Arf

Acid is a great tool to help one to think like a fish While not suitable for some sports, cannabis can be considered a performance-enhancing drug for many types of sport - especially Golf.

I have ALWAYS wondered what the point of a bivvy was! Now I know.

I would hope that they spend the rest of their youth locked inside a reformatory.. A hiding may have been in order if they had been naughty, but I dare say that attempted murder and grievous bodily harm go beyond the realms of naughtiness. Makes the blood boil... My boys will no be doing anything without me being around until they are at least 15 years old and more than capable of looking after themselves. I read about an incident at Gillingham Pier a few years ago, was along a similar vein. What sad times we live in..

Speaking of Borgs, I would not at all mind committing some syndications with Seven-of-Nine

It's so funny that you should bring that up! What a co-incidence... Just yesterday I called up numerous material shops t ask if they had any space-time fabric in stock. I need some because I want to sew together the world's funkiest trousers. Yes, I am a closet seamstress.

Elton, During the last half hour I've started getting virus warnings each time I load a page on Angler's Net. I've attached a screenshot of the warning. Cheers, Arf

I concur... I've got some real classic tackle that is worth a far more than I would ever have dreamt I would ever be able to afford, mostly acquired through inheritance. I can't bring myself to fish with a lot of it though, and use my cheap old tackle instead, which has served me well for the better part of two decades. Its all a bit silly really.

I think angling is presently suffering an assault upon it's innocent reputation. This I believe, is due to the 'collectors of water full of goldfish' insisting on referring to themselves as CARP SYNDICATES. Now I don't know about you, but for me the term 'syndicate' invokes imagery of dark, smokey rooms filled with scheming Chinese or Italian mobsters, negotiating deals and formulating evil plans for eliminating the competition. I think the sport would benefit from the renaming of such organizations to CARP COLLECTIVES. This sounds much more inclusive, and does not invoke mental images of 'concrete boot' victims standing betwixt the carp at the bottom of the lake. Many thanks, Arf

Sods law dictates that when you catch something like this, you will be miles from anyone, you would just have dropped your camera in the river, and your scale had rusted solid. I guess the question then becomes, do you tell anyone about it? And thereby risk being labeled a b*llshit bertie the rest of your days! Just hypothetical chit-chat really, I need to be well equipped to know exactly what to do when (not if) I catch that record fish during the first hour of the rivers opening in June

Well that would be totally bloody silly, and downright unenforceable! I can understand bag limits (kill limits) for specific species if under threat, or enforced release at certain times of the year when they come in to breed, but a catch (not kill) quota would be ludicrous.

Excellent, thanks for all the info everyone.

So, how does it work then... Imagine you had to go fishing on the first day the rivers were open again and you caught 50 lb pike! You were fishing alone a few miles away from civilization. What would you need to do to claim it as a record, seeing as though you are supposed to release it unharmed?

Were you yourself not a rep once upon a time, on a similar side to Leon? Yes, the limit applies only to fish you take home, not to what you catch and anglers fish with a view to maximizing their chances of catching rather than species targeting. This is when fishing by day, when there are a large number of assorted species about. Species targeting at night is usual though, because different water conditions favor certain larger predatory fish and fishing for anything else would be absurd. The galjoen is a day feeder, and it is found in rough water rock gullies, along with a myriad of other species which means specifically targeting them is virtually impossible anyway. Come to think of it, they are definitely not a common boat caught species either, so it is shore based anglers that were its only real threat. So when you speak of bag limit, over here would that normally mean the number you can take home, or the number you can catch before you have to pack up or fish for something else whether you keep them or not? I'd imagine its the former.

Ah, so the sea trout license enables one to fish for sea trout up in fresh sections of rivers during the river closed season too? I assumed one was restricted to brackish water estuaries and sea fishing. Even so, I can't see myself deliberately targeting them. Does the 1 or 8 day license include an option for sea trout? I can't remember having that option last time I called for a short day license.

Well, I can't say I know enough about fish stocks in these parts to say whether bag limits are good or bad - I'm relatively new to these parts. Just thought you may be obsessed due t asking the same question of Leon thrice. Back in south Africa, we have a fish called a galjoen - its actually the national fish, believe it or not, and it came under extreme pressure and stocks fell dramatically. Nowadays it is illegal to sell a galjoen, and it is illegal to serve galjoen in a restaurant - or anywhere else in exchange for money. As an angler the limit is one, and the thus the only way you can eat galjoen over there now is if you have caught it yourself, or are invited to a barbecue where someone has caught and brought one. It seems that this has had a great positive benefit for the fish, and taking one instead of 6 is not that much of a drag for the angler who otherwise would have taken what he caught. Of course the very wise stamping out of trade in these fish where it really matters - till takings - has thwarted commercial fisherman completely, and this has had the biggest effect. This is just one example, but a good example of where a easy to swallow limit has been very successful.