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THANKS for purchasing this month’s issue of IYCF. This magazine is one that I am especially proud of and one that I won’t forget doing. Why? It is the first-ever issue of Improve Your Coarse Fishing to feature a female angler as the main cover image in our near 30-year history. Angling is often stereotyped as a men-only sport. Particularly the older ones! This simply isn’t true and is an image I would like to help change. As the best-selling angling monthly magazine we are in a privileged position where we can promote what I believe is a more realistic image of our sport. There have been some fantastic female anglers involved in the sport for many years across all disciplines, and many of them have featured inside IYCF. But there is a part of me that finds it quite embarrassing that it has taken until 2019 for a female angler to be on the cover. Fishing is a sport that anyone can excell at and I like to think we’ll get to a point in time where a female angler on the cover won’t be a major event and will just be considered the norm. But until then I’m extremely thankful for working with such a great team who are supportive of trying to change these stereotypes. We joined top match angler, Shannon Swallow, on the banks of Decoy Lakes, just up the road from our office in Peterborough, where she demonstrated how you can catch big carp all day long on just a single pint of pellets. Turn to page 24 to find out more. The long awaited arrival of the warmer weather has finally put tench back on the menu. It’s a shame that they are only a realistic target for a few months of the year because they are fantastic fun to catch. Top specimen angler Rob Thompson took us to Bishop’s Bowl where he caught some cracking tench on floatfished worms (page 34). It’s an easy and effective method and we recommend you try it over the next few weeks. Enjoy the issue. James Furness, Editor