danny_b

You guys make a lot of very valid and interesting points. There does always seem to be something wrong and killing fish somewhere along the line, and it seems to regularly change as a few of you have said, maybe it is the press trying to sell papers. Or maybe they do have a point in what they say, theres always people who read the press and say well that must be right, look at all the evidence etc etc, but there is also always people on the opposite side who say that BECAUSE its in the papers it cant possibly be true, or atleast thats how they come across. I agree that the otter problem is being thrown out of proportion, but it is having an effect none the less. There is more otters, and less of there staple food around, the eel, which is a corner stone species that the nature needs to keep things running properly. And there is also less natural predators for the otter. which is a major problem, the same as reintroducing beavers into scotland. Without a natural predator to prey on the otter is that nothing will keep there numbers down. They will carry on increasing there numbers untill they exhaust there food supply and then die off themselves. You never hear that side of the otter story from the otter huggers out there, i bet if people started to introduce wolves to keep the otter numbers down you would see as much anti wolf stuff in the otter huggers worlds and you see anti otter stuff in the fishing world.

Hi all, hope your all well. The problems with RAW files i just cant see, but thats peoples own opinions if they dont shoot in raw files, and personally i think your limiting yourselves, but whatever floats your boat. But what i want to bring up here is about the EXIF file informations rule. I raise the question of what if i shoot on my Canon 1V or Hassleblad and then scan the images to get a digital file. There is no Exif data available. Does this mean that an image shot on a 35mm or 120mm film camera can NOT be enter into the competition? This rule makes no sense to me. Encouraging the inclusion of Exif data yes, definitely. But to not allow an image to be entered into the competition because it does not have it is just plain crazy. Not everyone shoots on digital cameras, so they are immediately ruled out of entering the competition, and you have all voiced your concerns about a lack of entries in the not to distant past. I am aware that the majority of people on here will shot exclusively on digital cameras, and film is now almost exclusively in the realms of the pro or 'traditionalist', and i personally hate that term lol, but i still do not agree with this rule, the information contained within Exif data isnt that critical to whether an image is a good one or a poor one, dont get stuck on the mechanics of an image, a great image is still a great image whether or not it was shot with an aperture of f64 or f2.8, or if it has had any editing done to it via the computer or via the enlarger in the darkroom, or none at all, which is VERY unlikely! I shoot on both 35mm and digital SLR's by the way, and use RAW files and then process in photoshop and do whatever it takes to improve the image, though i do think that in the majority of the cases, as little as possible is the order of the day. I have also processed and printed my own negative pictures, and there is often more to do whilst printing negative film then there is digital files. I haven't entered the competition yet, i may do in the future, who knows, i havent read the entry requirements yet so they may put me off entering a 'fun' competition. Im not intending to put anyones backs up either or anything like that, just raising a very valid point. Danny

magic.....

Im starting to get excited, no matter how much fishing i do in the close season on lakes, the opening of the river season always does it for me. I think i might go out monday night and wait till midnight and cast out then

As said above, try and look for clear spots in the weed with a marker float. But if you have to fish over the weed, then fox do some 'bouyant' leads that sink very slowly that are designed for fishing in the weed, there actually made for pike fishing for some reason, so you might want to have a look for some of these.

I have a set of Rapala digi scales, the more expensive ones, and other then the zeroing abilities of them i think they are great. Ive checked them against my weighmasters and my ruben heatons and they are all exactly the same, so for me its digi's. The angle that you hold the scales at will affect the accuracy of all scales, not just digital ones, try it for yourselves. The weighmasters are good as far as mechanical ones, better then the avons in my opinion with the whole 'what colour is the thing on' lol Anderoo, which Rapalas did you have out of interest?

Fair point.

'If you've left it in a bucket for longer than a week then just throw the bucket away! Dont be tempted to open it and have a sniff!' I did this the other day, was the most foul smell i have ever smelt, made me gag, and made my nose bleed lol. I swear a rotting corpse wouldnt have smelt as bad as that groundbait. Ive got some breadcrumbs we brought last year and kept it in the house and its still great.

I would suggest liquidising it to, then you could mix it with some crushed and grilled hemp to help it explode out of the feeder, it really does take on alot of water though, but is very good. If you have a bulk animal feed place near you then you could get some brown crumb to mix with it, plus some hemp/sweetcorn/pellets etc, it takes added particles really well for balling in.

Hi all. Im looking at getting a small bivvy that i can set up in tight swims, on waters that arent carp syndicates so dont have nice comfy grass swims. Anyway, i was looking at the airframe brolly on the AI website, and for some stupid reason it doesnt have the dimensions of either of their bivvys. So if any of you guys have one, could you give me some dimensions, even just rough ones would be great. Ive emailed AI twice asking for them but they still havent got back to me! Thanks in advance

what did you use for the hook length? The fish have a lot more time to inspect the baits when on the surface, or maybe its just easier, so having a thin-ish hook length material and smaller sizes of hooks helps. also, i would strongly recommend getting some enterprise fake dog biscuits, there great and are a far better hook bait then the real thing in my opinion, had my pb carp of 21ib 10 on one. Getting the carp feeding confidently is the key to multiple catches though.

Yeah ive thought that before, chub especially have very strong pharyngeal teeth. However, i still think that things can be to hard for them, even if it just puts them off actually taking it rather then them being unable to eat it. I found some boillies under the stairs yesterday that where about 7 or 8 years old(atleast), and they where rock hard, much harder then any mussel/zebra/swan mussel shells ive ever seen, so i wont be using them, smelt alright still though.

If they have gone rock hard then i wouldnt use them, if you cant crush them in your fingers then the fish will struggle i would of thought. Otherwise give em a go and see if you catch, if not you've not lost much.....

Hi guys and girls Im venturing down to shanklin in a week or so to see a friend, and i was thinking about taking a lure rod with me to have a go at the bass while she's at work, so i was just wondering if this is a good idea or not, or for any information really on where to try in shanklin. i looked on google earth and the groynes look interesting?? Is there any rock marks in shanklin or anything? Thanks in advance Danny

I got the G10, its a fantastic camera, is basically just a DSLR in a compact body. I have no problem with the noise issues, not so far atleast, its not comparable to my 5d's obviously, but then its not going to because the sensor is smaller. if your worried about the noise problem, check out the previous model, the G9, less mp so the noise is virtually nothing at lower ISO's, and it has a bigger zoom to. I would recommend both of these models, i know pro's have them as a back to their back up cameras. There not the smallest compacts on the market, but are considerably smaller then even the smallest DSLR's, and the results you can get from them are awesome. Its a fantastic camera to have with you when your fishing and cant carry your SLR with you. Though i personally would never change my SLR for a compact as the quality just isnt comparable for me.