Several people have suggested I look to rivers to introduce more variety into my fishing. Sounds like a plan. Problem is, I haven't really got a clue where to start putting tackle together for it.

Other than obvious stuff like disgorgers, landing net and so forth, what sort of tackle would I need to give it a go?

I have much of the tackle you'd expect a stillwater fisher to have. Rods are 2.5/3oz 11ft feeder and an 11ft pellet waggler, probably a bit short for rivers? Reels are shimano stradic in 2500 and 3000 size.

Would appreciate any advice. Not looking to target barbel or anything specialist, just mixed fishing.

Thanks

I have noticed that the commercials near here (Derby) have decided to close early as opposed to allowing fishing till dusk. With working I find it impossible to go in the week and I used to find the hour up till dusk productive especially for perch. I imagine this is countrywide and assume with the rise in popularity of fishing they can make enough during the day to not bother staying open till dusk. Anybody else have this problem?

Today I caught a 12lb carp but snapped the top section of the pole in doing so - thankfully a nearby angler netted the fish otherwise not sure how I'd have got it in holding what was about as useful as a broken twig!

Is this likely to be just amateurish playing of fish on my part, which would be unsurprising as I'm not used to fish of this size and have recently returned to fishing after a 20 year gap? I thought the set up was well balanced - it's a Middy White Knuckle Thriller pole which is meanto to be a "bagging/margin" style pole, Matrix Slik 14-16 and 6lb mainline to 5lb hooklength which is pretty much what's recommended for the elastic.

I was only maybe using 3 or 4 sections as was fishing very close in, had gone down to the top 2 (maybe too early) and the fish was making another run and the top section just snapped where it joins the no 2 section. It didn;t seem that the...

Been away fishing for a week at multiple venues. Weather has been mixed but mostly fishable, even if I was a little too cocksure with the margin pole in 15mph wind. Almost broke it, but no, my pole is perfectly in tact despite the rough handling.

I'm just so tired of catching carp. I made a thread last year asking how to avoid it. Not because I don't like the species or the amazing fight, but just because I like variety. I get specialist carp fishing, I do. I get the careful long term pursuit of a 40lb monster. I get the endless weekends, the hasty justifications to the husband or wife, the sacrifices made to bag the ultimate beast. I really do and I never understood why anyone would dislike a particular species of fish for any reason.

This week though, one day in particular, my catches were, 3oz perch, 1/2lb skimmer, carp, carp, carp, carp, carp, bacon sandwich, carp...

The Americans love to celebrate success of people in many different fields of endeavour with a Hall Of Fame. The most famous is the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but there are many others, covering American Football, Baseball, Ice Hockey, Swimming and countless more. If there was an Angling Hall Of Fame, who would you want to see inducted into it, and why? They can be of any field of angling, so game, sea and lure fishing as well as coarse fishing. Inductees can be from any time period, but need to have a significant past angling legacy, not just be the latest big thing. So for example, Tommy Pickering could be inducted due to his achievements over a long period of time, but Jamie Hughes couldn't yet, because although he is a very successful angler, he probably still has many more years to build his angling legacy.
So lets begin filling the virtual Angling Hall Of Fame.

My next session when the weather sorts itself out will be for Crucians, little bars of gold. It was already established after my session last year that the fish in my venue are not 'true' Crucians due to the presence of Brown Goldfish and Carp, but to me, for all intents and purposes, unless I catch a record which is highly unlikely, they are Crucians.

Last year on my only session I had about 10 Crucians, 5 Brown Goldfish and 5 Koi type things, some of them a very good size so I'm looking forward to this year even though it might be a bit harder as it was a lot warmer last May.

The lake I fish is 20' deep in places. I tried casting a feeder out last year, only a few rod lengths out and it was seemingly bottomless with the feeder taking longer to hit the bottom than it does at a very deep big Bream lake I fish, so very deep for only small lakes.

But being so...