Angly

It's easy once you know. They are saying the reel will hold 170 metres of 0.14 millimetre diameter line, or 100 metres of 0.17 millimetre line. Using Daiwa Sensor as an example (which is typically a bit thick for it's breaking strain) 4lb line is 0.20 millimetre, so I think the spool example you gave is for a shallow match spool? General wisdom I've read states from 150-200 yards of 15lb line for pike, so that's 140-180 metres of (again, using Daiwa Sensor as an example) 0.37 millimetre line. Line diameter is usually in millimetre (mm) stated on the spool along with breaking strain. Hope that helps.

I now have a KLAA Season Ticket, so that's me sorted.

I stopped my car near the bridge just past the The Bill TV studios just last week and got out to have a good look. It's the first time I've really looked at the Wandle for years. I used to walk past it as a lad on the way to work when Connolly Leather appeared to be dumping something into it, and boy has it changed since then! It now looks like a text book chalk stream, absolutely gorgeous! Crystal clear fast paced water, tons of streaming weed with inviting clear pockets, and was that one solitary juvenile chub I saw just sub-surface in the distance? Can't wait to get down there and recce all the access points.

I find Martin Bowler quite engaging, his lack of polish, and 'mate on the bank' style delivery makes a change. For those that simple can't afford the £100 odd, ask your local library about the possibility of loaning a copy!

I bought some large plastic stackable bins with lids from the Factory Shop that all my bait ingredients now live in inside the shed. I did this after noticing knaw marks in some of my small plastic tubs!

Lol, MC. I often wonder in amazing at the panic the word 'gun' or 'bullet' (even though they mean cartridge) causes. When I was young there was about half a dozen policeman living in our road, and they made great targets for our Sekiden guns (anyone remember them?) during our running street battles. Occasionally they'd shoot back too! Kids can’t even draw (edit: no pun intended) a gun in school now with out invoking DEFCON 1 and psychological profiling. Of course, the current government had used that old Nazi party trick of making us scared of our own shadow, despite years of living under US sponsored IRA attacks when we weren’t scared. I don’t know why they bother; we’ll no doubt pardon all the Taliban/Iraqi Freedom Fighters (delete as appropriate) under the Good Friday Agreement Part II (In best Ben Elton voice: “Oooh, little bit of politics, little bit controversial…”). Another factor affecting violence on our streets, and it has increased (just check out all the notices and CCTV on buses/trains/stations/hospitals/doctors surgeries/etc. to try to combat it), is that by and large the youth now own the streets. Go back twenty or thirty years, maybe more, and adults didn’t lock themselves in their houses watching TV all night. There was less to watch. Also, less people had access to cars. Adults were out in the streets more, catching public transport more. Budgie, I try to avoid listening to my son’s Mitcham tales, I find them so depressing, and so I don’t actually know the chair leg incident. I could ask him, I’m sure he’d know, but then I’d get to hear all the other stuff too, and I just washed my hands of that mentality (that sadly I was a very minor part of for a brief period) some twenty years ago. Really, I won’t even fish with him over Mitcham Common (although they’re remodelling now I hear) in case I get tainted again!

My eldest son lives in Mitcham, as did I many moons ago. I know of (i.e. they are friends of friends) at least three that have been killed in and around Mitcham, all of them lived by the sword, and died by it. Not saying they deserved it mind, but I don't think the word innocent could be used with a straight face.

Generally, it sounds like we're singing from the same song book. However, I didn't say, not did I imply, that parents can't be friends with their children. I have more fun with my lads (19 & 22), and my Mother (80) than just about with anyone else. But my lads aren't my BEST friends, neither is my Mum, I'm not theirs, and I'd be ruddy worried were it any other way.

As I said in an earlier post, post WWII, parenting changed, with some parents never wishing their children to suffer as they had, discipline was reduced, children were spoilt, the seeds were sown, and then the 60's came along... I was lucky (or unlucky, take your pick). My late father fought in WWII, and my parents had children late. I went to school with kids who had parents half my dads age, they called their parents by their first names, ate with feet on the table watching TV (and often apart from each other), and had house keys to come and go as they pleased at and early age. And this was in a 'nice middle class area'. There are whole sections of society who have absolutely no idea of what a parent's job is. How often do we hear on TV a mother or child saying the other was their very best friend, and they used to go clubbing (and no doubt 'on the pull' together)? Around twenty years ago I argued long and hard with many that the rot in society had gone too far and was irreversible. I have seen nothing since to change my mind.

There are many factors at work. Firstly, people ARE influenced by watch they watch and play...there wouldn't be multi billion pounds advertising campaigns if they didn't. And current TV is abysmal. Take Eastenders for instance, where every issue is addressed and solved by shouting, door slamming, and violence. No wonder that the great unwashed truly believe (with no responsible upbringing to teach them otherwise) that this is the way to behave. Then we have education. An educated person doesn’t have to resort to violence to get a point across. You can test this quite easily by walking into a posh restaurant and shouting I love the Taliban, and watch in amusement as the debate unfolds. Try the same in a rough pub somewhere, you’ll be lucky to come out alive. Sadly, the standard of education now is at an all time low, therefore the number of children leaving school (who, remember, then go on to be parents, many of them at a very early age) who can only get a point across using violence has increased. Where is a child from a family (possible single parent) of no values to learn values from? The anti-middle class anti-family values BBC? The Internet? The education system where punishments are shunned in favour of awards for all?

