Introduced to fishing by my father, I would ride miles with a bamboo rod to fish the river Colne, which at that time was a chalkstream full of indigenous brown trout, keen to take the bait intended for the plentiful roach and dace. School friends introduced me to the mighty river Thames and then the village fishing club. Being affiliated to the London Anglers Association, regular matches were held on a variety of LAA waters, travelled to by coach on a Sunday. I soon learned from my elders the finer points of match fishing, winning many cups and more importantly for a cash strapped apprentice, pool money.
Later on, sponsored match teams led to Winter Leagues and National competitions, one required learning to fish the bread punch, which I embraced to the extent that I have used the punch exclusively to fish for all members of the carp family for many years. I am now classed as a pleasure fisherman, but the bread punch continues to fill my nets, wherever I fish, be it river, lake or canal.
A weekly column as Angling Correspondent for the Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead Observer for many years, led to a blog, the Urban Fieldsportsman covering a range of field sports. A natural progression from the blog was to write my first book about my angling specialty, bread punch fishing. Bread Punch Fishing Diaries was published in 2017. Bread Punch Fishing Diaries Another Slice is the culmination of another five years of exclusively fishing the Punch, on widely differing waters and how I fished them.
