Cor, time flies when you’re having fun, eh? I must have had loads of fun in the first three weeks of the new season because the time has literally flown by. I mentioned in my last blog that I was making a series of DVDs with Stu Walker and this has taken up every spare moment of our time so far. ...

As you will see from the free DVD clips, Barbel Days and Ways provides a unique insight into the life and feeding habits of the barbel. Using state of the art technology, the cameras get closer than ever before to barbel as they feed, and then bolt as they feel the steel. Add to this an informative...

As a match angler back in the 1980’s I never really hankered after catching a big carp. Okay I would frequently pick up magazines and newspapers to gaze in admiration at covers that portrayed some very serious angler or other cradling what was, for the time, a huge carp. I say huge, but back in...

Earlier this summer Matt Brown and I agreed we really fancied spending a few hours on the Dove. We only had about half a day to spare as I needed to be home by early evening. That meant we would miss both key feeding times – dawn and dusk – but that didn’t bother us in the slightest. It’s j...

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 ov...

Looking back, that one fish planted a seed in me that still flourishes today. It inspired me above all else to stop just reading the writings of Walker, Stone and Taylor and to actually do something with the knowledge they’d given me. I began to specialise and I had a goal. I too wanted to catch ...

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 num...

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. Shoal fish here range from around five pounds to about eight pounds. Good fish by Northern standards, but Pit 6 has the potential to throw up a huge lump, certain...

I don’t know how I would cope without television weather forecasts, especially the Sunday farming bulletin. I tend to tape that one because it gives me a pretty accurate idea of what the week ahead will bring. If, like me, you are in full-time employment and have no choice but to fish at weekends,...

Big perch are nomadic in summer, as eager to swim in the fastest current as haunt the deepest eddy as they seek out shoals of prey fish. In winter they will invariably be found in quieter water and this means swim choice is much easier. If you can find an area of steady water below a bend with feat...