2011 – Mid January Blog
As we finally emerge from the iron grip of the recent arctic blast perhaps it’s time to take stock of how our fish have been faring. I’ve heard reports of one commercial fishery being severely hit with thousands of fish carcasses clearly visible beneath the ice. Small, heavily stocked lakes will be hit hardest, I suspect. [...]
2008 – November Blog
November Blog Stuart Walker and I finally launched our debut DVD, Barbel Days And Ways Volume One on November 1st. Much of the previous year was spent on the creative side – planning, filming, editing and so on. I’ve made a dozen of more angling films in my [...]
2008 – August Blog
August Blog Where does the time go? I thought that retiring from my full-time job would leave me with loads of time to do everything I want to do but there simply aren’t enough hours in a week. So where shall I start? School holidays mean Sue and I can escape for a well deserved [...]
Early Season Gravel Pit Tench
My love affair with tench probably began nearly forty years ago when I witnessed the capture of a four-pounder from Arksey Railway Pond. I’d never actually seen one in the flesh, nor had I ever been close to a fish of such immense proportions. It was huge! Looking back, that one fish planted a seed [...]
Chub In A Cold Climate
Anyone who is a relative newcomer to fishing and reads the papers avidly will be labouring under the impression that seven pounds chub are pretty common and that sixes are merely run-of the-mill captures. If only that were true. The truth is that the headlines are dominated by a relatively small number of fish from [...]
Big Pit Fishing For Bream
When I hear anglers making out they know how to catch big bream it brings a smile to my face. Big bream are frustratingly unpredictable. For weeks I had been picking up reports from the Great North Fishery (formerly A1 Pits) suggesting that the bream were feeding really well. So well in fact that the [...]
Back-end Perch
During the final weeks of the season it is probably easier to catch a big river perch than at any other time. Why? Because location is easier and feeding times are predictable. Big perch are nomadic in summer, as eager to swim in the fastest current as haunt the deepest eddy as they seek out [...]
