Even the rivers are losing their mystery to some extent, many of the big fish in them having a ‘name and address’ and being caught time and time again by anglers who camp in the swims, then parade their photographs in weekly angling papers. There are of course exceptions, particularly with big rivers such as…

Iíve done time on pasty bashing waters, lakes with an abundance of doubles, twenties waters, and the occasional Ďcircuití water. Apart from Linford Lakes that I fished for most of last year, the rest have all offered no chance of a thirty. The year before last was spent on a small syndicate lake in a…

Most anglers seem to have their favourite swims and the reasons for this are probably as varied as there are swims themselves. There is an uncanny, and almost unnerving connection between good swims and car parks for example, and I may well return to that theme later, depending upon the directions these thought processes take…

In his own words Barrie preferred to pre-bait when the pike were off feed (presumably hoping it may bring them on to feeding). Writing on the same subject, this time in 1985 (Big Pike, Rickards, A&C Black 1986) and with the benefit of 15 years further experience Barrie was in no doubt of the value…

I have used this pattern for still water salmon with more than my fair share of success. At Hazelcopse fishery the salmon are regularly taken on dry flies throughout the year. In the Spring mayfly patterns like the yellow mayfly Woulff can be particularly deadly. They tend to rise best for the pattern towards evening…

Maurice Ingham himself rarely fished, being content with the occasional walk round the haven to see how the members were doing. I remember talking to friends about the remnants of the Carp Catchers Club. We came to the conclusion that the capture of the 44 pounder at Redmire took something out of the group; nowadays…

It is supposed to be the time when even the newest novice to fly fishing can catch fish hence the name “duffers fortnight”. Naturally imitation mayflies are normally used to great success during this period but there have been times when the trout appear to ignore my traditional mayfly imitation. Closer observation of the feeding…

I have used this static surface tactic on hot Summer evenings on many waters and found it particularly deadly on Meadow Tree Fishery at Hale in Cornwall, Dever Springs in Hampshire and Black Wool Farm in Sussex. All these waters are big fish waters, the fish responded well to the small suspender buzzer producing several…

The majority of the brown trout had been stocked as fingerlings as the reservoir filled in the early seventies. Although stocked as fingerlings we regarded them as “wild fish”.These trout appeared to spend most of their lives on the bottom which could be up to 90ft down. This called for lead core tactics with powerful…

Using lines and tackle that had evolved from processes in manufacturing during the war effort, they caught enormous numbers of bluefish, stripers, speckled and grey trout, redfish and bonitos from the shore on plugs, bait and polished metal jigs, wading thigh-deep amongst flocks of screeching terns and seagulls. The very foundation of the great US…