chapman

We're getting a good run of elvers this year but many of them are destined to be exported. The Golden Valley Wildlife group has a great programe on the go to reintroduce eels to their country of origin, please support their petition. . Petition STOP THE COMMERCIAL EXPORT OF BABY EELS . .

Nice fix there JK, many thanks.

Good one Westie, I seem to have got the wrong end of the stick regarding ISO, I'll set it at a higher speed when I take my next kick sample. To give you an idea of the size of the stuff I'm attempting to photograph this 5p piece gives a handy scale - .....and here are some the invertebrates whose existence and abundance should help to gauge the health of the river over the coming years - Stonefly nymph Caseless caddis (sedge fly) Heptageniidae nymph (upwinged fly) Heptageniidae nymph Mk2 (upwinged fly) The former shots were taken in daylight with automatic settingsand I considered them to be reasonable, the trouble came using the 500w halogen lighting, hence the query! - Heptageniidae Mk3 Mating Gammarus, freshwater shrimps Hog louse As you can see the yellow hue came to the fore despite a bit of editing. The first images were taken in water contained in clear glass with white paper beneath, the second in water contained in white plastic. Now I'm looking forward to the next batch of images taken with the benefit of the advice that I've had from here, thanks all! Colin

That's very helpful SB, thanks. Had a tentative dig around in the camera, found WB menu and found five settings which I'd previously ignored, Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent and Incandescent. I guess Incandescent would be the choice for inerior lighting. Had a look atthe ISO settings too (another menu I'd never looked at.....) and did a bit of reasearch on the net to find out what that was about. It appears it has a similar effect as the speed rating of film. With a bright interior lighting set up would I be right in thinking that a setting of 200 would be best for hand held makro shots as regards reducing blurring caused by the camera moving ?

Ah! Thanks Jeepster, there may well be and just as soon as a replacement book of operating instructions arrives from Sony I'll be able to find out. Sounds like a good possibility.....

Hi guys, I'm trying to take some pictures of river invertebrates which I've taken back to the house for identification. I've had reasonable success with illumination direct sunlight but wondered if there's a cheap light source that I could use for the cloudy days. Tried using my 500W halogen site light yesterday but was surprised to find it gave the images a yellowish hue I use the macro function on a 6mp Sony Cyber Shot for the shots I take. C

So the hammerhead method isn't just for sharks then........

It was quite an experience to see them at close quarters but they were, as you say Mike, as wild as the wind. I was drifting towards them, they were swimming towards me and although it was initially a magic moment I began to think it might be better not to get too close so off I went, left with a strong impression of the sheer power of these creatures. None of them contacted me telepathically.

I had my first close encounter with dolphins around Aberporth this week and decided to get out of their way - they were a bit bigger than I'd imagined...... Was this a groundless fear or are dolphins in fact wolves in New Age clothing?

I did try to fish there from the kayak by the Ogmore estuary a couple of weeks ago but the wind had increased to a 24mph westerly from the previous 4 mph breeze during the drive from Cardiff - great. There was a fair current to the east and a hell of a lot of chop so newby that I am I turned tail and fished the incoming tide from the beach with the disadvantage of periodically dragging the kayak as it came in (due to some well founded misgivings about leaving it on top of the van in the car park) Naturally I blanked, I blamed the kayak.... I realise this isn't a helpful post except that I'd say if I had driven to the shelter of the point at Porthcawl as you suggested I would have probably had a better time!

Llys Y Fran Reservoir accommodates kayakers, £6 all day launch + fishing ticket, £4 afternoon launch. I hope to give it a go myself later this year when I should have some more free time. I think it closes in December until March though which is a snag for you, I'm afraid, I can't help you for those months - perhaps you could could slog up to Llangorse? Details of prices and launch times in PDF form for Llys Y Fran , scroll down the page - http://www.teifitrout.com/club_news_2007.htm

Had planned on fishing outside Cardiff Bay yesterday but unfortunately was put off by the 20 mph winds. There's a good weather station page on the Cardiff Barrage site which Bristol Channel fishers may find handy, the one sited on Cardiff Bay is updated every 5 minutes(!) and the one on Flat Holm which may be of more general interest is updated every three hours. Ogmore estuary this evening, weather permitting.

That's very helpful, thank you Chris. I've fished the estuary at Ogmore with the fly a few times this year (land based) but the water clarity has changed for the worse recently so perhaps driving a few more miles down the M4 is the solution. Either that or bait fishing , having said that I would particularly like a large bass on the fly from a yak. Had hoped to avoid buying a trolley but it seems that I'll be heading that way too - yet more kit but hey!that seems to be the way with kayaking, the kayak itself is just a small part of the cost. A challenging evening at Ogmore

Thanks for the replies, it seems that I'll be paddling a little further than I anticipated orignally if a romp over the rocks can't be eased somehow. I'm based in Cardiff - currently the capital of muddy waters - and hope that some clearer water will arrive around Porthcawl one day to let the bass see what I want to offer them. I guess I'll be launching at the end of the Og and dragging the canoe through the shallows at low tides until I can hir a tractor!

I finally got round to taking my first trip out in my kayak last week, it was as good as I'd hoped it would be. I was able to search for bass coming in on the tide and after tracking some down caught two on a blue and white bucktail/arctic fox fly. It was good, even a one pound bass could turn the kayak, an amazing sensation and totally addictive. The obvious thing to do is to get out asap but now I'm back to south wales instead of west wales and the tide goes out a lot further here leaving a lot of rock, pebbles and boulders to negotiate at low tides. As I can't always get my trips to coincide with high water I wondered what the launching options are in these circumstances as dragging the yak over a few hundred yards of rough terrain doesn't seem like a goood idea for me or the yak. Any tips or advice please.