The Best Baits for Rudd and Dace: Two Species Worth Fishing For Properly
Both get treated as accidental captures. Both reward being targeted deliberately, and the bait approach for each is almost the opposite of the other.
The Best Baits for Roach: Small, Fine and Fed Sparingly
Catching roach is easy. Catching big roach consistently is one of the hardest things in coarse fishing, and bait is a big part of the difference.
The Best Baits for Barbel: Big, Smelly and Firmly Anchored
Barbel bait has to survive a strong current and small fish long enough for a barbel to find it. That single requirement explains most of the list.
The Best Baits for Chub: The Species That Eats Almost Anything
Chub will eat cheese, bread, worms, slugs and lumps of luncheon meat. That freedom is exactly why anglers get chub bait wrong.
The Best Baits for Perch: Worms Win, But Not Always
Perch are predators with an obvious favourite food, and most anglers overcomplicate it. Here is the short list that actually catches them.
The Best Baits for Carp: What I’d Actually Put On After Twenty Years
Boilies get all the marketing. Here is my honest ranking of what actually catches carp in UK waters, and when I would use each one.
Loch Watten Fishing Guide: Caithness Wild Brown Trout
Traditional loch style at its best, with wild browns averaging just under a pound and enough two and three pounders to keep you honest. Fly only, and better from a boat.
Loch Awe Fishing Guide: Ferox, Pike and Brown Trout in Argyll
One of the few Scottish waters where you can buy a day permit for pike and trout online, with a protection order, a hatchery and a clear set of byelaws behind it.
Fishing Scotland’s Lochs: The Highlands and Argyll
Wild fish, huge water and very few other anglers. The Highlands ask more of you in planning than in casting, and the trade is worth it.
Loch Ken Fishing Guide: Scotland’s Big Pike and Coarse Water
Pike, perch, roach and bream in Dumfries and Galloway, with a permit and access situation that genuinely needs checking before you travel.