A suspect case of foot and mouth disease has been found near to Chew Valley Lake and thus it cannot open on March 22nd as planned. I guess that we were all expecting this would happen – I really do think that with all the possible bad press that there could be, we should be…

There are various reasons why a lake might move. Perhaps the lake is stream fed and water enters at one end and leaves at the other. More likely is that the effect of the wind on the surface creates movement. Wind induced movement is particularly common on the larger more open lakes, such as the…

For many that is certainly the case, but over the last few years most of my fish have been caught in the winter months. This does not just apply to species which are well known to feed in the winter, like pike and chub, but barbel, bream and carp have succumbed to my approach. The…

I left you last week in the process of buying a pole for the first time. Go into any good tackle shop and you will be confronted with an array of poles with all sorts of weird and wonderful names. How do you choose the right one for your requirements? Well, the main questions to…

It’s not just tackle that has changed beyond recognition, it is bait as well. I started my carp fishing at the old Halls Angling Scheme (now RMC Angling) gravel pit at Bedfont in Middlesex. The pit unfortunately is no longer there having been re-landscaped into a park. Like most gravel pits in those days it…

It was a couple of weeks ago, I had put one rod on a gravel shelf under an overhanging tree, the other rod was on the side of a gravel hump. It was the tree rod that produced the goods, read on.In the torchlight a large flank glistened back. As I peered into the net,…

Personally I love to introduce newcomers to my favourite sport as I get a lot of satisfaction out of seeing them do battle with their first ever fish. I recently got a friend of mine’s lad into fishing and he loves it. What was interesting was that he got probably more enjoyment out of catching…

Could you devote a little bit more time to your fishing? Do you mainly fish venues close to home? If the answer to these questions is yes then I think I might be able to help you out. Over the last few years I have become a bit of a bait junky. This all started…

Because of the terrible weed conditions and clear water I chose a swim that commanded some areas that I knew had clear bottom surrounding the weed. Both casts would be quite long but one was to the edge of an overhanging tree on the adjacent bank that always has a lovely clear area of gravel…

Go into any good tackle shop these days and you will be confronted with a huge array of pole floats in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours. Some designs it has to be said leave a lot to be desired but several companies now produce really good quality floats designed specifically for today’s pole…