This style of fishing is a method I normally employ when I’m after big fish like barbel and chub with big baits on the hook. It’s a very positive style of fishing that requires strong rods, strong lines and strong hooks. In a nutshell it’s not a method for the faint hearted! I love fishing…

My first month has been difficult to say the least with most venues I’ve been to suffering from “feast or famine syndrome”. On paper many of the match results look good but what the overall results don’t show is that a lot of competitors are struggling to catch. When a new season starts I think…

1) CARBON FIBRE STEMMED STICKS There are lots of different types of stick floats on the market today and they all have a common design in that the top half of the float is made from balsa wood. The main difference in design thereafter is the material from which the base of the float is…

A few weeks ago it was difficult to get a bite at the place. Five pounds was top weight from the Yacht lake on one match which seems hard to believe when you consider that just two weeks later virtually everyone recorded double figures of mainly bream. A week after this there were double figure…

You may recall that last month I told you about a couple of successful practise sessions I’d had on the Severn at Shrewsbury. After doing so well in practise, I couldn’t wait to get back on the venue on the regular winter matches held there from October onwards. Before I get onto the recent matches…

For me there is nothing better and more satisfying than seeing a float disappear beneath the surface and then striking into a good fish. I enjoy swimfeeder and leger fishing but there are so many more skills attached to achieve success with float tackle, be it on running line or with a pole. Go into…

Although the fishing wasn’t as good as previous years it was still interesting at times and I’ve learned a lot for future trips. My best weight during my stay was just over fifty pounds of bream on the pole but I’ve managed to win almost one thousand pounds in section and minor placing payouts. I…

Long range floatfishing skills are quite rare in this country. When faced with a situation where they need to fish a long way out, most anglers, it has to be said, opt for a swimfeeder approach. Let’s face it, the feeder is a fairly simple method and can often be deadly in the right situation….

The biggest mistake normally sees the wrong choice of float size for a given situation. In addition many anglers, especially newcomers to the sport, use the wrong shotting patterns down the line. When selecting a waggler I always adopt a very simple equation. That is sensitivity versus buoyancy. I always ask myself “What am I…

I went back to Poole Hall fishery last Wednesday and had a really good four-hour workout on peg 25. By the end of the session I reckon I’d taken around eighty pounds of fish with more than three-quarters of the weight made up with tench!