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Andrew, you say ‘otters eat stuff – get over it’. Well it's not just otters that eat stuff. The point I’ve tried to make on many occasions now, is that combined predation from goosanders, cormorants, mink, seals, otters etc. is just not sustainable! In many cases the lack of fish...

More wonderful news about otters! Today’s Daily Mail devotes an entire page to the little darlings under the headline ‘Nature’s Greatest Comeback’ – we almost wiped them out…now otters are enchanting proof that wild life can survive man’s careless destruction. The article’s author waxes...

A good friend of mine will tell you where some otters are going. He used to have a garden pond full of fish, but returning from holiday a couple of years ago he found them all dead and scattered over the lawn. The greater part of some fish had been eaten but it seemed that the others had been...

Hello Dave - thanks for posting the link to Hugh Miles. I've not previously seen it. Hugh has 'been around a bit' in the natural world and he knows (as many anglers do) that all is far from well in the British Countryside - and I'm not just talking about our waterways. I'm lucky enough to have...

I was in Tesco's earlier this year and I noticed the woman in front of me at the check-out had purchased a couple of tins of Spam - 'Like a bit of barbel fishing do you love?' I asked. She seemed to be somewhat confused by my enquiry, so I asked if she was going chub fishing instead. This time...

Any regular river angler will know that our fish populations have been declining for several years now. My river, the Severn at Shrewsbury, has seen massive avian predation and over the last couple of years I've collected photo evidence of ever increasing otter damage. There are almost certainly...

I was put off heated jackets years ago when I bought the Pink Floyd album - 'Wish you were here'. Click on the picture below.

The wrong tools will always pose problems in the hands of an unskilled user.

Don't worry David - I've just loaded my gear in the car and Good old luncheon meat is on the menu today! The Severn has 1.4m on and rising - the water temp is also good. The main obstacle to snaring a few barbel will be the amount of debris that'll be coming down the river. Anyway, I'm prepared...

Back in the seventies our idea of an exotic bait was luncheon meat flavoured with Bovril and we caught loads of fish on such simple fare. Based on the fact that many anglers (myself included) have this year been struggling to catch even though we've been using a range of truly wondrous baits...

I remember fishing a match at Bridgnorth on the Severn in the early seventies. I caught 38 barbel on the float with a single caster as bait - they collectively weighed just under 18lbs!

It's so long since I used mine - but on second thoughts, I think you are right and I stand corrected. Didn't the winding cup (to which the pick-up is attached) have 2 holes in it so that 2 pick ups could be used?

Don't worry David - I was flaying myself with barbed wire as I wrote it! Being a long-time angler I've very much enjoyed the evolution of fishing gear and count myself lucky to have been a hands-on user of many items of classic tackle. Does this now mean that you won't send the Witch Finder...

The 506 was designed by ABU as a spinning reel to be used on those lightweight single handed spinning rods originally favoured by continental and American anglers. It became very popular with match anglers (myself included) in the nineteen seventies and was used mainly for ‘fast-biting’ fish...

A couple of weeks back I fished three consecutive evenings (on my local river Severn) in steady rain - not torrential, but the sort that will thoroughly soak you. Needless to say, the river didn't rise so much as a millimetre! Yesterday, I spent a few hours bank clearing and preparing some pegs...

That's a valid point Adrian and I agree with you that it's possible to buy perfectly legitimate goods from a variety of sources. I'll make one last comment though - As an automotive engineer, I travelled away from home a lot and consequently spent more time than I should have in various bars...

Cash Converters, car boot sales etc provide an ideal way for thieves to easily receive cash for stolen goods. Unfortunately, it seems that there are many 'decent, law abiding folk' who just can't turn down a bargain!

The purpose of my original thread was to highlight what I consider to be bad angling practice – unfortunately, some of the replies tended to drift away from my original point. I can only assume that the programme’s producer and presenters misguidedly thought that showing rods almost being pulled...

On TV wildlife programmes, the sight of an otter is sufficient to render the presenter instantly orgasmic with delight. The EA actively put forward the point of view that otters are a prime indicator of improved water quality – how can they claim this when they are fully aware that many of the...

Autumn is most definitely here - I fished into dark on Wednesday, it poured down all evening, I got thoroughly drenched and covered in mud - had a few fish though! I am well aware that rising rivers and fresher weather will no doubt kick-start the sport on our rivers, but for anglers like me who...