Over the years, I have reviewed many items of tackle for various publications. Although I fully tested out all the items of tackle that I was sent, the published review was always heavily edited to save paper with any reference to any actual fishing trip generally removed.

Whereas some anglers can fish for a single species constantly for years on end, I came to the conclusion a long time ago that my attention span was too short to allow me to do this. This realisation turned me from being a carp angler to fishing for a number of species and has certainly…

Right. That’s got that one out of the way then. The year I mean, Okay, and the century too, for those pedants among you. Here we are then, in the year predicted by Arthur C. Clarke to be the age of rebel computers. Of course, I’m talking about 2001 A Space Oddessy – youngsters get…

In the early nineties, the zander’s profile seemed to be higher than it is at present. There seemed to be a lot more anglers fishing for them. There have been many trends in angling over the years and this was probably one of them. Soon, the popularity of zander seemed to be on the wain,…

Wednesdays midweek Bewdley open saw me draw peg 31, a peg known to locals as “The feeder gobbler” and now I know why having lost eight swimfeeders and around fifteen hooks throughout the match! In between losing tackle I did manage to catch 14.4.0 of small barbel to win the section. On Saturday I had…

I had decided before I went to have an all out assault with chopped worm and caster. At the start of the session I fed around a pint of chopped worm and caster into the swim (which was about nine feet deep) thirteen metres out. I then loosefed casters with a catapult to the same…

The IAC mailing lists are one of the top resources for anglers on the net. There are now several lists, each supporting different disciplines. The lists cover game, sea carp and coarse fishing. As and when more demand arises there will be extra lists added – match, pike etc. In the meantime it is a…

On Tuesday I fished the match at Woodland View and drew peg 21 on the front Deans pool. A combination of chopped worm, caster and sweetcorn pole-fished on the bottom and in the margin brought me a 36.10.0 return and a section win. The match was won by team mate Norman Carpenter on the back…

How many articles have been written on bait over the years? Probably enough to fill several books over! Yet, for those of us who have watched fishing develop over the last twenty years there has been an amazing swing in the way bait is written about. This change in our attitude to bait has, to…

With the final cessation of the rain came a period of dry weather. Sunny days followed by frosty nights, in fact foggy nights. Not ideal for carp fishing in February so when my long term fishing mate Gary phoned to say he had been to the special spot on the river Thames and found the…