Chris Playle

Stuck in a West facing office. No air-con, no outside jobs in to go out and do, and no fishing :mad: Can't wait 'til half five. You ain't gonna see me for dust Tight Lines. Chris.

You will find that history is written by those who get their version of a story out as quick as possible. Whether it is the right story or not is a different matter. Why do you think George Bush is still President of the US and Phony Tony's still in charge over here ??? They've learnt to get their version of the story out alot faster than anyone else Tight Lines. Chris.

I think the FOX PS Micron Series take the same battery as my Maver T115 alarm. This is a 23A battery. Last time I looked in the local tackle shop a FOX Branded Battery (which was a GP Alkaline battery in a FOX Labelled package) was £4.99. You may be able to get them from Maplin, Tandy, Halfords or any motor spares shop for alot less. We can buy them in at work from a company called CPC for £1.60 for a card of 5 (£0.32p per battery!!!) but I'm not sure if CPC are trade only. How much are Fox making on these batteries ??? :mad: You can certainly give them a go at this web site address CPC GP Alkaline Batteries and the order code for the 23a battery is BT0087166 £1.62+VAT)for a strip of 5. If CPC aren't forthcoming, the 23A battery is used in quite a few car alarm keyfob remotes so a motor spares shop may be your best bet. Hope this is of help. Tight Lines. Chris.

Anyone ever used a Masterline John Wilson Signature Avon Quiver rod for margin fishing for carp? The rod is 11ft (or 13ft with extension) and a 1 1/4 lb test curve. I'll either be fishing crust/chum mixer on the top in among a load of lillies or a big lump of flake on the bottom lift style. What sort of initial kick do Carp give on the strike when fishing close range? Am I likely to be giving out line like there's no tomorrow and what do you reckon the chances are of hit and hold to a certain degree on a 15lb/20lb plus Common Carp? Would I be better allowing the fish a bit of space to run ??? Will the JW Avon be strong enough or should I keep using the 2 1/2lb test curve carp rod instead? The main reason I want to use the JW Avon is because it's nice and light and I can fish it at 11ft which will be perfect for close in. The carp rod is a Ron Thompson 12ft one and is a bit heavy and thick to be doing delicate stuff like margin fishing. Advice would be great and thanks to those who reply Tight Lines. Chris.

A bit of a naff night really. Got stuck in traffic on the way home because some dim-witted idiot can't learn to use a roundabout the way they instruct you to in the highway code. When I got down to the pond my favourite peg had been taken so I had to fish a peg I hardly knew. Got set up and cast out to where I thought the Tench would be, plenty of fish topping and bubbles comming up. Got there at just gone 7 and packed up at just gone 10 without a single bite all evening. The most exciting thing that happened was the sunset. Anyway. Not to worry. There's plenty more Tench fishing days left Tight Lines. Chris.

True, true. But then again, if it's a commercial water then they're more likely to do it so that the fish are hungry all the time and are more likely to bite when presented with a hooked bait. They wouldn't want lazy, full fish not biting would they??? Tight Lines Chris.

Good luck. I'm out the door like a bullet at 5:30 when work finishes. The gear is all ready, the corn's defrosted, the bread should be perfect, got the brown crumb and molassine meal again pre mixed and in the fridge. Gonna catch me a big green submarine (or three...or four...maybe more ) Got a real good feeling about tonight. I can feel it in me bones... Don't forget to take a camera Tight lines. Chris.

John, Sorry for the delayed reply. Meant to reply the other day but work got in the way...it was the end of lunchtime Molassine Meal - Not sure what the base ingredient (looks like a bran based meal) is but needless to say it's loaded with molasses. Very sticky and sickly sweet smelling. A quick look on GOOGLE brings up a load of Equestrian websites and the meal is used as a horse feed suppliment. Sampling a few of the other site brought up by the search reveals it can also be used as a dog food supliment too. The meal mixes very well with brown crumb and the smell the two make is quite strong. I initially mixed it 1Kg Brown Crumb to 1/2Kg Molassine Meal. I thought this would be strong enough to attract any Tench in the area. And it was. If you want to give it a go, try your local pet food supplier or equestrian supplier. It certainly beats trying to mix liquid molasses into your groundbait. I haven't tested it thoroughly and have only used it once, but first impressions were that it certainly got the Tench interested and held them there. The bubbles kept dying off but the fish were still there. Then the bubbles would start again after about 10 mins. I'll certainly be giving it another go later on this week. Tight Lines. Chris.

