Around Scotland there is a fabulous selection of trout lochs, more than could be fished in several lifetimes. I start with what must be one of the most well known, LOCH AWE. The history of Awe is a long and illustrious one with at least 200 years of trout angling tucked under its belt. Being…

As we breach the 21st century the numbers of youngsters coming into the sport are steadily falling. We can of course blame our media obsessed society for this, the gentle art does not exactly sit easily with a culture obsessed with satellite communications, mobile phones, computer games and all action Playstations. But it goes deeper…

For trout, Ephemera Danica represent the icing on the cake. Stonefly, midges, sedge and Daddies may excite, but mayfly get top billing. Just why this should be so can partly be explained by the insects size (bigger than most) but it also has a lot to do with the mayflies ability to hatch profusely even…

Innocent people get hurt when over zealous ‘fans’ turn to terrorising their heroes/victims with the misguided idea of gaining their total attention. While such actions in the human arena are completely unacceptable, stalking within a trout’s territory must be seen as a highly successful way of catching fish. This is ‘sight fishing’ in its finest…

THE APPEAL – The capture of a sea trout straight from the salt has got to be one of the biggest thrills in angling. Forget stockies or naturally reproducing brown trout, saltwater sea trout are a race apart. In my neck of the woods these sleek silver specimens, muscled up with the rich feeding of…

As I write, I’m looking out of my office window down on a perfect looking river Severn that I can’t fish again until June 16th. The powers that be decided to keep with the traditional shut down, despite research that indicated there was no real reason to do so. In my opinion the three-month break…

Let’s start with the sums. While fishing plays a very minor part of the EA’s overall responsibilities, the amounts involved still look staggering. During the 99/2000 financial year, the Agency’s accounts show it spent £23 million on fisheries management. You could be forgiven for wondering where it all went.Two-thirds of this – we’re talking nearly…

After the enforced break we can all get back on the rivers and canals again and hopefully have some good sport. I know some people still take a three month break after March 14th but I reckon it’s time to completely review the close season across the board. The three month closedown is nonsense in…

Time for a rant. I’m sure that not everyone would agree with the implication in the title that fishing is so poor in these Isles. And before you start flaming those emails at me, I do know that there are several places here where the fishing is very good. Those places are however quite rare…

How else could we regard a government, (of whatever political persuasion) which ignores the existence of a 5 billion pound industry(government figures, not mine). An industry two or three times the size of the professional football game, generating income many times that of the commercial fishing industry – and yet refuses to accord that industry…