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thumbprint emperor fish from Seychelles

About Me

Who the F*** is Andrew Kennedy?

I’m a born & bred Derbyshire bloke and I’ve spent the majority of my spare time fishing, ever since I was 5 years old.  My dad bought me a telescopic fishing rod when on holiday in Ibiza, and ever since then, I’ve rarely been seen without (ahem) my rod in my hand!

A tiny roach & perch from Tibby ponds from the early 1990s

I grew up fishing local day-ticket ponds, catching very little to start with, but gradually figuring out how to consistently catch plenty of gudgeon, roach and perch, with the odd crucian carp thrown in.

By the age of 15 I’d become competent enough with a pole to win the local annual Junior Match (quite an accolade amongst my friends at the time!), but like most young anglers, I became seduced by those large, uncatchable, golden fish, which I would often see cruising around near the surface.  I’m talking, of course, about carp.  After a few years of almost solely targeting an elusive specimen carp, I became very bored of the species, or at least got bored of the boilie/bivvy approach which had become the norm. A chance encounter with an 18lb pike on my first serious session for the species changed my outlook on fishing completely. Since then, I have broadened my specimen-hunting horizons to cover all manner of species, using a vast array of methods, both traditional and modern.

Tibby ponds mirror carp

In 2005, I was lucky enough to be given a chance to contribute regularly to a popular angling website, (the sadly now-defunct “AnglersToday.co.uk“).  Since then, my confidence as a writer (and luckily, my catch rate!) has improved no-end, and I now produce seemingly endless amounts of drivel-based angling literature!  The majority of my early articles were printed in the (also now defunct… is a pattern emerging here?!) Angling Star magazine and I had a lovely feature article in Coarse Angling Today, which was probably my favourite magazine title, but this title is now also (yep, you guessed it!) sadly defunct. One publication I’ve been involved in which is still going is the Fishing Magic website, for which I wrote various articles and reviews.

Angling Star cover star!

Since the mid-noughties I’ve mainly fished alone, primarily for short after-work sessions lasting 3 to 5 hours, with the odd day or 24 hour session thrown in here & there.  Throughout the entire learning process of my angling “apprenticeship” I have been accompanied by my very good friend Matt Liston, who you will see many photos of in my earlier articles and the odd later one. My good mate Richard Julian (“Titch”) joined me on the quest for a mahseer, and many less successful trips since! More recently, I’ve spent a lot of time fishing with Ian Gould. We always have a laugh when we fish together and sometimes we even catch something between us!

I like to fish with good anglers, so as a team we can bounce ideas off each other, which continually improves our collective and individual angling abilities. Plus, a hint of friendly rivalry can be a healthy thing to help both parties catch more and bigger fish. The older I get, the more I value a good fishing buddy.

Other anglers’ names you’ll see pop up occasionally, who I’ve had the pleasure of fishing with, are Shane Calton and Will Barnard; who are each excellent anglers and writers in their own right.  These are all people I’ve met through writing & blogging about fishing and they’re friendships which have helped bring me new PBs – both at home and abroad.

headbanging

Outside of angling, I’m a husband (sorry ladies) with a young family, so more and more of my free time is spent with my family. I’m massively into music (grunge/punk/hardcore/heavy rock/metal/sludge/doom/industrial/stoner/old-school hip-hop… generally anything heavy, loud, fast & nasty!), I’ve been to well over 500 gigs & festivals in my time and I own enough music for about 6 lifetimes of listening! I also like to snowboard & ski, I’m a keen amateur photographer and I have a passion for wildlife, nature and the outdoors in general.

Andrew Kennedy snowboard jump

So, to summarise, I’m just a “normal” specialist angler/specimen hunter, who fishes waters available to anyone, with my own tackle and my own experience I’ve built up over the past 30+ years as an angler.  I’ve caught fish in fresh and saltwater, on bait, lure and fly, from 5 Continents around the World, and fished for countless more species which I didn’t catch!  I’m constantly looking to improve my own angling skills and I like to think I have at least enough experience and skills to teach something to anyone willing to listen.

Please take a good look around my website, have a browse and a read, hopefully you’ll find plenty of interesting features, reviews, information about free fishing events in the East Midlands and a few handy hints & tips.  There are a number of full-on articles, along with fishing blog posts which I sporadically update with news of captures, photos, my own musings and any angling-related news I think might be of interest.

Tight lines for now and enjoy your fishing!

Andrew.

thumbprint emperor fish from Seychelles

Want to know a bit more?  View my up-to date PB list or take a look at some angling & conservation-related causes & campaigns which I support.

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