Thanks for the replies. Elton, I have already comprised a letter to Parish council as the Councillors, in the minutes of the last council meeting published on the web site, are "commited to developers providing affordable houseing within the village". I don't hold out much hope there though as the developer in question is well in with several councillors, as is always the case in a small (but getting bigger) village such as ours. AJP, English Nature were my first choice for the wildlife protection aspect of things. All I have to do not is evoke enough interest from them to investigate further. Chesters, We have already seen it happen with the developer here. Get access for a couple of houses, build, now that you have access the sky is the limit. That's the way ther get round the Parish Council. A few houses don't matter. But once you have access there's no limit to what you can do and the Parish can't go back on their decision. The main thing that gets me is the fact that, gradually, all the meadow and wild areas round the village are being build on. The wildlife is either being eradicated or pushed into a corner. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks once again Tight Lines Chris.

Dear all, It's very rare that I post in here but I need a little advice on something. OK here are the details. A local housing developer has applied for planning permission to build on a plot of land near my house. To do this, they will have to gain access via the end of the cul-de-sac where I live. The developer in quaestion has sweet-talked two residents in the street to enable him to buy land and knock down outhouses to make room for a new section of road for access to new houses. Planning notice went up in the street a few days ago saying that the developer had applied for planning permission to do this. Now here is the twist. The recent application is for just 2 houses. But, further south to these proposed houses is a paddock where approx 50 of these modern shoe-box/no garden "houses" could be built. Once access is gained for the 2 houses, the developer has access for the 50 houses. As it is, living in the street is a nice quiet affair. No noise. Little traffic and it's grand. But, if the houses are build, what was once a cul-de-sac will become a through road. Not only will this attract more people into the village, also more criminals. With all the new houses going up elswhere, crime in the village has risen sharply. Also, it will pose as a safety hazzard for the kids who play in the cul-de-sac. There is no playground over this side of the village. Also, if the paddock is build on, this will have a detrimantal effect on local wildlife as the paddock is a hunting ground for Owls. Bats roost nearby and we are lucky to have quite a substantial small bird population nesting round the area including tree sparrows which, if my memory serves me correctly, are a dwindling species in England. Can anyone give me any tips on what action to take to get this application stopped? Out of a street of 17 houses, there are only 2 people for it, those getting their gardens dug up and taking the money. All the other residents in the street are going to be fomally opposing the development in writing to the council but I was wondering what else could be done and what organisations are available to ask for help. Many thanks for any replies given. Tight Lines. Chris.

I can finally say my Tench season is well and truely underway !!! Got a carpet of Brown Crumb and Mollasine Meal down in the swim. Chucked in a full tin of Green Giant. Lobbed the float out (lift method, two lumps of corn on a size 10) and sat back and enjoyed a the fresh evening air. Nothing happening until about 9:00 PM when the bubbles came up. Had to check to see if anyone was throwing in the Alka Seltzer there were that many bubbles. Then the bubbles stopped and off went the float towards the nearest lillies !!! A nice fat Male Tinca in the net a few minutes later. Weighed in at just over 5lb. Between 9PM and 10PM two Tench in the net (the other Tench was just short of 5Lb - Another Male), two lost in weed and one lost 'cos the hook bent straight. Got stocked up on better hooks, Brown Crumb, Molassine Meal and Corn. Guess what I'm doing tonight??? Tight Lines. Chris

Well said Peter. Unfortunately, some younger anglers have fished for nothing but carp and wouldn't recognise a Roach, Rudd, or Perch if they caught one. Before some of the younger posters get upset at that comment, I would like to point out that I said SOME, not all. Some youngsters are very good anglers and can be a credit to the sport. Tight Lines. Chris.

