Alan Stubbs

If I've not caught for an hour, I put the kettle on. Works every time!

Hi Adam, I'd avoid Walton hall Park as there's been a recent fish kill due to algae. I sometimes fish Newsham Park (it's on my doorstep) but it is really pressured and very noisy. Frankly, Sefton Park, Greenbanks Park and Calderstones Park are all more productive and peaceful. PM me if you'd like a fishing pal.

As someone who has only recently started canal fishing, particularly near the head of a canal, the same tow effect is noticeable. It's sometimes misleading as there is a surface wind generated drift exacerbated by the natural flow of the water towards the sluices. In these cases I tend to cast further behind the bait. That said, the issue regarding undertow on a gravel pit has never been better explained. Thanks.

265 miles away. :-(

How much has reflex got to do with evolution? I suspect that endless practice so as to become accustomed to the environment has more to do with this than anything. If you've seen some of the training drills even run-of-the-mill county players go through you may feel differently. The extension of this applies to mankind in general, whereby repetition and increase of intensity in any activity enhances quality of response and speed of reaction to the point where it becomes reflexive rather than a conscious action.

Yes please!

Budgie only usually posts here and on the carp forum, so I thought I'd wish him all the best where he's most likely to read it! Enjoy the black pudding, mate.

A great read! Thanks, John.

The thing I remember most about this story was last year, on his 50th, when Budgie told it to me. The need to gasp for air through laughing was bad enough, until Cosworth let rip a 'silent but violent' fart, making the need for air even more desperate. RIP Cosworth - who truly made friends wherever he went. I hope Hound Heaven as a great place for you.

You've well hidden that from me.... running smooother than a smoothy's smooth thing.

I felt the same about test cricket.

Tearing out what little hair is left? I was resorting to actually working for a fair part of the day!

Halleluja! Work had started to get very boring!

I found many of the Q&A's hilarious.

It looks very much like a 'Searcher match'. It was the first 'pin I ever had. It's OK, but does have a bit of wobble to it. Much less, though, than the Lewtham Leeds I won three weeks later. My Aventa Pro is still far better performing than wither of the others.

#1 - The brickwork needs repointing #2 - Look mum, no hands.

I've used the Aventa Pro since 3 months after its release. It's my 'pin of choice.

I quite enjoy looking at things people put links to, as I probably would have missed them otherwise. I'd be disappointed if you stopped because one person spoke out against it.

... Like Ernest Saunders in the Guinness share-support trial. Where his lawyers proved to a court that you couldn't be guilty on the grounds of ill-health (alzheimers) and when that was proven to be fallacious, he couldn't be tried due to double jeopardy and he returned to work, because they'd cured it miraculously (obviously!). Niiiice. From Wikipedia: "In May 1991, Saunders and his co-accused appealed against their convictions. The guilty verdicts were upheld, though his sentence was halved after medical evidence was produced to suggest he was suffering from a mental illness. Saunders was suggested by doctor's at Ford Open Prison to possibly be suffering from premature Alzheimer's Disease, a common form of dementia; if this was a correct diagnosis, he made a recovery unique in medical history. Alzheimer's, like all dementias, is usually incurable being a progressive degenerative disease of the brain. Saunders has since maintained he must have been depressed. The press presented it as Saunders being deceptive and ridiculed him and the decision to release him[5]. After work by lawyers for Parnes and Ronson in unearthing material about SFO investigations into other support operations, which they said should have been disclosed before the trial, a second appeal hearing was granted; the appeal court upheld the convictions."

As this is the forum upon which he posts in the main... I want to wish Rob Ward - one of the really good guys - a happy birthday today.

I use bread punch in conjunction with liquidised bread and hemp on the canal for roach and - irrespective of popular belief - bream. It's never let me down. The liquidised bread is a brilliant cloud bait on gin clear canals like the Bridgewater. I try to drop hemp or tares down through it and alternate hemp and punch as hookbaits using very small hooks - an 18 is large. I've been using it against popular advice for the last few years, and whilst the average stamp of fish isn't huge, they're on a level with what everyone else is catching. Pure and simple - it works well on my club water.

80,000 sheets of a standard A5 Basildon Bond grade (about a tonne) is being sold for the equivalent of £3800. You can buy general inkjet / laser printer paper for about £500 / tonne. The difference is that you can make 40 x as much printer paper an hour (using cheaper fibre) than a cotton fibre containing, watermarked paper, and thats without having to but the paper to accommodate the watermark.

It's sad that many clubs who ban floating baits do so only to deter the ducks. IMO, it rather sends the wrong message out to the non-angling public. My canal fishing is regularly interrupted by canal bboats and canoes, by comparison, even a flock of canada geese are no problem!

I've been catching carp in the canal, which seem to put up an altogether more robust account of themselves than their lake-dwelling relatives. They also tend to move in shoals, so it's a case of releasing them away from the rest of the shoal - assuming they haven't scattered. On the canal, it's definitely a case of location- and time of day at that location. When it's warm, they like to be up in the water by the sluice head - I assume it's because of the movement and oxygen content of the water. Ironically, when it's like that, they won't be interested in feeding.

A mate of mine wanted a camper van, so I suggested he painted it pink.