Andy Nellist

Anderoo there are several articles by Wol and me about Tring and Eeling in the Colne Valley on FM. If you have any queastions feel free to PM me. Eel dentistry varies from water to water and on some waters it may be essential to use wire. On the waters I fish I use Quicksilver 35lb for my trace material (fish to 6-14 last season). I've had Pike bite through it but not Eels (touch wood). Kevlar in my opinion is a very poor material for eel traces. Both Wol and I lost good fish using Kevlar. Some of the anglers l know use Kevsteel and reakon its good but I've not used it myself.

Some anglers like long drops some don't. I like to use as long a drop as I can get away with in the swim I'm fishing. In a flat swim 4ft. The only solid obsticles in water are a lot bigger, more visable and therefore easy to avoid than a 1/4mm thick line. Bream certainly do spook from tight lines whereas anglers using long drops will tell you the fish will happily swim through them for hours.

I've read the whole of this thread and its been quite interesting (and at times a bit out of order) It is certainly the case that how you feed, what you feed and where you place your hookbaits in respect to your feed and the bottom type can make a huge difference to your catches. I tend to use a carpet such as crumb/corn/maggot and fish to specific points at which I concentrate the g/b I expected the Bream to eat first like chopped worm/caster If using two rods I often fish one to the back right of the carpet and one to the near left. That way you can work out which direction the fish are approaching the bait and tailor you approach accordingly. Big Bream are easy to spook and for that reason I like long drops even if using heavy indicators. Continuous resistance is not a problem with liners but a fish hitting hitting a tight line is. If you know where the fish are and want to avoid liners using a sinking braid is effective. As for hooklength well that depends on bait where you are fishing and how the fish are behaving. There is not single optimum hooklength for all situations. I've used everything from 2 inches to 7 feet and they all work on their day. The secret to being a good angler for any species is to make the most of every opportunity and to do that you need an open and inquiring mind. Oh and finally... Lutra you need to chill out

Didcot Angling Centre 01235817005. 36 Wantage Road, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0BT You will find them really helpful and friendly Chub fishing on the Thames within a 5 mile radius of Didcot is excellent.

Cheesepaste is an instant bait It's important that you use shortcrust pastry not puff pastry. If you have a food mixer its very easy to make. Put 300 grams of danish blue into the mixer and using the whisk attachment beat it till the cheese is a smooth paste which will take 5-10 minutes. Add 500 grams of short crust pastry and mix the two together thoroughly using the K beater for about 2 minutes. This will make a really smooth paste that is just strong enough to cast but is soft enough that it always falls off during the retrieve.

Stalking is seen as being very skillfull yet it involves fishing for fish you can see. A fishfinder gives you a much less acurate picture of what is going but make no mistake what Peter Waller describes is stalking fish. He is simply using something that allows him to see the fish when otherwise he might not be able to. He still has to catch them and that's where the skill comes into play. [ 10. October 2005, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: Andy Nellist ]

Its a shame Steve wasn't writing instead of JB. I don't know JB but I hate the way he writes which I find utterly patronising. Walker was a genius yet managed to get his message accross without being patronising.

Bernard double is the famous baliff at Tring. I've known him for nearly 20 years and he's a great bloke. If you need any help or information regarding the reservoirs Bernard is the person to speak to on 01442 822379. His house is actually just over the road from the Startops car park. The reservoirs are owned by British Waterways whilst the sporting rights are owned by the Waddesdon Estate. Blue green is toxic if eaten and can irritate the skin. The main reason for the signs put up by BW is to warn you to be cautious particulalry if you have a diog with you as they shoudl not be allowed to drink the water. As the reservoirs are high up they are often very wind affected. When the blue green is on the surface it often collects at one end of the reservoir with most of the rest being clear. As a result the reservoirs stay open and anglers are able to choose if they fish. Startops and Wilstone are very hard waters whereas Marsworth is by comparison easy. However Marsworth is a "natural" water containing fish with its stock having been born in the water and not having been heavily managed water. Thus it has natural stock levels and blanking throughout a short two hours session would not be abnormal at any time of year. If you have a chat with bernard about how to fish it I'm sure he'll be able to put you right.

A back lead is used to keep all of your line on the bottom from the bank right out to your ledger weight. the simplest way to do itis to cast out and then clip back lead onto the line and lower it onto the bottom. The reason for doing this is so that you don't spook fish by having line up in the water in your swim that fish can bump into. It is also useful if there are boats, windsurfers and swans about as it keeps your line out of the way of them too.

