Darren T

Well my tackle collection has begun today with a win on Ebay. I picked up a 13ft Shimano Hyperloop AX. 13 lined rings, part cork handle, screw reel seat. I managed to get it for £25 posted which included the carry bag it comes in as well as a rod tube. The deal on ebay was £30 but i had a £5 voucher which was very welcome. now i am waiting for my birthday to come around (April 13th) to put any money i get towards more tackle!

oddly, as far as we can tell, it was my great great great (ish) grandfather who came up with the idea of changing the countrys clocks in 1907. Benjamin Franklin is usualy credited with the idea but he just suggested people get up earlier or later depending on the time of year.

Today was my first day out fishing in over 10 years. Since last time I went i was 11 it seems only fair that i consider myself starting from a clean slate! Fortunately for me my uncle Mike is a keen angler and offered to take me out. I arrived at my uncles’ house at around 9 in the morning with my camera bag. I have no tackle so it was just the camera, a sandwich and a bottle of drink to get me through the day. Fortunately my uncle had everything set to go, rods, reels, two landing nets, unhooking mats, chairs. In the car it went and we set off for our destination, Castlefields Lake which is part of the Dorking and District Angling Societies "turf". My uncle is a member of the club but I needed my day ticket (having already got my rod licence for the day online) and so we headed for Fullers Tackle Shop on South St in Dorking to get my ticket. We were lucky enough to catch one of the better bailiffs who let us know which pegs had been doing well in the last few days. With my ticket in hand and the knowledge that pegs 15,16 & 17 had been fishing well we headed off to the lake. It was a little trek form the car park to the lake but it was worth it. The lake was devoid of other anglers and in lovely surroundings. Deer were running through the forestry behind us and the sun was out with hardly a cloud in sight. While my uncle starting setting up i donned my Polaroid’s and tried to survey the scene, the water was quite murky with visibility ending at about 3-5 inches down. There was a slight ripple on some of the surface but a large portion wasn’t touched by the wind. Once finished i had a nice Daiwa road and reel loaded up with a pre weighted puddle chucker followed by about 4ft of line. Most of the lake is 4ft so it seemed a perfect place to start. After loading up a maggot onto the hook and chucking in a small roach was banked within 30 seconds by my uncle signifying that there were defiantly fish in the water! While i sat myself down my uncle trotted off to set up his ledger rig on the next peg, he was putting out small cubes of luncheon meat into the centre of the lake while i decided to try and target the margins of my peg. Over the course of the day i sat intently watching my float, waiting for it to dip, thinking it had when it hadn't ad generally really enjoying myself. All in all i pulled out around 15 fish with several being 3 inch roach and perch, a few being slightly more robust 5-7 inch roach and then finally, the last fish of the day pulled my float under. After a bit more of a struggle compared to the rest of the days quarry and a more substantial bend in the top section of my rod i finally caught sight of my fish. In the blink of an eye my uncle slipped the landing net under it and we brought it ashore. We didn’t get a weight and I was too excited to do anything but take pictures of it on the mat, but I was really pleased with my first Carp of around 8-9 inches caught on double maggot. All day i had been trying single double and even triple maggot as well as single and double caster in an effort to keep the teeny tiny roach away from my bait. The casters had no luck all day and even triple maggot didn’t stop a few really small roach taking my bait. All in all it was a great day for me, and I really enjoyed myself! Now i am looking at picking up some tackle of my own in preparation for the next trip out with my uncle.

i would have to say that the d40 is an excellent place to start with a DSLR. yes it cant drive any non AFS/HSM lenses, but many many lenses are being released with these now from Nikon and Sgima and others across a wide range of price bands. I have the D80 and my father-in-law wanted a DSLR for his birthday, mum-in-law gave me a chunk of change and asked me to get one and i picked up the D40 for him. Its got all the bits on it you would need as a beginner and importantly, if you deide in 12 months to step up to the D80 or its successor then you can still use the lenses you have. its doesnt have a couple of features like Commander mode (for remote control of flash units) or a focus motor, but for the price and the quality i dont think you can go wrong.

i knw the feeling well, i live and drive in mostly build up areas but last year i went to devon for a weekend and the roads down there are similar in places. wide open space, you can see the road for probably half a mile in front of you, national speed limit..ish. its quite an invigorating experience being able to drive a car properly. as for killing someone, thats why you dont do it in built up busy areas and take advantage when you are in the middle of nowhere where you CAN see for miles and miles.

i managed to remember to do mine before i went to be last night. lucky relaly otherwise i would have been late for work this morning!

Ach i just booked my remaining holiday for this year and am working this weekend it looks like a stunning venue and i think if it was a little closer it might even be one i could sign up for. still, im off from May 27th till June 23rd so i have lenty of time to fish elsewhere!

