Steve Burke

I'd add that female perch grow bigger than males and so the best time to catch a really big perch is in March or April, just before spawning.

In this country male perch put on about 10% of their weight as they fill with spawn, females about 20 to 25%. They then drop sharply back to roughly their pre-spawn weight, before more slowly gaining weight in the Summer and Autumn.. Like many species, female perch are usually heaviest in Spring just before they spawn, males (because they don't increase as much at spawning time) are usually heaviest in the Autumn.

A great many rods are, or at least were, built on Harrison blanks and rebadged. Indeed I did this myself in my early days supplying custom-built rods. Having said that, some of mine were on non-standard blanks, including a few I had a hand in designing after cutting up bits of glass and carbon and playing around with them. The later blanks I had made were all exclusives made to my specs but, contrary to popular belief, weren't made by Harrisons. However Harrisons make an excellent product and I can unreservedly recommend them. I don't recall Harrisons ever producing fibreglass blanks. Conoflex, North Western and, although I never used them myself Fibatube (made by Hardys), were the main makers of glass blanks I remember from my time. Neither Conoflex nor North Western now make blanks. Doing up an old rod first is a great idea. These days you probably won't save money building your own rod as opposed to having it custom-built for you. However it is a lot of fun and very satisfying. I built my first rod from a kit that I bought in the late 60s from Walker's of Hythe. Anyone remember them?

For those of you who need to book next year's holidays before Xmas the 2017 Wingham Fish-In will be from 7am Sat May 6th to 7pm Mon May 8th. As usual Peggy will be doing her Mega BBQs on the Sunday and Monday lunchtimes. Please note though I won't be taking bookings until about mid-April.

As we're now coming into the pike season here in the South I've been asked to bring this up to the top. I hope it proves useful I'd add that I've made 1 change to the rig. Instead of a small Duolock at the end of the reel line I've started experimenting with a Gemini clip as used in sea fishing. This is because I've changed the reel line to braid and this has a heavier breaking strain. The Gemini clip coupled with the braid then gives me the option of using stronger hooks, although I've no real need to do so at Wingham. The weakest part of my pike rigs is always the hooks. I want these to spring open if I get snagged and need to pull free. That way I don't leave a baited hook stuck in the snag where it could subsequently be taken by a pike that is then likely to be tethered. Some of you may remember my pike blog from some seasons back when I twice in 1 day got snagged but successfully got everything back. See http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/80704-a-grand-day-out/ . The following season's blog, again with a lot of fishing a sunken float paternoster, is at http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/1064490-wingham-pike-survey/ .

America is now the laughing stock of the world. Unfortunately it's no laughing matter. The world is going to be set back a great many years in tackling climate change by one of the worst polluting countries in the world. I gather that young Americans voted very much against Trump. It was the same in the UK with most of the younger generation voting remain. However Trump being elected is even worse than Brexit. The damage to the planet from delaying tackling climate change could be irreversible. But then the older generation won't be around then, will they?

Thanks, Phone.

Since stocking pike in 1999 we've not had a problem with lots of small carp. Additionally cormorants keep the numbers down. Only the odd carp makes it through every year. Having said that, we have more fry than usual this summer so may have to take some action next year.

Cheers, Ken.

Cheers, John. Good to hear, Big Cod and Sportsman, that I'm not alone in my views.

Cheers, John.

Cheers, Barry.

Barry, I've no intention of commenting whatsoever on anything other than the point I raised and what follows directly from it. My main reason for posting was just to put my viewpoint on record. Not only do I not have the time, unfortunately a health problem means I can't spend very long at the computer at the moment.

