At this stage of a decidedly cool, wet British summer I must be one of a small minority thanking the weather gods. “British summer? What is that?” was the summary of the bloke who cut my hair yesterday. But boy did we need some rain after a freakishly dry spring. The other happy fact for… Read more
“Never, ever give up” is the recurring message of current fishing. As winter sets in, action is rarely instant, especially when it’s been freezing cold overnight. It can be awfully easy to feel defeated when things don’t work or you draw what feels like a duff peg. But the one thing we can all cultivate… 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
When you’re one of angling’s “lifers”, you have to live in hope during the winter. Well, it’s either that or do very little fishing until spring. Nor is hope completely blind, because is there seldom a completely lost cause. Or, at least, that’s what I still manage to convince myself after decades of this sort… Read more
This time of year can feel a bit ominous at the best of times. Just as you pine for one last weekend of t-shirt weather that never comes, you inevitably finish summer with so many dreams unrealised. In my own little world, though, things have been very finely balanced. My switch of jobs to the… Read more