Over the past few years, I’ve found that the Sportfish Show at Theale has quietly become one of the fixed points of my fishing season. If anything, I spend less time at shows than I used to – if you’re not careful, you can end up investing more of your precious free time chin-wagging in […]
Tags: Fly-fishing, Shows, Tackle
May 23 2019
This month, working with the Wild Trout Trust has meant happily converging several different strands of my professional interests (again) and helping to promote the brilliant annual Wild Trout Trust charity auction. As I’ve said once or twice on my Urbantrout site, it’s clear that more and more fly-fishers are using the WTT auction as […]
Tags: Freelance copywriting, Wild Trout Trust, Writing
Mar 24 2019
It’s dropping onto Flyfishers’ doorsteps now… the Winter 2018 issue of the Flyfishers’ Journal, with a kinda Christmas-coloured front cover photo of the 24-carat Goldfish chandelier that’s now hanging outside the entrance of the Flyfisher’s Club at 69 Brook Street. This chandelier was presented to the Savile Club to mark their 150th anniversary, after being […]
Tags: Editing, Flyfishers' Journal
Dec 07 2018
Autumn can be one of the best times of the fishing year. But it’s all too precious and fleeting, so how can we really make the most of it? Friends who’ve fished with me in recent years will know that when I’m on the water in the shoulder seasons, I’m increasingly likely to reach for […]
Tags: Fishtec, Fly-fishing, Streamers, Trout
Oct 24 2018
Over on my Urbantrout site, I’ve just published an announcement of the first edition of Pete Tyjas’s new print magazine, Fly Culture, which launched at Farlows on Thursday 13 September. Talking to editors on the UK magazine scene over the last ten years or so, I’ve had the distinct impression that the traditional monthly publication […]
Tags: Fly Culture, Trout, Wild Trout Trust
Sep 23 2018
Way back in 2013 when I started discussing my Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing with Merlin Unwin Books, we decided very quickly that we wanted it to make it as easy as possible to carry and use – which is why we released the first edition in a handy little ring-bound format, just like Peter […]
Tags: Invasive non-native species, Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing, Writing
Aug 12 2018
The process of putting together each issue of the Flyfishers’ Journal usually starts soon after the previous number has been signed off to press, but sometimes it goes back much further than that, and the latest issue is surely a case in point… I think it must have been sometime in late 2016 when I […]
Tags: Editing, Fly-fishing, Flyfishers' Journal, Writing
Jun 22 2018
For the second year running I’ve been greatly privileged to contribute a feature to S&TC’s Gamefisher magazine – this time on the hot topic of rewilding, and how it’s actively taking place in Ennerdale on the western edge of Cumbria: Because water flows downhill, rivers are the sum total of everything that’s happening on the […]
Tags: Char, Fly-fishing, Gamefisher, Rewilding, River restoration, Trout, Writing
May 28 2018
Thanks to a very kind referral from Simon Cooper at Fishing Breaks, the Guardian got in touch to ask me to list 5 favourite wild fly-fishing places in the UK (urban wilderness not included this time!) for a special Wild Britain supplement. So, naturally, I did. Check ’em out here… (Image: the Guardian)
Tags: Fly-fishing, Guardian, Writing
Apr 28 2018
Interspersed with lots of other freelance copywriting work, I’ve recently contributed a few more features to the Fishtec blog. Once again, if you haven’t read them yet, please click the links and enjoy! The green menace: fighting back against invasive non-native plants in 2018 Countdown to stillwater opening day: Fishtec’s review of the UK’s top […]
Tags: Fishtec, Fly-fishing, Freelance copywriting, Invasive non-native species, Wild Trout Trust, Writing
Mar 22 2018