As 2014 slowly draws to a close, and the festive period begins it is always a good time to take stock and reflect on how the year has gone. Overall, it has been a very varied year for me, as I have started to try and do a bit more specimen fishing, ending with a [...]
With winter well on its way, it was time to get out for a few nights before the seriously cold weather was due in. As anyone who lives in the South West knows, we haven't got a great variety of good day ticket waters at our disposal thus making the venue selection relatively simple. I [...]
Being well into December I’m just waiting for my first blank of the season to come and visit me. I’ve been very lucky this year, with multiple catches on most sessions and some stunning fish to boot! However, with the icy cold winds and a few frosts becoming the norm now, I have been watching [...]
2014 was a fantastic fishing year for me, and I hope the luck that I had during the past 12 months continues into 2015! The floods in the early part of the year greatly affected all the lakes in my local area, in fact I can remember going to have a look round one of [...]
As the year is coming to a close, I thought I would give you an insight as to how my fishing year has gone in 2014. I had planned to do a fair bit of barbel and perching over the winter on the rivers, but unfortunately due to most of the South of England being [...]
At the start of the 2014 season I had a good think about what I wanted to try and achieve. For me I get the most enjoyment and satisfaction targeting big fish, so I decided to concentrate on this and only fish venues that would give the chance of a monster. At the start of [...]
I arrived at an ice cold and windswept lake, it was quite noticeable that the air temperature had dropped by a good few degrees. With the wind-chill factor decreasing temperatures even further, I had a good feeling the carp would be somewhere on the back of the wind. I had a good look around, but [...]
For as long as I can remember I have had an affinity with fishing, fish and the diverse habitats they live in. It all started way back in the mid 80′s when my dad used to take me on the local canal chasing perch, these were soon replaced by the shoals of tench which [...]
It can take years of personal findings to perfect a rig, but with all the rigs shown in magazines or websites for you to try, I have noticed there’s always something missing… You’re own confidence and understanding! I’m going to take you through my findings from over the years, I will try my best to [...]
After the last trip to my syndicate water, I had a normal week at home catching up with some work, along with the dreaded job of drying my gear out and making ready for my next adventure on the bank. After several late nights and early mornings playing catch up with this and that, I’d [...]
The weekends can’t come round quick enough these days. Why? Well, since the clocks have gone back my angling has, through necessity, become more weekend focused than the standard turn up after dark and sling 'em out approach that had been planning on. All those good intentions about doing the work nights; setting up and [...]
Well, hopefully by the time you are reading this, the weather will have finally cooled off enough to dig out the old pike gear again and I will have put away the summer gear. Lovely though the long summer has been, I am glad to see the back of it. Not only as with my [...]
This autumn I have been bang into my barbel fishing. After gaining a ticket to a rather special stretch of a Thames Tributary, I decided to dedicate a fair amount of my time trying to track down and catch some of its big, yet nomadic residents. I have fished some hard and low stock section [...]
With the cold wind pushing into my previous swim, this wasn't where the carp wanted to be really or me for that matter, but it goes to show what angling pressure will do to a carp's habits on a lake! The Rods went out first with a sneaky approach of stringers and bags, with a [...]
As we roll into the middle of November I often see the lakes thinning out slightly at this time of the year (greenery and fewer anglers) with a lot less happy go lucky anglers and a few more hardened faces appearing. You know the ones I mean, the anglers that have braved the cold weather [...]
I am not an angler that spends sleepless nights over minute changes that I could make to my rigs, I would much rather they are simple and effective. For this reason, my favourite rig is the snowman rig, with a few little tweaks that separate it from a bog-standard snowman rig, and make it work [...]
The particular stretch of river which I am going to write about this month, is one I’ve had a love hate relationship with over the last five or so years. I know there are some very big barbel in there, I have seen the photos of them, I’ve seen them in the water, and on [...]
During 2014 I successfully progressed through the knockout stages of the UK Carp Cup competition and secured a spot in the final in my first year of entering the event. The final would take place in October at Oxlease Lake on the Linear complex in Oxford. I made the journey for a practice the week [...]
A lot of my time and effort this year has been focused on my competition angling, practising on different venues as I progressed through to the knock-out stages, leading me up to the UK Carp Cup final where I finished 6th overall. This hasn’t allowed me to spend much time on my local water and [...]
I've been baiting a few areas in the margins this week, with a few scoops of particle, pellet and crumbed boilies. There were a few fish in the area yesterday and they were looking very active when I arrived for a quick overnighter. I dropped the rig, with a spoon full of bait on a [...]
