Jeffwill

Take a look at some of these floats http://andymx2.spaces.live.com/ You may have to refresh (or F5) to get the album of all the floats

if fishing snaggy swims, besides using a lighter hook length... you can also tie the feeder with weaker line (than your main line) to a swivel and then if your snagged you can pull for a break and not loss the whole rig, especially if using a running leger.

I did have a look before but they dont seem to be around in the shops these days unless you want them in pink or blue?

You've twigged that I dont have a clue regarding the pressure bit! Thats the trouble buying things from the car boot, there's no manual...

Using a pressure cooker with a pyrex glass plate on top, I have been bringing to the boil and then simmering and usually it turns out okay but now and again losing enough steam for some of the hemp to burn. (I have tried the lid but it leaks even more steam and I cant see whats happening inside). I have heard of using a thermos flask to do it but then your limited to a couple of pints (and ruining your thermos). I notice argos are currrently selling rice cookers for a tenner but never heard of anyone using one. Is there a better method of cooking hemp? I also have tried soaking the hemp over night but have found it cooks just as well straight out of the sack. I have also heard of adding salt!!

Trotting and a painful back....that sounds familiar....it happens every time.. Great catch by the way.... were you using the humble worm?

Hi Nick, do you use stainless or just galved mesh? Is it possible to use a blow torch for soldering? The way you describe I have already made and they look very good once sprayed green, I have also made them up with some "o" rings for the connector. So far your way seems the best and avoids problems fitting the lead / connector. I have also tried using the dark green square plastic mesh found in gardening centres but it needs to be glued together as when i have tied them they slowly rip through the plastic and come apart. The juries out on them until I can araldite a couple to try. I'll let you know.

Hi Andy, did not realise the lead came in different widths and thicknesses. Seen it a few times over the years but only the very thin narrow stuff, so apologies for my lack of knowledge. I will check out the thicker and wider lead strip. It sounds like a good option. The feeders I tend to use are the tunnel Feeders in 3 ounce. I always like fishing as light as possible but if the feeder does not sit down quickly and hold.. it will find more snags, so I use three ounce and am thinking of going even heavier.

Andy, is that the same stuff they use for leaded windows? about 10mm width and very thin. Fishing a river needs a number of ounces of lead to hold bottom, depending on the flow, and avoid dislodging and finding "even more" snags.

Has anyone made their own feeders for River fishing something like these Middy Barbel Tunnel Feeders? http://www.bosfish.co.uk/PRODUCTS/COARSE/m...eders.htm#my719. I've been losing them in snaggy swims and for a while now have been tinkering with making my own. Making the cage is straight forward as you just cut out the mesh and the finished feeder can be quickly blown over with a green paint aerosol (actually looks quite good) but I am struggling in the lead weight area. I have cut out strips of roofing lead from a roll I have in the shed which I drill and tie on the cage but this involves even more processes and I am wondering if a mould would be better to pour molten lead into with the cage sitting in it. Once the lead cools you have an instant feeder. For attaching a swivel a small loop of wire could also be placed partially in the mould. I suppose a trial mould could be made from plaster of paris. Has anyone had any success making their own? Quality cage feeders are rarely stocked in the tackle shops around my neck of the woods.

I'd be more surprised not seeing Cormorants than seeing them. For many years they're every where I go, winter and summer but usually I see only two or three together. What is really concerning is when a large number go down stetches of river spread out like a net....and they eat a lot of fish each so presumably will be up and down different stretches of a river every single day of the week. Someone I know well reckons they are common birds now and should take their chances like crows... Its not good news for roach stocks for certain.

If you lay a big table of bait then other species will turn up and surely no one should be surprised if a bream wakes them up in the middle of the night.....and if it was a record fish they should be pleased irrespective of the specie. The fish has taken many years to successfully get to that "extreme" weight and is unique. Fishing for carp can be obsessional..... to the exclusion of other species... I take my hat off to anyone who camps out a whole weekend in all weathers in pursuit of their quarry but some carpers let themselves down by their attitude to "nuisance fish", some of which would be a fish of a life time for others.

I have too but after throwing in a small grappling hook, which is enough to break up the bottom. You can also throw it in a number of times without causing too much noise / disturbance. If the swim is heavily weeded it needs to be tackled before the session really unless you are making a "gap".

Elton, This was on the day ticket of the famous Red Lion / Mocca's fishery on the River Wye at Bredwardine. The cormorants were obviously using their numbers to shoal fish and make it easier pickings. Its good that Poledark & Lutra also have experience of seeing this type of thing as it backs up what I saw. It was amazing seeing all these birds appearing out of the river.. John Wilson has mentioned a number of times his experience of Cormorant predation and reckons the once famous River Wensum roach population has been destroyed by them. He has repeatedly called for better control of Cormorant numbers but thats another story and I dont want to get into time consuming thread Jeff

Its right that with Coarse stocks naturally high, that £ is directed into Game fish. Improves fishing for everyone. I also like some of WUF's schemes such as reversing acidification. If I did not live so far away I think I would volunteer in some way. Most of the anglers I meet on the Wye are middle aged course anglers. Barbel angling is obviously relatively recent (compared to the history of salmon angling) but a lot of course anglers have just branched out into it from other forms of fishing available to them as the "barbel" opportunity has come along..and to think, its all as a result of illegal fish movement which is frowned upon by the E.A but who advertise the great barbel fishing on the Wye. Tad ironic...

