Just a quick update on some of the things I talked about here. I haven't yet built up the necessary head of steam to get back into learning to drive - got to be honest, I'm enjoying the lack of pressure and the flexibility attached ... Read More

As is my way, I spent the first week of September - the week the kids go back to school - down in Carlton Miniott, staying at Landrace Cottage so that I could have a few days at Woodland Lakes. The cottage was as agreeable as it always is - I love ... Read More

Now that I've had both of my Covid jabs and we're oh-so-slowly approaching something like normality, I've been getting in a bit more fishing with my buddy Chris, catching a few pike  - nothing big (the odd scraper double at best) ... Read More

Now that my protracted skin problem is under control, my buddy Chris and I have been hitting our local Pike and Carp water a bit lately - it's only five miles away as the crow flies (and it's the only Pike and Carp venue within about eighty ... Read More

I'm writing this here so I can use it as a one-stop expression of my view that the Angling Trust has done the angling community a gross disservice in advising anglers that night fishing is now allowed. Note that I'm certainly not trying ... Read More

I know this is not a big issue compared to what is going on in the World right now, but I'm just getting it off my chest... I've been planning for several weeks to wet a line this week: the long-range forecasts all suggested mild, settled ... Read More

Sara, the owner of Landrace Cottage in Carlton Miniott pinged me an email about a last-minute availability in the first week of September (2019).  The forecast looked reasonably good, so I thought "why not?" - and before I knew it, on ... Read More

I've just spent a week (ish - 20 to 25 May, to be precise) in Carlton Miniott, N. Yorks, so as to fish Woodland Lakes - a venue I've fished many times, which I'd chosen this time partly because of my familiarity with it; and partly ... Read More

Nothing is ever straightforward, is it? I recently took delivery of the Okuma Custom Black CB-60 reels I talk about here. And they're great: good-looking, smooth, well-built - and they come with a freespool-to-locked-up-in-3/4-of-a-turn drag. I'd ... Read More

Well now that's a pisser...  Everything had been going well with my BPX reel quick drag conversions, as I discuss here.  Last night I was having another play with the reels - as you do - and I noticed that one of them ... Read More

I mention in another post that I like a bargain when it comes to my fishing tackle. So although I could easily have sprung for something more expensive, when the urge recently struck for a (mini) "big pit" reel (or three) - an urge ... Read More

As part of my plan to get back to being an active angler (this is not a contradiction in terms...) I'm going to have a serious crack at single-hook pike rigs. Treble hooks on pike traces have been the norm for as long as I've fished ... Read More

I've never bought into the intellectually lazy meme that "you get what you pay for..." I've lost count of the number of times I've landed some piece of gear that has punched way above its pecuniary weight... So it ... Read More