The apology should have gone in last week as it concerned my friend Nick Hart’s trip to South America. I said that the region that he was going to was Patagonia, but it is in fact Tierra del Fuego – sorry about that.I have just received via email, the new logo for the European Open…

I am sure you will read elsewhere today of the manifestations of the Foot and Mouth outbreak, but for anglers the country over it will really come to mean something when they try to get to the river, lake or reservoir. We are still in the early stages of the outbreak, and maybe we should…

About a month ago I received an email from trout guide Nick Hart. He was quite excited about a new job that he had just secured. Only this week I spoke to him at length about his job. Boy, what an opportunity he has awaiting him!On Thursday this week he sets out to fly to…

I must say that like the vast majority of British anglers I have always shunned the idea of having lessons. I have been able to cast reasonably well, I think that I am pretty accurate, and I know that my line lands softly otherwise I wouldn’t catch so many trout on dry flies on calm…

Advice is, to say the least, conflicting! Some waters are to open – in fact some have already opened, whilst some are to open for boats only. Others are to remain closed.I have tried to establish what is actually going to happen on the bigger reservoirs, but bear with me, as things are likely to…

Day one saw the best of the fishing. ACA Masterline ended the day in “pole” position, with 42 fish for over 87 pounds. Ron Gent came in as the third individual with his ten fish limit bag weighing 21lbs 7.5oz, and the rest of the team supported him well. Thirteen pounds separated the ACA team…

Lough Sheelin – one of the truly great Irish loughs, is in serious decline. This in itself is not a new item on the news, for it has been suffering from the effects of pig slurry being washed into it since I started fishing there in 1970. What is so surprising though, is the fact,…

This is a pretty unique competition – devised by chairman Mike Gleeve, in which competitors go out to fish the match not knowing who is in their team of four! I believe that the main proviso is that when the teams are drawn, two anglers in the same boat cannot be in the same team….

I have visited four different lakes in the past fortnight and in all of them the fly life has been really good for this time of year. One insect seems to be predominating the interest of the fish that are moving and that is the humble corixa. On my home water Chew Valley, corixa feeders…

. For the river fishers amongst readers I will have some comforting words – later. For the reservoir anglers, it is a more interesting situation, in that we have really not had such high levels throughout a season for such a long time that different questions need to be answered.I will start with the rivers!…