Fox Submerge 15lb & Drennan Feeder 8lb and 6lb Tench, Bream, Perch, Chub, Barbel & Roach Far better sensitivity for indicating bites and playing fish when compared to mono £35 for 250M for the Submerge & £10 per 100M fro the Drennan Feeder

Perhaps you shoudl list the lines and collect anglers opinions on these factors for different lines using a questionaire. i would be happy to fill them in for all the lines that i use.

I think the fact that maxima comes out so badly shows the limitation of looking at statistics. For most of my fishing these days I use braid usually Fox Submerge 15lb which is about as expensive as it gets. To my mind it is always worth paying for quality line. So why is it that I also still use still use maxima ? I never use it as a hooklink only a reel line and for repeated casting of heavy feeders it is an excellent line. Perhaps you do durability tests such as: effect of 1000 casts of a 3oz feeder using 6lb test effect of light on the line after 60 days exposure effect of water on the line after 60 days exposure and also look at distance that can be cast for a specific diameter of line. I have tried Diawa Sensor and do use it still.... as cheap backing line. The facts that i always seek to obtain before using a line are: what is its actual breaking strain ? how is the bs affected by different knots ? what is its true diameter ? how reliable is it ? how much stretch does it have ? how heavy is it after being submerged ? how much stretch does it have ? how abrasion resistant is it ? how durable is it ? how much memory does it have ? is it prone to kinks ? is it prone to tangles ? does its colour change ? how dense is it ?

I like to watch John Wilson or Matt Hayes on the telly they are both entertaining (even if the content of the programs is aimed at the mass market and therefore rather lightweight). However, neither their TV programmes nor their writing have a fraction of the impact of words written by Walker 25 years or more ago. I re-read Stillwater Angling yet again two weeks ago and the genius of Walker is still plain to see. I would have loved the opportunity to fish with or even speak to the man. These days popularity and/or fame seem to be confused for ability.

Walker was inspirational whilst Wilson and Hayes are entertaining.

Comparing John Wilson or Matt Hayes with Richard Walker is like comparing Stephen Spielberg with William Shakespeare. [ 16. February 2004, 09:53 PM: Message edited by: Andy Nellist ]

[ 16. February 2004, 09:48 PM: Message edited by: Andy Nellist ]

Any parent will know that if tell a child not to dosomething then they probably will. The answer is to explain the pros and cons and he will normally choose wisely. As far as fishing goes I'd like to see a lot less paternalism and a great deal more focus on educating anglers so that they can understand how and why to fish responsibly and thus look out for the long term interests of their quarry.

DG, I do not disagree that labelling should be accurate and hope that EFTA are on the case that the situation will improve. The decision on buying a line is in my opinion a very significant factor indeed and should not be dcomlplkicated by inaccurate packaging. However for a beginner things are different. they have to decide what is appropriate before they get to the point of looking at labels. We should be encouraging beginners and experienced anglers alike to understand what different lines do and in what circumstances to use them.... hence the list at the bottom of my last post. The way to do that is to have consumer reviews of the products that are out there and make these easily accessible to all. Far better to rely on the experiences of fellow anglers actually using the products than the propaganda of the salesman. Personally I test all of the lines I use using a micrometer and then check breaking strain with several different knots (grinner, domhoff and knotless). I am far less concerned about stretch if I need stretch then i can incorporate powergum into my rig. Like buying a tv, video and car my decisions when buying a new line are based on a whole series of criteria. Any stats provided by the vendor I would always check with an independant source.

You can hold Perch in one hand at 4lb+ but the only reason for doing so would be to hold up the dorsal at the risk of damaging a very large Perch if it decides to flip. I reackon they still look great even with the dorsal down. Holding any fish out to the camera gives a rather distorted view of the fish. If you hold the fish close to you then the size of the fish relative to the captor is apparent. In such pictures the fish usually look their size. I'd rather that than a stack of photo's in which all fish of a particular species, whatever their size, looked equally enormous. I suppose the papers could check the size of fish that are entered for competitions by insisting on a second photo of the fish on an unhooking map with a recent copy of an angling paper or magazine alongside. That would enable the length of the fish to be calculated which can give a rough indication of the weight and would indicate the approximate date it was caught.

