Blog Posts

My old (read: antique!) fishing website – despite a couple of updates & minor facelifts – is vastly outdated and not very visually appealing or compatible with mobile devices.  So a couple of years ago I started work on a new fishing website, as a replacement, based on the WordPress platform. A server error lost all of the work I’d done and my backup was corrupted, so I’ve had to start again from scratch! I quickly got the framework in place and I’m working on importing & updating all my old articles, blog posts & photos, along with improving the looks & layout.  Once I’m happy, everything will move to www.just-fish.co.uk and the old site will be no more (2020 edit – the old site is no more! You’re looking at the new one!).  So please check back to see new content & improved looks as soon as I find the time! Meanwhile, I’m also looking for guest fishing bloggers, so if you have a fishy story to share (who doesn’t?!), then please get in touch via my contact page.

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I’m pleased to introduce the very first guest contribution to my website.  It’s the first in a series of guest blog posts by “Posh Bloke”.  An enigmatic and quite flamboyant character of the upper-class, written by a mystery guest writer, taking a snobbish but light-hearted view of all things fishing.Enjoy!Andrew… Hello old chams! I thought I’d share a little tale with you regarding my latest adventure from the back of the old Charabanc… It all happened a little while ago – whilst Igor was driving me to a discreet little ‘fishery’ in the middle of London, I spied (to my earnest delight) – a very pleasant-looking Angling Emporium. One always has to pop-in for a good snort about when one discovers such enchantments… “What Ho!” – I cried. “In we go, Igor! Tally Ho!”, I shouted as he pulled in the car park, or should that be carp arc? Upon entering this rather superb emporium, I must say I was impressed. There were things I’d never seen before… strange umbrella-type tents (‘bizzies’ I think they are called) – but certainly one can’t beat the good old-fashioned log cabin for a one-nighter, you know it makes sense. Around me were rods …

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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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In the second of my Highlights of 2015 posts I once again visit the Derbyshire Derwent, but a different stretch this time. The session provided me with a great insight into the lives of barbel & chub when this river is exceptionally low and clear… Fishing for barbel & chub in clear water on the Derwent Every now and again, a fishing session comes along which unexpectedly knocks you sideways.  Sometimes it can be a red letter day in the form of the number or size of fish you catch, other times it’s the things you see or the whole experience. I had one such day last July, where it was the latter which made the day special.  I caught some fish but the overriding highlights of the day were the things I witnessed.  Forgive me if I get carried away describing something you see regularly, but because I don’t fish during the daytime very often, this whole experience was something quite special for me. It started when I decided to head to a stretch of the River Derwent which I had only ever fished once, several years ago.  It was primarily a reconnaissance session to reaquiant myself with the swims …

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In April last year my life was changed forever by the birth of my daughter! So whilst I’ve been experiencing the highs and challenges of fatherhood, finding time to fish has become even more difficult. Time to blog about it has inevitably proved yet trickier to find! I have, however, sneaked in a short evening session most weeks since June and I’ve really enjoyed the fishing I’ve done this season. More than I have in quite some time! So I thought I would write about my 3 angling highlights from last summer; a blog post for each. They include a first, a PB and an exhilarating spot of close-quarters, clear water fishing.  If you like the sound of those, read on… First barbel on the stick float A couple of seasons ago I decided that I really wanted to catch a barbel on the float.  With almost all of my barbel fishing consisting of summer & autumn evening sessions, I only managed 4 or 5 hours of trotting for them last season, with only a few small silver fish and minnows to show for my efforts.  This year I decided to put some effort in at the beginning of the season when, arriving at …

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When I saw this project on Kickstarter, I just has to share it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/737549484/cat-fish It’s called the “Cat-Fish” and it introduces the idea of “fly fishing” for your cat.  You have a mini fly rod & reel, castable fly line and hookless flies, which you cast out and try to lure your cat into taking the bait.  What a genuinely unique and brilliant idea! Practice your own fly casting skills at home, whilst exercising and entertaining your cat! What better way to spend half an hour on a dark evening or a wet & windy day, than bonding with your cat and keeping your casting eye in by casting out a little teaser lure in the kitchen or down the stairs?! I should probably add that I have absolutely nothing to do with this project (other than pledging to back it), but I love fishing and I also have cats who love to chase things.  This project won’t happen unless they receive pledges for the total target value.  They only have a couple of weeks left to find backers, so if you’d like to own a Cat-Fish, or see it come to market, please visit the Cat-Fish Kickstarter page  and …

