The source...

Every river has a source... by its very nature everything starts somewhere!

I remember consuming my dad's fly fishing books when I was younger and also getting my very own book on fishing. I still have the volume on the shelf here in the study... the cover is a lurid fluorescent orange, slightly faded with browned edges to the paper (not great quality paper!). The book by W E Davies is called The Technique of Fresh Water Fishing and Tackle Tinkering... it's that last bit of the title I love.

So what has this all to do with the chap holding the pike... no it isn't my dad it is Mike Ladle the renowned Bass fisherman who co authored "Hooked on Bass". In my search for information I stumbled across Mike's website and have used that as a constant source of information. Like a good book I keep going back to it and turning up gems.

There is also a link between Mike and I... it is a small world! I decided to model my fish catching gear on Mike and noticed that he used a 4 piece spinning rod... well the rod was designed by Steve Harrison of Harrison Advanced Rods in Liverpool. Steve took me under his wing and I became one of his pit crew on his yacht Quattro, racing week in week out on the Mersey... sadly I don't race anymore BUT it was something I needed at that time in my life. Anyway I digress, back to the fishing...

I armed myself with the Veal's Mike Ladle 4 Sure Spin, which is a great travelling rod and thus started out on the journey as a born again angler!

Mike's site has been an invaluable source of info and I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't yet seen it.

Sitting here writing this, I think it is a great shame that we perhaps (because of the Internet) don't hold books in the same high regard as we once did... having said that I'm eagerly awaiting two books that I've ordered on fly fishing for pike (Ad Swier and Barry Reynolds... both will no doubt feature here at some point!)