thamesoddity

That first grayling has a couple of beauty spots, gorgeous.

Definitely use a trace, I've had pike take spinners as small as 00, which is the smallest size available. Small to medium sized mepps work very well, along with the all time classic ondex spinners. As for speed, try and vary it in order to see what the fish want, generally as slow as possible, with the occasional faster turn tends to work well. I always try and vary depth as well, working the water column, also, fan casting is a great way of working barren stretches of water, or simply searching a swim after the likeliest looking spots have been tried. As for rods, around 6-8 foot, 5-15 grams casting weight would make a good rod to spin for perch with.

Number 1, It's all about the nature.

I've had some fantastic results sight fishing for them on my local river with tiny original rapalas, great fun.

Thanks for the advice, I think a 15footer is definitely for me then.

I've been using a 12 foot trotting rod for a couple of years now on medium sized rivers e.g. the Lower Itchen, the Kennet etc., and have found I've been constantly outdone by my regular fishing partner (nick S) who uses a longer rod than I. I was wondering what the more experienced members would say is the optimum length of trotting rod for rivers like the Test, Itchen and Kennet when one is expecting to mostly encounter fish ranging from a couple of ounces to a couple of pounds. I'm considering buying a 15 footer, would this be a good length?

Great write up Nick, was like reliving the day. I seem to remember that I caught the biggest fish

Rapalas of <7cm are perfect for perch. The original 3cm in gold or silver(a lure I sadly lost in a tree this summer) is quite possibly the best all round plug I've ever used. The best spinner I've ever encountered for perch is the mepps aglia willow blade in size 0 or 00, it's my get out of jail free spinner, one that i've stopped using as a first choice simply on the grounds of it being seemingly too good.

It's not a great stretch anyway, I fished last season, when it was free and only managed 2 barbel. 7lb and 13lb, all caught in one flood in february, not a single fish to an extensive summer campaign. Plus it's so choked with weeds most of the year that fishing is seemingly impossible.

There are exceptions to every rule...even noble gases can form some compounds...arsenic can replace phosphorus in one bacterium etc etc. nothing is clear cut and no rules are set in stone, or if they are it's only in this universe and may not apply elsewhere.

Applying geometry to fishing situations strikes me as pure genius. Imagine creating a complex statistical model for predicting success based on weather conditions, with an area created by the intersection of several seperate equations all triangulating towards a point on a graph that represents perfect conditions for an individual species. It's more nerdy than geeky i'd have thought. The word "geek" creates images of slim males who wear thick rimmed glasses, never venture outside and read comic books. Where as "nerd" creates more of an image of a scientist who applies logic to every possible situation regardless of how simple it may be, for instance trying to work out a sink rate for maggots in a river of a known velocity, creating a mental gradient in order to work out exactly how far upstream the maggots should be thrown in even though the accuracy of throwing them in renders the entire mental exercise pointless.

I'd go with the compleat angler simply due to the beautiful countryside idyll that it paints, and the wonderfully care free anglers lifestyle it portrays.

That reminds me, I probably, if weighed/submitted would hold the IGFA world record for gudgeon on the fly rod.

They're quite good at making themselves seem more impressive than they actually are through the use of media. Does this count as a strength?

Absolutely beautiful fresh fish, great condition. Stunning picture of the fish in the water Is it just the light or is that a touch of the old red vent on your fish?

It's not the EA's fault that they can't do much about invasive species, the EA is just one of the many organisations responsible for the management of our freshwater environments. It usually boils down to funding and economic viability, is that the EA's fault? No, it's an issue much higher up the governmental food chain. Perhaps you should consider organisations like DEFRA as well, and consider the harsh compromises of cost benefit analysis. Your ideal of removing all that poisons the natural world and removing all non-natives is simply impossible, Nature thrives on neglect is often taken out of context, nature in it's holistic state does indeed thrive on neglect, but, we are not canada, or siberia. We are one of the more populated countries in the world, so there must be an organisation to balance our socio-economic and environmental needs, we need meddling organisations because we ourselves are a part of the ecology of this country.

To be fair on the EA though they have a very hard job with managing our river environments. You should look at it on a larger scale as opposed to just one season, or one stretch of that particular river. Also managing and balancing fisheries interests and flood management interests is often a very tough call, one mans snag is another mans flood risk. Before slating the EA and british waterways off just remember how many parties have interest in our waterways, and how each interest is equal, sometimes angling suffers as a result. Also salmonid groups aren't just acting on behalf of their species, the habitat favoured by trout, salmon and grayling is also favourable to all coarse species that share similar habitat in lowalnd rivers and streams, barbel and chub also require very similar spawning areas as trout. Salmonid groups tend to be very holistic in approach. Is it a mistake that some of the best coarse angling rivers are the best game ones? What river is it that your talking about?

For a period of time last year I was the youngest qualified level 1 angling coach in the country, could be the youngest ever but checking would be tediously difficult.

It's interesting how they mention rivers like the thames and mersey for salmon, but not rivers like the wye whose historic salmon runs are still in serious decline.

If you can then try and sight fish for the big ones, that's the only way I can think of to target them specifically.

I vividly remember falling in during that day on the monnow.

Has anyone on here actually fished on christmas day itself?

But water is known to leach the soil by dissolving the mineral ions and running off with them, so how could the ground absorb the salt? also if the ground is still frozen then the salt filled water from the snowmelt would run straight off over it and into the river systems.

But the salt dissolves in the water and then drains into the rivers in the runoff, alot of it will therefore end up in the river systems via points close to roads/urban areas. It's possible that salt would get into rivers much easier than suspended particles, seeing as particles could be filtered out by vegetation, soils etc but not dissolved salts? The salt mustn't be good for the land surounding the roads either. Think of the tonnage of salt used in some basins?

I guess snowflakes have a larger surface area than water droplets, so could provide a substrate on which solid particles of polution ie soot could accumulate. Also, snow is made of something like 90% air? so I guess it could trap gaseous pollutants, and then maybe absorb them more effectively because they'd be trapped in bubbles in the thawing snow. I wonder if snow has a filtering effect on the air mass it falls through? Also, the fish's metabolism would be slower due to the temperature decrease associated with snowmelt, so perhaps they cannot deal on a cellular level with the increased salt concentrations in the environment, due to their decreased ability to actively remove/deal with the extra salt. This is all ofcourse supposition... I wonder if freshwater fish in brackish waters have adapted to the salinity by increasing the ion content of their tissues, by regulating the amount excreted by the gills.