Overview
The UK’s acknowledged master angler, best-selling author and popular broadcaster, John Wilson, is back in print. This time in 1001 Top Angling Tips, Wilson passes on just about everything he knows about fishing. His 60 years of angling experiences – good and bad – are listed as a handy series of tips covering no fewer than 50 subjects.
Wilson deals with freshwater and saltwater species separately with everything from bass to zander covered. In the section on Pollack, one of Wilson’s tips is:
The secret being with these soft-bodied shads, as opposed to retrieving the artificial upwards, is to keep in touch with the bottom as the boat drifts along, merely by lifting the rod tip every so often and allowing a little more line out.
He covers boat fishing, tackle and bait – again for freshwater and saltwater angling. For freshwater boat fishing when on the drift and trolling, Wilson writes:
Here’s a tip for would-be drogue users. When the drogue is tied on slightly off centre, more towards the stem or bows, the boat will ‘crab’ across the wind, enabling it to run parallel with a particular feature such as a reed bed, island or the shoreline, rather than straight onto it. It’s great fun, and makes for vastly more interesting and calculated fishing. Try it and see.
As you would expect from someone of Wilson’s experience, he has many useful tips to do with tackle. For example: For some really exciting, opportune-style, wandering, pike, zander, perch and chub fishing invest in a little ‘American-style’, pistol grip, bait-casting outfit. Rods are tip-actioned and one piece, just 6-7 feet long, and work beautifully using a single-handed casting action, with a baby multiplying reel.
Bait is another area in which Wilson excels and aside from many invaluable tips on what bait to use, in 1001 Top Angling Tips he advises:
For mincing up fish heads and bits, look out at car boot and jumble sales for an old steel meat ‘mincer’ with a built in clamp. They may be old fashioned but for turning bait remnants into useable ‘chum’ they are invaluable.
Whether you are a newcomer to fishing or an experienced angler, this excellent 200-page book – which is illustrated with Wilson’s own photographs and drawings – is a source of much priceless information which would take you yeans to find out. About 60 years, in fact. Don’t let 1001 Top Angling Tips be one that got away.
Also available: Another Fishing Year, John Wilson’s Fishing Diary, RRP: £ 16.99, Hardback.
Starting soon, a new Caption Competition and a chance for three FishingMagic members to win a copy of ‘1001 Top Angling Tips’.
