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We all have parts in different worlds whether its the world of work (or retirement), the world of sport, the world of family and friends etc. When one world expands another contracts or disappears altogether. At the moment my wife I married 41 years ago is dying of cancer in a hospice and my...

I have already seen Hot Cross Buns in the shops!

I remember the late great Dick Walker writing last century of two different types of barbel bite touch ledgering. One was a straight forward pull but one he described as feeling like a hacksaw pulled across the line when the rod tip did not even move. Same swim, same spot, same session. One...

I was intrigued recently when Graham Elliot wrote of "holding swims" and "travelling through swims". The first could produce a number of bites but the second much fewer bites. In my experience some "holding swims" can produce barbel all year round although clearly higher water and colder...

I think one of the things that makes fishing fascinating is all the differences and contradictions! And then of course we argue from our experience when someone else's experience is different! I am always amazed when match anglers produce similar weights from adjoining pegs on different tactics...

In a thread entitled "Barbel Behaviour" I observed the tendency of barbel to respond to the splash of a feeder but was not sure if it was the explosion of bait or the splash itself. In order to induce a bite I would sometimes recast a feeder with an untouched bait in a 3 feet swim and almost...

Simple homemade hook length tool with red numbers showing inches from small thin nail on the right. Tie hook on line, fix to no head nail at desired length. Loop line or braid around last nail. Take loop off and use it to tie a double overhand loop knot. Works every time including 2 inches! But...

Latest session seems to answer some questions. I had already introduced some bait through the feeder but then all the bait fell out of the feeder on the cast a couple of times and it landed empty - yet I hooked a couple of barbel before I could even put the rod in the rests (or wind in the empty...

On my latest session I noticed a couple of patterns of barbel behaviour that could have implications for some of us to enjoy a more successful season. I was fishing a narrow, 3ft deep, medium paced river. Note barbel in other venues may not exhibit this behaviour. Firstly, the tendency of...

That confirms what I have often suspected - I must be a low end barbel angler! 🙃 (Fox and Korum)

Good advise from Joe. I specifically sought an insurance company that covered sports equipment and have added tackle insurance onto the household insurance including a special "away from the home" cover. Outside sheds can be a problem but we have an attached garage so it is physically part of...

I have two wormeries - 1 for dendras and 1 for lobworms. Both are in large plastic boxes you get in hardware shops about 24 inches by 12 inches. I can keep over say 2 kilo of dendras in 1 and maybe 200 - 300 lobs in the other. They are in shredded damp newspaper and I have kept them sometimes...

Plasticine, paper clips and heavy leads can all work. On the Wye where leads can get trapped I pick up a suitably sized stone and put it in a small bag made of the wife's tights - like tying a pva stocking bag and connect via link swivel to the line. (Sometimes you can use an elastic band to...

3lbs in 24 hours! No not a barbel but me! Mind you my record is 6.5lbs weight gain in 24 hours! 12.02 Christmas morning and 12.085 Boxing day morning! I am sure some you can obliterate that!

To try to avoid rod tips snapping in transit I push a small piece of sponge up inside an empty plastic (Benecol) yoghurt drink carton pushed up a fabric tip protector which I place over the rod tip/top of the rod butt section and then slide that into an empty silicon frame sealant tube. The...

You might have to watch the battery life on a long session. I bought my wife some battery heated gloves and she complained they were not working but she had them on maximum ALL the time instead of a charge now and then if she felt chilly. Many years ago when there were lighter fuel handwarmers...

One on Ebay as I type

Gloves are not only a personal thing but a situation thing. Personal - some like them some don't (with fingers like sausages). Situation - When I fish for say pike, cast infrequently and expect fewer bites I might wear something like the Trakker Polar Fleece Gloves which are mittens to keep the...

I have problems all year with scales. My bathroom scales weigh too heavy and my fishing scales weigh too light!

Most of these scales seem to weigh in kilos, pounds/decimal or ounces. Important when you are fishing for crucians and it shows 4.8 ie not 4lbs 8ounces but 4lbs 13ounces and a new British record! Similarly a barbel of 21.2 would not be an equal record but a record in its own right! Is there a...