Reviews

I’ve been lucky enough to receive a couple of products from outdoor gear manufacturer Sealskinz, to try out for fishing.  I have owned their products before, which use a unique waterproof membrane to offer the wearer excellent resilience to the elements.  My Sealskinz gloves have been used for everything from raft racing to caving and I’ve always been highly impressed by their function and performance. I wear Sealskinz socks whenever I fish and they even keep my feet warm & dry inside my very leaky waders. My foot can be completely surrounded by water, but remain dry and comfortable enough to fish on!  The new products I was trying out for fishing were a winter Beanie Hat and a pair of Country Socks, both incorporating Sealskinz’ patented waterproof, breathable membrane. Sealskinz Waterproof Country Socks On first inspection, the country socks seemed a little on the thin side, but once I put them on I realised the benefits of their knee-height merino wool construction.  They are surprisingly warm!  They also feature an over-sized woolly cuff and are seamless all the way up to reduce blister-causing pressure points.  At the end of a Winter session my feet are usually a damp mess, …

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As I write this entry, Derbyshire – along with much of the UK – is in the midst of snowy weather so severe that even the most ardent Toyota Prius driver must be wishing they’d bought a “gas guzzling” 4×4 instead! I would be surprised if many anglers are venturing out at the moment because this kind of prolonged cold period can turn most fish completely off the feed. Get ready once it warms up though (after the cold snow melt water has flushed out of the system) and you could be in for some action with very hungry fish! Without expecting anything like this weather approaching us, I managed to time it right and fished just a few days before the snow fell. I’d been lucky enough to receive a couple of products from outdoor gear manufacturer Sealskinz, to try out for fishing. I have owned their products before, which use a unique waterproof membrane to offer the wearer excellent resilience to the elements. My Sealskinz gloves have been used for everything from raft racing to caving and I’ve always been highly impressed by their function. The new products I was trying out for fishing were a winter Beanie …

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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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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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King of the Pond Terminal Tackle Range Reviewed by Andrew Kennedy I’ve recently been sent a new range of terminal tackle to review from a company called “King of the Pond”.  The company claims to focus on providing quality and value-for-money in its products, and based on the ones I’ve seen so far, I cannot dispute those claims in the slightest!  On the whole, the rig components are thoughtfully designed and of a very high quality.  I have briefly described and reviewed them individually, below… Swivels All of the King Of the Pond swivels are of exceptional quality. They are all extremely well finished off, with no visible joints or seams and no sharp edges. The swivels are also very smooth-spinning and very strong. There are four different styles of swivel available in the range; Rolling Barrel Swivels (£1.65 for 50), Quick-Change Link Swivels (£1.99 for 10), Quick-Change Helicopter/Chod Swivels (£1.99 for 10) – all of which are available in size 8, feature a matt anti-glare finish, have a breaking strain of 65lb and are compatible with their range of lead clips & buffer beads – and Micro Swivels (£1.25 for 20). The rolling swivels are the perfect all-round swivel …

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Anyone familiar with my website will likely know that I’m not the biggest fan of Robson Green’s fishing show, “Extreme Fishing with Robson Green“.  I do explain myself further on my website, but my main gripe with the show is the inhumanity and contempt he shows towards fish and other creatures (moorhens, to be precise!). Anyway, I received an email a few weeks ago from an Australian writer, who maintains a blog called Sting In The Tail. She had seen a couple of episodes with her husband and made a few comments about Robson’s treatment of fish on her Twitter account. A baffling, but hilarious, exchange ensued – with Robson posting several knee-jerk responses to her comments. I was aghast when I read it, and as a result Mr Green has dropped further in my estimation. Before I thought he was a pillock when given a fishing rod, but it seems he’s just a full-time pillock! The full dialogue is detailed Here – Robson Green vs Sheila in Twitter verbal battle. I’d recommend you give it a read; it’s both amusing and enlightening! As for fishing at the moment, I have no sessions planned.  The last time I fished I was out on the Trent …

