It's smart to keep it simple on club waters

I TEND to focus a lot of my fishing on club waters because they are reasonably close to home and can offer a range of fishing to keep things interesting and pretty much guarantee a bite all year round.

- Phoebe Stuart

Memberships are normally fairly cheap compared to day ticket fisheries, and the fact I’ve paid for a year means I’m more inclined to do an hour or so on a weekday evening knowing it won’t cost a day ticket. I also like the fact that as well as carp they give me the opportunity to angle for other species, such as pike and specimen roach or rudd.

For the past couple of years, I have been fishing various waters on the Chelmsford AA ticket, in Essex, concentrating most of my time between two or three waters, which vary from a two-acre pit with fish to the mid-20 lb mark; a four-acre farm reservoir with fish to 35 lb; right up to a seven-acre stream-fed gem of a water with carp well in excess of 50 lb lurking beneath the water.

Being a female fisher

You’ve probably worked it out already, but to state the obvious: I’m a female angler! A question I regularly get asked is ‘How do you cope in a male-dominated sport?’.

Firstly, I don’t see myself in a different light from any other angler – regardless of gender or age. Yes, it’s fair to say that I have taken some stick from ‘keyboard carpers’ who are of the opinion that I’ve only got to where I have because I’m a girl, and some have even had the cheek to question my catch results!

So, how do I deal with these people? To be honest, I just ignore them. I know what I do and how I continuously strive to learn my craft to the best of my ability. I surround myself with good people who help me improve my angling every day. I’m always willing to learn about the trade and industry, giving up a lot of my spare time to gain insightful work experience at The Angling Group (TAG) when possible.