Tips & Advice

My first ever zander, at 6lb 4oz, caught back in the year 2000 Zander can often be the most infuriating species to target but when things go right they can also be one of the most rewarding. The species has been the subject of my on/off love affair which started when I first tried zander fishing, and banked my first zed, back in July 2000 (it took a freshly caught dead roach presented on a float-paternoster – rig nerds!). It took many more sessions before I banked another zander and I never came close to the 6lb 4oz PB I had set myself with that first fish. Sometimes I would sit at a water all night, expecting something to happen – with the conditions seemingly “perfect”, yet never see a sign of a zander. Other nights the zander have made me aware of their presence with the odd strike and dropped run but, try as I might, I could neither hook nor land one. After failing to land a zander in my last 7 night sessions I had been starting to fall out of love with the species. But, like a teenager with a crush, I just kept on trying. …

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At the start of the river season I had my sights set on catching my first double-figure barbel. To give myself a bit of confidence before tackling the “biggies”, I fished two sessions on a small river where I had a chance of hooking a few fish. Unfortunately, no barbel showed themselves on either trip, and I had to settle for 3 chub on the first evening and a complete blank on the second. Not an ideal start to the river campaign, but barbel often take a few weeks of the season before they start to feed heavily, so I was not too worried. My tactics for barbel have slowly evolved over the past 4 or 5 years. I started off quivertipping a swimfeeder, with casters and hemp. Then went through various groundbait mixtures, with luncheon meat on the hook, before eventually reaching my current tactics. Nowadays I have put the quivertip rods aside, in favour of Avon-style rods of 1.5 to 1.75lb test-curve. These bend to the handle and have stacks of power. I couple these with Shimano 5000 baitrunner reels to absorb the fierce takes which barbel are famed for. Because barbel often inhabit snaggy swims, I use …

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I’m sure that if I told another angler that I knew of 2,000 miles of mature, hardly-fished water; much of it with specimen potential – they would either think I was lying or be eager to hear more! Well it’s true. Right here in Britain we have a huge network of unexploited angling waters, which aside from a few matches, rarely see any angling pressure at all. They are easily accessible, with comfortable banks suitable for disabled anglers and chances are that wherever you live in this country – even in the centre of a city, you live just a matter of minutes away from one of these waters. If you’re still wondering where on earth I could be describing, I’ll spell it out to you… CANALS. Whilst canals have long been regarded by many as sparsely populated, infertile waters, where you might be lucky to catch on a pinkie and size 24 hook; there are a number of species which have managed to thrive on neglect and grow in both size and numbers, virtually unnoticed. I’m talking about species such as carp, tench, chub, bream, perch, pike and even zander. You only need to read a few canal match …

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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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Grayling fishing, on a day ticket, on the Derbyshire Derwent First of all, I can’t believe I’ve now been writing for Anglers Today for a year already; and what a year it’s been!  Thankfully the fish have been quite co-operative, giving me some material to write about and allowing me to notch up no less than nine new Personal Bests along the way. In the week leading up to Christmas I managed to fit in two fishing sessions on very different natures. I decided to fish for pike one day and, in the interests of diversity, grayling on the other. In Derbyshire and the surrounding counties, we are quite lucky to have various rivers offering the chance of quality grayling fishing on a day ticket. Many venues are fly only but some are mixed fisheries, recognising bait fishing as a valid method for catching ‘Lady of the Stream’. It’s almost two years since I fished for grayling, but it is a species I shall always long to catch. Firstly, to catch one you must fish clean, fast rivers. Once you hook a grayling, you are then treated to a terrific, spirited fight; where the fish will use all of its …

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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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Delhi, India; is the most relentless attack on the senses imaginable. The capital of the world’s largest democracy is a bustling, noisy, overwhelming place. It’s a fitting introduction. to this most remarkable country, and the place which saw the start of my quest to catch a Himalayan mahseer. After 5 hours of queuing, rejection and plain confusion, I finally purchased a ticket – along with my travelling companion, Titch – for the sleeper train from Delhi to Ramnagar. Next morning we awoke in seemingly another world compared to the hubbub of Delhi. We were now in the lush green foothills of the Himalayas. Where wild tigers still roam and even wilder rivers carve their way through the rocky landscape. This is mahseer fishing country! Although we had planned to fish for mahseer during this trip we had little in the way of concrete plans. With little more than some basic information found on the internet, a Rough Guide to India and a copy of Paul Boote & Jeremy Wade’s excellent Somewhere Down the Crazy River for inspiration, our “plans” were pretty haphazard! The Rough Guide mentioned the Govind Guesthouse (which, I believe, might now be Garhwal Sweets And Hotel Garhwal Residency) …

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