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Tag Archives: sea fishing

Ultima Power Steel fishing line – Long-term Test Review

Ultima Power Steel fishing line - best fishing line

I’ve used Ultima Power Steel for 12+ years. In short, I think it’s absolutely fantastic stuff for all legering & feeder fishing, from carp & barbel to predators; by far the best mainline I’ve ever used. It’s clear, very abrasion resistant, has low memory and a very low stretch for nylon line. Power Steel used to be marketed as a coarse & carp mainline but it’s now sold as a sea and predator line. It’s still the same stuff on the spool though! I can’t fathom why it’s no longer pushed towards specimen anglers. With the properties it has, it’s ideal. For the first few years I used Power Steel purely for hooklinks – predominantly for barbel and perch – I was really impressed with how tough it was. I had previously experienced many breakages of mono, braid and fluorocarbon hooklinks when fishing for barbel – especially around snags. It was the part of my set up I had least faith in so I chopped and changed regularly, hoping I’d find something I could trust. After reading good things about Power Steel (back when it was still marketed towards coarse & specimen anglers) and, being familiar with the Ultima brand …

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2015 – My Highlights – Part 3: Float Fishing in the Dark for Grey Mullet

Andrew goes float fishing at night for mullet in a southern harbour

So, onto the final part of my 2015 highlights trilogy!  The epic finalé.  Hopefully it’ll be more Toy Story 3 than Jurassic Park III; more Die Hard with a Vengeance than Superman III!  There’s only one way to find out… Cornish manoeuvres in the dark On our first holiday with our (by now, 4 months old) baby daughter, fishing was never going to be high on the agenda, it would be a case of grabbing a chance if and when it arrived.  We stayed in this country, which allowed me to take quite a range of gear with me so that I could exploit any opportunities which came my way.  The first of these came in Poole, where we spent a week. Our hotel was walking distance from a bay of some repute amongst local angling bloggers I’d looked up before we went.  A couple of evening trips produced my first two bass (which would have each fitted in the palm of my hand and they were returned as quickly as possible) and a couple of eels which had me fooled I might have hooked a bit better bass.  Brilliant fun, a new species chalked off and all done without …

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Tope from a Boat

Andrew's PB tope shark

I’ve had a strong desire to catch a tope, ever since a school trip to Anglesey in the mid-nineties, where I witnessed a large specimen captured and released. That experience put the species right at the top of my “to catch” list of British sea fish. The tope is Britain’s largest inshore native shark, and grows to a maximum size of around 2 metres in length and 95lb in weight. I love my freshwater predator fishing, so when I was offered a chance to fish for these sleek predators, with two Scottish International anglers, Brian Burn and Willie Kennedy; I just couldn’t refuse! After a bit of hasty organisation, my friend Craig and I made the trip from Derbyshire up to the beautiful Galloway coast. We checked into the Queens Arms Hotel in the picturesque and quaint, Isle of Whithorn, and settled down with a pint; leaving just enough time to set the next day’s scene with Brian and Willie, before we each got some much needed rest. The beautiful Isle of Whithorn harbour is a scene straight from a postcard! Early next morning we headed down to the public slipway with Willie’s boat and set off towards some of …

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Travel Fishing Tackle Guide

Andrew Kennedy mahseer fishing in India

Please note: this article is now quite old. Whilst some of the information is still relevant, the standard and range of travel tackle available to buy has increased exponentially and I haven’t had chance to revisit the article to bring it up-to-date. I continue to host this page mainly for archival reasons. For some of the best current ranges of telescopic rods and travel rods, check out the following ranges: Shimano Travel Concept (S.T.C.) fishing rods Fox Prism Travel Series lure fishing rods Fox EOS Telescopic carp rods Nash Scope Snide travel carp rods Orvis Encounter Spin/Fly Combo – 2 in 1 travel rod Daiwa saltwater travel rods Savage Gear travel rods Travel Fishing Tackle Guide Deciding to take fishing tackle with you on a family holiday can be a potential excuse for divorce! However, if your situation allows, with a little bit of planning and careful purchasing, a lot of great fishing can be enjoyed – whether you’ve got a spare couple of days, or just the odd free hour here and there. The rewards can be excellent – catching exotic species you would never dream of catching at home, or if you’re a coarse angler on a trip …

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