POLICE officer Mick Watson, the mastermind behind The Durham Angling Community Education Programme (DACE) that is now nationally known as ‘Get Hooked on Fishing’, crowned an extraordinary year by being awarded the coveted The Queens Police Medal for Distinguished Service in the New Years Honours list. Mick is the first recipient of this award in the […]

ONE of the most successful match fishing line brands of recent years – Silstar Matchteam – which disappeared a couple of years ago, is once again being offered to dealers.The product is being made available by Matthew Fisher, the one-time boss of DAM, Silstar and Eurostar in the UK, through his new venture, Fisher Outdoors.When […]

SPECIALIST bait firm Richworth Products is to sponsor one of the best known day ticket carp complexes in the UK – Oxfordshire’s Linear Fisheries.The move follows an unexpected split from long time sponsor Shimano.Len Gurd of Linear commented: “Everyone associated with the fishery is pleased to have Richworth on board and we are positive the association […]

Angler killed by freak wave is named by policeAN angler killed after a wave swept him off a pier has been named as Stephen Garnett.Forty-five-year-old Mr Garnett, of Armley, in Leeds, was one of three people who were fishing at the Northumberland port of Amble when weather deteriorated on Thursday afternoon.The others managed to get […]

THE National Federation of Sea Anglers has announced the England teams selected for the CIPS World Boat Championship and SALC Home Boat International for 2003.They are as follows: HOME BOAT CHAMPIONSHIP Weymouth, England, May 22-24Steve Clements (New cap) – Plymouth, Devon; Paul Hart – Grays, Essex; Glen Milligan – Locks Heath, Hants; Colin Searles (New cap) – Southampton, […]

IRISH MATCH CALENDAR 2003 May 31 – June 2 South Munster June Open – Inniscarra Lake, Co. CorkDraw Village Inn, CoachfordBookings – Anglers World Holidays 01246 221717Kings Angling Holidays 01708 453043June 4 – June 6 South Munster Vintners Cup – Inniscarra Lake, Co. CorkDraw Village Inn, Coachford Bookings – Anglers World Holidays 01246 221717Kings Angling Holidays […]

THERE’S a grand up for grabs for the winner of the forthcoming Swansea Bay Cod Festival thanks to local sponsors Gladiator Commercial, a specialist van insurer.The event, which takes place on January 5 at the Swansea Yacht and Sub Aqua Club, is one of the biggest angling competitions of the year in South Wales attracting […]

 A FESTIVE season session aboard Steve’s Webber’s Minehead, Somerset based boat ‘Osprey 1’ ended with smiles all round after Peter Allen boated this cracking whiting weighing 3lb 15oz. This fish is a new record for the Bristol Channel, beating the old record, caught in 1991, by 5oz.The British record of 6lb 12oz was caught off […]

STARLETS and England captain Mark Downes had just the sort of Christmas visit he didn’t want, when thieves stole his fishing tackle from his van. Hindsight is a great thing, but Mark will be wishing he hadn’t loaded his car up the night before in readiness for a match. He probably did that so as […]

ONE thing many ‘ordinary’ anglers find annoying about the big carp fishing scene is its closed shop nature. Most of the specimen fish we see reported come from secret or at the very least syndicated waters, which you would have to pay through the nose to get on even if you could get on the […]

Message from the editorAs promised the popular coarse, carp and sea fishing discussion boards are now active and back online.You will see that old users can still log in using their previous user names and passwords after agreeing to the terms and conditions. New users need to register and include an active email address so […]

LEADING French tackle and bait manufacturer Sensas has a new boss after chairman and managing director Philippe Bonnet announced his retirement.Philippe has decided, after 40 years in the industry, that it is time to stand down and he will be replaced in both positions by Hugues Nello, once of French reel manufacturer Mitchell.It is understood […]

SPORTS minister Richard Caborn has told coarse angling’s governing body that there is plenty of money up for grabs for angling schemes that will help the government cut crime.The minster was speaking at the NFA’s headquarters last week, while attending a presentation about the NFA’s national coaching scheme. Amazingly he is the first minister of […]

Iain Stevens with the new venue record for Pit 3.IAIN Stevens put the seal on a gruelling seven year quest to catch all of the known fish in Pit 3 of the Frimley Complex in style by landing a new venue record specimen of 40lb 4oz.The fish that had avoided his attentions for so long was the […]

THE Environment Agency is seeking views on proposed options for a national byelaw to rationalise the authorisation of native and alien crayfish trapping to help prevent the spread of non-native crayfish species and the fungal disease ‘crayfish plague’. Agency Principal Fisheries Officer Steve Chambers said: “As part of its fisheries management and conservation role, the Environment […]