What's it About?

Just a collection of ramblings about my fishing (or lack of it), success (or lack of it) and other things to do with fishing.

When I arrived in Sweden in 1995 it seemed to me that the only way of fishing would be spinning and lure fishing. The fishing shops that I knew had very little in the way of coarse-fishing tackle. The only floats that were readily available were the great big, over-painted, glossy, portly jobs for pike and perch (the sort that tempt fishermen rather than catch fish). I hadn't enough confidence to develop my fly-fishing skills either although I did tie some flies, which other people have used with some success.

About five years ago I decided to return to my coarse-fishing roots and started to make some floats and bought more suitable tackle from England. I can't describe the excitement I experienced when the parcels arrived, much like a child on Christmas day. I also found one or two channels on YouTube that helped enourmously and gave me an extra shove in the right direction. One of the ways in which this took me was towards feeder fishing, something I had not tried in England but a method with which I am coming to terms and enjoying as I get better and my catches increase.

Because of the paucity of appropriate tackle in Swedish fishing shops and the time it takes for orders to come from England, I have begun to make a lot more of my tackle and, because of this, I find that there are few shops that I can't count as suppliers of fishing tackle, although I do get funny looks in one shop when I keep returning to buy hair curlers (a good starting point for making cage feeders).

^* Although I'm not the best at spelling, Compleat is how WaltonIzaac Walton (1593-1693) author of The Compleat Angler. wrote it for the title of his most famous book — so there.