Recent content by Mark Swaby

A local catering college was interested in using signal crayfish caught from our local river. A man that traps them and works in the river on clean up projects that was going to supply them. I was told the crayfish were tested and that was the end of them being used in any form of catering...

Graham it was a long time ago but think it was Ufton

I have posted this before on BFW and even though I spent Summer holidays on a family farm as a kid I was really shaken / lucky that night. I think being quickly aware of their mood change saved me. Back in the early 90's I was fishing Turvey on the Great Ouse above the road bridge on a Rushden...

Morning everyone, is there anyone going up to the Barbel Society show from West London and wants to share petrol costs. I went up with Gerry Giles a couple of times but he sadly passed this year, I am based in Ruislip.

Morning Neil, there are so many variables, it depends on what sort of river you are fishing. Its size, its power, its stocks, Summer or Winter, heavy Floods, Tidal, fishing pressure etc. If you can tell us what river you are fishing I think we can give you more accurate answers that will suit...

This is the Thames EDM map, because we have had little rain for a couple of months it does not show many discharges at the moment. Last year the majority of stw's were red most of the time. https://www.thameswater.co.uk/edm-map

I saw on their Facebook page that the new Thames Tideway tunnel had already diverted 6,376,450 Cubic Meters of sewage from the Thames. Yet they cannot give any figures for any of the Sewage 'treatment' works they run. They only publish hours which means nothing when trying to compare a small...

Should take him back up there to put the nest area right, then give him a little nudge over the edge.

I have had about half a dozen kinked Barbel over the years and all were low doubles. I always suspected it was an old barbel thing. Possibly caused by older fish getting caught and being a bit fragile/brittle, but who knows exactly. We had a couple both doubles on the stretch of Colne I used to...

Think this is the biggest fishing tackle bargain I have ever seen on Ebay. Someone got very lucky a Hexagraph Ray Walton no1 for £100 on a buy it now...

There are lots of listings on Ebay, Temu etc for just the ceramic rings in large amounts for less than a Tenner. There are also plenty of video on Youtube showing how to replace just the ceramic insert. Might be worth a go on one rod if you love them so much...

I have a TFG 15ft x-plus carp match float rod probably from around that time which has a really good build quality. Struggled to find anything about that rod.

Did a search and this came up on BFW back in 2008 posted by 'Windsor Boy' . I had a brouchure thro the post with the half price items in then an email with the 10% xtra discount...

It all depends on the depth you are fishing, if you are fishing over 5ftt deep then a long stem will steady the float better than a short stem which makes it easier to slow down or hold back if needed. If I fish big floats like Bolos I am sometimes 3ft overdepth and dragging through or holding...

Riverfly testing a number of rivers you find compacted gravel almost everywhere. You get very few Invertebrates in these compacted areas and its very hard kick sampling. Ten metres away you might find a patch of soft silty sand or under any patch of weed will be a big patch of fine silt/sand...