All Activity

Hi guys, I've just started pellet waggler fishing in anger & found that my 11 foot, to 12 foot 6 Drennan still water feeder rod is perfect for the task. I've still a bit t learn re the feeding regime, but this rod is great (Yes it's the one I was gifted by a workmate)

I was just thinking It's just you & your Lass now, so maybe time to downsize a bit?? Freezers (I'm told) Don't like being in cold places - like garages & work much better in the house.

Do they cost £9.99 ? Anothing thing is modern freezers and fridges are far smaller inside than old ones so you either buy a bigger one or have less in them they also break down quicker Would you buy a new car if the starter motor broke?

Just dump the freezer Dave, cash in an ISA & get a new one!! There's no pockets in a shroud Lol. Alternatively, you could buy a Graded one - they are still Brand New but might have a Dent or a scratch so they can't charge the full price. Some are reduced by up to half!! Try your local market shops or stalls. These are the Graded whitegoods outlets.

And in the dim and distant past I once penned this for a now long dufunct website.... https://web.archive.org/web/20160824084246/http://purepiscator.com/thehof_entry.aspx?hofid=14

Hi imp. Ah, the mighty gudgeon, the most characterful fish in the canal. If only they grew 5lbs heavier. Have you heard of the Grand Union Gobio Gobio Society (Google them) - its a fantastic tongue-in cheek site for all fans of the gudge. I hadn't either, but I stumbled across them last week they accepted me as a member on the strength of that photo.

Lovely pictures of the Rudd and Gudgeon ,such pretty fish ,there are some oversized gudgeon on the Reeds ticket at Thatcham. The vast amount of perch in the lakes are busy at this time of year swallowing up the fry ,not a fan.

We have 3 freezers ,2 are old one is nearing 30 the other unheard of (its an electroluxe rex an italian brand i think) this has been playing up for years but cleaning with wd40 and a spray of ptfe kept it going. Until last thursday and it did nothing despite the usual ! Its a 3 pin thermostat but long obselete ,tried everywhere to source one (Electrolux said nada ) the usual online sellers said the same . Nothing wrong with the freezer itself shorting the live to black compressor wire and off it went but running it off a timer not so clever especially over the last few days . So i plumped for this : https://www.aideepen.com/collections/temperature-controller/products/dst1000-ac-110v-220v-digital-thermostat-temperature-controller-heating-cooling-ds18b20-sensor-waterproof-cable-replace-stc-1000 From amazon under a tenner ,the great point is it makes allowances for a compressor it doesnt start it if say you opened the door then shut it or you turned off the power then back on which in the past using a digital thermostat was a death sentence to them .IE if you programmed the thing to say .5 of a degree difference it would be continually trying to start the compressor unlike a manual thermostat which takes time to switch. You merely programe the box to the temperature you want (-18 at least in a freezer to get the 3* rating) then you tell it how many degrees you will let it drop and its away the "resting" period between switching on is 3 minutes or more (seems fine) the only disadvantage is fixing it somewhere as its designed to fit a cut out ,i used a bit of plastic with trim tape to the box and trim tape to the side of the freezer out of harms way but still within reach . Not for non electric enthusiasts it does have to be wired to the power and you need to get to either the compressor or as i did use the broken thermostat connections but so long as you have some sense its doable . now my obselete thermostat sits in the dustbin but the freezer is working again (touch wood) the owly down point is the lead to the probe is a bit short but being two wires not difficult to extend . hope this saves an only ill not dead freezer going to scrap ! Plenty of youtube vids to help PS it can control heat pads or fishtanks on its warm setting so iggy the iguana wont die of the cold lol I am going to get another one to use as a switch to use as a frost stat in the shed ,the tube heater i bought with a frost stat will let hell freeze over before it comes on! You can buy pre made leads up but forking out 3 times the cost for something thats rarely used isnt in my nature ! As with anything i take no liabilty for you dying nor your house burniing to the ground! a smoke alarm should be second nature and its not intended as instructions nor recommended only suggested as an alternative to forking out for a new freezer for the competant bodger

They transitioned from UFOs to IFOs. Skynet is close, but it won't be like the movie. It'll be more like...

If you know what they are they're not ufo"s lol Should what is going to be "skynet" be allowed ? Dont people learn from movies? Mind you the android bint was good looking i wouldnt mind gasping my last breath with her on top ,mind you at my age just imagining it brings me close to a siezure

The Iridium satellites are the best UFO's by some way. They can appear, become very bright, travel a few degrees of arc and then vanish. I've only seen a handful, but they caused some proper "WTF" moments until I worked out what they were. I've seen a few genuinely inexplicable things in the sky but one that regularly wound me up until recently turned out to be aircraft takeoff and landing lights from Luton. I'm in Kidderminster, and they just appeared to hang there motionless, a few degrees above the horizon, before quickly fading.

We trained one of our cctv cameras to a fairly dark part of the sky (north of us is pointless as were in surrey) the camera uses sony "starvis" opticals and its very good at seeing stars as the name says ,on watching it back its surprising how many "ufo's" you see . Satellites tend to just follow a straight path and keep the same brightness and ofcourse meteorites flare up and dim but theres many between these out and about when your kipping . I bought one of these motorised telescopes last year from amazon warehouse and a 5mp camera to poke in its eye but i must get round to actually setting it up ! I got as far as putting 3 small bits of paving in the lawn to stand it on so it kept its programming (knowing its in the same place when brought back out) but thats it the laptop has all the software to guide it and the camera but i lack the motivation to go further by 8pm i'm ready for bed ! The celestion pc software even without a scope is brilliant and theres some good ones for your phone or tablet that keep aligned as you move.The best one was for my old playbook the blackberrys gps and movement sensors were spot on but it lives in its box in the loft what was top spec is now ancient and slow

I found a great page on the Heaven's Above website last night, that lists all of the bright man-made satellites (including the ISS) when they are visible. You'll need to put in your own location to get the most accurate results, but as I'm in the middle of the country, the information shown shouldn't be more than a minute or two off. https://www.heavens-above.com/AllSats.aspx?lat=51.72277&lng=-1.25244&loc=South+Oxford&alt=0&tz=GMT

Congratulations, Simon. By the sound of it, given the conditions, a successful trip!

