Before moving on to the main business of this entry - that lovely looking common further down the page - indulge me for a moment and turn your attention to the first photograph. Not to the lake shimmering in the April sunlight (though that is a fine sight) nor to the rod (a 12ft Conoflex as it happens, swapped for a Psion Series 5 with the angling writer and photographer Henry Gilbey) nor the reel (out of sight, but a solid TFG Gear centrepin, stocked with Maxima 6lb line) but to the rod rest. 

Tags: carp

Rustiness doesn't even come close. I'm looking at things in the cupboard that are like alien artifacts. Long, slim items, smaller ones that looks like Call The Midwife bicycle baskets, others that are metallic and knobbly, heavy but without apparent purpose. I turn on the light. Hmmm, that looks like a rad. No, a rid. Ahh, I know what it is - it's a rudd. Wait a minute...All this by way of saying that with lockdown (and bubbling with our first grandson and family) I've not bothered any fish since last November. Actually, come to think of it I came home with a dry net then and the time before that. And the time before that. 

Tags: tench

Although first published back in the dim and distant past, my little book, 101 Golden Rules of Fishing, collects new admirers from time to time and occasionally, one of them will take the trouble to drop me a line. It's always a surprise and always welcome. Here's what Paul Taylor had to say...

Tags: 101 Golden Rules of Fishing

To my eyes the conditions were pretty perfect. Unseasonably warm, overcast, yet little chance of rain. I knew the spot - a corner swim on a local pond that had yielded good perch in the past - and I knew the tactics - a piece of prawn ledgered near the last lilies, still clinging on, despite the lateness of the year. 

Tags: perch

Despite the startling lack of activity on these pages in recent months...nay, years...I've actually been fishing more often since the pandemic struck than I have in the last 10 years. It's a funny business, writing about fishing...

Tags: angling, bream, carp, chub, gudgeon, perch, rudd

Always nice to get a letter from a happy reader - this time from someone who got 101 Golden Rules of Fishing as a Christmas present. I'll let them take up the story.

Tags: 101 Golden Rules of Fishing

It's fair to say that I've been pretty stressed out recently. First there was a book to finish on a very tight deadline and then some other stuff in my life that seemed to ratchet everything up a few extra notches. Add to this...

Tags: perch, tench

For the last year or so I've fished almost entirely using centrepin reels. I've had a Leeds 'pin for years now and a Marco Cortese model which cost next to nothing but which works really well. Having watched someone who really knows what they're doing play a large fish on a 'pin - yes, I'm talking about you Sean - I fell in love with the whole idea...

Tags: centrepin, chub

The last time I went to the river Test, I caught a monster roach - 2.5lbs. Now that's a behemoth of a roach by anyone's standards, but for a river roach, it's even more exceptional. Thus, with hope in my heart, I set out again, this time for a different stretch...

Tags: centrepin, grayling, trout

I used to hate fishing in the wind. Really hate it with a passion. Hate it so much that more than once I stepped out of the back door, realised how windy it was, then turned round and went back inside, put all my tackle away and cancelled the trip...

Tags: centrepin, perch