If life already seemed rather like a weird, not entirely pleasant hallucination after a diet of covid, war, fuel hikes and even England winning a bloody football tournament, summer has had its own drama on the water. Fresh from reporting on the Thames drying up at source for the Angling Times, I now hear that… Read more

One of the joys of every season as an angler is that, without fail, something completely new or unexpected will happen. Whether it’s the realisation of a long-held dream, a random twist or a stroke of pure luck, fishing keeps us guessing. Just when you think a pattern is emerging or we’re in a spell… Read more

Ever fancied packing the fly rod for species like roach, rudd, perch and carp on a regular coarse fishing lake? There are countless “commercial” fisheries these days. This in itself is a bit of a lazy blanket term, I must say. There is quite a wide variety of such stillwaters, with the common denominators being… Read more

Anglers are as varied as the fish they try to catch. Some will sit in one spot for hours; others happily rove a whole river. Some are bricklayers, others are university lecturers. Some are active in all seasons, others go missing as soon as it becomes too hot or cold. But here’s a basic, slightly… Read more

The odd northerly wind aside, things are feeling a lot brighter this week. As usual, late winter has been a topsy turvy affair, messily stapled to early spring. The daffodils are out and some tench are even being caught, but you can still end up with frostbitten knuckles. With all the chaos of the world… Read more

What a crazy past few days for me, with my fishing time limited by the fallout from destructive Environment Agency work and anglers’ demand for answers. More on this shortly- and you can also read about it in the Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, Mail,  and BBC! You can also hear a radio interview HERE (my part… Read more