This is something I have thought for nearly twenty years, and it is something that has moulded my fishing in this time. Way back then I was match fishing most of the time, but became increasingly frustrated that I was forced to fish at the worst time of the day. How many more, and bigger,…

Although we all tend to hark back to the good old days, it is a fact that not only are rivers getting clearer, they are also suffering from more extreme flow patterns. Big floods are increasingly common, and when they aren’t over their banks they resemble canals! Just recently we had the equivalent of a…

It is an indisputable fact that you can only catch the fish that are in front of you. Yet, the more I learn the more I realise that fish rarely stay in front of you for very long! It was Graham Marsden who popularised the idea of patrol routes. A man ahead of his time…

If you are just happy going fishing, then the excitement of not knowing might be part of your enjoyment, but for the specimen hunter knowing the potential of your target venues is essential information. Yet, this doesn’t mean that you have to take the element of mystery out of your fishing. We never know everything…

Free your mind, the rest will follow… Ah, that’s better, back behind the keyboard telling my tales of catching fish and other such buffoonery. I’ve missed a few months due to ill health… I went temporarily insane, a sort of mid-life crisis panicking over impending maturity. The thought of being a ‘grown-up’ scared the pants…

The days rain was just clearing and the skies began to clear as I rolled the car in to the car park. Round the lake there was not much to show so I set up in the same swim I caught from the week before. Once again I set up with a three boilie rig…

The other week I stood in my local newsagents waiting for two nuns to leave before reaching up for my limited edition copy of “Throb in my throat” (Limited to perverts with a fiver in cash!). My eyes were anywhere as far from the top the shelf as they could be when I noticed the…

Ive written a lot on fish location in the past, winter hotspots and the like but I thought I might elaborate further on rigs and baits. Now, reed beds always hold carp come rain or shine because they act as a natural shot-stopper for all passing debris, or as the carp like to call it,…

Another blessing in disguise is my ability to think like a simpleton. It never fails to amaze me some of the questions Im asked (Im leaning more towards fellow anglers rather than the wife or the police here!) Some things I find simple and straightforward when trying to put a carp on the bank are…

WHOAA !! shouted Jeff at the top of the ladder beside me and I whipped around from peering into the fishfinder. LONG CORNER !! and he was gone down into the cockpit. I saw the fish clearly then, bill out of the water, the fish acting like a sailfish at a teaser. The fish faded…