News

Your editor is something of a hero, you know.. It was Alan Yates' very welcome article that took me back to Bognor Regis, circa 1990, where I was bass fishing from the promenade (laugh.anything would've done) I was with my brother, catching nothing, but generally happy with the warm sea-breeze and an ice cream.

Not the sexiest of headlines but Fishing Magic makes no apology for highlighting the phenomena of littering and rubbish-dumping. Stoke-on-Trent City council Leader, David Conway, seems to have the right idea when it comes to stamping down hard on those who would spoil YOUR environment.

Not the sexiest of headlines but Fishing Magic makes no apology for highlighting the phenomena of littering and rubbish-dumping. This chap, Stoke-on-Trent City council Leader, John Van de Laarschot, seems to have the right idea when it comes to stamping down hard on those who would spoil YOUR environment. Too few people make a stand on seeing an act of littering yet it's happening all around us ALL of the time. Keep your eyes open in just about any town centre and you'll witness these acts of environmental vandalism with depressing frequency.

It seems an age since we heard from Alan Yates and yet his writing is always so informative. Here's some great advice to sea anglers, and budding sea anglers looking for an alternative to the local pit!

Sensas Team England U18's & Drennan U23's once again took the World Championships by storm as they returned from Serbia with team gold and bronze medals while England's George Organ took individual bronze medal in the U18 category.

The Environment Agency is set to award a landmark fisheries contract to the Angling Trust. This announcement follows a rigorous competitive process and is part of the continued drive towards greater partnership working leading to thriving fisheries and angling throughout England.

I had a feeling that 2015 was going to be a good year. With fishing trips lined up to the stunning landscapes of the Himalayas for golden mahseer, to the beautiful west coast of Ireland for bass and pollack and later in the year to the Scilly Islands for some big, brightly coloured wrasse it wasn't hard to see the basis for my optimism! However, the fishing has been pretty good back on the home patch and I can't really complain about my season so far with two personal bests in the bag and some nice hauls of other favourite species.

At five minutes past seven one morning in January 1973 - long before the days of the British National Lottery - a great, golden hand reached down from the clouds in a shimmering of stardust and tapped me on the shoulder... "It's you" boomed a voice, though at that precise moment I didn't know why.

Prior to my present appointment I was the copy-writer for a mail-order tackle firm and this, of course, required an in-depth knowledge of the items I described. Possibly the most bizarre feature I came across was the menu of alarm sounds to be found on a particular, well-known brand of bite indicator. The user could (can) programme the head to emit one of ten sounds including 'clucking chicken', 'racing car' and 'orgasmic woman'! But unusual alarm systems are not new.

Fish O Mania will be back in 2016 with a new look and promises to be bigger and better than ever following the news that Matchroom Sport & Angling Trust are to introduce a number of changes to the format and the prize structure.