Chris Playle

Macky1, Thanks once more the info. You're a real diamond, M8 Went for a goosy at the beach at Mappleton last night. Nice section of coast. There were a few blokes fishing, mostly casting well beyond the area where the waves were breaking and one bloke with a spinner. Don't know if anyone was catching or not. Was in a rush to get back up to Hornsea for Chippy at Sullivans Think I'm just about set up now. Really looking forward to it. Thanks again for the info peeps. Let you know how I get on. Chris.

Macky Hopefully going on the beach after the Bass this weekend. Just one last question, though. Bait, or more specifically, Ragworm. I've read up on how to collect Ragworm and if I can't collect any there's always the tackle shop. The only thing buggin me is that there are some places on the East Coast where digging for Ragworm might be illegal. I've rung the council and they just passed me between contact numbers like a hot potato, the local tackle shops don't seem to have a clue either. Maybe someone on here might know areas along the East Coast where digging for Rag/Lug might be illegal. Many thanks. Chris.

Macky, Thanks for the PM with the info. Much appreciated . Quite looking foward to the change of scenery to the usual still waters and rivers. Once again, thanks to all those who took the time to reply in a constructive and adult manner and thanks to Macky for taking the time and trouble to PM me with info which has helped a great deal. Chris.

Sorry for delayed reply. Needless to say I was out on the rivers yesterday. I'll compose E-Mail tonight. A bit busy with work at the mo (punishment for taking the glorious 16th off, I suppose). Thanks for the offer of help Macky1. I'll be in touch shortly. Chris.

Hoping you guys on here can help a bit. I've been coarse fishing for quite some time and I'm looking to branch out into sea fishing. I was chatting to a mate of mine at the weekend about Bass fishing as I fancy giving it a go. To be honest, I won't have a clue first time I go so I'm gathering info hoping you guys can point me in the right direction. I have access to the East Coast between Whitby and Spurn Point so where would be the best place to start? At which point in the tide cycle is the best time for Bass ?? What method would be used for catching ?? Lures ?? Surface or Diving ?? Big lead on the bottom with live/dead bait ?? What main line would you recommend ??? How strong and what material ?? I currently have a 2.5TC carp rod as the strongest rod I own. Would this suffice as a rod to use or should I be looking at getting a specialist sea rod. Bearing in mind I'll probably only be going sea fishing a couple of times a year. I'll probably end up putting the majority of any fish (if any) I catch back in the water but if I may try cooking my own fresh caught fish. If this is so, are there any size limits on killing your catch to take home to cook ?? Any other info would be very much appreciated. Sorry if these questions are a bit on the noddy side but I'd rather ask a few daft questions on here and know what I'm doing rather than make a total pigs-ear of it and have a really bad day of it. Many thanks for any help offered. Chris.

Tyke, Better to be a bit gutted now than alot gutted after a trip to the local Magistrates and a fine + costs. Not long to wait now for the open season. Got June 16th booked off as a day on Hols...Woo Hoo...the only thing is I have no idea where I'm going yet So many places and only one me... :confused: Tight Lines. Chris.

Tyke, June 1st USED to be the case when Yorkshire Water Authority controlled the old Rod And Line licencing. But, now the Rod And Line licencing is controlled by the EA it's June 16th everywhere. Drive over Hull Bridge at Tickton (E. Yorks) the other evening and someone was fishing the River Hull . Amazing how some people can blatently ignore the close season rule. Chances are he probably didn't have a licence either. Unfortunately I wasn't in a position (running late - as always) to go and tell him. Tight Lines. Chris.

Steve, An excellent article ! To be honest, I'd forgotten that you had posted them when I posted my question about hunting down a particular P.B. Perch that got away from the camera Perch Thread Actually reading through the Commercial Fishery Perch article sparked my mind off to what I've been doing differently. On the original trip when I caught the Perch I laid down a bed of fine breadcrumb which clouded up while sinking. This will have attracted a load of small fish and ultimately the big stripey !!! All previous tries have been without crumb and just a load of Maggots and Worms....BINGO !!! Going again on Thursday night....fingers crossed. Brilliant Steve....absolutely brilliant...cheers for the advice !!! Tight Lines. Chris.

Tony Blair : The fact that the chicken also crossed the road earlier in the day and no-one noticed is absolutely astonishing. To conduct a perfect u-turn on it's "crossing the road" policy without anyone noticing is an astounding media coup. I will be calling George later on today to see if we can have him in the cabinet... Green Cross Code Man: Well, the chicken didn't look left and right before he crossed. Remember kids "always Use The Green Cross Code". Mystic Meg: I see a chicken, and a road. The number 56, a bus and the words "Truro via Cambourne and Redruth". The word "Spatchcock" will be significant toooooooooo. Tight Lines Chris.

