I started of fishing when I was eight years old I used to fish the local pond with a few friends for anything we could catch, most of the time it would be perch but we enjoyed being on the pond, we never had tackle like most of the older anglers, in fact we only had one rod and a plastic bag with a few bits of tackle in it plus our lunch for the day, but over the years a few of us were still fishing and managed to pick up a bit more tackle and learn how to set the floats up right and even start to catch a few more fish and bigger ones as well, we progressed on from catching small perch and roach to catching bream and tench they were only a couple of pounds in weight but they looked massive then but they were no were near as big as some of the shapes we used to see swimming around, which we found out were carp from a friends Dad that fished for them.

One weekend we were on the lake with my friends Dad and we see him catch one of these big black shapes and it was huge, and from then on all I wanted to do was catch a carp but the tackle I had was no where near as strong, so after a while and a lot of saving I manged to buy one carp rod and a reel from the local tackle shop and I couldn’t wait to get down the lake to catch a carp or try to catch one, well I was well out my depth and I never caught nothing, but I did pester my friends Dad about what I have to do to catch one, he soon took me under his wing and started to show me how to tie rigs and mount bait on my hooks as it was all side hooking then, well a few years later at the age of 11 I had a complete set up, that was two rods two reels and a garden bedchair to sleep on at night as I could do the night as long as my friends dad was on the lake but I still hadn’t caught a carp yet.

It was the following spring when I spent most of my days  walking round the lake that I found where most of the fish seemed to hang about, but I had never fished that end of the lake, I would just go in the first swim I came to by the gate, well back then there was a closed season so you couldn’t fish until June the 16^th so I couldn’t wait till that time where I could fish. Well that season I learnt a lot and I even caught a few, nothing big by today’s standards the biggest was 8lb, but I had the bug and that’s all I could think about, nothing else mattered every spare minute I had I was over the lake pestering the older lads and trying to find out as much as I could about carp fishing. Over the next few years up until I passed my driving test I fished the local lakes caught quite a few fish each session and the older guys seamed to see me as a angler and not just some kid that was playing around.

My fishing career rocketed when I passed my test I spread my wings and started to fish these lakes that I’ve read about with massive fish in it for back then one such lake was leisure sports Darenth complex where I meet some very good anglers and there still about today, that lake was definitely a learning curve casting and fishing close to islands which I had never done but learn I did and caught a fair few fish, after a few years on that complex I moved on to some lakes in the Colne Valley which was the heart of the carp fishing then, with the famous Horse and Barge pub being the centre of all socials then, now I was fishing for very big fish with some very famous anglers that new a lot more than me but I soon became good friends with them all and that’s where I caught some good fish and started to write for the carp fishing magazine and even made a video with good friend Ian Russell, like they say it’s easy to get on certain lakes if your face fits or your liked by the guy that owns them.

I’ve even fished for England when we travelled to France for a match against them, so it was the best anglers in France against some of the best in England it was a week long match on two venues one lake and one river so we had to pick who would be the best on each, well we must have got it right as we won.

Back home I had just received my ticket to fish  the Yateley complex and set my sights on the Car Park Lake well it was at least a two hour drive to there so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy getting a swim on a Friday night I would probably just be fitting in a swim somewhere but that year I did manage one fish the big common and that was my second bite from there we won’t talk about the first its to painful, from then on I fished quite a few high profile lakes in the Essex area one of them the Little Grange and I done very well in the few years I fished it catching fish to upper 40, I even  managed a few pbs along the way, I then managed to get a ticket for a lake called Cleverly Mere where I fished for two years with some very good well known anglers, when I finally banked the lakes biggest resident Ringo at 50lb after that I moved on to a few very well known lakes but they were no publicity so I can’t talk about those, that brings me up to around the last 10 years and I’ve worked for a couple of tackle companies and enjoyed every minute of it, at the moment I am really excited to be working with Wolf with some very like-minded anglers in their product development team, and watching what we come up with to help you put more fish on the bank. hopefully I’ll talk to some of you at the shows when we finally get to do some

Milky