Ivan Marks - the people's champion

is an excellent book from Media Press (isbn 978-0-9567015-9-6). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

Young anglers were encouraged and taught the basic skills by more experienced anglers. The club would fish matches where novice anglers were paired off with the top men. For two hours the older angler sat patiently with his pupil explaining the correct tactics to use.

There are, of course, times of the year when the facility to make maggots sink at a reduced rate of fall is a great advantage, especially in still water.

A 4lb chub will eat a half-pint of casters.

His [Benny Ashurst] maxim was always to keep the fish feeding for as long as you can.

Tanked fish have been fed yellow maggots and given an electric shock every time the made a move to eat one. The same fish were fed white maggots and allowed to take what they liked without interference. Later, when those same fish were fed mixed yellow and whites they wouldn't look at the yellows - and can you blame them? That experiment proves that fish can learn.

The real secret with loose-feeding is regularity.

You must not panic and fool yourself into believing that the more stuff you throw in, the more fish will come out.

I told the Italian team manager that I might have taken the individual honours had I been able to stay catching bleak of around that weight. "No Ivan," said the Italian, "it isn't possible!" He explained that my 1oz bleak was a fat and none too healthy fish, and he was right. It looked spawn-bound. In fact he said it had a worm infection. And he explained that fish in that condition are not fit fish. They don't move to the bait fast enough - even if there are enough of them - to allow true speed fishing. Which helps explain just how deeply the Italians have delved into this type of fishing.

A barbless hook punctures the bait, but fills the hole it makes.

Roach and bream don't grab your bait with their teeth. They simply inhale water into their mouths and this sucking process puts the bait where you want it to go.

The biggest risk of breaking a line comes from shock impact. Sudden shock is to be avoided at all costs.