Isn’t it great when the things you love best come full circle? In a world lurching around like a drunk who’s lost his car keys, there’s something comforting about an old favourite fishing spot. Angling, after all, is so often that doorway back to a more innocent world. It’s a portal where grown-ups can feel… Read more
“Hope for the best, but prepare to get filthy” probably sums up recent angling best. I’d have loved a final crack at grayling or river pike on the fly before the season ended, but it has been mud soup everywhere. Such is angling in the early 21st century- not only do we get more concentrated… 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
If you want to see how much someone misses their fishing, there’s an easy way to find out. First, stop them from any fishing for six weeks. While this is going on, insist they leave their home only once a day for a walk, usually around the same crappy park. Next, let them attempt to… Read more
After another twelve months of remarkable captures, not to mention a lot of head scratching among the judges, it was Ian Gould’s perfect crucian capture, closely followed by Stuart Watson’s magnificent fly caught catfish which topped the 2019 Fly For Coarse contest. In an exciting seventh year for the pioneering competition run by yours truly… Read more