The are lies, damned lies and statistics..... .... but a good line at the end of the day is not one that does what is says on the packet rather one that does exactly what you need it to do and does so consistently. I used to think that the stretch in mono was an ally but have come to realise that provided you use the right rod (not too stiff) and reel (smooth) fishing braid is far better and results in more fish on the bank. It indicates bites better and allows you to feel exactly what the fish is doing during the fight. It is a far better idea to try out different lines and see how they perform than to rely on any statistics or blurb from the makers. If you want to know the diameter buy a electronic gauge from your local hardware store (about £50) and if you want to know how much a line stretches then test it yourself. For what it's worth I end to use just four lines and several hooklink materials these days: Braid Mainline: Fox Submerge 15lb, Drennan Feeder 8 & 6lb Mono Mainline: Maxima - when repeated distance casting heavy maggot feeders (can take the punishment and is cheap to replace when it gets too twisted) Silstar Match - when fishing for shy feeding fish in daylight (low diameter and clear) Hoolinks (Day): Silstar Match and Kryston Multi-strand (low viability and supple) Hooklinks (Night) : Kryston Silkworm, Kryston Supernova and Suffix Silky Soft (supple)

Trying to predict when fish will feed depends on a whole host of factors but I'm convinced that (like predicting the weather) trying to combine all those factors to predict when to fish is ineffective. In the seas tides make a huge difference and are obviously caused by the moon. However, you are talking about huge expanses of water and frankly the behaviour of fish in your pond would be a closer to that of fish in most lakes and rivers in this country. I wonder whether people who keep aquariums and ponds notice changes in the behaviour of their fish that corrolates with lunar activity. Personally I think there probably is some effect but that compared to water temperature, clarity, air pressure, wind, cloud cover, disolved oxygen etc. etc. it is probably on a small effect anmd not one that can be predicted with any degree of accuracy.

My first reel was a black price and awful piece of kit. It was followed by a prince regent for christmas in 1974 on which I caught my first fish and loved until the head simply fell off one day when a pike of about 10lb grabbed a roach i was retrieving an made off with it.

I was talking to an old boy who walked past me whilst I was fishing a river at the begining of last year. He lives in a cottage next to the river but is not a fisherman. I mentioned that there had been several comorants fishing the river when I had arrived. He replied that there had been very large numbers of comorants on lakes and rivers after the second world war and that he could remember going out with his father and shooting them. The main arguement against shooting seems to bve that it won't work. In fact it already did once before sixty years ago. The reason we have comorants again is because the population has not been kept under control in Europe. The reason for that is that they have been made a protected species. Apathy to the introduction and spread of alien species has led many problems in the past and means that decent fishing for our native species is becoming rarer all the time. In my lifetime there has already been a significant impact on our whitefish, rudd, crucian, eel populations. Our native crayfish now seem doomed to extinction. On top of all that we have comorants munching through tonnes of fish every day and damaging large numbers of other fish whilst catching those that they actually eat.I personally caught several Tench over 9lb last year with comornat damage We should stand up and be counted and protect what we have left for the benefit of future generations. Personally I find it astonishing how pathetic and weak the bodies that represent angling have been on this issue and the EA is still busy trying to deal with problems that are beyond redemption such as the crayfish and zander issues. The RSPB has supported the cull of Ruddy Ducks and if we got off out backsides we might be able to persuade them and English Nature to deal with the comorant issue. That we probably will do sweet FA is sadly indicative of the bodies that purportedly represent angling but which seem in reality to have little common purpose or direction.

Cranfield, A lot of specialist anglers myself included prefer to make the news rather than chase the news. I've had a lot of big fish this season and they have all come from waters that i have fished for at least a decade and all are within an hours drive of my home. On top of that I have not sat on one water and kept catching the the same fish repeatedly. Some anglers choose to chase known big fish be they pike, Carp, Barbel or any other species. Whilst ego may play a big part in that you should not forget that those anglers get to see some of the most amazing fish in the country at first hand not just through a photo. To that end if someone phoned me to ask if I would go and photgraph a 20lb barbel from Adams Mill i would be off like a shot. i would love the chance to see such a fish. However, i wouldn't want to fish for the Adams Mill/kickles fish as that simply does not float my boat. My attitude these days to anyone who chases fish is that its fine as long as you don't damage the fish or cockupthe fishing for those whowere there before the news broke. I suppose the same is true of anglers who are happy to make repeated captures of the same big fish. it must be interesting to see them fluctuate in weight etc. but again that is not something that really floats my boat. The reality is that Circuses are fine as long as they don't hurt the animals and don't cause too much of a nuisance to the community in which they are temporarily resident )

In effect the loop rig is simply a running bolt rig. You can achieve the same effect as having a loop by using a couple of drennan small silicone float stops (they must be silicone and must be fine bore like the drennan ones). These are simply placed on the mainline the required distance behind the lead as a backstop.