Following the New Zealand Fish & Game Commission's statement banning the use of felt soled wading boots in their country since the 1st October 2008, I contacted our own Environment Agency to get their views on this move and whether we could expect any similar measure in the UK anytime soon?

Fish & Fly's long time friend John Bailey shares a short story to help pass yet another rain-soaked English winters day!

A good story this one, told to me over a bottle of red by a sizzling Canadian wood burner, by a gentleman of European descent…don’t want to get him into more trouble.

John Bailey, well known globe-trekking angler, fills us in on some recent travels and experiences including the magnificent Huchen!

In this weeks 'Word', John Bailey explains his pleasure at refinding a book he thought lost and the important messages it contained which are perhaps more true today than ever.

Join John Bailey, one of todays best-known agling writers as he reflects on the glory of days gone by and the magazines of yesteryear. But was everything as rose-tinted as it appears to be? A recent and unexpected gift gives John pause for thought.

You will remember that I was on the Miramichi back in the spring, promising myself a trip later on in the year when the waters cleared and the Atlantic salmon were fresh-run. Well, it happened. And most of it happened in the first half an hour. Pimm, bless him, had been fishing fifteen minutes when a Shady Lady was nabbed halfway across the first pool he had tried. It really was a monster. The fish jumped twelve times perhaps. Pete, our venerable guide, pronounced it the biggest fish of the season – forty plus. It was like a miracle was happening. Fifteen minutes into a trip and the fish to die for.

Just to fill in the background, exactly two weeks ago I was out in Spain with a group hunting Andalucian barbel on the fly. There’d been calamities on the river, sewage works had overflowed, fish had died. It wasn’t how I wanted it to be. Hence, on the Wednesday afternoon, we moved to a lake some ten or fifteen miles from the river. Now, here’s the story............