About me

I guess you could say my curiosity of what lies beneath the surface of the water began when I was just a few years old. I was probably five or six when I used to dip my little net into the murky water of my local park boating lake and discovered minnows and sticklebacks lying in the bottom of it when I lifted it out along with all manner of other little creatures. Perhaps it was then that my future obsessions were sparked.

It wasn't until some years later when I was about eleven or twelve that I actually fished with rod and line. My first ever fish caught with rod and line was in salt water at the local pontoon in the form of a small Wrasse which was tamed using a 7ft Woolworths fibreglass rod.

I later found out about the local Reservoir from some school friends, that was reputed to hold some monster Carp. Needless to say my interest was piqued and I turned my attentions to trying to catch something from this mysterious lake. The first freshwater fish I caught was a small Perch from here. Naturally buoyed by my success I wanted to try and catch a carp and eventually I did just that, a fish of about four pounds which to me at the time was huge! I went on to catch many hundreds of fish from that reservoir before moving onto other waters and have often returned  when I needed to touch base. Sadly it has now been sold, drained and is being redeveloped which is a real shame... 
So that was it, a Carp angler was spawned there and then and I have spent the subsequent thirty odd years in pursuit of this iconic species. I have diversified in between into many other species and disciplines of fishing but always revert back to default mode.


You could say fishing has been my whole life, I live, breathe and sleep fishing and have even made it my career. I can't imagine a life without it, in fact it would be very strange. Fishing has made me the person I am today and influences my attitude towards the rest of the world and my decisions in life. I have a family and responsibilities like anyone else so I cannot be selfish when it comes to my angling but I believe it helps to keep me sane when times are tough and steer me in the right direction.

I don't consider myself to be the world's best angler, just someone who is passionate about their fishing and works hard to be consistent in their Angling, however I do consider myself to be very experienced and I like a challenge.  I haven't had anything over 40lb Carp wise, ( I've had them up to 40lb ), and in recent years my best fish is a low thirty, but then the waters I fish locally don't hold numbers of big fish. I have always been happy to travel for my fishing and you'll see from the Blog that I currently have my sights set on the Yateley complex, somewhere I have always wanted to fish and though I have realistic expectations given how hard the waters are reputed to be, I am willing to accept the blanks and hardships for the chance of a special fish or two.

There are still many things I wish to achieve in my Angling life, not all of which involve Carp and so I hope to fulfil these ambitions in future years. Should I be fortunate enough to bank a special fish from Yateley or achieve my other targets you will read about it here!

Chris.