October 7th 1922 was somewhat productive for Miss Georgina Ballantine. Fishing the River Tay (see Places we Like) near the village of Caputh in Perth and Kinross, she had already taken salmon of 25lbs, 21lbs and 17lbs when her silver minnow lure was taken once more. Safely hooked, the salmon took off on a ferocious …
One day, when Bits and Pieces has earned him wealth beyond his wildest dreams, Fishpool is going to take a trip to Berkshire and buy himself the finest piece of wood he’ll ever likely own. A piece of Barder. Edward Barder was always likely to be an angler. His father Richard was a fly-angler of …
In Bits and Pieces Issue 13 we paid heed to the sea trout—a brownie with a salty sense of adventure. The rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is native to the Pacific flowing waters of North America and Asia, and as with the brown trout, there are some that like to go to sea. The resulting fish …
Found in tropical and sub-tropical waters throughout the world, the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) is one of the most widespread fish in our seas. It is classed as an ‘average’ sized shark, though they will still reach a length of 15 feet which is plenty big enough in Fishpool’s eyes. The largest ever caught was …
There’s nothing quite like a pint beside the river. Or maybe two. To hell with it, if the barbel and chub are feeding you might as well have a gallon! I’m talking about maggots, of course. Probably the best all-round bait there is. They will catch every species of freshwater fish that swims, and have …
Back in 1980, on the Opening Day of the season, Chris Yates famously caught the biggest carp ever. At 51 and a half pounds it added more than 7 pounds to Dick Walker’s existing record and sent shockwaves through angling. Yates had caught the fish before, and in keeping with the chess-piece themed naming of …
Anyone looking for a holiday destination, steeped in angling history, might do worse than spending a week at Miss Ballantine’s Cottage on the banks of the River Tay (see Places we Like). For anyone who may not know (in which case you have a very short attention span or are reading ‘Bits and Pieces’ in …
From a small lochan on the sloped of Ben Lui, a Munroe peak in the southern Highlands, flows one of the most famous salmon rivers in the world. The River Tay is the longest river found wholly in Scotland and flows for nearly 120 miles from west to east before meeting the North Sea. The …
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Some years ago, Fishpool found himself in Roosky, on the banks of the River Shannon. A kindly local angler pointed him in the direction of a bream hotspot. I couldn’t fail, he assured me—which, after a few days’ largely fruitless fishing, was just what I wanted to hear. We would only be there for a …
On the 25th April 1935, Australian fishermen Albert and Charles Hobson caught rather more than they had bargained for. A 14 foot long tiger shark (see Fish we Like) was tangled in their line and having dragged it to shore they decided to take it to a local aquarium. There it became a popular exhibit …
