Like many winter anglers, grayling fishing, for me, conjures up crisp, cold days on the river bank. Over 2/3rds of my grayling have been caught in the winter with February alone accounting for a quarter. When high pressure brings iron hard frosts and finger numbing cold, grayling are often the only fish that can be…

‘WHOAA !!’ shouted Jeff at the top of the ladder beside me and I whipped around from peering into the fishfinder. ‘LONG CORNER !!’ and he was gone down into the cockpit. I saw the fish clearly then, bill out of the water, the fish acting like a sailfish at a teaser. The fish faded…

After the enforced break we can all get back on the rivers and canals again and hopefully have some good sport. I know some people still take a three month break after March 14th but I reckon it’s time to completely review the close season across the board. The three month closedown is nonsense in…

Ol’ bucketmouth is not the most hard fighting of fish, but what it lacks inspeed and energy, it makes up for with its willingness to bump big baits andput a hefty bend in our rods. When a double figure fish rolls in the washalongside the boat, there is a feeling of fulfilment, that this is…

. Catering for both boat and bank angler, the water is one of the first in the country to open after the winter shut-down, having a prestigious official opening day each February. This is always quite a ceremony, with pipers piping and whisky flowing and famous faces popping up all over. But this particular February…

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,…

As such, it is a very bouyant fly that can be fished deep down with a short leader. It can be fished virtually static on the bottom. The slow retrieve, particularly early season, does bring some very good results. When the weather warms up this fly also fishes well up in the water. Reports from…

My friend Russ Doig and I travelled down to the fishery on the last day of March. It was a very cold misty morning with no sign of any breeze which meant the lake would be flat calm. These were not ideal conditions to start our new series looking at individual trout fisheries.We checked in…

My friends and I have had good success with mainly rainbows from many reservoirs and other stillwaters. As with many lures, it appears to be at its best when the trout are fry feeding late in the season.My old teacher, Freddie Rice used to tie a variant that had black marabou replacing the natural grey…

Lough Mask is 20,000 acres of the cleanest, natural water to be found anywhere in the world. It lies where the limestone central plains of Ireland meet the rugged sandstone mountains of West Mayo on Ireland’s Atlantic coast. It’s proximity to the Atlantic ensures that the area is never short of wind and rain and…