the end of a pier. That's not to say that I do
not enjoy fishing from piers or beaches - in fact some of my best fish have been caught from those locations - but
I can mostly be found standing on a rock somewhere. If that rock happens to be at the bottom of a steep cliff then
even better!!!
Callig, ballan, conger and tope are among my favourite species, but I also have a bit of a soft spot for unusual
species such as cuckoo wrasse and gurnard. Even the humble dogfish is welcome to take my baits at certain times
of the year. Above all I think that variety is the most important thing. It would soon get quite dull fishing
the same places for the same species day after day.
And finally...
Fishing is an art, not a science, and just because I have created this web site does not mean that I claim to know even half of what there is to know about fishing. I am simply sharing what I do know in the hope that you find it interesting. I hope you enjoy the site. If you have any questions, or would like to leave feedback or comments in general about the site then please use the contact form.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the website.