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It’s a now a month since the rivers closed and I’m just getting around to typing up my ‘end of season round-up’ post.  I don’t think I’ve fully grasped the concept of a blog!  Well, better late than never, I suppose… Somehow I’ve managed to once again have a poor end to the season.  What’s made this one different to previous seasons is that it followed a poor middle of the season and a disappointing start to the season too!Okay, so I haven’t had as many hours on the bank since November as I wanted, but the efforts I did make had brought me “0” fish on the bank since November too!  A few evening sessions fishing for zander, a few of the same after barbel (in seemingly ideal conditions, too) and an all-day chub session all resulted in a single half-hearted bite and no fish hooked or landed. In February I escaped the horrendous floods by heading to a canal which manages to remain clear no matter what the conditions.  It was a slow day during which I fished static deadbaits, wobbled deadbaits and lures, which all generated very little interest.  Finally a float-legered sardine I’d cast tight to a …

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I’m never going to fish that place! I decided a few weeks ago that after putting off the idea for a few years – for various reasons:  (“It’s not real pike fishing”… “It’s far too easy to catch a huge pike on there”… “Results will drop off before I get there, like at Llandegfedd, Blithfield”… “I don’t want to join the rat race in the fight for tickets and then rejoin it in the fight for best spots”, etc.)  – I would finally this year try for some winter tickets to pike fish at Chew Valley Lake. I love fishing rivers, drains and canals for pike.  The looks and fight of a double-figure river pike are hard to beat, but occasionally I get the urge to seek out larger fish.  Visits to reservoirs in the past haven’t been too productive for me, but I have the tackle and – thanks to these previous trips – a bit of experience of reservoir fishing.  So what if reservoirs are man-made?  The pike in these venues are as wild as any from a river.  They may have an easy, protein-rich food source of naive stocked trout, but this all adds to the challenge …

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Those of you who are regular readers of Coarse Angling Today magazine, keep an eye out for my 5-page article on short-session summer barbel fishing.  If you’ve never read it before and you enjoy multi-species fishing, it’s one of the best mags out there… It’s the first article I’ve had published in CAT (but hopefully the first of many!) and besides being apt for the conditions right now, it explains most of what a novice or first-time barbel angler needs to consider to have a go at catching summer barbel, after work. If anyone reads it and wants some further info, then I’d be happy to respond via email or on here. This months issue is a rivers special, with an extra 32 pages for the normal price of £2.95, so it’s a bit of a bargain! UPDATE – Click here to download and view a pdf version of the article in full, for free! Andrew Kennedy: Time Bandit (Barbel Fishing) from Coarse Angling Today issue 144: Download Now for the official line… The River Special of Coarse Angling Today is in the shops today! It can also be downloaded via the Apple Newsstand. This is what’s on offer:  – Andrew …

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This a short article I wrote for www.fishingmagic.com, expressing the magic and allure of river fishing, along with my hopes & thoughts about the upcoming river season. The magic & allure of river fishing I grew up in an area where there were plenty of ponds within cycling distance, but the nearest rivers that were fishable were just a bit too far away. No-one in my family fished, so I had nobody to introduce me to river fishing, which meant that my early angling years were spent primarily beside stillwater, rather than flowing. This gave rivers a certain mystery, as I would catch glimpses of them on school trips (Monsal Dale and Dovedale), family days out (Matlock Bath, Newark, Tissington, Bakewell) or a fleeting vision from a car (the powerful Sawley weir, from the M1). Often I would see people fishing, or spot fish in the crystal clear waters and I felt drawn to these tranquil, serpentine venues that were – for the most part – out of my reach. On the few occasions I was taken to fish a river something always seemed to happen (the ‘something’ was usually in the shape of an eel…). Whether it was catching …

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