mike1234

I ordered a rod from here nearly a month a go and have still not received it. After sending them a few emails and receiving no reply i decided to phone the number listed on the site which gave me the voice of the BT women telling me there was a fault. The next day a guy answered the phone, checked up on my order and insisted it had been posted after another week i rang back and was assured again that the order is in the hands of the courier and that there is a backlog due to the bank holiday and royal wedding (i ordered the rod early April weeks before any weddings) I have recently received another email from them telling me they are sorting out my order but still no rod. I would advise anyone thinking of buying from them to spend an extra few quid and save yourself a lot of trouble. I am not sure if i posting links to other forums is allowed on here but over at wsf forums a few lads having the same trouble. anyone else had any experience with them?

cheers worms, i am used to practice casting with sea fishing tackle over the local park so will see if i can get the same funny looks with a fly rod

hello was wondering if anyone could give me some advise on selecting a fly rod and reel, i have been coarse fishing and sea fishing for years but have never even held a fly rod but fancy giving it a go, but i have no idea on what to look for in a rod or what reel to pair with it, i am hoping to get to some fisheries at first to get started off and then move onto the rivers, mainly fishing for trout and grayling and am looking for some ideas on what to go for i am hoping to spend under £100 on a rod and reel to get me started in case i cannot manage to learn how to do it, yet i don't want to buy a cheap set up that will need replacing straight away if i can learn to use it properly. and i will probably have to purchase it online as my local tackle shop sells boilies and lugworm and not tied flys any advise would be greatly appreciated mike

for uk fish the stickleback would take some beating on being ferocious, a little weedy farm pond that i sometimes fish is full of them and in the summertime i often watch them swimming about attacking anything they think they can take on even seen one having a good scrap with a beetle.

they should have a fight and both make a program about it, would be more entertaining

i have just bought a okuma magnetix multiplier (without a level wind) but have only ever used a multiplier on a boat just to drop down to the bottom and have never cast with one before I am hoping to take it out for the 1st time this weekend, with my fixed spool just incase i fail to master it. But i dont want to waste too much fishing time dealing with birds nests or lose a thumb, so have been scouring the net for any articles or videos with a bit of info to get me started, but keep coming up with mainly info from yanks and australians about small bait casters rather than shore fishing, could anyone point me in the right direction of any articles that might help me learn a few basics cheers mike

one of the old type metal landing net handles or keeping your lead weights in a strong cloth bag or a good solid torch would be much more "offensive" to any bankside attackers,

i have always wondered where they get the nets from on the fishing programmes that always weigh exactly 1lb plus it would solve unhooking problems as often the hook comes out in the net,

i think a lot of fishery owners play on anglers competitiveness, seems like everyone has to have a personal best list that will stand up to there friends list and rumours of where they allege these fish where caught get labelled as big fish waters by people convinced they too can catch these monsters. it seems that anyone who hasn't had a 3lb roach 5lb perch etc.. isnt worth there weight. obviously there are waters containing these fish and some people are lucky/skilled enough to catch them but it always seems funny there are more stories than there is proof.

i very much doubt the one i caught was stocked, the lake i caught it on used to belong to a local factory that used the water for cooling. the factory as long since closed and a social club took over the fishing rights giving out annual permits to members for £15 which would be good value if it wasnt un-fishable for 90% of the year due to all the idiots who hang around it. i doubt it has been stocked in 20 years or more so most fish are born there or unwanted pets released in. there is a large playingfield nearby that gives away goldfish as "prizes" which i assume is how they got in there

im not sure if they are but the one i caught was the same shape but less scaley (like a leather carp) and had lots of flecs of colours, white,blues,black and orange. nice catch i have never caught that many in one go in the heat of the moment and as i was on my own i never even thought of taking a pic :-(

had a few hours down my local lake yesterday evening when i hooked into something that i expected to be yet another bream but turned out to be a big fantailed shubunkin, when i first seen it come to the surface i thought it was a koi but it was a nice thing to catch. i have had a few goldfish out of there which i expect where won at the local carnival and dumped in there as unwanted pets. but i have never heard of a shubunkin being caught and it was just under a lb in weight i have kept a few in the garden pond before but never seen one that big

when ever i have spoke to anglers and have ask why they use such high breaking strain lines the answer is always the same "i tread 8lb line but kept getting snapped off" which as already been said takes some pressure to do assuming all the knots and line are good the fish is not allowed to make a run and is fighting against constant resistance. i have nowhere near as much experience as most of the other anglers on here but have never had trouble removing a hook as i was lucky enough to be taken fishing as a child and shown how to land and unhook a fish before ever being allowed to fish un supervised. and most anglers are happy to offer guidance if for no other reason to keep the fish and waters in good condition for the future.

