Canal Roach — Heads or Tails

So tired I've become of not getting bites that the other night on the Avon where not getting bites was the order of the evening for me and Martin both till last knockings when I finally did get a savage bite only to pick up the rod and find fish absent at the other end, I decided that if I'm going to have to wait so long between one and the other that I might as well fish a method and at a place where waiting hours and hours is actually worthwhile.

Old Ooks

There's a movement in angling towards using really old gear, ancient cane rods, antiquated reels, sitting on wicker creels and generally turning the back on the modern and efficient. Well, for all you traditional anglers out there, ere's something you don't ave in your Ogden's 'Redbreast' Flake tin and probably never will unless you buy them from me...

Canal Zander — I Want my Money Back!

I've got the Coventry Canal blues. Since the beginning of the year it hasn't been a matter of counting the fish caught but the bites got and I can count them on both hands without taking them out of my pockets. The number is zero. Not one bite since Christmas and that's unusual even for a canal renowned as a hard place at the best of times.

No More Heroes Any More?

In this month's Total Coarse Fishing, Ian Welch, one of my colleagues in the opinion piece section of the mag, bemoans the parlous state of recruitment to the ranks. Ian argues that youngsters are not coming through in the droves that the sport needs to survive into the near future and in the main I do agree with his points.

Canal Zander — Around Midnight

A couple of years ago during the Coventry zander fishing boom when everyone I knew was avidly chasing them up the local cuts, TCF Editor, Steve Philips, filed a report on his blog about one he'd caught after dark. Nothing unusual in that — zander are caught all times of the day and night if you're there when they're on the prowl.

Avon Roach & Pike — The Brothers Mudd

When we set off for the river at 7:30am it was snowing. Wet snow, not nice snow, the kind of snow that should it keep coming would make life miserable, in the end. We traipsed through the tangled bushes up the muddy riverside path without mishap and chose a couple of pegs. Martin for piking, me for roaching.

Much Ado about Nothing Doing

When it's boring and you're waiting for a bite that looks like it'll never come, what do you do? I mess with the camera and take shots of nothing doing just in case something does. I even take them just in case nothing does, because what might be a really interesting blank where something 'important' occurs which might make 'nothing doing' well worth writing about, still requires pictures of something doing.

Big Pit Pike — Fossilised

The venue, the reason, the method. That's all there is to fishing. Get it right and you'll have what you design, get it wrong and you'll waste all your money and time. If only there was someway to know these things in advance, eh?