Thanks for all the info. As always, a mine of useful stuff. My Perch would have been about the same size as the first one pictured in the article posted by Lid. Certainly bigger than the usual 2-3" long Perch I usually catch Anyhow, the only way to find out how much it weighed is to get out there and try and catch it again or even better it. I've got some more methods to try and, hopefully, a photo (and correct weight) will be forthcoming. Once again, thanks for the info peeps. Tight Lines. Chris.

Me and my fishing buddy went fishing the other night. It wasn't the best of weather, the wind was blowing a gale across the pond and the going was slow. Had two fish all evening, one was a Tench of about 5lb which was OK but the other was a personal best Perch of about 2-2.5lb (didn't get chance to measure or weigh it but I'd say it was about 10 or 11 inches long so if anyone can figure the weight out from there...). It was a cracking fish (well I was pleased with it anyway). It was caught on 4 bronze maggots fished hard on the bottom (I was fishing for Tench) and caught around dusk. Wanted to get a piccie of it and the camera was in the car. My mate kept the fish in the water in the landing net until I got back with the Digi camera but when we pulled it back out to take the photo and put the landing net on the staging it went flap, flap, plop right back into the water and swam away. Curses said I, well I said something a little more coarse and not to be repeated on here... I've tried the same method around the same location to try and catch it again but to no avail. Are there any other tried and tested Perch methods you can suggest. I know Perch will go for a nice juicy worm (any particular type?) or even small livebait (how do I go about presentation/rigs and bait species?). Is dusk/early morning the best time for Perch. Correct me if I'm wrong but don't big Perch prefer lowish light conditions for hunting? It was such a nice looking fish, the colours of the stripes was almost perfect and that bleeding great big mouth it had looked like it belonged on a basking shark let alone a Perch...Only thing is....big Perch, big spines...still got the cuts to prove it...it wouldn't stop wriggling. I'd like to hook the little begger again (even if it was to even the score between me and it). Any advice you can give on targeting big Perch would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks... Tight Lines. Chris.

Who cares ???????? Probably the same the people who cared enough to write to to OfCom and complain about the advert on the BBC with Johnny Vegas sat in a fridge. While vast majority of people (myself included)will respect the fact that Matt is quite welcome (and legally old enough) to smoke, some people will see that he is, however, a public figure in the angling world and also has quite a firm fanbase in young anglers. A young angler (who maybe looks up to Matt as a role model) might see the packet of fags there and see smoking as something they have to do to catch the fish that Matt does. Just like the possibility is there that kids might take all the food out of the fridge to sit in it and be just like Johnny Vegas. Personally a packet of fags on the telly wouldn't make me go out and buy some just like Linda Barker would never make me think I had to buy furniture or electrical goods, or a whole host of sporting celebs would influence me into buying a particular soft drink/ jeans/ sunglasses/ sportswear..etc..But the point is there are people out there who WOULD be influenced by such things. That's why advertising exsists. Solely on the purpose of "if you have our product, your lives will be so much better". Now, if you want the perfect example of smoking creating the illusion of a glamourous, rich lifestyle and influencing youngsters, watch the latest Beyonce Knowles music video (recently seen on Sattelite Music Channels/CD:UK and alike) of Naughty Girl.....watch it and you'll see. And when is this video shown? Music TV programmes which are predomenently viewed by under 16's....nuff said. Fair do's to Matt, he can do what he likes, but the producers should tighten up a bit on the editing in the cutting room. Tight Lines. Chris.

Just been trolling round some of the older posts and found this one. Found this website a few weeks ago. It's a UK Spherics plotter. Updated every 60 seconds. Net Weather Spherics Plot Another good tool for predicting storms is the CAPE and Lifted Index - click on CAPE and LIFTED INDEX ANALYSE for recent CAPE & L.I. plots for europe. Goes out to 144 hours in advance. A high CAPE (colour - Blue = Low CAPE / Pink = High CAPE) and low L.I. (number 12 = Stable / -5 VERY unstable) means there's a very good chance of thunderstorms. To see how CAPE & L.I. correlate to Spherics (Lightning) check the CAPE and L.I. plots from the site above and then check the Spherics plots for Europe on Wetterzentrale - Spherics Plots - Still Wetterzentrale - Spherics - Animated Happy Core Punching dudes.... Chris.

