Blog Posts

This little newsflash post is soon to be followed by a fishing update, but I just have a few things of interest I thought I should share… Firstly, Carl Allman of Rio Ebro Angling, who we chose to fish the Ebro with – for zander, roach, carp and catfish – last September, acheived second place in IGFA‘s World Record Acheivement Awards, as acknowledgement of him guiding anglers to a total of 18 line class World Records during 2011 alone!  I’d like to say I was one of those anglers… but I’d be lying! Rio Ebro Angling also have a newly redesigned website (NO LONGER ACTIVE!) and I urge you to check it out if you’re thinking of venturing to foreign shores in search of fish this Summer.  There is a limit to how many bookings a single guide can take and I assure you Carl is among the best, so make your enquiries sooner rather than later. I wrote an article a little while ago, about storing and keeping worms, including lobworms and denbrobaenas (“dendras”), which is now up on my website.  If you want good, plump, fresh worms whenever you need them, without spending a fortune keeping them, take a look. I …

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Footage of wels catfish being caught whilst fishing on the River Ebro at Riba Roja d’Ebre in Spain, including underwater footage shot with a waterproof camera. Read all about the exploits of me, Shane Calton and Dave Newby-Thornley in my articles: Alternative Ebro Part 1 – Zander, Roach, Barbel & Carp and Alternative Ebro Part 2 – Catfish, and also take a look at the River Ebro catfish video Shane shot during our trip.

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To follow on from the end of my last post, I was in agony with my back.  It turned out I’d pulled some muscles down either side of my spine, around the lumbar region and for a pulled muscle, boy has it given me some grief!  It was playing havoc with all parts of my life, at work, at home, sleeping… I couldn’t even put a pair of socks on!  Worst of all it was preventing me going fishing, so something had to be done After trying various forms of pain relief, such as Voltarol, nothing was doing the trick and after all, killing the pain isn’t really getting to the source of the problem.  A friend suggested I visit a sports massage therapist for treatment and recommended Nigel Mallender’s Muscle Mend service. After the first 45 minute session last week, I felt a gradual improvement in the level of pain I felt and the range of movement in my back. Nigel showed me a routine of stretching and strengthening exercises to do each morning, which also seemed to help.  Today I had my second session and now feel no pain from my injury.  Having said that, I can feel it’s still there and I’m very wary …

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I haven’t posted a “true” blog post for a while now, I seem to have been abusing this blog and using it mainly as an interactive advertising board for other things I’ve been up to. My own fishing has been very disappointing lately (more on that later), and I turn 30 in a couple of weeks, so I’m in quite a reflective mood and thought this was an opportune time to fill in on how 2011 was for me in fishing… 2011 started off very slowly for me. A multitude of reasons have left me spending far less hours on the bank than I would have liked to, but thankfully most sessions I’ve made the most of the time I had and caught some reasonable fish. I only had chance to fit in one session before March, but then managed a couple more river sessions before the season ended.  The only fish I landed during this period were a few pike, topped off by an 18lb 13oz beauty, which I blogged about here. Once the rivers closed, my fishing mainly went on a self-induced hiatus. Buying my first home became the priority and despite ours being a relatively straight-forward purchase (so we were assured by the estate agents!), …

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I trust everyone had an enjoyable Christmas time.  I certainly did but it’s only involved one fishing session, which I’ll mention in my next blog post. Meanwhile, here’s something I found in my drafts folder which I thought I’d posted this a couple of weeks ago. Better late than never, as they say… A quick message to inform you of two recent additions to www.fishingmagic.com; firstly part 2 of my “Alternative Ebro” article is online to read at:  https://www.fishingmagic.com/features/coarse_fishing/specimen_fishing/15601-alternative-ebro-part-two.html Part 2 covers all of the catfish fishing we did with our guide, Carl of Rio Ebro Angling, during the week we spent boat & bank fishing with him at Riba Roja.  I’m told by Carl that since we were there, some of his guests have landed catfish to 164lb, including lure-caught catfish up to 148lb!!! Also, if anyone has a bit of Christmas money to spend on a little bankside/backside comfort for 2012, I recently reviewed the “Stalk-Lite Mk II” reclining chair by Cyprinus for FishingMagic, and rather liked it!  You can read my full review here:  https://www.fishingmagic.com/features/reviews/15584-cyprinus-stalk-lite-chair.html If you’re impressed, you can purchase this chair for less than £30 from Tackle Discounts Online Fishing Tackle Shop online fishing tackle store. That’s all for now …

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Just a quick update folks, to let any of you who are interested know that this months issue of Angling Star has hit the shelves and part 1 of my account of our Ebro trip in September has a double-page spread inside. Not only that, but Shane’s pose with his big roach has made it onto the front cover too!

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Fishing on the River Ebro at Riba Roja d’Ebre in Spain, courtesy of Shane Calton. Watch as we get a treble hooker on the catfish rods! Read all about the exploits of me, Shane and Dave Newby-Thornley in my articles: Alternative Ebro Part 1 – Zander, Roach, Barbel & Carp and Alternative Ebro Part 2 – Catfish, and also take a look at the underwater Ebro catfish footage I shot during our trip.

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Just posted on FishingMagic today is an article about my recent predator session, where I managed to bag a trio of Pike, Eel and Zander, all after dark:  https://www.fishingmagic.com/predator-fishing-andrew-kennedy-nets-a-hat-trick/ (I’ve since also shared this post on my website here: River Predator Hat-Trick) I was testing out a new specimen unhooking mat from Cyprinus and the review of this well-made mat is also on FishingMagic here:  Cyprinus Beanie Mat Review

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Are you a budding Angling Writer?  I know most of us fishing bloggers have plenty to say!  Would you like to get your musings on fishing published and be in with the chance of winning some fishing bait or even landing a sponsorship from bait company Chapel Baits?  Head over to FishingMagic and take a look at their new competition, launched this week, where they aim to discover the angling writers of the future.  Take a look at the link below and get writing, you never know where it could lead! FishingMagic.com & Chapel Baits Search for a (writing) Star Competition

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I’m writing this post as a showing of gratitude to Fox customer services.  It’s easy to criticise companies when they get it wrong, so I think when good service is received it’s worth praising. I had a major issue with a set of Fox Stalker digital scales (until the faults, I’d been very impressed with their quality and operation) which I’d bought back in January 2009.  They were technically out of their warranty period but these were not cheap scales and they had suffered what appeared to be a complete mechanical failure which rendered them useless.  Due to the nature of the fault I was requested to post the scales back to Fox for further investigation, last week.  Yesterday morning, I received a parcel in the post which contained a brand-new set of Stalker scales!  There were no quibbles whatsoever and I am very pleased with this outcome and the quality of customer service I received.  I think this offers peace of mind when looking for other big-ticket items in the future. UPDATE Although I couldn’t fault Fox’s customer service, unfortunately I can fault the Stalker scales. The replacement set lasted me a couple of seasons and then failed with the very same fault! …

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