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Chesters post about his unplanned bath in his local stream got me thinking about similar things I've witnessed in my angling years. I haven't actually fallen in, yet, (he said hastily touching the nearest piece of wood), a few near misses, but not an actual 'fall in'. I remember once fishing a favourite stretch of the R Ure, and one foot slipping into the river. I managed to throw myself forward and grab both a bank stick and my box. I hung on with one leg in the water nearly to the top of my waders, (I wore waders because we had to walk through long dew soaked grass to get to the river), and my other leg more or less at a right angle along the bank. I hung there for what seemed an age, trying to get a foothold with my immersed foot, but not being able to find anything to get any purchase on. I then realised that the bank was undercut, and could possibly collapse at any time. My shouts for help to my mates went unheeded as I tried to pull myself back onto the bank. Fortunately, it was many years ago, and I was younger, stronger, and considerably lighter, than today, and slowly managed to pull myself in a position where I could roll onto the bank. As I laid there shaking slightly, and feeling exhausted, I remembered the undercut bank beneath me, and gingerly moved myself and my tackle out of harms way. I came back later that day to lay-on next to the undercut, which was about 10ft deep, (fishing from a safe distance upstream), and caught some decent perch. I caught well from it on each visit that season, but the next season, following the winter floods, I found the whole lot had collapsed into the river. A session on the R Wharfe at Boston Spa, saw my mate have an amusing, if nearly fatal 'fall in'. We were fishing a swim that could be tackled in two ways. There was a slack behind a bush, that I was fishing from the bank, and as it was fairly shallow above the bush, (knee deep), my mate waded out , and trotted down the edge of the slack. We had shared the same swims so often, and knew each other so well, that we rarely had trouble, and often had our floats inches apart trotting down a swim. We were both catching steadily, when I heard a shout, a splash, and saw his float being jerked back upstream. I stood up and couldn't see him over the top of the bush, so walked round to have a look. As I rounded the bush I saw something like a scene from Arthurian legends. There was an arm sticking out of the water, holding a rod and reel aloft! I dashed into the water and grabbed the arm and pulled my mate up, and dragged him to the shallower water. He had been stupid enough to wade out without using a stick to test the river bed, thinking that because we both had fished the swim many times before, he 'knew' it well enough. The gravel bed had been moved by the current, and there was a sudden drop off he hadn't seen, and slid down, causing him to fall length ways into over three foot of water. When we'd got him on the bank, lit a fire, hung most of his clothes over a tree branch, let him dry himself on a collection of groundbait cloths/towels, and dressed him in bits of spare clothing we had, including maggot bags for socks, and a large waterproof mac', he grinned and said 'at least I kept my new reel dry'. John.

I was once fishing a river in the depths of winter where the ground was frozen. I had gone across to fish a stream that flowed into the river, that was high due to the tide backing up the water. The top layer of the ground had defrosted and I slipped. Falling down the banking, hitting the water and sliding all the way up to my nipples into icy water! The awkward part was trying to climb back out up the slippy banking, rod and reel in hand. Believe it or not, somehow my rod and reel weren't wet apart from the bottom third of the cork. I, however, was shivering like a nervous fruit jelly. Once back at the car i stripped off and drove off naked and drove home bolloc'o. Another time, I was stood in the middle of a large river in the process of playing a barbel. I stepped back and sunk like a stone. I must have resembled the Statue of Liberty as I although submerged I kept my rod held up. I reckon that hole was so deep that when my feet hit the bottom there was several inches of water over my head. I was only submerged for a brief moment, as the instant my feet found bottom I pushed myself back up. I swallowed a mouthful of water, but I also l also managed to keep the barbel on my line:). Luckily for me, that it was high summer and the water felt like hot bathwater. Back on the bank I landed the fish, released it, before once more stripping off and laying out my clothes on the bank to dry. I can clearly remember lying down on the bank and lifting up my legs allowing all the water to drain from my waders. I tried wading out in my stocking feet but the stones hurt my feet so I had to put my squelchy waders back on. I recieved several odd looks from people who saw me fishing dressed in just waders and underkecks and then, even more when, I started checking peoples membership cards, lol.

Of course my conscience is clear Paul, why shouldn’t it be. I voted for the only logical, viable option, not for promises of fairy tales and unicorns. I have explained who I voted for, and why I voted for her. Unlike you who refuse to say how/if you voted. The only thing you have admitted is that you refused to vote against Brexit in the earlier election, choosing fairy tales and unicorns instead. That could explain some of the content in your recent posts. Your understanding of the difference between an election and a referendum is similar to Nicola Sturgens. Because the snp won nearly all the seats she says there had been a big swing towards independence, not admitting that they only got 45% of the vote, almost the same number they had in the Independence referendum. John

But the referendum wasnt a vote for any specific party so your argument is cr@p. if you want to go by party and their stance on Brexit conservative - get brexit done - 14 million votes lib dems - cancel Brexit - 3.6 million labour and everyone else - we cant make up our minds what to do so want yet another referendum - 14 million approx so the only party who guaranteed they would cancel Brexit got 3.6 million votes so by Cod logic 12.5 million remainers changed their mind otherwise they would have voted lib dem

Big Cod, Do not allow your posts to become sour grapes. You have lost ! Phone

Same broken record the brexiters were lied to ,poor poor cod It must be very lonely living in an area that voted out ,probably this is the only place far enough away to say you want to remain !poor poor cod You cant even whine to your MP hes one of those hated tories! Poor poor cod best end it all nowall you have left is your boat and its subsidised fuel ,its ok no-one will stop you, so you wont be a burden on the NHS I was going to say get down the pub and drunkenly air your brexit views down there but everyone will probably have voted out so best stay in your bedroom bashing the keyboard its safer

Barry, I don’t know why you are discussing this. It’s become obvious that either Paul has lost the plot, or his account has been hacked by a 10 year old. I’ve never met a sane adult that starts a post on a serious debate with, ‘burp burp’ , or posts images of unicorns to prove his point. John

Phone, the float is only 3 gram and I shot it simply byusing four or 5bb's. I have one dropper shot about 6 to 8 inches up from the hook and bulk the rest about 12 or so inches above the dropper. I can vary the shot as the session goes on by sliding them up and down the line. I rarely ever faff about with fiddly set ups and for the most of my trotting I simply fish 6lb mono straight through to the hook. The majority of anglers would say I fish way to heavy, some call it crude. At the end of the day (crude or not) it works alreet for me . Obviously there are situations where I do scale right down if the fish i'm targetting pay more attention to anything out of the ordinary/suspicious but i rarely fish for those kind'a species.