Thank you both, it's much appreciated. Martin, the inhaler they have given me is called Incruse Ellipta, "Umeclidinium" or so it says. Obviously COPD isn't great, but it sure is better than lung cancer. I'm still quite angry that two doctors told me I had lung cancer, it wasn't a "might have cancer", it was I "do" have cancer. The onocologist even told me it had spread to the gland that is between my lungs, that surgery wasn't an option and also that he couldn't confirm I had 6 months left to live. The anguish they have not only put me through but also my mum, kids and partner has been horrendous. And not once have I had an apology or explanation.

It doesn't help that the Wye is being badly polluted by a chicken farm and I mean badly polluted too. With stinking smells and slime coating the river bed. They have just finished a one hour documentary about this blatent pollution into the Wye, and let's hope that heads are now going to roll and something is going to be done about it. And to think that the Wye was one of our best rivers just a couple of years ago. Keith

That's Great News Ant, would the Inhaler happen to be Trelegy Elipta?? It was good for me & was on that for a long time. However, my GP/Nurse has now put me on a new one called "Trimbo" - not because I'm any worse, but because you get to use it Twice a day & patients are finding the Trimbo gives them more relief purely because it's Twice a day. They'll give you a Spacer - a inhaling tube which the Trimbo fits on one end.

After yesterday's slowish day at Willows, I decided while driving down Muddy Lane to try and make my recent luck change and turned right to Dobsons. My favourite swim was free, and with the forecast rain and lower air pressure after the previous week's heatwave, the omens were good. The fish thought so too, at least in the first few hours, when my method feeder was hit hard six times to my right. Whilst I was snapped twice, the other four bites did not connect which made me question once again how self-hooking the method feeder actually is. Allowed a second rod on the lake, I alternated between method feeder and float to my left on the other. No bites at all on the feeder, the float brought in 21 perch in two sessions, including some fun and feisty stripeys around the 12oz mark, plus a single, small beautiful golden rudd. Could/should have been so much better - but that's fishing.

Great news ,COPD isnt funny but it could have been far worse ! Now on to your life again

My anticlimactic July continues. At least it was only 25 degrees rather than the 30 of the last 7 consecutive days. I should have known it would be tough when I tackled up and made my first cast to find I'd not threaded the top two rod rings. Sounds incredulous, but in my defence I was being attacked by early morning mosquitoes and was bitten several times in the process before running back to the car for the Deet. There were tempting patches of feeding fish bubbles before 8am, and I was snapped up float fishing close in by something that went off like a rocket. Schoolboy error: I hadn't set the drag, and that was that. Managed an 8oz bream, a 3lb 3 mirror, and commons of 3lb 6 and 1lb before the sun drove the bites away. With nothing happening on my rod, I had time to watch a couple of kids, and later on a viking catch many carp off the surface with dog biscuits. They seemed to manage it without the plague of water fowl that have totally scuppered my previous efforts to the point where I didn't bring any baits. With nothing happening on the bottom, I raised the float and went light for another bream, 3 roach and 34 perch of up to 8ounces, probably averaging 3oz. With my session having to end before the cool of the evening returned, my final cast brought a 3lb mirror. Four carp in a day can't be that bad, but when none hit the 3.5lb mark, it can only be a little disappointing

So my first river session is over and wow what a place the wye is. Unfortunately the conditions probably couldn’t have been worse for fishing with 30 degree plus days, super high water temperatures and super low water levels meaning there was very little margins and most of the swims were like fishing off the beach. I was concerned to learn that these conditions are really dangerous for the fish, especially the barbel and was surprised fishing wasn’t stopped were I was although I believe most other stretches it was. I certainly stopped targeting the barbel once a local explained what low oxygen levels would mean for the fish. I caught plenty of chub to just over four and a half pound, and once I started fishing into darkness found the barbel with fish upto around seven and a half pound pulling my arm off. I was also hoping to try for a Pike but was quickly advised at the local tackle shop it’s not safe for the fish to target them during the summer months. All in all a great experience and a steep learning curve. I would like to perhaps see some guidance about safe fishing conditions with your day tickets or club license as people who come from a sea or I guess and Stillwater background would be completely ignorant of this and could unwillingly harm these magnificent fish.

Jackie Mason - Rabbi turned comedian.

I do apologise old chap. The latest CT scan results showed that the mass in my lung has disappeared Apparently, according to the consultant, it was "one of the nastiest cases of pneumonia" he'd seen. It has left me with a lot of scar damage to both my lungs and has resulted in me now having COPD. I'm still not 100% and get out of breathe easily, but each day I feel a little better and am certainly on the mend. I can start my petrol mower and manage to cut the lawn now where there was no way I could of done it a few weeks ago. I have a weird inhaler thing that i'm meant to take once a day which helps with the COPD, and I have another scan in around 10 weeks to see how things are. But I'm as you can imagine happy and relieved it doesn't seem to have been cancer after all (touch wood).

Please come back EU wagon drivers we need you desperately the brexit lies all coming home to roost pathetic.