In this new series, I will be looking in fair depth at various venues on the Lower Thames. This is a task that to my knowledge has not been tackled since John Burrett wrote his classic book “The Lower Thames” in 1960. This short book was part of a series looking at fishing famous rivers. Unfortunately the series has been out of print for many years and has never been updated.
Bream are found in very shallow water and often much closer to shore than we realise. The more noted marks for shore bream are the beaches at Brighton, Shoreham, Littehampton, and also the Isle of Wight, which offers both beach and rock fishing for bream. The rocks and breakwaters in the Channel Isles, especially Alderney…
Wherever salmon fly-fishing is practised throughout the world there are constant reminders of its birth and development in Scotland. Many traditional patterns of salmon flies were developed on the banks of Scotlands famous rivers – flies like Dunkeld (named after the small county town in Perthshire on the banks of the mighty River Tay and…
When you actually stop and analyse all of the work that goes into such an event, it is not surprising to find that some aspects do not quite click into place as they ought to!The quality of fishing that the lakes provided was of the highest order. I spent a lot of time with the…
It was all very wild, wild enough to claim the lives of many a would-be hero, bent on discovering the source of this or that river, or hoping to make his fortune by re-discovering King Solomon’s lost diamond mine. Africa can still kill you, if you’re stupid enough to venture up places like the Congo…
I always used to wait until after the first hard frosts had hit and the weed growth had started to die back before embarking on my first trip. There’s some good piking to be had on most stretches of the Kennet and for a decade or so from the mid-eighties I enjoyed some great sport…
All sorts of crossroads were meeting, avenues opening up, doors closing and other well-documented clichés. I had just turned thirty and in retrospect, had wasted most of my life on alcohol, women and fishing. I needed fresh challenges and a new direction. After much soul searching and a brutally honest self-assessment I set three new…