It was drizzling on the afternoon I went to visit the 88-year-old Pariente, who was quick to point out that he took up fly-fishing in the Forties, when Spain was recovering from its civil war and waders were just beginning to make their way into the country from across the Pyrenees. That one of the…

Although common around the coast of northern Europe, the smelt is rarely seen by anglers. For most anglers, the first time they are likely to encounter this fish is in the freezer cabinet at their local tackle shop! In fact, one of the main areas where this fish is found in the UK is in…

Any of you even vaguely interested in the angling mags and big carp captures will recognise the name of “Darenth Big Lake” also known as “Darenth Syndicate Lake”. I don’t think a week goes by without at least one 40lb from Darenth entering the pages of the Magazines. Well, also in the Darenth complex are…

It was about this time I decided I wasn’t fishing enough. A night in a bivvy in near hypothermic conditions was warmer than the frosty reception I could ever expect at home. Unfortunately the venue I had decided to concentrate my efforts on was not renowned for its summer captures and, anytime past October, you…

I just returned from a trip to the USA, this time it was Florida. And bearing in mind the subject of Clive Gammons article this month, I have to get in quickly and tell you that every penny for that trip came out of my own pocket! I’m sure that’s dispelled a few illusions! Anyway,…

A quick look in my local newsagents reveals around a dozen. I reckon that with the internet and regional magazines there are probably over thirty. That is around four hundred articles each month, something like FIVE MILLION words each year! Add to that catch reports, match reports, venue guides, editorial, and all the other bits…

Had there been onlookers at such an early hour, they might have interpreted the sight of 3 rubber-suited men striding into the surf at dawn as some sort of ritualised suicide pact. As the water passed my midriff and the currents tried to wash me up the coast I wondered if such an interpretation might…

The telephone shrilled loudly across the darkened room. I struggled to pull myself from the living room chair that had been my bed for the night in the attempt answer it. Another figure lay slumped half on, half off the sofa, male by the look of it. I breathed in stale tobacco ridden air as…

Have you seen it then? Piccachu and his cronies? The Pokeman thing. What’s all that about then? Anyone know? No? Me neither.Of course the kid’s Pokeman craze isn’t exactly original, based on swopping a few cards around. We had similar games back in the post-war days (yes, WW2) and my Dad even had ’em when…

My adherence to this opinion was not through hard earned first hand experience, as thoughts of returning to my past rarely occurred to me. It was merely that this adage seemed to possess a certain logic, and was so widely held by those whose opinions I respected, I assumed it had to contain an element…