If you’re planning a trip to the river this week go out and purchase a thermometer. There are two types of thermometers; the normal mercury thermometer and the new types which give the air and water temperature, these also run off a small battery usually available from shops selling electrical goods televisions and radios etc….

Having last month covered in some detail river characteristics and timing your fishing to coincide with peak activity, let’s look at where best to find fish feeding and sheltering from flood water. The first thing that strikes you as you walk by the side of a river or a stream carrying extra water, is the…

After the wet, mild conditions of the last few weeks we, in Suffolk, are now several degrees below freezing, with a constant shroud of freezing fog hanging over the East of the country. The river though looks to be in fine fettle. A bit of colour is still hanging in the water and despite the…

With this in mind I had planned during autumn to return to the river Churnet which, being close to my home, can be fished as and when conditions are favourable for the ever challenging roach. The recovery of this river over recent years has been fantastic, after continuous pollution incidents during the 1980s and early…

I turned to my left and gazed in awe at the beauty lying beside me. It must be said that even though I have never been to bed with an ugly woman I have woken up with a few. This was different. She looked up to me and smiled sweetly. This naked goddess lit a…

However a chat with Pat and a closer look at the float reveals that this is a well thought out very functional specialist float that works exceptionally well in specific roles. Pat is in my opinion a revolutionary float designer with a stroke of genius showing at times. The “skittle” is an example of Pat…

That’s an easy one to answer but I’m not going to here and now. Instead I want to natter about the quality and type of hooks we all use. I’ll help shoot down the anti’s in another word battle elsewhere no doubt.We all use hooks but we don’t use ‘just’ hooks. Generally, for the most…

I like the idea of myself as a revolutionary figure, with guns blazing, shooting down all the politicians and greedy b****s who have done so much over past decades to reduce the values of our angling pastimes, whether it be sea angling, coarse angling, or game angling. True anglers will know that I am not…

Roger Baker and I were doing a lot of spinning for big perch and pike in snaggy water. As we were loosing rather a lot of spinners, we decided to make our own to save money. To this end we bought a lure making kit from Harris Angling Company to make our own spinners.We were…

All sorts of crossroads were meeting, avenues opening up, doors closing and other well-documented clichés. I had just turned thirty and in retrospect, had wasted most of my life on alcohol, women and fishing. I needed fresh challenges and a new direction. After much soul searching and a brutally honest self-assessment I set three new…