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Sorry everyone, this post is almost 2 months late!  I started typing it shortly after the session and then never got the time to finish it!  So for now, here’s a slightly rushed post, but I’ve a fair bit of fishing planned in the near future so expect a flurry of activity on here very soon! A couple of weeks after the rivers closed I headed to local fishery, Tibshelf Ponds, to target the resident perch which are numerous (It used to be my local water and I would catch several, most times I fished there as a child), but I had an inkling that there were some really large ones there to be caught too. I set up with a combination of a swimfeeder rod (switching between a groundbait feeder & maggot feeder) and a heavy pole float fished on a new Bolognese rod that I’d bought and was keen to try out.  Bolognese rods have never really taken off in the UK, they are designed to fish the deep canals & slow rivers of mainland Europe, and they’re basically a telescopic whip (mine’s 6 metres long) with a reel seat and a rod ring on every section.  They’re …

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Are there people you know who have not yet seen The End of the Line yet but you think they should? Well they’ve come up with a clever way of helping you spread the word this weekend.  If you pick up a copy of The Sunday Times this Sunday (11th April) you will find a clever little voucher for The End of the Line DVD. All you need to do is take that voucher to a Waitrose store and you will be given the DVD in exchange. Nice and simple! You can either keep it or give it to someone you think should see the film. The End of the Line was seen as quite a groundbreaking documentary. A film which highlighted the human threats to wild fish stocks, and brought them mainstream attention. As The Guardian puts it, The End of the Line “changed the way we eat fish”. Since its release other documentaries about harmful fishing practices and overfishing, such as Seaspiracy, have come along – furthering the cause. You can find out more about the award-winning The End of the Line documentary movie on the official website for the film. If you missed the free DVD above, or have not purchased a …

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As day was breaking I arrived at the Reading & District AA car park and was sorting through my worms as Will pulled up. Will Barnard not only has a string of massive perch to his name, he is also the angling development officer for Reading, a bailiff and coach for RDAA and is a founding member of a small specimen group based around Reading called SAS Angling! Over the past year, you may have also seen him feature in one or two of Ian Welch’s articles in Anglers Mail too…  Right from the off I got on really well with Will, who’s a genuine, amiable chap, not to mention knowledgeable! My first glimpses of the Kennet gave me instant optimism and I couldn’t wait to get set-up.  It was slightly couloured and with plenty of perchy features.   We set up in a shady area of overhanging near-bank trees, which provided the margins with some shade as the sun rose behind us. The roots were quite terrifying to offer a bait towards, but they were blatant perch (and chub!) holding features.  Before long, Will was getting bites which he was suspicious of.  Eventually after an aggressive tap on the rod tip, …

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Firstly, I have to say it was great to just get a few days out on the bank at last!  For me, 4 full days fishing out of 14 is quite rare (if only it wasn’t!), and I managed to actually relax into the fishing; not so-much-so that I wasn’t thinking about what I could do to improve my chances (which, incidentally, I mainly concluded was very little!), but enough to actually enjoy just being there. So, on to what I actually did…  I had two days fishing for perch on the rivers before they closed which – I suppose due to a combination of the size prospects at this time of year, the fact that most of my winter fishing revolves around toothier predators and also because perch are one of my favourite species – has become a bit of a tradition for me over the last few years. So far an unsuccesful tradition, but this year had to be different. For starters, last season I baited up a swim to return to later only to find upon my return that another angler had taken that peg (which there is nothing wrong with, it was only through satisfying my …

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Well, the end of the traditional close season is almost upon us. I had the rare chance to go fishing twice last week and for the first trip I decided to follow my own yearning for a return to the Lincs drains (they can be frustrating at times and I hear many reports of fish thefts and that they’re not what they once were, but I just love fishing them!) for a final try for a pike before the rivers & drains close on the 14th. I made the 70 mile trip East and checked a few of my favourite places out, before settling on a very shallow drain, carrying only 18 inches of water down the centre. The weather had turned and was much sunnier than we’ve experienced for months. This wasn’t ideal because bright weather can put fish off the feed. On the other hand, the water was in need of warming up, so surely the sun couldn’t do too much harm for my day fishing. Plus, there were clouds dotted around and I have noticed pike and perch launch attacks on sunny days, just seconds after the sun goes behind a cloud – as if they have been patiently poised, …