People, Now that the River season is underway... I noted this in CATCH Spring 2003 edition. For those who might not know, CATCH is a free paper produced by the EA. quote: Originally printed in CATCH Magazine - Page 9 Environment Agency: Selected text from article... Under the heading LOGGING THEIR MOVEMENTS Anglers are being urged to add logbooks to their kit by the EA, as part of a major fish recording project. The Agency's National Salmon And Trout Fisheries Centre wants to hear from people interested in taking part in a national recording scheme for Grayling. The Project is being run with the Grayling Society and aims to monitor the perfomance of Grayling fisheries across England And Wales... ...Anglers who decide to take part will be asked to record simple details in a logbook supplied by the Agency. The logbook will then be sent by FREEPOST to the Agency at the end of the fishing season. The Agency will return the books when the information has been noted... ...for further information or to recieve a logbook, please contact Richard Cove or Rob Evans, NSTFC, Environment Agency, Chester Rd, Buckley, CH7 3ZZ. Or E-Mail richard.cove@environment-agency.gov.uk or rob.evans@environment-agency.gov.uk So, if some of you wish to produce a logbook, this might be a good idea. Might help the EA out a bit too Tight Lines. Chris.

Count me in then. Was lucky enough to witness a tornado touch down at North Ferriby (near the Humber Bridge) in May 1999. Unfortunately I was driving on the A63 when the thing cut across the road about a mile infront of me and drenched the road in hail and rain. All traffic stopped as you couldn't see anything Since that day I have been fascinated with weather and storms. I'd love to move further South as there seems to be countless more storms than up here. I've been counting up the pennies for a trip to Texas to do some serious storm chasing. I don't think I'll get the Missus within a hundred miles of a storm though so I'll have to make do with what we get over here. Mind you, we had three tornadoes/waterspouts last year. Now that I've got the camera sussed out I can record better pictures of storms and cloud cover. Looking forward to August/September time when the lightning really gets geared up over this way. Tight Lines. Chris

I ain't ever seen Heather Small riding a bucking bronco in just her skimpies...a bum better than Kylies? Never..... Tight Lines. Chris

Apache, It's not the camaera body that takes the photos. It's the lens, the film and the user. The lens provides the means to focus. Good optics, good image focusing. The film provides the means to record the image. Good film stock, good quality prints and slides. You can have the hottest optics and use Velvia film all your life, but the shot won't come off if the person on the shutter ain't got a clue. Rudd, That's a nice camera you have there. Take the time to use it properly and it will give you hours of pleasure later in life. It's not just a single picture that stirs one memory, a single picture can stir many memories. The packeage I bought was a little less expensive. A Minotla Dynax 404Si 28-80mm. Bought an extra 75-300mm lens for wildlife work. Getting a 2x teleconverter to take the 300mm lens up to 600mm (summer project is photographing kingfishers). Made a 15m remote cable for the camera using old computer network cable (a 5M Minolta cable cost £50 from Jessops). Tripod and various filters/accesories. The buttons and knobs on mine were a bit daunting at first. The main thing I was worried about was processing costs for "practicing". Buying cheaper film ofset this a little. Finally I have the confidance to be buying more expensive film as (after 18 months owning the thing) I can safely say I know how to use my camera Good luck with the picture taking. Keep yeour eye open on Eltons Angling Pictures web site as I'm gradually scanning piccies in to post up there. I'll be moving up from Agfa film to Fuji NPH, NPC, Reala and Velvia so the quality of the prints/slides should improve enough to give good results on the scanner. Tight Lines. Chris.

You bet! Had that day booked off since January!!! I blanked. But, so did everyone else. The simple pleasure of a three day weekend, a glorious sunny day, and sitting in the fresh air on the riverbank was enough for me to say I enjoyed it. Tight Lines Chris.

