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As you say, Dave - hooks are a very personal thing. I think all anglers of a certain age will have a 'graveyard' stock of old hooks that we once swore by, will never ever use again and for some nostalgic reason cannot summon up the courage to throw them away. I know for a fact that I've got some...

I bought up all the old Korum S3's that I could get my hands on. I reckon I've got enough to see my barbelling days out!

On pleasant, summer days, the nice men in white coats (who look after myself and others in our home for distressed aged anglers) loosen our straight jackets and sit us in deck chairs on the lawn outside our locked ward. Whilst soaking up the sun’s warm rays the other day, I found myself...

I wish I could post something really meaningful but I'm too knackered from clearing river Severn pegs in preparation for the new season. This spring seems to have been really good for plant life because you can't even see the river in some places! There are loads of slugs about for chub anglers...

Great angling is like beauty.........it's in the eye of the beholder!

It depends to a certain extent on how old you are. I started fishing in the 1950's with a tank aerial for a rod and I later inherited an old floppy split cane rod and Mitchell reel with a half bail arm off my dad. Consequently, I can state quite categorically that modern gear is fabulous in...

Thanks for your reply Howard.

I’d just like to reply briefly to Howard Cooke’s comments about my earlier post. Howard, I think you’ve somehow got the wrong end of the stick. If you re-read what I wrote, you will see that I did not say that the closed season should be done away with so that the presence of anglers...

Hello all, I sent a letter about the closed season to the Angling Times last week. They may or may not publish it - a copy is shown below. Between 15 March and 15 June I can fish on most stillwaters and canals but if I do the same thing on a river I could theoretically end up with a criminal...

My first Mitchell 300 had a half bail arm - it's too far back to remember whether I had problems with it!

Prior to retiring, I was a design/project engineer in the automotive industry and I have to agree with Wayne. When fishing in a hard pulling current, line can lodge against the bail arm. I've noticed this with many different reels over the years. An experienced angler will always check that the...

What a shame it is that anglers don't want to share their catches with other anglers. Also, what a shame it is that certain anglers feel the need to descend on certain swims because somebody has caught a big fish. Fishing is what we do for enjoyment, don't get too serious about and it will...

As Graham says, you have more than likely foul hooked a barbel. If you hook into a fish and can't turn it after a few minutes then it's definitely not hooked in the mouth. Invariably 'fin hooked' fish will eventually come off, especially in faster flowing or flood-water. Over the years I've...

If we really want to get rid of creatures like otters, seals, beavers, cormorants goosanders etc all we have to do is introduce Jaguars. Click on this link to see what a big pussy cat can do - awesome: Jaguar Attacks Caiman Crocodile - CLOSE UP FOOTAGE - YouTube

I’d love to add some deep and meaningful comments to this debate, but after spending most of my life on a riverbank somewhere, I personally find it very difficult to paint a rosy picture about the long-term ability of our running waters to provide good consistent sport. There’s not much chance...

Mashed bread for use on rivers should be really well soaked so that crusts sink. For chub fishing I find that oats are a good additive as they provide lots of small particles that waft down the swim to attract fish from well downstream.

In the immortal words of John Lennon - 'I'm just a jealous guy!' Super fish - I can only dream of a capture like that.

Where I live, otters are a problem. Avian predation is also a problem, so ideally I would have liked the petition to include them as well - because current levels of fish removal are just not sustainable. Do the people who introduced 'farmed' otters wherever they fancied (whether wild otters...

Choice of line is very much a personal thing and it's made all the more confusing by the vast choice available to the modern angler. I've seen far too many anglers losing fish when using Powerline - as far as I'm concerned, it won't take the shock loads that barbel can impart, particularly in...

Look at the current Home Page picture of a river Nene barbel - the top of its tail is missing, yet more evidence of otter predation. I've got over 20 photos of similarly (and worse) damaged barbel caught during this season alone. As I've previously posted, these are the lucky ones that have...