Angly

Well that's hardly shooting birds just for fun in my opinion, it's ruddy difficult to cook and eat them whilst they're flying! If hunting to eat, and enjoying it, is a moral crime in your book, where does that leave angling (where we hunt, injure, and return with no end product 'just for fun')? You see the dilemma I hope? I hate to be pedantic (OK, I lie!), but the Law states UNDER 12ft/lbs and 6ft/lbs. 12ft/lbs and over requires a Section 1 F.A.C.

Report them to the Police and/or the RSPCA/RSPB. Although it is legal to suit many British birds with suitable weapons (e.g. you may shoot a wood pigeon with a legal limit air rifle, but not a pheasant), only those who posses authority and have reasonable cause to do so may.

All links good for me.

Pity the missus, she has to wake up to it every morning!

Yes to both , XP SP3/IE7 and XP SP3/Mozilla Firefox 3.0.3

I was about to say Emma must be mixing with the wrong sort of men, but then I got to the flatuation part...she might have a point afterall. And Anderoo, that's just tooooo funny, I can't believe the camera guy didn't fall over with laughter!

It may very well be my knot doesn't cut the mustard (or is that mustad!), I'm sure it's all been tried before and I'm attempting to reinvent the wheel here, in which case I will just copy your method. I am however going with the Tippexed barbed point from the off, great idea!

Right, as least I'm not going mad and it's not just me! Thank you for all the advice and suggestions. I'm loathed to use crimps because that's an extra expenditure and I'm trying desperately to curtail my end tackle budget. Although I’d previously indicated that heating the wire solved the curling, it’s now obvious that this isn’t a viable option as in the process some microfilaments were broken. However, whilst fiddling about, and completely by accident, I appear to have discovered a very simple knot that does seem to work. A 3-turn half blood knot. It doesn’t clench up as neat as one made on mono, but it does seem strong enough. A big advantage is one doesn’t need to pull on the mainline other than to provide a little tension. I’ll do some more reliability/strength testing tomorrow. For the middle treble I’ve gone with a reduced turn knotless knot, and another 3-turn half blood knot for the swivel. If I can test the rig to breaking point, and the wire goes before the knot every time, would you all consider that safe enough for ‘live ‘use? I’ll post some pics. of the knot if it works.

I'm attempting to make up some traces using Drennan's Soft Strand, for which they recommend a 3-turn grinner knot (which I believe is also called the Uni-knot?). The problem I have is when tightening the knot the main line (as opposed to loose end) becomes curled. The obvious answer is to not pull the mainline, relying on just pulling the loose end, but I find this doesn't tighten the knot fully. Where am I going wrong? I have noticed that by heating the pre-tensioned curly wire to red heat, the strands relax, and the curl disappears. The colouring is lost of course during this process, but the wire is labelled as stainless so I'm hoping it's just decorative. Initial testing doesn't reveal any loss of strength, but of course I'd much rather do the job properly in the first place.

Lol, excellent!

Your best bet might be to contact Preston Innovations direct: (lifted form their website) Preston Innovations Ltd. Unit 1, Highbridge Court, Stafford Park 1, Telford, Shropshire. TF3 3BD. Tel: 01952 290520 Fax: 01952 291974 Email: info@prestoninnovations.com

Well, I'm easy...but back on topic! As I said, I'm up in the area anyway, would love to meet other forum members both for the social aspect, and to gain some pike and/or zander fishing and (mainly) handling tips. I could do with getting a season ticket I'm up there so often, and in fact keep meaning to. I didn't know about Wells Creek, very interesting. Nice looking stretch of water, I take that route when the Welney Wash road is flooded.

Lovely looking first carp, and you gotta love tench. Good days catch.

What always makes me chuckle is that people seem to think end of the world and end of mankind are one and the same think. I've no doubt mankind will become extinct millions of years before the earth does. It is entirely conceivable that the earth will become uninhabitable for man in just a few hundred years time. And as to global warming and global dimming, the fact that the world is going through a natural cycle is not in dispute I think, and neither is the fact that mankind is compounding that cycle and accelerating the effects.

Hmmm, well plenty for me to mull over there, thank you. I'm never quite sure which I prefer: The enjoyment of angling itself, or the pleasure gained from knowing I am (slowly!) becoming a better angler. Anderoo, does the KLAA weekly ticket run 7-days and nights from the day of purchase (e.g. Wednesday to Tuesday), or does it start on a fixed day like a fishing licence does (e.g. Saturday to Friday)?

