Salmon are scarce (aren’t they always?) the best of grayling is almost over and the brown trout season has not yet begun. Happily in my neck of the highland woods, it can still be classed as a good fishing month for February 12th sees the start of the sea trout season. On Orkney and Shetland,…

“Gotta be a good Ling”, I said to my buddy who was looking at me with his usual quizzical expression.one day he is going to believe me first time!! The fish fighting routine soon settled into the slow time pump and reel action so familiar to those who have caught ling before. Ling are not…

I hadn’t heard anything like this since I was hitch-hiking across Australia on the big Mac trucks, back in the early CB radio days of the 70’s. Fascinating, but this was no truck, this was a Lake Erie muskie boat and the radio was just one of it’s built-in toys.The radios on the Lake Erie…

It seems like this year is going to see quite a few changes at the fishery. I will outline some of them below. First, however, I want to ask readers to get involved in a club in their area. In Bristol, our association is pretty strong, but it still could do with more members. All…

From Cornwall to Scotland, and especially around the Irish coast, the numbers of gurnards inshore within easy boat range has escalated with good fishing continuing right through to Christmas in some areas. What is also obvious is that the fish staying later tend to be bigger. If you lack a specimen gurnard in your species…

Rigging bait so that it swims in a most natural manner or flutters enticingly in the tide is a skill much developed in other more exotic parts of the world, but it seems to be skill which is relatively undeveloped in our waters. Reading some words of “wisdom” recently in a UK paper magazine about…

They search the back eddies and rip tides for sandeel’s, gobies, baby pollack as well as tasty morsels such as prawns, soft crab and worm.It is wonderful to be on a beach or rock mark in a pair of shorts and a light shirt on a balmy summers night, but nice as these conditions are…

In the early nineties, the zanders 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,…

Shelling crabs, carving a squid or maybe preparing a mackerel flapper are tasks which demand a “hands on approach”. Once I even saw an angler who brought a pair of “marigolds” (rubber gloves) with him to use for these jobs. Needless to say the banter was of an incredibly high standard that day!Fishing with Dave…

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…