In what is maybe the purest form of angling, one can use skill and experience to bring a fish to the bank, unhook it carefully, and look upon it for a few moments before releasing it and watching it swim away.

For many of us, there are other compulsions in play... the need to photograph, quantify and record our catches, to include them in statistics, to measure our progress during each season, to determine whether we have exceeded past achievements, to set targets as a means of motivation, or maybe to participate in competition, either informally with our fishing acquaintances, or maybe as part of an angling club, and sometimes where there is a trophy or championship involved.

Whatever the focus of our interest, our process, successes, our impact upon the fish we catch and upon the environment, and also upon the general public's perception of anglers, can only be improved if at all times we endeavour to 'fish like a professional'.

To further explain that, very few of us gain remuneration from our fishing efforts, but we can still approach our sport in the same manner as top performers in other disciplines. This encompasses not only the way we go about things at the outset, but also providing ourselves with the ability to deal with any eventuality, within reason. While this may not necessarily guarantee success where mullet are concerned, the benefits are clear, and at the very least we should gain the respect of our fellow anglers.

What follows isn't about technique; these are just a few of the measures which I employ to ensure that my sessions can be conducted in the manner that I intended, even allowing for some minor disasters. There are also things that I regularly remind myself of, to make sure that I continue to strive to go about my fishing activities in the best way possible.

Process

Many of the amateurish and avoidable foul-ups that happen when fishing are due to lack of process, preparation or organisation, and can usually be prevented; here are some suggestions and examples.

Planning

Available from the website and on my phone, I have direct links to details of the tides, weather, wind, sea temperature, SatNav settings, parking and maps for many of the most commonly visited areas, plus information regarding the nearest tackle shops and food.

I also have an automated function to calculate the arrival and subsequent start times vs tidal events for a growing list of these commonly fished locations; this just requires the entry of the viable tide times for the day.

Pre-Departure

Regarding the items that need to be taken from the house, and particularly the ones which are not normally part of that process, I always arrange them on a worktop the night before; things are more easily forgotten and overlooked when you are half asleep at 4:00 a.m.

In a general sense, I have a loosely-repeated sequence of events that I tend to follow, and this leads to fewer mistakes and omissions; for example, it involves checking the door is locked in a way that I will remember, before driving away.

I always do a quick final scan of the items in the car boot, to check that the main components required are present - for most trips, these include six items - the rod, landing net handle, net head, backpack, bucket and 4-loaf bread compression sack. It sounds so simple, but how many times have you seen someone say "I forgot the landing net" or something equally avoidable?

Catch Recording

I totally accept and agree that you don't need to weigh, measure, photograph or report your catch in order to fully enjoy our sport. Also, there will always be occasions when opportunism is a factor, and you just 'have at it' with whatever gear is available to you, at the time. If, under other circumstances, you want to post credible information online for other anglers to see, a degree of transparency, accuracy and attention to detail is always a positive.

It's important to weigh and photograph the fish and to return it as quickly as possible, so an often-repeated sequence of actions, a routine, can lead to efficiencies and tends to prevent oversights - such as forgetting to weigh or photograph the capture - see below.

Firstly, scales; mine are electronic, and although inexpensive, they are very reliable. They are checked periodically with weights at home, and are accurate to the ounce. On the very rare occasions that I am not confident with the weight shown, I have a backup set of scales (see below). After a significant capture, I recheck them on returning home. I always post a weight for each photo, to avoid any false impressions caused by inadequacies in the photography.

I use a soft damp / wet weighing sling, the weight of which can vary quite a lot, depending on how much water has been absorbed. For true accuracy, it needs to be reweighed each time it is used. The same is true of landing net heads, if they are used for weighing - it is unlikely that they will weigh exactly the same each time, and water is surprisingly heavy 'stuff'.

For photos, I tend to use the cellphone on most occasions. I usually try to take a reference shot with the fish lying on the wet landing net, with the rod and reel beside it; as I use the same kit for almost every trip, this gives me a fairly reliable sense of scale, when looking back at the photos.

In addition, I tend to use the timer function to get a couple of shots holding the fish; although I don't always get it right, it's important to remember to hold the fish fairly close to your body, and not to hold it out at arm's length, or any variation between these two extremes. Although a fish rammed into the wide angle lens of the camera will get lots of "oooh", "aaah" and "likes" on Facebook, it can also attract a fair degree of ridicule from folks who strive to maintain a proper sense of proportion.

I've come to regard it as increasingly important that the photographs demonstrate and hopefully promote good fish handling techniques - no fingers under the gills, and not held vertically, always showing the fish in its normal horizontal orientation, properly cradled and supported. It's never good to see mullet bleeding from the gills, covered in mud or with many of the scales knocked off, or the fins split.

To protect the electronics in the scales and camera, these are kept in ziplock bags, with silica gel pouches added; this ensures their readiness, even after I've fallen in, complete with backpack. My phone is also in a ziplock bag all day, while fishing; it rarely sees daylight, unless there is a mullet on the bank.

Backup Systems

When it all goes wrong, I don't want to be posting feeble excuses, the like of which are common on social media nowadays... "I forgot to weigh it", "I forgot the camera"... - all down to lack of process. "I didn't weigh it but it looked 8lbs..." - maybe it was, maybe it wasn't... who knows?... and so it goes on.

To that end, I carry a set of backup scales, which are small and cheap but surprisingly accurate, to a few grams (so, probably more accurate than the primary set, in truth). These also come in handy as a cross-check on the rare occasions when I weigh a fish and I cannot believe the reading I get in the first instance. This saves me having to post "the scales said 6lb, but I think they were wrong.. ", another classic.

