Although I didn’t get the opportunity to go fishing in December, due to being busy and then not being well over Christmas, it gave me a...

Do you ever have one of those days when you go fishing and everything goes wrong? Well that's how my first session this month started!...

October's fishing began much the same as September's, with a distinct lack of fish. Although the weather was also distinctly similar,...

September didn't start as well as August finished. I went to Woodrow's on the Earl of Harrington ticket, with a 9½ foot, Billy Lane swing-tip rod and Mitchell 300 reel, along with sweetcorn and luncheon meat for bait. It was a lovely sunny day, one of those hazy late summer days. I baited up and cast just off a lily bed to my right, and waited. Fish were topping and jumping all over the lake, and I had fish in my swim. The piscator on the next peg showed me pictures of fish h

August saw me camping again. And a few sessions with my nephew. And, his PB Carp! My nephew, Harrison, is currently on his summer holidays, and as I don't work Mondays - "I don't like Mondays" - we went to Birch House Lakes and fished the Horseshoe Lake. It was really quiet, and we found a peg big enough for two, with some lilies, reeds and a small island to fish to. We both float-fished red maggots, and I fished my 12' cane rod and Mitchell Match reel. When Harrison goes fis

While on holiday in Shropshire I fished the Ellesmere Canal... This next video was filmed a few days after I got back from Shropshire. It was a lovely sunny July day. My tackle was still in the car, so I decided to go to my local canal, the Trent & Mersey and try and catch a few at Swakestone.

June’s blog had a real treat in store for me. Not just fishing, but three days camping. I love camping; it reminds me of being a Cub Scout, camping at Drum Hill near Derby. Of summer nights in the back garden, a small white canvas tent, no groundsheet like these modern tents. Anyway, I headed back to Springwood Fisheries where I’d camped two years ago, but due to the pandemic, I hadn’t had the chance to go last year. I chose a quiet pitch near the woods, and after setting up

Recently I bought a job lot of five old reels. One in particular really caught my eye. The Le "Omnia" Super. Although the reel has a French-sounding name, it is, in fact, British. Manufactured T J Harrington & Son Ltd, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, and even more specifically, in a factory on the corner of Mosely Road and Lyon Road. T J Harrington & Son also manufactured other reels with names ending with the letter 'A', including the Regina, Gemima, Maxima and Little Kraka. Proba

Over the Christmas lockdown, after turkey and wine, I thought it would be a great idea to join Instagram. You can see me on Instagram by searching for The Retro Angler. This month's blog began at BJ's Fishery. This time I was fishing with my 13' fibreglass rod and a 'new' reel. I was lucky enough during my previous visit to BJ's to be given a Mitchell Match. I'd been chatting with a few other anglers and one of them had found the reel in his garage and said I could have it, a

What a lucky start to 2021. My first session of the year was back at BJ's Fishery, where I fished my last sessions of 2020. I cast out to plumb the float, and when I reeled in, I thought I'd got snagged. Then my line spooled off, and I realised I'd hooked a fish! There wasn't any bait on the hook, and I could tell by the way the fish was fighting I'd foul-hooked it. After a few attempts to slip the net under the fish, I managed to land this lovely scaled Mirror Carp. All be i