Tigger

I'm surprised they would allow it to be shown with no stones? Pointless giving prizes to an animal if it can't re produce, unless it's some kind of pet show?

They can't climb the curtains but they certainly pull them down easy enough! I was brought up on a dairy farm. We had our own bull. As soon as the bulls became unpredictable they went for slaughter. I don't think they lasted more than about 3yrs. Nearly all the calfs which were males were allowed to suckle off the colosterum and then they went to France for viel I remember my grandad deciding it wasn't worth the hasstle of bothering keeping a bull and it was far easier to have "paddy udder" come round and use frozen jizz. As kids we would scab the shringes the jizz came in off Paddy. We'd have loads of 'em pushed under our belts and have them filled with water. Then we'd play commandos in the barn and buildings squirting one another lol. My uncle was crushed by his bull as he was leading it. He was in a wheelchair for a short spell and then died. I think this was a deciding factor in my grandad using A.I. .

Our milly

Our milly

Our Baz, his dad moved to the US...

Your right Chesters, I totally forgot about the smooth snake. Sloworms are lizards but look looke a snake. I've caught and played with adders, slow worms and lots of sand lizards and green lizards as a kid. I loved em all, still do! We used to have a lot of lizards in the stone walls round our place in anglesey. Wierd how their tails drop off at the point you grab hold of em. When they grow it back it's a different colour for a while. The bit of tail keeps wriggling also to keep a predators attention on it. There were a number of snakes and slow worms on anglesey also. They would get squashed on the roads whilst sunbathing! I remember an old chaps jack russel was bitten by an adder and it died shortly after. No snakes round here, as far as I know the earest lizards are 20 miles away on ainsdale sand dunes, lots of natterjack toads also. Manys the time i'd digg up the toads when I was digging up a ferret as it was killing a rabbit not too far below the surface. You should uave disposed of the cat chesters, I wouldn't have imagined you being a cat person lol.

These grass snakes would cause you no panic Phone, they arn't venomous or aggressive. We only have two kinds of snakes over here in the uk, one of them is non venomous and one has a pretty weak venoum that may be like a wasp sting to many. Obviously it might cause a reaction with some people and could be the end of em!

I had a nice day on a couple of club still waters yesterday. I met up with Mike on the first water, he was already set up and fishing. He'd been fishing for a couple of hours and hadn't had any sign of a bite. As we stood chatting we saw three grass snakes swimming about right under our feet! The water was choked with weeds and everytime Mike wound his set up back in it was covered in slimey green algea/weed. Even if he had managed to hook a fish, retrieving it through all the flotsum and jetsume which was floating on the surface and the weed below would have been very tricky! Because of the bleak out look we decided to go elsewhere and so he wrapped up and we set off to another similar water some 30 miles away. It turned out to be a wise move and we both had some nice carp which gave some decent little battles before they were netted. Weatherwise it was strange as when I set out from the home it was very cloudy and dull and there was even a little drizzle, but by the time I had reached the first venue it was blazing sun and despite wearing a brimmed hat my face now resembles a freshly peeled beatrute! Sorry, but unfortunately I forgot to take any pic's :(.

His woman had a baby not long ago so he's busy busy busy! He's still ugly and probably still smells but other than that he's doing fine. I'll let him know he's been asked about :). i'd like to know where Lutra, Anderoo, vagabond, Rich, and everyone else has vanished to!

Go on Keith, if it has gates just wear some surgical gloves to open it. I chose the place I did yesterday because I can just throw amleg over the fence, no need to touch ewt.....git leg over hahaha.

Thank Phone :). i think you may be right with your 12lb estimate, I didn't weigh anything though. iI used 8lb daiwa sensor and a size 12 hook. I used a hair with a bait band tied to it and large pieces of bread. The rod is 1lb test but easily tames those carp. No need for big heavy pokers which only damage their mouths.

I think the tackle shops are shut round here Martin so no maggots unfortunately, I just used brow bread on the surface and popped up at various depths. I knew there were chub in this venue but had no idea there is so many, caught a lot, all varying in size from about an estimated 3lb to 5 plus.

