Trophy Room for Andy Shattock

I have been very busy these past couple of weeks, with fly tying, planning and checking over old diary entries. The winter having been so mild virtually passed us by this year. The level of the lakes is at its greatest, and even the birds are well advanced in their year.So what happened this week?…

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…

If you’re an angler and saw the movie ‘The Perfect Storm’ then I’d bet that you came away, as I did, with two abiding images. The first would be of the longliner tk, out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, climbing the glassy, impossibly steep, underside of a huge swell and, inevitably, being flipped over and swallowed by…

The diaries should be out and all of this season needs careful planning. Those of you who fish in team competitions, need to be thinking of the implications of qualification for the next round of any competition that you fish. Bookings need to be made for practise boats and, if you are to be fishing…

Did I just make that up or did someone else get in first? I’m not sure but whoever said it first, it has more than just an element of truth. My fishing trips this year have been far too few and I’ve decided that I must either work less or abandon the family a little…

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!