Dammit...knew I'd been going wrong somewhere. Tight Lines. Chris.

Elton, Might be a bit far to travel for a service but here's the link anyhow... This link gives you the Seat Dealers homepage. Click on the North East area on the map and on the list under Hull is listed Trenton Hull. Tried to post the direct link but it won't work for some reason. Tight Lines. Chris.

My Leon will be 2 years old on 11th March. I've done nearly 60,000 miles in it and it's still going as good as the day I got it. Had a spot of bother with the speakers in the first year but the Seat dealer dealt with it with no fuss and were pretty quick about it too. Also had a problem with the Cat-Converter. The dealer replaced it under warranty within 2 days. It's been serviced on the dot every 10,000 miles and every time it goes in for a service it comes back cleaned INSIDE AND OUT. Whenever it's in the garage for a service, it's only in for about half a day and they dealer always rings on the time they said they would. The staff are always helpful on the phone and know exactly what's going on with the car and most of all seem happy to speak to you when you call. I can't say a bad thing about either the cars or the service we get from our dealer. So much so I've asked for another Leon (hopefully, the TDI in Black) in a years time when the 3 year lease is up on this one. Might just be that you got a crap dealer Elton. Tight Lines. Chris.

Peter, I've found a few hours in the open air with a pair of binoculars watching the water has saved me a fortune on groundbait and not buying a fish finder...LOL. Most my wintertime isn't spent fishing but wandering round my local ponds with a digital camera. Take piccies of all the pegs in the pond and then on another day I'll take the feature finding lead, marker float and prints of the pegs down to the pond and do a spot of depth sounding. Then when summer comes it's binoculars and polarising sunglasses out for some fish and weedbank spotting from a high vantage point plotting rising fish/weed/bubbles...etc. Mind you, if boats were allowed on the ponds, a fish/depth finder would save a hell of alot of hard work though.... Tight lines, Chris.

Ian, Particualarly, on colder days, you'll not go far wrong in remembering "little and often". Even if it's just three to six maggots every five minutes. Also, while it's still cold, try using breadflake instead of maggots. Whizz up some bread in a food mixer until it resembles very fine crumbs. When you get to the bank, before you set up, mix your crumb with water so that it only just binds together (but still feels dry to the touch) and leave it to settle. Set your gear up and then go back to the crumb mix. The crumb will have absorbed all the water and you'll have to add a tad more to get it to bind again. If you can get hold of one, buy a spray bottle to add water to your mix (I think they're less than £1 from ASDA/HOMEBASE/GARDEN CENTRES etc...). This will allow you to get an even covering of water on the mix. Before you use the crumb, pass it through a riddle to get rid of any lumps, this will also add air to the mix and make the crumb mix nice and fluffy. For hookbait, use cheap bread from NETTO or ASDA. Bread that is quite dense. Steam each slice over the steam from a kettle or in the veg steamer for a minute or so then roll it flat with a rolling pin. This will help it stay on the hook alot better and prevent it from fluffing up and falling off the hook. Invest in a good set of bread punches (varying sizes) use as small a hook and as light a line as you feel you can comfortably get away with. Shot your pole float with shot at regular intervals down the line to the hooklength (shirt button style). When the float hits the water you will be able to see it cock to the correct level in several stages. Take a coulple of times to get used to what time interval the stages are and how many before the float is fully cocked. This will help you see drop bites. If the float stops cocking at any of the stages then you have a bite. If you have a regular size pole cup, leave it at home until it starts to get a bit warmer. Instead, get hold of an old 35mm film container and tape it to the end of your pole. If you want to, punch a few holes in the bottom for when you do use maggots. This will enable you to feed while the rig is in the water. You can use the film can to feed a couple of marble size balls of crumb mix (if you mix the crumb dry then it will explode in a fine cloud of extremely small crumbs as soon as it hits the water, this is less likely to fill the fish up quickly) or if you put 6 or so maggots in, they have to crawl through the holes in the bottom of the film can before plopping in the water. This way, there's only a few freebies going in in a steady stream rather than a load in one go. Also remember that, because it is cold, alot of the fish will still be quite near to the bottom of the pond where the water is a degree or two warmer than near the surface. Let your rig settle right down and once it has settled, leave it there for a few minutes before re-shipping out. Don't think that the breadflake method will only catch you tiddlers. Some large Roach and small carp will quite happily take a flake of bread early on in the year. One of the best baits for Tench early-on at my local pond is a lump of bread on a smallish hook. Hope this has given you some ideas to work with and I hop it will improve your catch rate. Tight Lines (or elastics as the case may be). Chris.

