Welcome...

THANKS for purchasing this issue of IYCF. If there’s one word which can sum up the world of angling this month it would be ‘ hormones’!

I’m sure anyone who follows any high profile anglers on social media will have seen comments regarding the issue and some of the claims being banded around.

If you haven’t seen anything or are wondering what I’m on about, it was recently suggested by a guest on an angling podcast ( which has now been taken down following the threat of legal action) that certain anglers were using a product that was helping them to win matches.

Of course, as is often the way on social media, no one has come forward with any concrete evidence but that hasn’t stopped the rumour mill going into overdrive with all sorts of accusations being thrown around.

And, inevitably, whereas many people will take what they read on unregulated social media platforms with a generous pinch of salt, there will be others who take the word of the person they’ve never met or know anything about as gospel. Which can quickly and unfairly ruin the reputation of the anglers involved.

I imagine it happens in other sports too, but in angling people always seem to quick to assume that anyone enjoying a level of success must being a using a top secret additive that no one else can get their hands on or a new rig that is impossible for a fish to eject. It couldn’t possibly be that these consistently successful anglers just work and practise that be bit harder and spend more time honing their watercraft skills.

I’ve done features with some of the anglers in question over the years and there’s no arguing that they are at the top of their game when it comes to things like casting accuracy and spotting subtle signs many others would miss. I would argue that it is the culmination of these factors which give them a much higher catch rate. Sadly, it seems all to common these days to try and put others down and tarnish their success as cheating rather than acknowledging and celebrating their achievements.

Whatever happened to just catching a few fish and enjoying yourself, eh? I wonder what this month will have in store...

Joe Carass shows how to catch a big bag of river roach on the cheap