Blog Posts

Just before the end of the river season (and before the COVID-19 lockdown), I fished a very swollen Derbyshire Derwent for barbel. It was a slow day, but the river was visibly dropping as I was there. I stuck with it, dropping The Hook Bait Co’s Garlic Nimrod & Big Squid boilies behind trees and submerged bushes, and eventually my persistence paid off in the form of an 11lb 10oz barbel – a fine finish to my river campaing. I had an issue with my camera flash when I first attempted to take some sef-take photos of the fish (I ended up resting the fish again in the margins, whilst I sorted the camera out), and when I went through the images at home I had several blurry, reject photos. As I flicked through them it looked like I was dancing. It reminded me of the iconic Firestarter video by The Prodigy, so I decided to have a play with making a stop-motion parody of Firestarter by editing together the still photos. The above video from my YouTube channel is the result! It’s just a bit of fun. Enjoy!

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We join a boy called Harry, with a fascination for fish and riverside wildlife, who sets out on a quest to catch his ultimate target - a wild brown trout...

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With the rain this week I decided to make a rare trip to the Trent after barbel. I knew the river would be high with plenty of colour so I wanted to use the smelliest baits I had. I found half a pot of The Hook Bait Co. Big Squid boilies from 2016 in the garage. They still looked and smelled good as new, so into the bag they went! I only had 5 hours to fish and I knew location would be paramount. I had the stretch to myself, so I baited marginal spots in 3 swims. Four Spoppers of mixed pellets laced with Nimrod oil, garlic oil and hemp oil went into each swim. In these conditions I favour leads & PVA stockings over swim feeders, and I also used back leads to keep debris off the lines. For hook baits I opted for a Garlic Nimrod & The Big Squid combo – one of each on the hair. All was quiet in the first swim, but after an hour in the second swim I had a good take on my downstream rod. After a tough, but thankfully uneventful fight I managed to net the barbel at the …

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June 2019 saw national fishing tackle retailer, Angling Direct, open a brand new store in Sutton-in-Ashfield. The new Angling Direct shop in Sutton can be found at: 1B Forest St, Sutton-in-Ashfield, NG17 1DA. This large tackle shop is packed to the rafters with major brand tackle, alongside AD’s own-brand ADVanta range. As part of a large national chain, Angling Direct stock a large range of tackle and offer convenient services such as “click & collect”, which many people will find to be very convenient. However, Sutton-in-Ashfield already has a long-established independent fishing tackle shop based on the old marketplace – Phil’s Bait and Tackle – which I believe offers anglers much more. If you are looking to start out fishing, or to get your child kitted-out with fishing tackle for them to give fishing a try then you should head to your local independent tackle shop – in this case Phil’s Bait & Tackle. In their shop you will find excellent service and one the largest ranges of tackle in the area, from major manufacturers of coarse, carp, specimen and match tackle. They have plenty of kit priced perfectly for beginners who are looking to buy their first rod & …

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On this page I’ve compiled a list of all the free-to-attend events I can find, where children can have a go at fishing, under the guidance and supervision of qualified angling coaches & instructors. Below is a list of fishing events – FREE to attend for children – during the school holidays this year. This list concentrates on events close to Derby, Chesterfield and Nottingham. Besides the curated list of events below, there are some excellent online resources to find fishing events, taster sessions, open days and free coaching events in the East Midlands, such as: IMPORTANT!  It is a legal requirement for all anglers aged over 12 to be in posession of a valid Rod Licence when fishing. Rod licences for 13 to 16 year olds are FREE – but you still need to register for one. These can be purchased instantly online here (only buy rod licences from the official Gov website to avoid extra fees), or by calling the Environment Agency’s Rod Licence service on 0344 800 5386. 2019 Summer Holidays Angling Events Listings – Free Fishing Taster Sessions & Learn-to-Fish Events in Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire Date:Thursday 25th July 2019Event Name:Free Let’s Fish! – Nottingham – Learn …

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I got out fishing for the first time this year, yesterday, and obliterated my grayling PB twice in half an hour! I’d never been lucky enough to land a 2lb+ grayling before, but had fish of 2lb 2oz (photo with sunglasses) followed by a beautiful beast of 2lb 7oz! I was trotting maggots on a northern spate river when I managed to find a small group of large fish. My first grayling over 2lb – a PB for all of 30 minutes! Half an hour after landing my first 2lb+ grayling, I set myself a new PB with this beauty of 2lb 7oz! View my other personal best captures on my PB List page.

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I’m currently looking for guest contributors to have their fishing-related articles & blog posts featured on my revamped website… Whether you’re a published angler or you’re interested in writing your first piece, if you’d like your writing to be showcased on my site, head to the Contact Me page, fill in your details (including a link to your blog or website, if you have one) and email it to me with “Guest blogger” as the subject.  I’ll be in touch soon to discuss your ideas and you could see your writing on this site soon! Interested in a guest blog spot? My idea for guest fishing bloggers is not in order to promote sales websites, it’s to promote genuine talent from anglers with something to say – NOT with something to sell! So, if you intend to promote your brand or boost the SEO of your revenue-generating website, please don’t bother. There are plenty of places out there for you to hawk your wares. However, if you genuinely want to help other anglers through offering advice or instruction, or you think your writing might encourage more people to take up angling, then that’s my intention here.

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I’ve had a few strange happenings during fishing sessions this year. Such as a mystery animal sprinting towards me in the dark, straight into my legs before disappearing!  By the sound of it’s light, rhythmic scampering as it approached I’m pretty sure it was a stoat (definitely that kind of size) but I’ll never know! Then, just last week, I had a most unusual start to an evening barbel session on the Derbyshire Derwent.  I just had to write the story down for posterity! As I was walking to bait up a few spots I heard a faint bleat of a sheep, close by, but the only ones I could see where at the other end of the field.  Another bleat; that came from the river!  I looked below the sheer, high bank I was stood on and there was a sheep, completely stranded, above its armpits in water!   With a high bank one side and deep water the other, this sheep was well & truly stuck there.  There was a small ledge behind the sheep and, as I had my waders on, I thought if I could get the sheep onto that I could possibly lift it up back …

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Comin' at ya! With my 40 foot pole, I bring a lesson for young and old, I'm the superfly guy, the maggot ragamuffin, Snoop Maggie Maggot, gonna knock out ya stuffin', Whip fishin', whip fishin', that's what I do, I'm twice World Champion* I'm telling you, Groundbait, casters, maggots in ya catapult!

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Andrew urges all anglers to use their local tackle shop as often as possible. I grew up in a small village with a few fishing ponds which catered well for kids. The thing was, there were no fishing tackle shops within easy reach of the village, so as a teenager it was always a case of “Get what you can, when you can”, when the chance of a lift to a tackle shop arose! I’d been fishing for 20 years before I finally had a tackle shop in the village I lived, but after a couple of years it had already closed down. The tackle market is a different place to when I was kid, mainly because of the internet. Whilst there are thousands of bargains available out there from the major players, the advantages of having a small, local tackle and bait supplier cannot be overstated. You can’t order a last-minute pint of maggots from the internet, or replace that packet of hooks you realise you’re without, just as you’re leaving the house! Yes, it can be invaluable to go into a large shop and pick up 10 different rods to compare before you commit to that big spend, …

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