Because in a great many cases Cormorants are NOT the problem. As is the case in most "natural" disasters, it's the intervention of man on nature that is the catalyst for such events. Why do you think it is, RUDD, that the birds are coming inland in the first place ?? Don't know ??? Take this simple scenario. It's Friday night, it's chippy night. The chippy at the end of the road is closed. Nightmare. You're starving....hang on, you remember that the chippy three streets away is open. It's not your regular chippy but your hungry and it's not THAT far away...and to be honest the fish from there are so big and tasty...What do you do ?? It's the same with the Cormorants. The chippy at the end of their road is closed....they're looking elsewhere. In terms of looking at the big picture, I think you'll find you ARE looking at the bigger picture.....only you're in the wrong gallery. The RSPB will have perfromed detailed surveys on the Cormorants to make sure they're not pushing out any native birds who might also eat fish (Herons and Grebes spring to mind). At this present moment in time, I don't think there appears to be a threat from the Cormorants since the RSPB haven't issued any order for a cull of the birds. They're probably diverting resources to putting right what man has been doing wrong to the sea and estuaries for years in an effort to attract the birds back to their native habitats. Probably another reason why the RSPB hasn't issued an order to cull Cormorants is that, most of the angling press and those who are fundamentally misinformed appear to have a burning hatred of the Cormorant and any order to cull will result in a free for all. Every muppet who can hold a gun and shoot Cormorants (and those who haven't a clue what a Cormorant looks like but will shoot it if it flies just in case it was a Cormorant) will be out filling the sky with lead. Very few birds will live to tell the tale. The tables will turn and the Cormorant will become endangered. Tight lines. Chris.

The East Yorkshire Coast is free of snow at the moment. Not as cold as I was expecting this morning. Temp was only -0.5C this morning. Was expecting -2 or -3. Bad driving home last night at around 11PM, thick freezing fog. Probably why the frost looked like a -3C or -4C frost rather than -0.5C this morning. Film camera is loaded with film, digi camera is loaded with big memory card, fresh fully charged batteries all round. The Skeetex boots are warming next to the radiator. Fleeces and neoprene fingerless gloves are on the other radiator. Just hope the snow lasts until the weekend or the village gets cut off so I can't get in to work. Happy sledging. Chris.

Thanks to those who replied. Peter, that's one of the main reasons I'm undecided about using Braid. I too have dragged out yards of the stuff when preparing and raking Tench swims. I've lost count of the amount of times I've taken a crows nest of braid (and mono for that matter) home to put in the bin. Not mine, may I add, but discarded by other anglers. I suppose alot of this is down to angling practice (not tying on a shockleader of a lower breaking strain mono for instance and tying the hook direct to the braid main line). That's why I asked you guys for an opinion. I know the stuff can be very strong indeed and my main concern is using in a safe and responsible manner so as to present as little danger to either the fish or wildlife as possible. I'm still a little undecided though. The advantages over mono are great but I don't think I know enough about braid to look at using it yet. I presume that with the difference in material used in braid, that some of the knots used on mono cannot be applied to braid. I think I'll do a bit more reading up on it before I commit myself to filling a spool. Once again, thanks for the replies guys. A mine of information as ever. Tight lines. Chris.

Myself and my fishing buddy are thinking of moving over to using braid for main line. What are the advantages of using braid, what are the disadvantages? Obviously, braid will be better for using feature finding leads. But does braid have shortfalls compared to mono ?? Are there any special conciderations to take into account when using braid such as diameter of the rings on the rod and reel type. I've heard that braid has to be loaded on the reel differently to mono and can be quite good at giving a birds nest round the spool if not loaded correctly. Most importantly, what are the safety aspects of using braid in terms of fish welfare. Is braid more adrasive than mono against a fishes body and does brain hold out better when rubbed against snags such as underwater branches and stone bottom lakes? Your thoughts would be most appreciated. Many thanks to those that reply. Chris.

I think I've just figured out what I'd like for Christmas.... Chris.

And that, my dear old Chesters, is why the Government are wasting millions of pounds a year in tax payers money. Handing it out to wasters who have no intention of giving anything back and neglecting to support those that REALLY need the money. GREAT (??) Britain ??? My ars....er bottom... :mad: 9 Times out of ten you're quite right to blame the government. Chris.

Yep....Your phone is comming to the end of it's warranty period.They know, you know.... On a more serious point. If you've got a mate with the same model mobile then swap batteries with him for a day or two. See if the fault transfers. I had exactly the same problem with a Panasonic mobile I had. A new battery did the trick. Chris.