And They’re Off! The first clip is a classic hand held camera job, ordinary folk getting a bit excited, swearing and generally ticking most of the boxes that will upset the barbel police. It’s got the lot - a Shakespeare box, stray dog, wobbly camerawork, banana fingers, no unhooking ma...

Not so much a blog this time as practically an entire magazine’s worth of ramblings. This is the longest blog I’ve ever written but you’ve got to admit, says he smugly, it’s a bloody good read - and it’s free! If anything’s out of date already I do apologise but ...

The boys from Pallatrax are pretty good at the old Micky taking, too, so even when the crowds disappeared off into the other hall to watch the speakers we managed to keep ourselves amused in the trade hall. Arriving early, we hadn’t even unloaded out gear from the car when Trefor West shouted...

Sywell Spectacular An article describing how Matt Brown and I tackled the spectacular tench shoals of Sywell Reservoir in Northamptonshire. First published in Coarse Fisherman, you can see the full illustrated article exactly as it appeared in the magazine by clicking on the link below which, prov...

Fellow Don Valley Specimen Group member, Lee Swords entertains us with another epic tale as he and Mike Townsend head south to go-a-plundering stillwaters in search of specimen crucian carp …   In Search Of Gold     For anyone that hasn’t caught a very large crucian carp…and by that...

Some Like It Hot… Work on the next volume of Barbel Days And Ways continues apace and the schedule is becoming demanding. It’s also pretty punishing in the heat. Stu and I slipped down to the Welsh borders hoping to fill our boots on the Wye but to say the conditions were against us woul...

By way of a change, here’s a guest article by my good friend, top bloke, brilliant chef and ace angler, Lee Swords….   In search of Emeralds……Big fat slime covered green ones!   By Big Swordsey     My trips out for big bronze flanked bream have found me more absorbed in the wild...

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...

Welcome to the June angling blog. If you’re a new visitor then I hope you enjoy it. I try to tell it as I see it and occasionally inject a little bit of wicked humour but do beware, there’s an odd swear word here and there in the graphics if you pay close attention, so please don...

As the days lengthen and the thermometer rises I find I’m buzzing around like a blue a***d fly. There’s so much to do and I haven’t even renewed a single club ticket yet. Mustn’t make the same mistake as last year, eh? Lost out on a ticket I seldom used but it was nice to have if only for th...