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Well, I finally got myself out fishing last Thursday! After hearing of a few pike starting to be caught around the country, I gave into my urges and decided I’d target them.  After speaking to the bailiff on a stretch of the tidal Trent, I opted to try there. I haven’t really done much fishing in general on the tidal, let alone pike fishing, but I made my decision based on the water clarity being better than the non-tidal stretches, and the changing tides forcing fish to alter their positions, which would hopefully result in them spotting my bait in the process. With such cold conditions being set in for so long this winter, every species of fish will be lethargic – even those more associated with winter – so the fish will need a reason to move, be it hunger or the changing tide.  By doubling the possibilities, I’d double my chances… I thought! S..   L..   O..   W..  was the general pace of the day. I arrived, just after dawn (Hit the “snooze” button a couple of times too many!), to find I had the entire stretch to myself. Awesome; a whole stretch of prime-condition river filled with undisturbed specimen pike just …

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It’s been another lean few weeks, angling-wise, for me.  I haven’t fished for over a month now, but not out of choice.  I’ve been a little short on time, the weather’s not been great (not that I’m a fine weather fisherman – not in the slightest – but during one of the warmest worldwide Januaries on record, we had one of the coldest on record!), etc. and I’ve also just returned from a week snowboarding at Les Arcs in the French Alps.  Plenty of snow, plenty of raclette cheese, plenty of overpriced beer and this year no injuries!  Unlike last years trip which left me with a permanently dislocated clavicle (collar bone) on my left shoulder, which (still) looks like this: I also saw one of the best skiing/snowboarding shirts I’ve ever seen, which simply said on the front “Snow, Sex and Tartiflette”! Back to fishing, I’ve been sent a few tackle bits & bobs to review, so expect to see those appearing on the website soon, and possibly on here too. I’ve also just received a Korum latex spoon net which, on first impressions, is absolutely brilliant for everything from bream, tench & carp fishing, right through to a roving …

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Happy 2010 everyone.  Let’s hope that this year’s a productive one, whatever we’re fishing for. As I write, the snow is falling and we already have at least 4 inches piled up outside that has fallen today on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border. This really has been an exceptional cold snap and while short cold spells can mean good fishing for some species, prolonged cold weather such as this tends to slow down pretty much everything that swims. With all of the snow falling into our rivers and lakes and the continued cold temperatures (with many parts of the UK struggling to break above 0°C, even in daytime!) the water temperature will be extremely low and lower than most species require to enable them to feed and digest what they eat. When we eventually do get a thaw, be prepared to head out and fish as you could be in for a red letter day. There will be some very hungry pike, chub, roach, grayling and perch out there just waiting for a warm spell to trigger a feeding frenzy. Location will be paramount to a good day’s sport, but get this right and these species will be crawling up your line to get to your bait …

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Best wishes to everyone for the festive period.  Here’s to bulging landing nets for the New Year! With the snow-melt predicted over the next couple of days it’s seriously going to cool the waters down, making most species difficult to catch.  I’m hoping to fit in a grayling session and a chub session, but if it gets ever so slightly milder and the rivers don’t colour up too much I might contemplate a pike session.  It’s over a month now since I wet a line and I’m getting very itchy to do so!  I’ll be paying close attention to the weather forecasts and EA rivercall messages to help me decide what I should target when.  …Although I’ll probably still get it wrong! Before I can fit in any fishing, I’ll be potentially risking life & limb for no good reason other than for a laugh, by entering the MATLOCK RAFT RACE on the River Derwent! Had I thought about it earlier, I could have got sponspored for charity but as it stands I’m doing it for no-one’s benefit, not even my own! With the snow melting into the river it’ll be a wee bit chilly on the extremeties, to put it politely. Finally, …

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Guess who’s on the cover of this month’s Angling Star magazine…! Available in all good (mainly Northern!) newsagents now!

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