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Over the closed season, I readied myself for the impending re-opening of the rivers by reading various books and magazine articles by very successful Barbel anglers. My main focus was Summer river tactics, because this is the time of year that sees me make most of my Barbel sessions; short after-work ones mainly. This has an added advantage of taking me to some fantastic, natural places. The type of habitats barbel frequent are some of the most breathtakingly beautiful swims imaginable (Tidal Trent excepted!) and there is no better time to appreciate rivers as when they’re in full bloom, in the height of Summer. Many of the articles I read took what I’d regard as a “romantic” angle on Barbel fishing. They talked of shallow, clear, weedy, fast, intimate rivers (which I’m lucky enough to regularly fish two of, in the Dove and Derwent); with each writer discussing a slightly different approach to the same sort of conditions. I get taken in by these angling “romance writers”, just as I do when I watch A Passion For Angling. I suppose this is how, in an ideal world, I’d love all fishing to be; solitary man pitting his wits against nature, …

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Boycott Extreme Fishing with Robson Green Andrew agrees with the Angling Trust and also urges all anglers to refuse to watch Robson Green’s “angling” programmes It is very rare I would discourage any programme showing fishing on the TV, but having watched certain episodes of Robson Green’s programme – now inexplicably into its second series – Extreme Fishing, I feel that I really must. Personally I was horrified by some of the methods depicted as “Fishing” to an unsuspecting UK TV audience (and a surprisingly large one at that!), and also by Robson’s attitude throughout. I do not recognise Robson as an angler; indeed I never knew he fished until his first series came out. From what I’ve seen of his skills, he’s not even a very good angler, and certainly not of the calibre I’d expect to see presenting an angling show on prime-time terrestrial TV. There is nothing wrong with some of the methods he uses – when they are taken in the context of being successful methods for catching fish as FOOD, by cultures which have practised these methods for centuries – but all of this should be properly explained in the programme, rather than Mr Green …

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Every now and again, a simple but truly innovative product falls through the letterbox for me to review. The concept is such a perfect solution to a recurring problem that it begs the question “Why didn’t I think of that?”! One such product is the SteadyRig, from Essex-based company, Rig Innovations. So what is the SteadyRig? Believe it or not, it’s a product designed for safe and easy positioning of a camp stove or lantern! How I wish this product had been around a few years ago, when I was spending regular night sessions on the drains fishing for zander. So many times I set up my Coleman stove on a frozen, lumpy bankside and managed to partially boil a kettle, only for it to topple and spill my much-needed hot water! The SteadyRig has been designed to fit all popular brands of portable stove. There are ridges machined into the base plate, into which the lip on the base of a stove will locate to prevent it from slipping. Attached to the lightweight base are three adjustable legs, with removable mud feet for use on soft ground. The locking screws the leg adjustment have large-diameter knurled heads, making adjustment …

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Jungle Hooks – India “The second series of Jungle Hooks – Jungle Hooks: India, exclusive to Discovery Real Time, sees adventure fisherman Jeremy Wade once again tackle extreme fishing as he takes on his biggest challenge yet; to catch a variety of the largest, most bizarre and most dangerous fish he can find.” Intrepid Adventure Angler, Jeremy Wade I watched the first series of Jungle Hooks in amazement, as Jeremy Wade relocated to the Amazon, in search of a gigantic freshwater fish called the Arapaima. With exciting twist after exciting twist, the series, and the epic journey it chronicled, never failed to surprise me. So, when I heard that the new series of Jungle Hooks was set in the Himalayan region of Northern India, I was more than a little intrigued. Having fished in the region myself, I knew exactly the kinds of scenarios Jeremy would be faced with. It would be a difficult enough task just to film a series out there, but when you consider that the inhabitants of this region’s waterways are notoriously difficult to catch, you realise just how much of a challenge Jungle Hooks: India must have been. In the days of British control of …

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