The rain was holding off but I could feel it in the air and I knew heavy rain was forecast. The air was cold and the day before several inches of snow had fallen in areas across the south; and this in what was now spring. I was just pleased to be fishing though, aware…

Judging from response so far there are already a lot of anglers using the new floats as we completely sold out of the first production batch within a week! Looking firstly at the Carptek range there are six different floats in the family:CARPTEK 1This is a popular carp float ideal for use with meat, corn…

The night was upon me but at least I had sorted out the mud problem by putting wood under the bedchair legs to stop me sinking into the soft ground. Despite the line bites the first real bite did not occur until just before midnight when the rod cast to the bush gave a few…

One of my favourite tactics is to bait an area with literally everything I have left over in the bait cupboard. This is usually a mixture of groundbait, broken boilies and seeds and beans. This is a cracking method to use on lakes which are full of weed. What I try to do is find…

Most stillwaters controlled by clubs that also had rivers on their books shut up shop a couple of weeks before 14 March and are not due to open before 1st June at earliest. It was the clubs that usually open their waters in spring that had the hardest decision. Obviously if the lakes were in…

Most of them though seem to be moving towards a fairly labour intensive form of fishing, yet one which brings them huge rewards. Rather than just fishing, a good percentage of their time is spent introducing bait to their target waters. This can mean anything from giving the fish a couple of pounds of bait…

Ferris Meadow LakeThe gravel pit in question is around 15 acres and I knew of its existence but I knew nothing about the fish it contained. I finally heard it was going to be opened for angling in mid May. With only a month to go before the season I was reluctant to change the…

Despite deserving excellent mild spring conditions, all that I got was a wet afternoon clearing to cold clear skies followed after midnight by yet more rain. It all started well though as when I arrived two of the members were just packing up after a 48 hour session and one of them had caught an…

IrelandTench in Ireland are perhaps more legendary than they are in England. Although Ireland still officially has to produce the amount of 10lb plus specimens that England has, without doubt they are there. The big difference with Ireland is that there are few gravel pits. The majority of tench fishing takes place in natural loughs…

Add to that the fact that a lot of our waterways have been closed due to the dreadful foot and mouth situation and it’s been a frustrating end to the river season. I’ve been having some fabulous roach sport on the Severn before the enforced layoff and I’m already looking forward to June when I…