i remember a few years ago when i was a teenager someone invented a device for if you got snagged on a tree etc on the far bank it would supposedly slide down your line over your float and tackle cutting the line at the hook so all tackle was retrieved apart from the snagged hook. so after seeing such a gadget on tv i purchased one (or an imitation of one) on a market stall for £3.99. on my next visit to my local lake an over hanging tree was snagged and the device was placed over the line and slid down where it hit the float cut the line then sank to the bottom of the lake costing me nearly 4 quid on top of losing my float etc. i soon learned that a lower strength hook length and learning to cast properly was far cheaper and didnt make my mates laugh as hard

to be honest before becoming a member on here i always thought that barbless hooks where better for the welfare of fish due to 90% of the waters i fish insisting the be used, i cant remember the last time i bought barbed hooks for coarse fishing due to this, i think most people believe barbless are better for the fish because of the rules of most fisheries so thats the only hooks they keep in there tackle, the passing on of knowledge is one of the best things about this forum, it has really helped me out in the past and i am grateful to all who have shared what they know, hopefully some of people starting out will read this and think twice about using too heavy gear and how playing a fish properly using the right tackle puts a lot less strain on the fishes mouth and the angler plus is more fun than just hoisting them out, and the pros and cons of each hook type mike

i have caught fish with no lips, missing eyes, damaged or missing fins of several species all on 2 waters one of which i would never set foot on again after telling the bailiff about someone in a swim across from me telling other anglers where they could and couldn't fish due to him having 3 rods out and when he did hook a fish it was winched out on 20lb line, then left to flap about on the concrete peg while he tried to unhook it and the attitude was "he has paid his money" waters that attract these sorts of anglers are usually best avoided i would go for quality over quantity some of the better managed waters might require a bit more patience as they arent over stocked but the catches are more rewarding. plus i would rather go down to my local club lake and stand the chance of a 2lb roach than sit around a mud hole catching endless carp

over the years i have met some interesting characters while fishing from a guy in a knight rider Tshirt walking around my local park lake with a battered old rod & reel with a large 3/0 sea hook with half a loaf of bread on the end who informed me he was fishing for mullet (20 miles inland on a coarse fishery) and a young lad who would sit next to anyone who seemed to be catching and cast his float a few inches from there's but the best one yet approached yesterday asking if i would unhook his fish because he didn't like touching them and his mate who normally unhooks them was delayed getting to the lake. the fisherman scared to touch fish will probably take some beating on the bankside idiot front.

thats what i thought i asked the bailiff about the reasons behind the bread and meat ban and he said its something to do with PH levels but i dont know how big an effect banning it will have on his water quality

I have fished a good few waters this year and have seen some bait bans that are understandable and some that just seem barmy. i understand that certain baits can effect water quality especially on heavily pressured venues and some places ban tinned baits due to the litter bugs but yesterday i found one that had a ban list of baits longer than my girlfriends christmas list including no bread, sweetcorn, hemp, pulses, meat, or pellets amongst many others it would have perhaps been easier to list what could be used

the guy in my local tackle shop said he could probably find replacement parts for it but i only paid about £20 for it about 6 years ago and it was never that good to begin with. i will definitely have look on ebay like budgie suggested. the shimano seems like a good option. i usually fish lazy and just keep the line so when i lift the rod the hook swings level to my hand for rebaiting so casting isn't an issue. playing the fish is what my old real let me down with, plus i prefer to hold the rod as much as possible rather than use a rod rest & the reel i am using temporally as a replacement is a bit bulky and heavy thanks for all the good advice

dunno if a "match" reel is the proper term for a small light reel holding only enough line for float fishing just what i have known them my old reel was a mitchell but not sure of the model would have to retract it from the bottom of the bin to find out

i dropped my match reel and nackered it whilst packing up. and to be honest it probably needed replacing anyway because the drag would stick when playing bigger fish. had a look down the tackle shop at new ones but wasnt impressed with what was on offer i have had a look online at a few reels around the £50 mark and like the look of the daiwa harrier match reel. as anyone used one or can make a better suggestion? i only use my 14ft match rod for light float fishing but on the odd occasion manage to hook into double figure carp and have landed most of them on 4lb line but with no thanks to my old reel which was jerky and awkward when the fish made a run, any advice would be much appreciated as i am no expert in picking tackle and it needs to last a while before i can afford another

i have seen plenty of fish around the lake, and the swim is producing fish but as i can only get down of an evening when there arent many other people fishing so i cant really compare results. i have been catching fish but dont want to exhaust the swim, but always seem to end up in it

I have been heading down to my local club lake for a few evening sessions and have noticed that i keep ending up in the same swim after walking around the lake i always go for the same peg. It has got a tree on one side that over hangs the water making it secluded from the rest of the lake and a good bed of lillys to the opposite side and alot of open water straight out in front every evening i have been baiting up the same areas and fishing to the same marks so hopefully this will keep the fish feeding and moving into the baited areas or am i reducing my chances by not moving to where the fish are ?