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…

I did two one-night sessions and neither were very inspiring. Both were in fact, days when the lake was packed out. Both then, you will not be surprised to hear, were complete blanks for me. Too busy for the carp to get in the edge and too busy for the carp to feed confidently at…

On Saturday I fished the Earlswood bream lake open and drew peg 72, which was the end peg nearest the boat club. With the wind blowing away from the dam and in my direction I quite fancied it. The only downside was that we’d had a lot of rain in the two days previous which…

If you ever get the chance to examine a gravel pit that has been drained down have a good look at the shape of any features. Unlike the text books, they will not be of even width, length, depth, or even composition. There will be areas which might attract fish more strongly than others. Although…

On Saturday I was undecided whether to fish the BAA Severn Champs, the Birmingham Angling match at Edgbaston or Earlswood Lakes. Decisions, decisions! I couldn’t help but think, here I was spoiled for choice with three good matches on the same day yet in a few weeks time I bet there will be a few…

Summer was with us here in the south, not the summer that sun worshipers want but humid close weather. In my early days after carp it was these days we used to say we could smell carp, sounds quite disgusting now! On my first session of the week I arrived to find the lake deserted…

Whilst I could fish for trout in commercial rivers, this is a little too sanitised for me. Give me the overgrown stream in the middle of summer, a few chub or barbel and I will be happy. If it is not something that you are familiar with, then take the time to spend a little…

Being on the inside of a bend, there was little flow where I intended positioning the baits, so I felt I could get away with a relatively short hook-link. Bait on one rod was a micro-waved Hi-Nu-Val boilie which was about as buoyant as a pingpong ball, and which I used because they make good…

The blue-green algae now had a firm grip on the water, and had reduced visibility from around ten feet, to just two or three inches. It looked as if someone had tipped hundreds of gallons of turquoise paint into the water, and with no signs of fish anywhere, I began to think it a waste…

Although this is not confined to rivers, they are what I am going to concentrate on. Species such as barbel, chub, and perch, are all packing on weight, with specimen fish appearing in many places, both old haunts and new. The angling press confirms this on a weekly basis, as average specimen weights keep rising,…