SATURDAY21st October 2000

These tides and the next set in early January give the main cod shoals their last chance of a big feed before they start to think about making little cod and heading offshore. The tides fall just right this year starting to build in height on Christmas Day, and from the 27th of December right…

I like the idea of myself as a revolutionary figure, with guns blazing, shooting down all the politicians and greedy b****s who have done so much over past decades to reduce the values of our angling pastimes, whether it be sea angling, coarse angling, or game angling. True anglers will know that I am not…

Arriving around 6pm, we had a walk along a favourite stretch and put a little bit of bait in our chosen spots, before retiring to the local pub for a few drinks to welcome in the new season. The river was where I started carp fishing, and still remains one of my number one venues….

Most years, I have a short holiday on the coast at Swanage in Dorset. Although I enjoy the break by the sea, fishing is still in the blood and I nearly always have a few early mornings or evenings fishing with my holiday gear at the nearby Arfleet ponds. To be honest I have never…

I virtually gave up coarse fishing altogether, which surprised me even though I was told this would happen by a casting instructor, Albert Whillock from Hayes, a lovely old chap who tried to teach me to cast a shooting head that was badly matched with my cheap fly-rod. I hadn’t paid a penny for the…

I had been in soulful mood, worrying about the state of our countryside, about foot and mouth disease and the lack of a suitable water for a traditional start to the coarse season with a few brothers of the angle. With only a few weeks to go, the little pond I had booked in Bedfordshire,…