Can you remember another six months when four records fell? Or a time when so many records looked vulnerable? Barbel, bream, carp and tench have all tumbled in the first half of this year. And it looks like a case of when rather than if for at least four other species. So what’s going on…

What has been described up to this point is a form of the Wallis underhand cast, but as I said, there are about a dozen variations. Instead of holding the lead to start, the underhand cast can be started with a free lead swung to the middle, left, or right of the angler. Instead of…

It’s fair to say that a man’s value (in some ways at least) can be measured well by the quality of those who seek his company. If you accept that premise, then you will be pleased to hear that Fred Buller, a man who’s company has been sought by many of the great names of…

Bear with me, do. There are so many writers talking about bagging-up, donkey sized fish, and ‘seriously wicked’ rods, that I feel it’s necessary to offer a bit of balance.Just yesterday, I walked down the lane leading to the river, with a very nice middle-aged chap, balding (like me) who was intrigued by my minimalist…

I’ve heard them talking. ‘Has it got it’s full label: is the varnish all original: is the rod-bag as new: that doesn’t look like the original rod-stopper’. Rods made to be used, are instead leaned into mahogany showcases, and spotlights trained to show off their regimented order to best advantage: to whom, I wonder? The…

He was the Dick Walker of pre-war England, and as such was employed by Hardyís to endorse their high quality bottom-fishing rods and reels, which bore his name. The Hardy No.1 Wallis Avon was the Rolls-Royce of pre-war coarse fishing rods, and good examples now command high prices. The exquisite little Hardy Wallis centre-pin is…

Fellow angling writer Jason Inskip offered a simple cure for my bone-fever: ‘Get yourself off to the Seychelles my boy.’ The Seychelles Islands lie in the Indian Ocean, just below the equator, about 1,000 miles off the East African coast. Amongst knowing bone-fisherman, these islands have an almost mythical reputation. I gave myself two weeks…

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…

The offshore potential of the Seychelles has been an open secret for longer. The islands lie on a relatively shallow plateau that rises out of the great depths of the open ocean. The wide expanses of the Indian Ocean feed huge numbers of fish into the crystalline waters of the islands. Here swim marlin, sailfish,…

Like Desroches, Alphonse is one of the Amirantes island group, about 250 miles south of the main island of Mahé. Alphonse Island itself has a large circular reef, within which is a shallow lagoon of finest talcum powder coral sand.The Alphonse hotel complex is a recently-built collection of ‘A’ frame chalets on short stilts. About…