BoldBear

You can get away with not changing the sawdust; and it will still keep the maggots dry and soak up any sweat; but we used to prefer to use fresh sawdust (which we had plenty of) after washing and drying them (when we fished team matches) to reduce the smell of ammonia on them; before riddling off the sawdust and adding some fresh corn meal; however they will usually still catch fish even when they smell of ammonia as long as it isn’t too overpowering. It was mainly a confidence thing for us and when we felt confident about the quality of our bait it usually resulted in us fishing a lot better

I taught my son to play this song when I bought him his very first guitar many years ago; It’s a lot better than the first tune that I learned to play all the way through back in the mid 60s (the house of the rising sun) Keith

[Quote] If your having difficulty seeing your floating bait being taken at range, you could just use a self cocker, like a drennan puddle chucker float etc. I know the line comes off the bottom and might cause your line to sink and pull the bait toward the float etc, if it does just recast more often. You could even use a ruber on the top of the float, so the line comes off the top and see how it casts. There used to be designated floats made specially for this purpose, maybe someone can point one out for you?....i've looked for them on ebay but can't see any. [/Quote] I th

I’m very sad and surprised at this news, Cliff and his humour will be sorely missed. Back in August 20I8 soon after he had moved to Hay on Wye, I asked Cliff to sign a couple of his books for me (All Beer & Boilees and all Wind & Water) and he invited me to stay over at his place and spend a day on the Wye with him and he could then sign his books for me at the same time; unfortunately I couldn’t go back then; but now I really wish that I had gone. NB: He very kindly signed his books for me via snail mail instead. RIP Cliff Keith

I have used bran flakes, or porridge oats or crushed Wheatabix a few times over the years whenever I had run out of powdered maize meal and they’ve all served their purpose quite well. Back in the days when I used to fish a lot of team matches and when we used to wash our maggots to rid them of their ammonia smell; I used to dry them inside a towel and then put them in some sawdust to dry them out completely before riddling the sawdust off and then sprinkling powdered maize meal onto them. I sometimes sprinkled a little turmeric over them or gave them a spray of wasp grub flavouring the n

I’ve been limited to fishing a local estate lake belonging to one of my clubs which is just a mile or so down the road mainly for its Carp and also a couple of other smallish lakes about a similar distance from my home belonging to my other club which are basically match lakes, so my stream and river fishing; which I enjoy the most; has been drastically reduced this last year because they are between 8 to 10 miles away and more from my home and not looked on as being local. The estate lake is fairly remote and devoid of anglers as membership is restricted to only a small number of members

I’ve caught loads of fish over the years when I’ve moved the bait; sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t work but it’s a worthwhile ploy if bites are being very slow. A well known method for Barbel is to roll or trundle a bait along the bottom every minute or so, and bites are often induced by a bait that is being twitched along the bottom as soon as you start to move it. And I’ve caught Roach and Rudd soon after I’ve gently lifted a bait and then let it settle back onto the bottom when I’ve been using a Pole. Not the same thing but; I think that some predatory fish will be e

I tend to go with ‘both’ breaking strains and line diameters together and not purely on line diameters; and I also prefer my hooklengths to have a little stretch in them too. Using line diameters on their own can be quite misleading too, for the same reasons which is why I look at both diameters and breaking strains and wouldn’t touch a hook which only stated its diameter. I often use hooklengths down to 0.75lbs although I have in the past used 0.5lbs hooklengths in the winter when I could find them. NB: I very rarely fish the Pole these days. Keith

I always tied my own hooks in the past; but as I’ve got older and my fingers have got less nimble I now always use ready tied hooks for size 16s and below. I carry dozens of pre-tied hooks of different makes and styles and I don’t have many problems with not being able to find a hook with the right breaking strain line as most of my hooks have different strength hooklengths for a particular size of hook; but I still carry a few packets of spade end hooks and a hook tyer and some ultra fine line just incase as a last resort. Keith

Hi Phil welcome. Unfortunately I’ve never fished in Scotland for Pike so can’t really advise you about any of the Scottish lochs, but I’m looking forward to your posts. and if I or anyone else on here can help with any other thing then we will be glad help if we can Tight lines Keith

I qualified as a Meteorolgist and Oceanographer in the last three years of my service in the Royal Navy up until 1977 when I left. We did have satellite pictures to help us back then and we regularly used these satellites to observe the cloud formations surrounding the earth and track tornadoes and other weather anomalies. We also used computers to help us with past weather patterns, and we also tuned in to weather stations from all over the globe and could see other regions weather charts as well, however the forecasts we made were based on all of the combined information not least

That Marcin certainly can play the acoustic or semi acoustic guitar brilliantly But as for Hank; I would never class Hank Marvin as being a brilliant guitarist, even though we were always trying to play shadows music back in the mid 60s while a lot of us were still learning to play the guitar using Bert Weedons ‘Play in a Day’ book NB: The first tune that a lot of us learnt to play all the way through on the guitar back in the 60s was ‘the Animals House of the Rising Sun’ and the first song that my son learnt to play properly on his guitar was ‘Led Zepplin Stairway to Heaven’.