Air rifles don't need banning (neither did self-loading rifles and pistols). Why make the majority suffer because of the actions of a few mindless idiots? The problems with a percentage of today's youth (and indeed, many not so youthful), is a complete lack of discipline brought about by ****-poor (excuse my language) parenting skills, which all kicked off post WWII with people wanting their kids to be happy at all costs. Single parenting, which we seem to encourage in the UK, is also to blame. A family with no father figure (be that a male or female father figure) is handicapped from the outset. If you look at the underachievers in schools, and tick that off against single-parent families, you get a very high correlation. Ditto with prisons. Of course it's not PC to ever say this publicly. And no, I didn't say a single parent can't do a great job and have perfect kids, of course they can, but it's rare. Interestingly, there is a large section of the black community that think males don't ever have to be a father figure, hence the disproportionately high levels of crime and violence in those communities. Can't say that either, not PC you know. When I read the news about some young teenagers who have beaten/stamped/knifed/burnt etc. etc. some defenceless victim, I always wonder why the parents aren't in court. If you trained a dog to be viscious, you would be prosecuted. It's about time we prosecuted parents where it can be proven that their actions (or lack thereof) in raising their children have turned them into the monsters they are. I wasn't a nice child, far from it, but my parents wouldn't have been prosecuted because they really did try their hardest. Oh, and incidentally, I am both a single parent, and living with my partner, and she is a single parent too.

Stick 'em on eBay? Good news is you reach a very wide audience, and someone that really wants what you're selling may bid. The bad news is, with everyone clearing out their lofts/garages/sheds on there, prices can be lower than one might have expected pre-eBay. Just a thought.

Have you seen some animal activists? They might just have a point!

Done! (I just hope I got it right!)

I e-mailed to get clarification on the weekly ticket (as the website doesn't stipulate dawn ‘till dusk only), and it definitely only covers dawn ‘till dusk. I imagine (hope) they’ll update the website to reflect this.

A little while ago I criticised the KLAA website for being hopelessly outdated. I have just found out that I was looking at their old site; they have a new site up and running too. Old site: http://www.kingslynnaa.btinternet.co.uk/klaa.html New site: http://www.klaa.co.uk/ As you can hopefully see, the new site is a huge improvement. Hope that helps someone else.

Didn't he also ban (or try to ban) smoking, introduce ID cards, and illegally invade countries? We know a song about that don't we children...

Instead of desperately trying to distance those who pleasure angle with those who kill for the table, why not celebrate the undeniable common ground we enjoy? I would like to think, and indeed my experience shows, that responsible anglers and responsible hunters all have one unifying belief: that the countryside is both fragile and beautiful and should be treated with care and that some animals are amazing and worthy of our respect ( I say some animals, as I don’t think many respect Tape Worms, or Head Lice, for instance ). Responsible anglers do their utmost to preserve nature and minimise suffering to animals, so do responsible hunters.

Yes, that all makes perfect sense, thank you.

I've shot a 4-bore, that count? I was on a Section 1 ticket until the bans, and still shoot regularly abroad. As I said the .303 has taken many elephants (hundreds?), a (famous in hunting circles) gentleman by the name of Paul Grobler hunted many elephant with a .303. Careful shot placement was of course key. The 'elephant gun' is somewhat of a misnomer I think; it should be called the ‘short range dangerous game defence gun’. A large bore heavy hitting weapon, short barrelled for ultra quick target acquisition in life or death situations, such as a charging rhino in thick brush, wounded tiger, etc. etc. I’m very surprised the Home Office allow the 30’06 to be used for hunting fox. And why would anyone want to? Even a little .22RF would do the job more accurately, with less recoil and noise, and for a tenth of the price.

I think you're confusing military ball rounds with hunting soft/hollow/frangible points Emma. A well designed hunting bullet used on it's target species is designed to not over penetrate. Look up varmint shooting videos, you'll see even ultra HV (over 4,000fps) bullets stopped dead dumping all their energy into the target, which literally 'explodes' from the energy transfer.

OK, I've suffered brain fag (no idea what it is, but it sounds like a thing to have, and my Mother has an old advert for some now obsolete tincture which cures it), when trotting a section of river, does one walk upstream baiting likely looking swims, then back down to fish them, or vice versa, and why?

I would hope so! One famous hunter took all his African Elephants with the .303 back in the day! Seriously, I would think a .303 (or indeed any full power military cartridge) is a bit overkill on UK sized deer (unless shooting sabots of course). Possibly too much meat destruction (presuming one is shooting hollow/soft points)?

Having just checked my Chamber's...no, they are not. Proves how little I know!

I think I'm correct in saying all hemp seed sold legally in the UK is irradiated to make it sterile, so no cannabis plants can be grown.