One of the highlights form this months IYCF was John Wilson fishing for Carp in Arkansas. huge expanses of water that we just dont see over here, filled with some incredible looking fish. All for free!

they were saying use a size 6 and a sidewinder to help detect the bites.

it was more just a general question gozzer but thanks anyway

i just wondered what some of you use, do you abstain completly from the purpose made baits out there in favour of more "old fashioned" ones like maggots, caster, breat, corn, hemp, worm etc? i was thinking what it might be like instead of trying to learn a new tactic or rig each season (as i know many do) how rewarding or frustrating it might be to use nothing but the older style baits instead of some of the expensive over hyped baits on offer today. how many people out there believe that the only reason they are catching is because they are using this flavouring or that pellet when in reality they would still catch and have fun on less commercial baits.

you mean to say if ther is a lot of fishing going on they are a little more wary, but if its a quiet venue then they'll just scoff the lot?

another good story of your action Janet! i had been waiting for one for a while! hopefully it wont be too long before i have another to share.

ahh, i must bow before the Wrinkly Master i have to say, if i had paid for this sub i would probably be a little peeved, there are no freebies anymore (i remember getting little tackle boxes or a bag of pellets or some line years ago) and of all the articles the vast majority are about bloody carp. now while some are more interesting than otheres (John Wilsons article about fishing in Arkansas for example) it would be nice if there was a bit more in there about all the other species. i know carp has this massive following of people who just want to catch the biggest fish they can, but i cant help noticing that there is growing boredom and even a touch of hostility to the way the entire market has geared itself to just one apsect of angling in this country. In addition i am sick to the back teeth of seeing Matt "actually" Hayes all the damn time!

I picked up my mag from the mat the other morning and had a read through and saw an article on an apparently good method for pulling carp. The guy was getting huge cubes of bread out into the water using a free running bomb as an anchor. then he would allow the bread to float to the surface, if he had nothing for 15 seconds he would wind in half a turn, wait and repeat. it seems incredible that 8-10lb carp (the bulk of his catch) would event try to take a bait that large, let alone manage to get hooked!

well i just won my first bit of fishing tackle on ebay, a Shimano Hyperloop Match 390FA for £25 plus £5 postage. but i had a £5 voucher off my next ebay purchase that ebay sent me so it was only £25 total! i have seen it for sale from a few places for £45 so needless to say i am well chuffed. i wasnt going to buy anything until my birthday came around but i couldnt ignore that kind of deal!

why cant they make more reels in just plain colours without all the bling bling. i dont care if anyone wants to buy it, thats for them to choose. but why cant there be a few more understated ones.

i think i'll start mine now since its quiet here at work. it'll help me keep a track of my shizzle as a new angler

i'd love to get my hands on a few similar specced reels from different companies and strip thme down to see just how much is the same. the thing i am thinking about primarily are the bearings, shmano have their special ones that are "like" two or more standard ones and are weather proof etc. i wonder how many other reels use exactly the same bearings.

I am trying not to get too hung up on spending large sums on my initial tackle, knowing that you can get some great kit at excellent prices. However i have been looking thhrough the 2008 gear guide that came with my IYCF and spotted the new Shakesphere reels, which look like they could be good and the match 1,2 & 3 reels were appearntly best sellers last year,w ith the new ones being the revamped versions. i suppose the question is, in the long term would it just be better getting a shimano reel on the basis that while it might have a few less bearings, they are superior quality and so are properly sealed? or do you think it really doesnt matter?

a little late to the fold but a few weeks back i remember reading about a pilot scheme to get ex servicemen such as yourself budgie and re train them as teachers. Its something they have done in the states with resounding success. The troublesome kids show more respect to a guy that has actually been there and done it than some berk who, as you said, hasnt really done anything. there is an element of respect these days. growing up i knew if i was rude to people to beat up people then i was going to get it a home. my old man would give me a single smack on the backside that would remind me to play nice. but even then, i was never really that bad, i would do naughty things, but all kids do. but i was never rude to people and stuff because i just knew it was wrong. its not funny and its not clever so i didnt do it. an aweful large chunk of todays "yoof" dont agree.

from my one real trip since adulthood (see my other post) one of the best things in my eyes was the chance to just exist. to just "be" for a few hours. working in london everything and everyone are in a rush to do everything yesterday. you press the elevator button and are annoyed when it takes 5 seconds to get there. you are waiting for a delivery from the other side of the world and get narked when it should have arrived by 9am but doesnt arrive til 9:02. while i was out fishing there was none of that. i was completly chilled out as well as physicaly chilled to the bone! utter peace and quiet, some deer running around, a few pheasants, birds twittering. its utterly glorious when you are used to computer screens and noise and stuff all day. After that i have to say i was REALLY pumped up when i got a fish on that i knew was my biggest so far even if it was only a couple of lbs total weight hehe.

i thought the IYCF article was really cool for this night fishing thing. its not like they were using the lights to locate the fish or anything like that, it was just to aid them with the floats and allow them to see what they are doing. and while tagging the fish is probably a good idea to see whats been nicked and to see what fish you caught and see how its grown since last time, it shouldnt be used to help locate them.

i just found out that it was Castlefields Lake and also found some pics of others fishing it http://www.dorkingas.co.uk/castlefields/pa..._thumbnails.htm.

cheers chaps. i had a really good day and slept like a baby last night. all that fresh air really knocks you out! what was pleasing for me was that i caught what i did on such cheap tackle, it made me realise that you really dont need to go spending a fortune on gear. Hopefully we can sort something out soon and go again and i honestly cant wait. With my 23rd birthday on the way in april hopefully there will be some money floating around so i can get some kit for myself (i wont be going anywhere without my uncle for a while i dont think!).