Back End Barbel
As we neared the end of a recent season I sat down with three of my fellow Don Valley Specimen Group (DVSG) mates and discussed prospects and tactics for the final onslaught. These are the musings of Matt Brown, Lee Swords and Adam Roberts… Bob: Hi guys, only a couple of weeks to go before the season [...]
2010 – Late October Blog
I fished the tidal Trent last week. Although the water level remained high and carried a bit of colour fish activity was parctically zero. For a midweek day I’ve never seen the place so busy with a good ten anglers in less than 800 yards of river. Time for pastures new, I guess. I [...]
Matt Brown’s Guide To Spodding
A purpose design spod rod and big pit reel will allow you to throw a fully loaded, full size spod very far indeed and with great accuracy after surprisingly little practice. I use the Daiwa Emblem Spod reel because it casts as well as anything out there but has a super fast retrieve (over 1.22 [...]
2009 – Mid-March Blog
Well, the curtain has fallen on another river season but could it be the final curtain? Well, some seem to think so. Personally I don’t think so but we’ll have to wait and see but I do think the closed season is the wrong length and it’s at the wrong time. Let’s be [...]
Weighty Matters – The Scales of Justice
A thread on the Fishing Magic forum has made reference to an article I wrote a little while ago so I thought it might help if I published it again. I can’t for the life of me lay my hands on the original pictures and my limited web design skills mean that I’m unable to [...]
River Don Barbel
The River Don Catchment – A New Kid On The Barbel Block The River Don doesn’t exactly leap to mind when folk start talking about ‘great’ barbel rivers or even Yorkshire barbel rivers, but it has a great deal more potential than you might imagine. Indeed the true potential has nowhere near been explored yet [...]
A Day Out With The Lads
Sometimes we take our fishing far too seriously. Many anglers measure their enjoyment purely on the size of fish they catch and if you ask me that’s a recipe for burn-out if you’re not careful. One of the things that we all agree about in the DVSG is that our fishing has to be fun. [...]
Floodwater Barbel
Now and then I get this irresistible urge to put the record straight. Okay, it might ruffle a few feathers but if I don’t do it who else will? Anglers are worse than washer women for repeating old wives tales. Read fishing articles for long enough and you’ll hear the same old dogmas repeated over [...]