What specie was it Andy?

Had a day off today so headed for the river. Early this morning I was sitting concealed behind some vegetation and overhanging willows on a long wide deep stretch of the river. I could hear to my left some water splashing which I thought could only be swans but did not sound quite right. It was like water being lifted and dropped back on the surface. Just sounded odd and unlike anything I had heard before. Anyway through the willows as they came closer... I could make out a couple of cormorants. They were surfacing and immediately diving and as they were heading directly my way I stood up and clapped loudly. A couple surfaced and took off, them more surfaced and took off, then more until around 30 had surfaced and took off. The number of birds rising from below the surface, it was totally unexpected. They were working the river as a group, from watching them surfacing I could see they were spread out across the width of the river and were not in a straight line but staggered I guess 2 or 3 deep. Has anyone seen this before or similar? They formed into a flock and did the obligatory fly past to check me out. They flew off in a flock so I guess they do "team work". I digress slightly but this stretch was also the place where I saw another amazing sight a couple of autumns ago, a huge flight of swallows, hundreds of birds. they turned up one evening and over say a minute were swooping down to drink and then left. It was the sheer number and the thought that they were filling up for the trip South. Again an awesome sight and lucky to see it.

Nick, I see your making some tenuous link with acts of others.... generations ago. Today the Wye is equally if not more famous for Barbel. Dont take my word for it, ask any angler you meet on the banks of the Wye or ask your tackle dealer. I bet the Wye & Usk Foundation sell more coarse day tickets. Going by the angler reports they do. Taking for the pot...just like previous generations did. We must all live by the Law of the land on the day we go fishing and if a ban results in better fish stocks and a clamp down on illegal taking of fish, so be it. More fish for lutra too... and as you know they have more right to fish than anglers. We have Tesco's which previous generations did not have. Perhaps thats why they made the wye famous for, as you put it 'catch, kill, photograph, cook and eat'. I like looking at modern colour photo's myself

Few interesting points there but I thought that the modern way was "catch and release" which is actually promoted by the government's Environment Agency. Any ban on taking fish is simply an extension of that and not some bigger plot against anglers. You need to remember as well that the E.A has a large number of fanatical anglers in its own ranks. The organisation is very pro fishing. A long (and therefore massively expensive) "anti fishing" advertising campaign.... a waste of money. As for feeling pain, the public's been told that catching tuna by rod and line is humane compared to feeling stress in nets. Yet the tuna are yanked up on a pole and in one motion tossed behind and bounced down the hull of the boat...it certainly aint humane but the public have been told as much as they "want" to know..before it puts them of their salads.. In my experience its usually girlies who remark "do you just throw them back" ..just because I practice "catch and release" and I wont give them one

A little tip - blend up from dry some hemp seed and the same with some bread (you will need to rip it into quite small pieces to break down in the blender) and then mix the two together. Do it the night before or on the day or whatever... fresh bread has some moisture in it that helps. When I go trotting I put a bit in regularly and the fish cant miss it as its goes down the current like a mist made up of fine food particles which they cant fill up on and puts them on the look out for hopefully, your bait on its way down ... I have used this and had big bags of River Wye chub in seasons past. Trotting a river in the late autumn onwards is quality fishing.

Unless angling is outlawed you dont have to justify it... public opinion is very important in governments forming policies but the general public dont care about fish welfare so angling is here to stay. The fish feeling pain..... does it really matter if they do or dont..... the public see fish for what they are, a food source / part of the food chain, something they may eat from time to time. Something that lives in water and they dont have any affinity for or with. If the public saw on TV an otter eating a live fish (usually tail first) with a running commentary by Sir David Attenborough, would they even give a seconds thought to the welfare of the fish..as it was being eaten alive. Or those programs showing north american bears catching salmon going up rivers to spawn. Fish have no means of signalling distress...unless flapping about counts....so they will never get any public sympathy. If you took a nice freshly caught trout round to your neighbours, assuming they'd be very pleased to have it, would they ask about the life of the fish or how it had been "humanely" caught and killed? Lets be honest... they may ask out of interest where you caught it (as they are going to eat it) but thats as far as the interest goes. Law abiding anglers dont have to apologise for anything, especially after paying the government a fee to use a rod and line. Do we torture fish a bit? ..... almost certainly we do but going by my last few outing I dont torture enough

A little tip for anyone new to feeder fishing. There's nothing worse than casting a feeder and hearing the crack as the line parts and your rig dissappearing into the distance.... So...just before casting out its worth checking by reeling the rig right up to the rod tip and then leaving out an inch or two of line....so you know the line is free running and not wrapped around the top eye. You can then cast confidently and concentrate more on an accurate cast to build up a bed of bait.

Well worth listening to, Radio Lancashire programme 'At the Waters Edge' this evening (and every thursday evening). Usually the first three minutes is the news so move the slider on accordingly. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p004l...dge_08_10_2009/

http://www.kingfisherapartments.co.uk/fish...mp;from=archive

If breeding your own maggots for free or cheap bait you dont want to be shelling out for meat...... so keep an eye out for roadkill.