For those of use not fortunate enough to have access to a set of calibration weights, both your local Post Office and supermarkets come in handy. Weigh some items, note down the weights, and check your scales against those measurements when you get home. Not 100% reliable as you are both relying on the first set of scales being accurate (they should be fairly accurate by law), and that your chosen items haven’t changed weight due to atmospheric or other considerations upon you second weighing. I have recalibrated my Rueben Heaton spring scales; they are now marked with five big sectors: tiddler, small, OK, good, whoopee.

Wow, gorgeous fish, bravo indeed!

Incidentally, one question I do have Anderoo, when, and perhaps more importantly why would one use a paternoster set up instead of straight ledgering when zander and/or pike fishing? Is it to allow a buoyant bait to be suspended mid water with less resistance to taking fish?

Great idea, count me in as a definate possible please!

I’m pretty sure I’ll be up in Terrington St. John, just 2.5 miles from Magdalen Bridge over the Middle Level, the preceding week. I’m supposed to be back ‘dan saff’ on the 2nd for a Christening, but I’d definitely like to pop along on either the Friday day/evening Saturday day, or a combination, or something. Despite the fact I spent three weeks in Terrington St. John just weeks ago, shamefully, I STILL haven’t fished Middle Level (I did take all my gear, but just didn’t get the time), so I can break not only that duck, but also hopefully my Zander and Pike ducks. And of course it will make up for my missing the ‘Wobblethon’.

Thank you Andy. Yes I certainly don't intend to tread on any more rods Anderoo. In fact, I'm no longer going to lend my rods to people who can't put them somewhere obvious out of harms way when they ask for help netting! Grrrrrrr. Anyway, a happy ending! (tissues ready, cue violins) I happened to notice the Catana BX rod has now been replaced by Shimano with a new CX model, which got me thinking, what are the chances that when I ring Shimano October end, they’ll tell me my rod has been discontinued and they can’t get spares anymore? Right then, new plan of action! A quick check on eBay and I found some 13’ Catana BX rods for sale, both new and used, but I didn’t know how much to bid. So, I searched the web for shops showing the BX in stock and rang around for prices including delivery. It would seem that the majority of angling shops in the UK with a web outlet don’t seem to care about their image. Most of the shops I spoke do didn’t even have the rod in stock, indeed they hadn’t for some while, yet they continued to show stock on their web presence. They don’t seem to grasp how annoying that is to a potential customer, and how unlikely they’ll then get any more business as a result! MadAboutFishing (www.madaboutfishing.co.uk) came to the rescue with a pleasant, chatty, and helpful chap answering the phone who managed to wangle out of me the fact that I was just after one rod section as a replacement. The shop had a brand new bottom and middle section in stock (the tip was sold as a replacement to another customer) they’d part with for £20 inc. shipping. Compared to £16 plus shipping for one section only, not in stock (and possibly might never be) for Shimano UK, I thought that was an opportunity too good to miss, and the deal was sealed. Rod sections arrived this morning! Moral of the story for others searching for rod sections: Ring around the shops, you never know!

Russ Evans, the tackle shop manager at Bury Hill Fisheries, has written an article on perch fishing one of their lakes. No idea of how much value it is to the more experienced anglers here, or how relevant to other waters it is, but I found it very interesting. Russ’s web site: http://www.anglingfeatures.com/index.htm Perch fishing article: http://www.anglingfeatures.com/adayonmilton.htm

Are Shimano always this bad? Firstly I couldn't buy any spare spools for any of my brand new Shimano reels earlier this year as there was no stock in the UK apparently, and now I'm being told late October for the new rod section! 4 months wait to get a rod section? Surely if Shimano really cared about customer relations they'd break a rod package down and supply the sections individually? Grrrr. If I could afford to, I'd ditch all my Shimano gear and take my business elsewhere to be honest. Rant over, how is everyone anyway? Not been here for a while, and sadly not been fishing since I broke my float rod!

I don't know if this helps or not, but the only way I've ever fished the lift method was with all weight on the bottom (float held on by rubbers and just overshotted), float about 30% overdepth, and line tightened up to cock float (rod in rests).

ive jus decided to start fishing and i cant be bovered to search the web or read any books so what do i need and where do i go close to my house and what will i catch it ha to be big mind i dont like small fish. wot, no replies yet, fought you lot was sposed to be helpful