Having taken a 5 year break away from the water, separating myself from the bullshit involved in carp fishing was such a refreshing feeling. This will be a theme that I'm going to continue to follow, I have zero interested in anything carp fishing related other than when I'm physically on the bank fishing myself. Having started angling in 1990 my frame of reference in regards to catching carp came from practical experiences which involved actually being by the water. You learn by doing, you don't learn fuck all reading forums and watching bullshit videos uploaded by tackle companies and self-a ..read more

I've taken 5 years out of fishing because I was both burnt out and jaded with the UK carp fishing world, I found myself hating being by the water, mainly due to other anglers that have no manners or consideration for others. It appears we're living in the age of the 'catch at any cost' twat that appears to be so fucking desperate to make a name for themselves they will do just about anything to put a fish on the bank. This whole attitude makes no sense to me at all, fishing is suppose to be a hobby not a career path. I decided to write this blog because the flame that got dampened by the stupi ..read more

This is such an 8 dimensional question, a lot has happened in recent years, I believe I still have about 8 years of blogs to write, if these will ever see the light of day is debatable. It was the end of 2019 that I recall still having enthusiasm for carp fishing, so much so that I joined a new syndicate. I started getting my head around these new waters when all hell broke loose due to a "deadly global pandemic".  But ... alas .. it was more a pandemic of the mind due to the whole operation being run by behavioural psychologist at the Tavistock Institute. What we saw was a psychological ..read more

Through the years of writing my blogs I've occasionally touched on a subject that I call the "fabricated reality". This concept isn't some 'hoodoo' that I read about on a crazy fringe website or in a dodgy 'new age' book. This is a theory that came into my mind well over a decade ago, coincidently, it was whilst I was on the bank fishing. If I remember rightly the whole concept came to fruition whilst chasing secrets down on Micklem Mere, it was early morning, I'd managed to get my rods out just before the sun came up. It was poignant because I was the only one on the ..read more

Those that have kept up with my blogs throughout the years will know that I don't follow fashions or trends, as an angler and as a human I do my own thing and I like to form my own opinions through my own experiences. Many will also know that I don't push or plug the products that I use, I don't really see the point, I might mention the bait in the context of the blogs but that's about it, constant plugging and promoting is one of the mind numbing aspects of modern carp fishing and I don't want anything that I do to fall into that category. We all have the right to make our own decisions on wh ..read more

"It would appear that desperate times call for desperate measures and within these desperate times it seems that many people would rather step on your neck than hold their hand out to pull you through" Observations Of The Outside World I haven't written a blog for quite some time now, I've been preoccupied with life, work has been busy and I haven't really felt like communicating with the outside world at all. Not only that but 'via social media', something I genuinely try to stay away from, the whole 'modern carp fishing' scene and the concept of social media as a whole has been grinding ..read more

"As in all my reviews I'd like to start by stating that I'm in no way connected to new direction tackle. This is an independent write up that I hope might help you out if you've been thinking about purchasing the New Direction S9 bite alarms". I tried not to do it but temptation got the better of me, I think it's time to admit that I'm a bite alarm junkie. However, when I purchase new alarms my older ones don't get relegated to the top shelf to gather dust. They're kept in a prime position amongst all my fishing tackle and will be used again when they take my fancy. I rotate all my alarm ..read more

Over the past couple of months with all my focus having been applied to one lake and one swim I decided to go 'off-piste' for a day. I literally felt like my thinking was coming to a stand still, I could feel my neural pathways short circuiting, I fancied a change. I decided to take a trip up to Micklem Mere because I hadn't fished the place for quite some time. To me, Micklem is/was a special water and a completely different prospect to all the other venues I have available to me. The 'Fishing For Mysteries' series is ongoing and will document all my sessions fishing on the mere, if you misse ..read more

"This blog will be accounting for two separate sessions in the 'bottle-neck' swim on Burrows towards the end of summer in 2016". First Session September 8th 2016 Since my last documented session I'd made two undocumented trips that resulted in blanks. One was completely uneventful, the second is going to be a session that will haunt me for a very long time, let me explain. I arrived at the water mid morning and got both my baits into the usual positions. For some reason I had this feeling that, at some point, I was going to land one of Burrows bigger carp from this area of the water. Why di ..read more

Five days had past since my last session, due to the result I'd had on my previous trip I was itching to get back down and pick up from where I'd left off. Waking on the morning of my trip I was met with bright sunbeams spearing themselves through a gap in my curtains. As I pulled the blinds up, those same sunbeams moulded into one giant 'asteroid' of light, it took my eyes a while to adjust. I was still half asleep, there's something strangely satisfying inhaling the air of a new day when you aren't fully awake. After shaking the cobwebs from my head and having to acquire the assistance of tw ..read more