With the tremendous popularity of carp fishing, and the increasing number of anglers who are regularly using boiled baits, it was only a matter of time before these baits were used on rivers, and for barbel. I first tried them myself in the early 80’s, making them mostly from meat proteins as I thought that…

I even went to the extent of carrying out controlled fishing tests over a number of years where I fished a coarse fish dead bait on one rod with the other rod with identical tackle on a sea bait. To remove any swim bias, the rods were alternated every cast. The results showed that on…

This obsession started 4 years ago. It is the direct result of some friendly rivalry with my life long angling pal, Paul Goulbourn and its origins can be easily traced .Late evening of the 20th September 1996 Paul rang me up in an excited state – I knew he’d caught and caught big. Paul had…

One of the best baits there is, is bread. Now, I’m not going to talk about big bits of floating bread for carp or anything like that, I’m going to talk about little tiny bits of bread, the biggest about an eighth of an inch size, and the bread punch.When I was a youngster, a…

Directions: From London follow the A316 to Twickenham. Take the turn off for Twickenham and follow the road to the town centre. Turn left down the A310 (Cross Deep) towards Teddington. Radnor Gardens is on your left hand side just before the first roundabout.Facilities: Parking can be difficult in the week but at weekends there…

Before starting on my whistle stop tour, I needed to carefully plan my tackle as it had to be very compact whilst still remaining effective. Let’s face it – the average angler has very limited space for tackle when on holiday with the family. It would therefore be unrealistic for me to write an account…

Gard is in the south of France, on the west bank of the river Rhone, and its principle cities include Montpellier, Nimes and Ales. There are two main river systems which are completely different in character. The Gardon system rises in the foothills of the Cevennes mountains, and meanders slowly across the rich farmland of…

Up until about the middle of the 1990’s most American anglers looked upon the carp as a trash fish only fit for the roses. I can tell you it’s now a different story. Today many American anglers are chucking flies for carp and thoroughly enjoying the experience. As they tell me “These carp fight hard…

Leo said it all, stumbling through he door of the hut, rubbing his hands, shuffling as close to the wood burner as possible for it does get cold early in Mongolia. “I’ve kept count of everything today. I never moved more than a hundred yards from ten o’clock till, what is it now, six or…

I will start with the smallest pattern of floats that I use. These are the mini balsas that look more like a Summer close-in pattern. They do in fact work well in this role but I am using them for trotting under the near side bank in a style that float maker, Pat Tarrant, refers…