The world is in 'Lockdown' and I, like all other anglers in the UK, aren't able to go fishing. I have, however, been busy in my shed making things from wood to pass the time and keep busy. I enjoyed woodwork at school, and since buying a shed 3 years ago, I've started revisiting my enjoyment of working with wood. There's always plenty of pallets available, especially on the internet, so I don't have to buy any wood, and with some practice, I've been pleased with the results.

February was, unfortunately, a month without any fishing due to very unsettled weather. High winds, heavy rain, hurricanes and frosts. Instead of tales from the water's edge, I've put together a video of some of the vintage reels I've enjoyed over the past few years.

For the first blog of 2020, I've entered the 21st century! I recently bought a new action camera and microphone, and after much procrastinating, I've finally made another video, and this video features me talking.

The final month of the year was busy with work, Christmas, and of course, family, so fishing took a back seat to the festivities. I did spend some time in my shed preparing tackle for the New Year, and I took a picture of my vintage rod pod, which I'll be using in the summer. Looking back at my plans for 2019, I did go camping and fishing, which I'll do again in 2020. I didn't fish every month; however, I'm now working part-time, so I should have the opportunity to get on th

I didn't get a chance to go fishing this month due to the weather and being busy. One of those things was refurbishing a Garcia Mitchell 300 reel I bought for £3 at an antique fair over the summer. The reel had a lot of paint loss, and once I'd taken it apart, I sanded it to remove all the paint. Then I washed all the parts in soapy water before cleaning and leaving them to soak in degreaser. After washing, degreasing and washing again, I painted on two coats of metal primer

Here's a 9' Daiwa Matchman ledger rod I sold this month. It's been at least 18 months since I fished the canal, so it was good to get back to one of my favourite stretches. I went to Willington on the Trent & Mersey Canal and found my usual spot, where the towpath is wider, full of narrow boats. I continued down the towpath where I found a good spot. The far bank looked fishy, the towpath was still wide, and there weren't any overhanging trees to get caught in when casting

This month's blog starts at Kilburn Lake with my friend Dan. He wanted to see if fishing is something he'd like to do. He turned out to be a helpful gillie and keen spectator. I started float fishing red maggots in the margins and landed some Roach, before casting further out. It wasn't long before I caught my first Carp of the day, shortly followed by another. I cast in the margins and deeper water and had a pleasant day with good company, although I'm not sure Dan will take

This month I did something I haven't done for many years. I spent the night under canvas. I loaded up the car and went to Springwood Fisheries, where I've fished before. I arrived on a sunny Saturday morning, set up my tent, then headed to the top lake. After rigging up my Lee split cane rod and Mitchell 304 with a small float, I had a great afternoon catching Ide and Carp on sweetcorn and red maggots. My partner came in the evening, and we enjoyed fish and chips, then she w

I didn't get out fishing this month, so I thought I'd share a few vintage reels I sold for a few quid. A job lot of old Silstar reels sold for spares/repairs. The FT 33 (left) was missing its handle; the FX 40 (middle) had a handle that didn’t tighten, and the ET 2020 (right) worked fine.

Although it was the start of the season this month, I didn't get the chance to wet a line, even though my partner and I enjoyed a ten-day holiday driving round Scotland and passing all that water! Maybe next time we go to Scotland I'll sneak a rod and some tackle in the car. On the way, I visited the House of Hardy Fishing Tackle Museum in Alnwick, which is very interesting and definitely worth a look if you're in the area. On our return, I enjoyed a day at a local vintage fa