Rudd, If you like watching storms, then why not try photographing them? It's not as difficult as it sounds and the gear you need can be picked up cheap second hand. Car boot sales and second hand shops will have gear you can use for around 30-40 quid. Take a look at this site on how to photograph lightning. Lightning Photography Techniques Even with basic gear, the results can be good enough to sell to local papers especially if you think about the shot a bit and include a local landmark. Most newspapers will buy them as stock photos. Also, it's good to show the photos to friends. There's nothing quite like photographing lightning, showing the pictures to friends and them looking in awe at the photos. The only thing is, practice with cheap film first. You get alot of black frames with nothing in them. I'm still practicing and out of 4 rolls of film I have one I'm moderately happy with even though the settings were all wrong on the camera and the foreground was vastly underexposed. Tight Lines. Chris.

Hope it comes up this way. Been waiting for a biggie. Camera is already rigged up for lightning work. Light southerly winds. Big mass of cloud to the North of Norwich. Might see some sparks later if it doesn't belly flop over The Wash Fingers crossed. Tight Lines. Chris.

Frodo, Try formulating a baiting campaign. Take some time to observe the pond at night or late evening. If the moon is up, this will make the job alot easier as you'll be looking for fish rolling on the top. This will give you a better idea of where the fish are at certain times. Bream and Tench have certain routes they will patrol along. Take a stiff rod, marker float and a feature finding lead and map out a few swims. Making note where the gullies, clear areas between weedbeds and shelves are in the swim. Work somewhere along the lines of 4 to 6ft deep for Tench, slightly deeper (to around 10 to 15ft) for Bream. Rudd will more likely be up in the water as will Roach. Overhanging trees with deep gullies and underwater features for Perch and Pike. Baiting areas should include the above meanioned areas. But, don't forget, the margins are as good a place as any if you are quiet. If the fish get used to food being in a particular place at a particular time, then they will return to the place more readily if the feed is there. Try a basic mix of brown/white breadcrumb 50/50 mix, hemp, chopped worm, casters, a few pinkies or squats, dead (freeze them or drop them in boiling water for a few seconds) red maggots, a few bronze maggots and corn. The crumb mix should be fine and break up with or just after impact with the water. The freebies should be added sparingly. Maybe a handfull of each. This should cover most of the Bream, Tench, Rudd, Perch and Roach diet in one go. Drop a few balls of groundbait in each feature in each swim every night for at least three days before fishing. Try to keep to a regular timetable. Haphazard feeding could lead to haphazard catching. Overfeeding shouldn't be too much of a problem this time of year as they'll be starving from all the days "activity" in the water but don't go throwing bucket loads in. The idea is to tempt them into feeding, not blow em up. If you get them feeding while you are fishing the swim, then is the time to top the feed up and keep them there. When fishing the swim use the baits provided in the grounbait mix. Try them all. Try combinations of them all. If bites drop off. Top the feed up a little and change hookbait. The only waters I would use boilies on would be carp waters. Bream and Tench get lazy in Carp waters and rely on the bucket loads of boiles thrown in by carpers for regular food. This breaks the usual pattern of foraging around the pond as they already have a regular supply of HNV food where they know they can easily find it. If you do wish to try the mini boilies or boilies in general, chop them up (in half for mini boilies and quarter for regular boilies) and add them to the prebaiting groundbait. Prebait a little longer with just boiles (no other mix) to get the fish used to the new food. Tight Lines. Chris.

Is there any way of telling the difference between the bubbles from feeding fish? I recognise Tench bubbles - the little pinhead bubbles are what every early morning/late evening angler loves to see come up around the float. But, sometimes there are bubbles come up like someone has just dropped a whole packet of Alka Seltzer or Junior Disprin in the swim. A big Fizz that lasts a second or two. Are these Carp or Bream? The bubbles are too small to be regular (pardon the wording) gas leaking from the bottom as these tend to be large bubbles in quite a uniform release. Having not seen Carp or Bream in a feeding frenzy, I wouldn't know Carp or Bream bubbles if I saw them. Many thanks for any replies. Tight Lines. Chris.

