I’ve been fishing from the age of around 11, when I persuaded my father to buy me a rod and reel which we then took to the Admiralty pier at Dover. Here I caught my first fish, a Pollack shortly followed by a number of mackerel! From that point on I was hooked and spent many an hour fishing the Kent coast.

Around 1978 I began helping Stan Smith who ran a charter boat at Queenborough. I made teas, netted fish and pulled up the anchor in return for being allowed to fish from the foredeck using an old reverse taper beach caster and being, I guess, one of the first uptide anglers.

A move to Cornwall shortly after this put me back onto the beaches for my fishing until I brought a dinghy in 1985. In 1990 I purchased a Shetland Alaska 500, and joined the Birchington Angling Sea Society where I  was elected committee positions as Safety Officer and Competition Secretary. Venues were mainly around the Kent coast, but I also trailed it to various more ‘exotic’ locations. These included Penzance to compete in, and win, the English Small Boat Shark Championships in 1997, Brittany in France, and my first visits to Littlehampton both for fun and to compete in the various Bream competitions organised by the Littlehampton Angling Club and the Bognor Region Angling Association. I always came away with a prize and enjoyed the fact I had ‘beaten the locals’! In 1997 I took heaviest fish/best specimen in the NFSA Boat Competition fished from Littlehampton with a bream of 4lb 3oz.

Having fished over many wrecks the need to see what was down there finally got the better of me in 1992 and I joined North West Kent BSAC and learnt to dive. In 2002 I joined Bexley Sub Aqua and became a BSAC open water instructor. In 2007 I became a BSAC Advanced Diver and took on the role of Diving Officer.

In March 2008 I bought Sally Ann and have chartered her from Littlehampton since then. My greatest enjoyment is seeing customers catch fish, particularly younger anglers.

Amongst my personal best fish I would include
Blue Shark 100lb+ using 18lb line
Cod 18.5lb from the beach at Dungeness
Cod 22lb boat, Margate
Smoothound 18lb boat, Selsey
Bream 4lb 3oz  boat Littlehampton