Editorial policy

Facts first

• Every guide lists the sources we checked it against, with the date we checked them.
• We prefer primary sources: official bodies like the Angling Trust, Environment Agency and GOV.UK, and makers' own technical material for their own products.
• We never invent catches, quotes, scores, prices, stock or test results.
• We don't claim hands-on testing unless we actually did it, and we say so on the page.

Rules and safety

Licences and close seasons differ between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and every venue has its own rules. We label nation-specific rules and always tell you venue rules come first. No rig is described as automatically safe.

How AI is used

AI helps with drafting and organising. A guide can't be approved until it passes our quality checks: a direct answer, real sources, no placeholder text and no unsupported testing claims.

Independence

Commercial relationships never change a score, a ranking or a verification badge. Paid placements are always labelled. See disclosures and methodology.

Updates

Pages show when they were last checked. When something changes, we update it and note significant corrections. See our corrections policy.