Hull & District Angling Association rules state no fishing between the hours of 10PM and 5AM unless you have a night permit. It's frustrating to turn up at a pond at 5AM to watch the Tench bubbles disappearing and again packing up at 10PM when they're just getting under way. :mad: What I would give to fish a Tench pond where night fishing was classed as 1hour after sunset to 1hour before dawn. Heaven. Tight Lines. Chris.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed but alot of the wildlife in and around our waterways is a bit behind schedule this year. I think alot of this might be attributed to the cold Northerly winds we had early on in the year. Although it was sunny, the bitter wind kept the water temperature down quite a bit. This has put weed growth late this year and so larvae development was also late. And so on down the line. This is probably why your carp were still spawning. I know for a fact that the Tench in the ponds where I fish on the East Coast are about a month behind in spawning. Alot of the Ducks, Coots, and Moorhens are still keeping eggs warm in nests whereas last year the chicks would have been out and about by now. One bloke I was speaking to on Market Weighton Canal said he would have been catching big Bream on the canal at his time of year, but as yet there have only been a few caught. They were only just gathering in spawning grounds ready to do the business. Again, the waterfowl are late raising young. There has been a Close Season on fishing for Coarse fish since the end of the 19th Century. Back then, more fish were killed when caught. This policy of killing fish would have been a threat to spawning. Killing fish laden with eggs would have only been detrimental to fish stocks. Hence the close season was introduced to protect rivers which weren't spacifically stocked by owners and relied on natural breeding patterns of native fish stocks. Back then, chances are, the seasons were a little more predictable than they are now. Alot of people I have spoken to agree that Winter is alot later in arriving and hence Spring, Summer and Autumn are also later in the year. Hence the breeding paterns are changing to reflect the change in seasons. Also, the seasons don't seem to be as definitive as they were. I agree in principle to the close season being in place. Alot of our Rivers (ones not owned/stocked by syndicates or clubs) still rely on the close season being in force to give the fish chance to spawn in peace. Whereas now the poliy for the vast majority of anglers is Catch And Return, I still think the fish in the rivers should be given the space to do their thing without being stressed by being caught. But, I think the EA should re-evaluate the dating of the close season as it is obvious that some fish ARE still spawning. Perhaps (dare I say it) an extension/moving of the exsisting dates. Tight Lines. Chris.

Elton, Cheers for the info As you can tell from the time of the posting I'm getting ready for a day by the pond. Sun's just coming up, the wind is dropping and I can sense a few Tench (probably a bit late for the early morning feed though ) and Bream on the cards later today. Well I hope so as there's a small wager, between me and my mate, of a 52X CD writer for the winner I hope today will bring me some good size fish to photograph. Anyways, I'll get resizing and hope to post some piccies up on Sunday/Monday. Great idea for a Web Site by the way Tight Lines. Chris

Like Chris, I would have said a 14 was a little on the small side to be using for Tench. Probably a 12 or even a 10 might suit better. Try hair rigging the corn or the meat. If they are still having problems staying on the hook, try different lengths of hair on the hook. I've found that a short hair with one lump of corn on and a lump of corn on the hook can work well. I use the Kamasan Animal hooks for Tenching and thankfully only ever lost one fish in two years due to hook failure. Might be worth giving them a go. Just one other point to note, if you are using a 2.6lb bottom then make sure you use barbless hooks. The chance of being snapped off on 2.6lb bottom is quite probable if you are fishing for Tench in a weedy swim. If the swim is weedy, I would more likely go 4lb straight through to the hook. If you're on a weedless commercial water then 2.6 would probably be OK as they can swim around all day without hitting a snag in them places. Another thing to look at might well be perfecting the lift method. Very sensative and might help you get into a fish alot quicker. If you still wish to use the waggler then watch how much you fish overdepth. Too much and you run the risk of giving the fish time to spit the hook as the float goes under. Try about 4"-6" overdepth to start and either increase this if fish are knocking the line or decrease it if the fish are still spitting the hook. Hope this helps. Tight Lines. Chris.