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On Saturday I was undecided whether to fish the BAA Severn Champs, the Birmingham Angling match at Edgbaston or Earlswood Lakes. Decisions, decisions! I couldn’t help but think, here I was spoiled for choice with three good matches on the same day yet in a few weeks time I bet there will be a few…

You may recall that last month I told you about a couple of successful practise sessions I’d had on the Severn at Shrewsbury. After doing so well in practise, I couldn’t wait to get back on the venue on the regular winter matches held there from October onwards. Before I get onto the recent matches…

Through flatlands at first, with neat homesteads and farms, then up, and up, through the high Hottentot Holland range of mountains, with our ears popping. This is wine country. Ordered rows of vines covered the hillsides as we slid down beyond the mountains. Names familiar from wine bottles past: those gone delights, each with a…

Absolutely central to pike conservation is the early detection of a ‘run’ or a ‘take’ and the more precise the rig you choose, therefore, the better the chances of detecting a ‘run’ before the pike swallows your bait. This always assumes, of course, that the angler is sitting close enough to the rod(s) to see…

As most of you will know, carp generally move around a lot less in winter than they do in summer. So the usual advice is to fish as close to them as possible, and keep your groundbaiting patterns, if any, very tight.

Articles by John Olliff-Cooper John Olliff-Cooper John started his writing career with Angling magazine in the late 1960’s, since when he has contributed to most of the better-known hard copy magazines. Flirted with modernity for a few years, then panicked at the shallow hype of it all, and fled through 180 degrees. Having been properly…