I would love to start this post with some uplifting lines about autumn being some kind of fishing nirvana, blah blah blah, but I would be mostly lying. With dicey conditions and even worse timing on my part, it has been a right slog. Some highlights, yes, but some very testing days as well. I… Read more
At the turn of each year, it’s both an honour and a thorny challenge to try to rank twelve months of “Fly For Coarse” catches alongside two of my angling heroes, Matt Hayes and John Bailey. Each year there are a whole lot of fish that impress; along with three or four more that leave… Read more
Farmoor Reservoirs represent a welcome conundrum to anyone who enjoys a bit of variety in their fishing. How do you choose between fantastic, grown-on trout (including some huge browns) and some cracking pike on the fly? I still hadn’t completely made my mind up when I arrived on a chilly morning in late February, waiting… Read more
Any angler who sees a fair bit of the country inevitably ends up with a head full of unfulfilled plans. Every time we travel and see a pretty river or lake, we think “I’ll fish there one day”. Too often we don’t. Which is why I was delighted to be invited for a day ticket… Read more
Fishing always brings out the optimist in me. Odd, because by nature I tend to be a glass half empty sort of person. I don’t buy lottery tickets; I anticipate weather forecasts to be wrong; when my team go one-nil up, I fully expect an equaliser to arrive with every opposition attack. For some reason… Read more
This month I finally made it to one of those fishing events I’ve known about for years but never quite got round to visiting. The Irish Fly Fair in Galway proved to be a friendly, fun event to put it mildly. A gathering not only of traditional game fishing converts, but also those getting into… Read more