It's always a pleasure when someone discovers 101 Golden Rules of Fishing and sees beyond the title to discover a book which tries to re-kindle the love of fishing we all felt, once upon a time. So it was great to get an email from Leigh Dickinson which read:
Read moreBefore 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.
Read moreRustiness 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.
Read moreAlthough 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...
Read moreTo 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.
Read moreAlways 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.
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...
Read moreRob Beattie is the author of several popular fishing books. He's also a regular contributor to Waterlog magazine.