RIP Captain Sir Tom.

Had my first jab on Friday and the wife had hers today. Keith

When the streamer weed starts to die away and the temperatures start to fall drastically the Roach in my local streams tend to shoal up a lot tighter and venture into backwaters, or seek much slower and deeper swims, or huddle together just below clumps of decaying rush beds where it’s fairly slack and they can preserve their energy a bit, but they still seem to be fully awake and very wary of predators. They also seem fairly reluctant use up their energy and rarely chase a bait once it has passed by them in the current. Plus their digestive systems seem to wind down and they eat a lot less.

My first job after leaving the RN was working in a giant freezer picking frozen food and loading it onto freezer lorries. They issued us with fleecy lined tops and bottoms which were worn underneath our over jackets and over trousers. I only stayed there for 6 months while I was looking for a new career; but the fleece lined under garments were greatfully used for winter Pike fishing for many years afterwards. Nowerdays I rarely go out when it’s freezing cold and if I do I just wear a thick padded jacket and some bib-n-brace over trousers. Keith

I never use fully loaded wagglers as they are not sensitive enough for me, and fully loaded floats not only cause some disturbance as they land but they also tend to sink a bit on landing; whereas an onion float is only partially loaded and doesn’t cause that much disturbance when it lands. Also the Onion float flies through the air as straight as a die and without the characteristic waggle which gives the waggler it’s name, and makes accurate casting a doddle, and it can easily be cast further than you can catapult your maggots or caster which is all you really need, plus an onion float

We used to supply Turkish crayfish from our lake to a local university who were studying a way to get rid of them without damaging any other creatures or fish in the lake, however we never heard from them again so we assumed that they must have been unsuccessful. Keith

I can’t talk for Tigger, but I occasionally chase shoals of Rudd along the surface using floating Caster on the estate lake. I keep them feeding on the surface by catapulting some floating casters over them, and I use a ‘semi loaded’ onion waggler with the float set at around 18” away from the the hook with no shot between the float and hook; which allows me to easily cast way past the feeding shoal then wind slowly back amongst the Surface feeding Rudd. I sometimes use a floating Caster and a sinking Caster together which usually floats just under the surface, or I just use a single floating

I’ve caught some big Chub on crust either on the surface and suspended a few inches off the bottom. Ive caught a few Chub using a buoyant crust up to just over 5lb near Throop Mill on the Stour suspended just a few inches off the bottom, and a few using buoyant crust on the river Kennet at Thatcham Theale and Newbury; both off the top and suspended close to the bottom, but in general when using crust on the surface it’s usually been on slightly smaller streams and small rivers in Hertfordshire like the upper Lea upstream of Hertford all the way up to Wheathamstead and the river Colne, plu

Yes the Turkish Crays have been here in the UK almost as long as the Signals; and just as much a pain as the Signals. The Turkish Crayfish that we’re in our estate lake were there because of a lorry carrying them to restaurants which had problems with their air equipment and were given permission by some total idiot to submerge their cages into the reservoir that feeds our lake until another lorry arrived; and they shed their eggs. But they were already a pain in the bum at other uk waters as well. The Turkish Crays are roughly the same size as the Signals only their claws are m

The problems which were caused by the tiger nuts on our estate lake were mainly caused by idiots thinking that they can prebait a small shalllowish 2.5 acre lake in the same way as they did in a much larger and deeper 35 acre lake, and they were regularly introducing buckets full of them all around the islands, similar to the problem on the lake where you found the excessive amounts of luncheon meat rotting on the bottom. If they had actually used their brains in the first place and used the tigers in small amounts a lot more sensibly then they would have probably saved us having to ban t

That guy on that acoustic guitar in be background is certainly giving it a bit of stick Keith

Several of my biggest Chub were caught using legered bread crust fished just off the bottom; or simply fished on the surface; occasionally with a little bun spice flavouring added.. I don’t think there’s many baits that our Chub won’t eat; including big black slugs, prawns, small fry freshwater swan mussels etc. and back in the old days (when they were plentiful and it was legal) anglers used to use our native white clawed crayfish. Unfortunately we are not allowed to use the Signal crayfish or the Turkish crayfish that have spread into our waters; as bait; but no doubt our Chub (and