Here are my thoughts about some of the books I’ve managed to find the time to finish… Carp Along The Way – Volume Two Rod Hutchinson     Insights range from one extreme, where we learn how he was driven to chase carp all over the UK and beyond, to the other where he develops his...

Flavour Of The Month     At the time I was fishing Walt Bowers lake at North Muskham for carp and had caught some cracking tench and bream. He wanted to know if his partner in the bait business, Carl Hill might have a session there and use it in the video.       Clearly I’d done okay becau...

Life Through A Lens   Oh My Gurd The video cassette had a little boom back in the early nineties, not that they ever sold a lot in their original format. Those who were involved at the very beginning soon realised there were much richer pickings to be had by shooting other subjects. In truth the n...

So, You Want To Be A Writer?   Life’s A Box Of Chocolates It’s a fair bet that my old English teacher would be gobsmacked to learn that since turning my back on the Percy Jackson Grammar School I’ve somehow risen to the heady heights of becoming a published author. I hated school. It’s not ...

I haven’t fished a match, as such, for more than a decade but a competition that did grab my attention was the UK Angling Masters Championships. What an event this was and how sad that it didn’t become a permanent fixture in the angling calendar.     The invitees included the winner of each o...

Bob looks back fondly at the good old days of fishing and indulges in a bit of name dropping…   Did Team Fishing Ruin Match Fishing? Team fishing was a real eye opener to me. At first I loved it. I was passionate and committed. Fishing for the benefit of others was a revelation. No matter w...

  Tales Of The Riverbank - Part Seven   Adapting, Adopting And Improving   I wouldn’t have missed my years in club match angling for the world because this was my training ground, my apprenticeship if you like. I was a bit keen mind…     Weirdly, and I’ve only ever written about that...

Those Were The Days I’m guessing that I fished my first club match when I was 12, maybe thirteen. Toll Bar Angling Club was typical of hundreds of similar clubs in the north of England. Members tended to come from a fairly small geographical area, were fiercely loyal and funded fishing trips by c...

Bob’s saga continues…   Wetting The Baby’s Head Despite our fun and games on the carp lake, the desire to ‘guest’ on waters didn’t completely desert the Jonah and me and another trip remains memorable for very different reasons. Moreover it was a guest session like no other. You see...

Uninvited Guests   There are some really anal folk in the fishing game and you’ll find plenty of them posting various degrees of bile on Internet forums. They really won’t like this next chapter because I’m going to share a few of my experiences of ‘guesting’. Call it poaching if you like...