I had been looking forward to fishing on Saturday for quite some time. Consequently, I’d been keeping a keen eye on the weather reports. From about Wednesday onwards they promised slowly rising temperatures and no frosty nights, which was perfect for our plans to fish a small commercial not far from home. The tough, nomadic approach is not for me first time out this year, a nice comfy little pond, mmmm…

Saturday morning, 7.00am, I parted the curtains to look out of the bedroom window,...

This didn't get past the censors!


We pack up in the rain and get to the pub about seven o’clock. Pulling into the car park I nearly run over two small boys dressed in Manchester United tops who appear from behind a white van; they are shouted at by a large fella in an England shirt, holding a pint of lager. We’re bucking the trend and going downmarket this year. Our usual haunt was fully booked after a predicted change of ownership so we are staying at The Anchor just up...

As I look out of my window on the wintry scene of snow and frost in deepest Norfolk I find myself yearning for the lakeside, the bank, some bait, rods and reels. The current batch of stories on FM are stirring up deep, unfulfilled longings for a day’s fishing. My last few trips have had to be abandoned due to the permafrost conditions prevailing for the last three weeks and I’m too much of a fair weather angler these days just to go out and ‘do it’.

With any luck, when the weather...

I never go pike fishing alone ‘cos I’m soft and need help to get the hooks out! I went the other day to a well known carp lake in Norfolk; the three of us in one swim, Glen, Micky and myself; dead-baiting with mackerel and sardines. It was a pleasant day, if a bit cool. We were in a roomy swim, 15 – 20 yards wide and the water in front of us varied in depth from 4 ft to 12 ft from right to left.
At about ten-thirty Glen produced his food flask and served 3 steaming bowls of chili he’d...

How many gales must a man fish in
Before they call him a man?...

As I drove towards Blickling Hall Lake for the first time this year, I could see the tops of the trees being wrenched by the strong, gusty wind that had sprung up overnight. Of all the weather conditions, wind is the one most likely to make fishing difficult, and so it proved in a tricky day at one of my favourite venues. As I walked through the relative calm of the belt of trees from the car park to the lake...