Chris Appleby

I first started my angling journey over near 40yrs ago. Growing up with a river at the bottom of the garden and living on the fringe of a 600acre country park full of gravel pits was one of the contributing factors to me turning to angling in the first place.
My early angling life comprised of all round pleasure fishing. Following that I started to match fishing, captaining the junior county squad at the age of 11. Soon after that I moved onto all round specimen fishing targeting species like tench, bream and pike.
My carping kicked off with a steady transition from all round specimen fishing for tench and bream to purposely targeting carp in big gravel pits with no known stock. Carp fishing in my area was fairly uncommon so the majority of my early carp fishing years were spent reading books from some very inspirational writers; Gibbinson, Maddocks, Hutchinson and Clifford put me on the path to where I am today.

In recent years I’ve concentrated my angling in pursuit of carp, mainly fishing syndicates waters. I still get a great buzz from pitting my wits against tricky fish to catch. Catching on my terms is very important to me which means not always following fashionable trends but practicing what I know and believe in, bait (application and making of), watercraft and thought are without doubt are my strongest attributes as an angler.

I qualified to be a angling coach in 2014 and I help the angling trust when required to help introduce kids to angling. Teaching and coaching them through the basics of fishing is immensely rewarding and I’m happy to see a new generation of children excited and ready to learn.
The learning journey never stops for me. Year on year I continue to learn as techniques evolve and it fascinates me how some very old and basic approaches still work so well. All in all I couldn’t wished for a better hobby that’s kept me interested and engaged for the majority of my life.