Thank you, Barry, your reply illustrates my point beautifully! Whilst the charter boat situation is obviously very important to you personally it pales into insignificance in the historical context. In fact I doubt it'll even rate a footnote in the history books. Neither will the EU rule regarding the banning of chemicals to control the weed at Wingham, that's given me and others a great deal of grief and a huge amount of extra work. Despite this I looked at the wider picture and voted remain. John, unlike you I'm more of an optimist. Many years ago human families formed tribes then villages. Next came city states and then countries, and now groups of countries. The world is getting smaller, and this process is being accelerated by the invention of the internet. I accept that for many, especially amongst the older generation, this progression is too fast. However few from the days of empire would have thought that colonialism would be considered the outdated concept it is today. In the same way I believe that future generations will feel the same way about nationalism, although as I posted before I don't expect many to share that view - yet! It may be that your pessimistic outlook will turn out correct; certainly I agree that the human race faces immense problems. But that doesn't mean we should give up as then we'll surely fail. Over the course of history we've already made great progress. It might need a common threat like climate change or some other disaster to pull the human race together, but pull together we'll eventually do. I just hope it's sooner rather than later.

I've had neither the time nor the energy to follow this topic so don't know whether the main point I'm about to post has been mentioned. However I do want to nail my colours to the mast. I'm not normally a political animal but feel extremely strongly about this issue. My vote was for remain. Quite apart from the adverse economic and unemployment consequences, quite apart from the difficulty of achieving access to free trade with the EU without being able to restrict immigration, we also have to think about our children, our grandchildren and even our great-grandchildren. Few realise that as a consequence of this vote the whole world, and not just the UK, is likely to be a very different place, not for just a decade but for a century. With the problems that the planet faces we need to come together not split apart. For this reason I feel the UK leaving the EU is a backward step. When history looks back at this time I fervently hope that it doesn't find that the UK (or perhaps what's left of it!) lost out economically without getting the reduction in immigration that the Brexit voters want. I hope that history also records that the early 21st century was the time of the death throws of nationalism, and that after that the human race finally matured. Few will agree with me now but I'm convinced that future generations will look back at nationalism as an archaic concept. By then hopefully we'll have a world government to deal with the worldwide problems the human race faces. I therefore want to go on record to say to my children, grandchildren and their as yet unborn grandchildren that here was at least one of the baby boomers that thought of their future.

Hope all goes well and this becomes your final home!

Wow's the right word! Thanks, Dave.

Good luck to you both.

Dave, Roundup is illegal to use in an aquatic environment.

Agreed, Steve! There are some clues though. For instance, if the wind changes (or more correctly the undertow, as strangely the too don't always change together) then a different part of a given swim may switch on.

Sorry, I'm not qualified to give advice on their removal as it's not a problem I've come across myself. I very much doubt you'll get permission to use chemicals as their use is now illegal in nearly every case.

I think it very much depends on the water and in particular its topography. I suspect that fish will be moved more by wind on a featureless water than a weedy one with numerous bars like Wingham. Additionally the water can be too warm or contain too little dissolved oxygen; so fishing into a warm wind, whilst right more often or not isn't always so. I well remember catching a then PB tench at Wingham on the back of the wind. This was after a heatwave. The new NE wind probably blew the warm water, that the fish weren't comfortable in, down the other end of the lake. I'm also convinced that, at least on waters like Wingham that are full of features, that some of the fish are resident in 1 area, others are nomadic. The latter seem to be bigger too. See this article of mine for more on the subject:http://winghamfisheries.co.uk/articles/big-nomadic-tench-by-steve-burke/.

When I was setting up Wingham Bruno Broughton advised me on no account plant pygmy/dwarf water lilies. He said that ordinary water lilies are difficult enough to control but those are a devil!

As a naturalist and conservationist I don't see magpies as pests. They're predators that's all. And predators have young to feed as well. Nature needs predators as otherwise we'll be overrun with blackbirds and robins. Nature sees to it that there's plenty of songbirds - that's why they breed in such numbers. We may prefer songbirds to predators but who are we to judge? In other words there's a balance. Almost always when the balance is upset the culprit is man - the biggest predator of all!

Wow!