Technique

By mid-August, I am usually well into my stride catching river fish, especially barbel. This year, however, I’ve struggled to even get a bite! The problem with becoming confident in certain methods, baits and even venues, is that it’s easy to become set in your ways with your approach. The old adage “If it aint broke, don’t fix it” springs to mind. But what happens when it is broke, and your tried and trusted methods fail you time and again? It’s so easy to dwell on glories past, sticking with the same setup in the hope that it will work eventually. The truth is, conditions change, swims change, fish can become wary of certain rigs and baits. If you find yourself struggling, you must start ringing the changes until you find something else that works. Two chance meetings earlier in the month inspired me to get out of my recent rut, and I’m so relieved! With very few bites, and a single measly 10 ounce chub to show for several after-work river sessions, I knew I had to change something. My initial focus, along with trying a variety of different swims, was to change my baits until I found one …

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Surface fishing for carp with floating baits is one of the most rewarding and exciting means of fishing for any species in the UK. The sight of a dark shape emerging from the depths below...

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Late Spring, into Summer is the perfect time of year to target tench, carp, crucians and bream in stillwaters. This gives me an excuse to use one of my favourite techniques – the humble “Lift Method”. Forget fancy anti-eject combi-rigs and the like; the lift method is simplicity itself. All the terminal tackle you need is a float, a hook, a swivel and some swan shot. The principle of the lift method is to over-shot your float and fish with all of the weight laid on the bottom. The float is set slightly over depth, so that when the rod is set up on rests, the float can be made to sit upright by simply tightening the line, so you can finely adjust how much float tip is visible. When a fish takes your bait, the shot is often lifted from the lake bed, which causes your float to lift out of the water, sometimes even laying horizontal on the surface! It is this action from where the method derives its name. Very often, however, you’ll notice knocks on the float tip before it disappears, just as you would with a waggler. Either of these bite indications are positive enough …

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This is a short instructional video showing essential pike handling techniques to enable safe unhooking. The terminal tackle used in the video is a wire trace with a single, treble hook. The unhooking tool is a standard pair of long-nosed forceps.

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Please note: this article is now a little out of date. Whilst much of the information is still relevant, my techniques, knowledge and equipment has improved so I intend to completely rewrite this guide in the near future, to bring it up-to-date. I continue to host this page mainly for archival reasons. Photographing Yourself This year I have been forced to fish many sessions alone, which can be very frustrating when you catch a fish worth photographing, but with a few extra pieces of equipment you can still take good photographs of yourself and a fish.  An easy way to still get a photo of your catch is to leave the fish in the landing net, and lay something beside it, such as your reel or scales, to give an idea of perspective.  This can look really good, but there is a better way to photograph your own captures.  On my Olympus cameras, there is a function which enables you to use an infra-red remote control to work the shutter.  Gardner Tackle market a camera adaptor which screws into a bankstick, so that you don’t need to carry a tripod to mount your camera on.  I mount this adaptor into …

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Please note: this article is now quite out of date! Whilst much of the information is still relevant, my techniques, knowledge and equipment has improved – so I intend to completely rewrite this guide in the near future, to bring it up-to-date. I continue to host this page mainly for archival reasons… A large part of the joy of angling, to me, is being able to reflect on the memories of specific captures in months or years to come. A good quality photograph helps to keep those memories so much more vivid and alive. So, when you land that prize specimen – will you have the know-how to get a great photo and do the fish justice? Keeping a few basics in mind can improve your angling photographs considerably, so this is my common-sense guide to building a fishing album to be proud of. Remember though – to take a good fish photograph, you must first catch a fish! Unless you already have a lot of experience with a camera, I would not suggest the use of an SLR camera for fishing. Although I’ve taken some great shots with an SLR, I find it far more practical for fishing to …

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(Pike care article kindly provided by Colin Goodge of Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain.) It happens all too often when a parent buys a son or a daughter a cheap rod and reel with a couple of plugs or spinners, and sometimes a small landing net for the school holiday, just sometimes to give them something to do. The thinking is ‘Well I don’t suppose they’ll catch much, only a few tiddlers’, but this can be fatal, because Mr big fish can turn up at any time, and suddenly these youngsters can be thrown into a frenzied sense of excitement crossed with panic, and poor old Mr big fish lies thrown up the bank and will no more give any pleasure to boy, girl or anyone. I feel that sometimes a visit by an experienced angler to one of the local schools before the summer holidays could save a lot of fish lives and teach a lot of youngsters how to get more pleasure from their fishing. Fishing is a great pastime and helps us appreciate the wonderful gifts of nature, and lets face it, would probably keep a lot of youngsters from mischief. Please before you buy or …

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