John Bailey

Bailey’s Basics: Don’t Be Afraid of Weed

Weed now is growing fast. It can be frightening when you get to a lake and see nothing but the stuff, but don’t panic. Remember that weed is vital for the welfare of the fish. It harbours insects, gives cover and shade and where there is weed, you will find fish.

Look carefully for holes in the weed and attack these. Put bait in and then possibly fish over the bait with a float perhaps.

You will often find weed-free areas closer in to the bank, especially under overhanging trees where the light can’t reach. Fish will love these areas, especially if there is clean gravel or sand. […]

Catch of the Week: Crucian Carp

This fish REALLY was a top catch. It’s a 2.7 crucian carp and, as far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the stunners of the summer.

Now, if you look carefully, you will see that the bottom lobe of its tail fin has been snipped off. Don’t worry, it’s not an otter attack. Rather, this is a crucian that has been caught during a scientific survey and has been marked like this for future reference. […]

Bailey’s Basics: Weather Patterns

Am I tempting fate to say thank goodness we’ve got this dreadful winter behind us at last?  But even with the coming spring and summer never think that weather patterns aren’t just as important as they are in colder weather. […]

Catch of the Week: Andalucían Barbel

Still on the Spanish theme, here’s a picture of me with an Andalucían barbel which I caught from a charming little river down in southern Spain. These are absolutely cracking variations on our own UK barbus barbus. […]

Bailey’s Basics – Bait Bucket Magic

I’m a great one for the sloppiest, smelliest bait buckets that you can imagine. I think if it comes to crucian carp, tench, rudd and even mirror and common carp, scent, colour and variety can really pay dividends. […]

Catch of the Week: Sarah’s Black Bass

This is the first in a new series of posts from John Bailey, talking about some of his favourite catches.  If you’d like to have your catch featured on our website, please contact us via our Facebook page.

We snatched a few days down in sunny Andalucía, Spain, just a few days back. We managed to get flee various work obligations and have an hour or two on a stunning, massive, sky-blue bass lake. […]

Bailey’s Basics: Balanced Baits for Tench

This is the first in a new series of ‘How to’ posts, written by John Bailey about a variety of angling topics, which we hope you will find useful.  If you try them out and have success, we’d love to hear all about it on our Facebook page!

You can have a swim in front of you bubbling like a cauldron, absolutely full of tench feeding hard but you can still sit there fishless. Why is that? […]

Free line in this week’s AM – and did you post your survey back yet?!

Have you completed your Angler’s Mail survey yet?  If it’s still sitting there get it posted –  you can win yourself an ipad for your efforts! (Obviously we don’t want to sway you but John Bailey gets our vote!)

This week’s mag comes with FREE LINE! Priced just ￡1.80, the CK Native spool is worth ￡5.99 and as always, the mag is full of great stuff. […]