With the lockdown being lifted for a few sports etc, and with fishing being one of them I had a few hours on one of the clubs still waters today. I used a rod and reel I use on the river whilst trotting and it worked a treat on the still water just the same :). i caught countless carp and surprisingly, lots of chub!!

If I fish in amongst marginal lilly pads (I haven't done for years now) I don't use a float at all. I used a very small piece of peacock attatched via a rubber (if it gets caught on a plant it just pulls off easily) and used it to rest on the pads and suspend the bait at the desired depth. Very often I have my bait literally hanging against the lip of the lilly, still half out the water! Watching the bit of quill shoot off the pads is great. I have used a split shot or two instead of the quill but sometimes the shot isn't quite so visible as the bit of quill. I'm sure you could use coloured float stops etc instead of the quill or shot. I also use tackle suitable for extracting the fish....stout enough so as not to allow the fish to take line and get snagged on the lillies.

They have always had a wage. If you take note of who they are, most are x police etc. They will no doubt be getting a very decent pension already, and the wage off the AT/EA job will be some iceing on top! Why not employ someone with a normal background ffs? Just jobs created for them in retirement....pi$$es me right off! As far as i'm aware, the ea pay their wages.....out of rod lisense money!

One problem with those sliding floats is that you would have to re tackle if you wished to swap it for another one. A normal float held on via rubbers or a adaptor can be swapped in seconds. I would use a slider in a depth of water that required it, and where a longer rod wasn't practical, but it would have to be far less cude than those american versions in Kens links.

I would say the species of fish being targetted and the venue being fished would dictate the best place to plop a bait. Very often the edge is a great spot to fish, but then again, the same can be said about way out in the distance, different tactics on different waters. I do like to fish down the margins if possible :).

That looks nifty Ken. I know mikench who posts on here from time to time got himself a line loader. I forget the name of it now but it was similar in looks to the butt end of a rod. It had a reel seat like a normal rod and the spool of line was attatched to the end. It looked very good and well worth checking out if your thinking of getting a line loader.

I have red letter days but just start falling asleep when trying to read it. I also have the river price by Chris Yates and Martin Hoopers specimin angling by design, and again I find them boring as hell. I have a few Len Arbury books which hold my interest. I much prefer an informative book which holds my interest and I may learn something new to improve my fishing at the end of it.

I've been threatening to get one for years, still keep looking at em. They do look handy. If you take the plunge and splash out on one let me know how you like it :).

I have a number of books and in all honesty the majority are pretty much garbage, even books written by well known people. I've found I prefer to read practicle books with real info on fishing methods, tackle etc, rather than anecdotes etc. One book that I would recommend is "The complete Chub angler by Kenneth Seaman", published in 1976 so by no means a modern book. I don't think there have ever been any later editions of the book after the initial run. There are usually copies in decent conditon for sale on ebay and amazon etc for between 15 and 25 quid. I just had a nosey at it and fpund it interesting that the authors methods and tackle choice is quite similar to my own.

I went over the canal local to me recently and noticed a scrote with his bratts lure fishing. I honestly don't know if this is bad or not, I mean the towpath was strun with walkers etc.

Thanks chaps, for your replies :). Phone, that is a possibility! I know John said it wouldn't compramise the action etc but i'm not sure if it would make it a weak spot? Since hearing the ticking sound which must be close to a couple of seasons back now, I have caught lots of decent fish on it and it's been bent into ridiculous curves which would suggest that John is right .....fingers crossed he is anyhow! :). Thanks again gents for your input :).

I anyone remembers the Spar shops? Well they used to have their own brand of luncheon meat in a red tin with pull opener. I would never eat luncheon meat as ypu never kjow what the mash is actually made of!... but if I ever got starving when fishing and succumbed to it's mouth watering oudour it did taste way better than spam etc. I remember I would always use spars own brand when fishing and my brother and m8's all use spam. I always caught lots more fish than they did and we would often fish with our floats touching to see who's bait was best. Wierd really as even though I always caught loads more fish on the spar meat than they did they all insisted that spam was better and refused to use my spar meat. The species we were catching at the time were carp, tench and bream, with a few odd roach etc.