Dan Whitfield

Dan Whitfield grew up in Liverpool and started fishing aged seven on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at the end of his road. He never really stopped. He spent his twenties and thirties on the match circuit - club level rather than national - before deciding he'd rather catch one decent fish than a net of small ones. These days he mostly fishes the River Dee for barbel and chub (barbel personal best 14lb 2oz, from the Trent on a trip south), the Leeds and Liverpool Canal for roach and skimmers in winter, and the occasional gravel pit when tench are spawning and the surface fishing is too good to miss. He's a former club secretary and coaches children on Saturday mornings at a junior section of a Liverpool angling club, where most sessions start with a float, a tin of maggots and a lot of patience. At The River Bend, Dan writes the coarse species guides, river fishing technique articles, and the match and pole content. Covers: Barbel, bream, roach, tench, carp (coarse context), river fishing, canal fishing, feeder, float, match/pole