I also carry the compact camera that I previously used for fish photographs as a backup, so no excuses there, either; the batteries for this are checked periodically.

In case of a broken rod, which I've managed to achieve on a couple of occasions through falling over, I have a compact travel rod, 12' in 8 sections. Whereas you might have reservations regarding the action of such an item, that probably wouldn't be your first concern on a day when you've snapped your primary rod during a 115 mile round trip to chase mullet, and they are all feeding ravenously, right in front of you. An extra rod can also come in useful on the rare occasions when I decide to chuck out a pair of legers; although it's a float rod, I've actually caught more fish when legering with such a rod than when I've used my quiver tip setup.

For those days when I realise that the line has suddenly reached the limit of its reliability, or it starts to behave like dried matted hair, or maybe there's an horrendous tangle, typically during the 3 minutes and 27 seconds when the mullet are actually feeding, I carry a spare spool, usually preloaded with a different line weight, and therefore I can also swap over if circumstances otherwise demand it.

Regarding floats, it's always best to carry a few extra ones of the types most commonly used. I tend to make minor adjustments to the backup floats, to introduce extra functionality; for example, I might drill out the top and introduce a fine tube to accept a starlight, or make sure that the alternative sits slightly higher in the water, to offer increased long-range visibility or alternative 'shotting' possibilities.

Precautions

While legering, especially on the occasions where two rods are involved, the rods are clipped by a cord to my tacklebox seat; this prevents any dramas if there is an unexpected take and a rod heads 'seawards'. A possible scenario might be a take on the second rod while playing a fish on the first, which for some, happens more often than you might think.

Suitable eyewear is always recommended, especially, although not exclusively, when fly fishing. Polarised wrap-arounds are probably the ideal choice, providing the best protection and the added benefit of excluding incident light from the sides; some product ranges also include bifocals.

Stuff breaks, and always at the most inopportune time; carry some super glue, which is also useful as a temporary repair for punctured waders, and for cuts and abrasions; after cleaning a wound, it keeps air and dirt out, stops bleeding quickly and also protects the skin from scarring, to a degree.

Carry some 'reel oil'; decant a reasonable amount of a suitable lubricant into a small container, just in case the reel needs a bit of in-flight attention, then sort out the issue properly after the trip.

The numbers for the local lifeboat stations are stored in my phone, in case I (or another angler / member of the public) finds themselves stuck in the mud on a flooding tide, for example. There could be occasions when you might see paddleboarders or bathers getting into distress, particularly with outgoing tides and offshore winds.

The Angling Trust is promoting an awareness of the risks of skin cancer - click here to read more. To help stay safe, always carry a suitable sun protection product - I always 'go nuclear' with SPF 50+. It's also worth remembering that some products also include an insect repellent, so hopefully, you won't get gnawed upon, either. Many of the kids' products claim to be 'Extra Water Resistent', too.

Fish Care

There's plenty of information on this site about catch and release, fish handling and fish care, so there's no real reason to repeat it all here. All I will say is that a true sports fisherman will surely want to see their catches treated with the utmost respect, and to be returned unharmed and with every care being taken. If you can avoid dragging it through the mud, then net, unhook, handle with care and release the mullet gently, without so much as a scale dislodged nor a fin split, then surely that is an admirable objective to set oneself.

Litter

Again, there's been a lot written about this subject, and it's clear that anglers have a very poor reputation regarding litter and other 'discards', which in some instances is wholly deserved.

Fishing like a 'pro' includes not leaving nor tolerating rubbish on the bankside, whether tackle - line, hooks, discarded bait, tackle packaging etc - or other waste that we generate - bread bags, cling film sandwich wrappings, crisp packets, drink cans - all the ugly stuff we often come across when we arrive at our chosen fishing spot.

The best suggestion here is to get on board with the 'Anglers Against Litter' initiative, and particularly 'Take 5'... devote 5 or 10 minutes of your trip to picking up all the junk that has been left, even though it's not your own and also, may not even be angling-related.

Please also remember the Anglers National Line Recycling Scheme, the important alternative to leaving line on the bankside or sending vast coils of it to landfill.

Miscellaneous Checks

The 'pro' approach isn't about what kit you buy, it's about looking after what you have, so that it performs to its optimal capability - some regular maintenance, not only limited to what's shown here, will help the mullet sessions to go more smoothly.

Probably goes without saying, but finely-machined modern reels definitely don't like salt and silt build-up, so regular rinsing, lubrication and the occasional strip-down and clean are vitally important. I always listen carefully for sounds of impending doom, and also I re-check the drag function. Schematics are usually available online, although not always easy to locate, and if you don't like the idea of doing it yourself, Felindre Innovations (amongst other providers) offer a maintenance service, at a cost (and not only for Shimano reels).

Banksticks and tripods are often prone to seizing up, so these need moderately frequent checks of their operation, involving removal of the oxidising layer on the aluminium components, plus lubrication and cleaning of the locking screws and any moving parts.

Landing net handles can benefit from similar attention, also including the regular removal of any silt or salt that has got into the item. I give the outer tube of the handle an infrequent inner rinse, primarily to remove any silt and grit. Connectors need checking for corrosion and lubricating, as it's a real pain when the net head is stuck in place at the end of a session.

All of the above may seem a bit self-evident, maybe even a bit excessive, but next time you post an entirely avoidable sob story on Facebook, try to remember... no-one has ever achieved success at Le Mans having turned up on the grid in a car without a fully working engine...

Alternatively, you could just embrace the idea of 'pro thinking', going forward.