Grumpalot

At least it wasn't a PVA hooklength...

I'm lost - if one loop of the "8" is clockwise, mustn't the other be counter-clockwise? I've seen roach in the confines of a canal patrol a long "8", but in a larger canal, they circled (clockwise, I think, but it was forty+ years ago...).

Well done indeed for reporting your observations; many do not get the chance to watch fish in clear water, and many who do keep the knowledge gleaned to themselves (rotters!). It's probably safe to assume that cloudy-water fish spend more time and effort feeling for danger, as they can't rely so much on sight, so I shall be trying to tweak my laying-on rig to keep more line on the deck. Many thanks!

Pic 1 could start the "Azurine Roach" row up again! http://www.fishingmuseum.org.uk/azurine.html

A bit rum; I cannot remember (It's me age...)! But I had a 13.5 lb carp on an 18, and my best two fish on a 22 were a 3lb 6oz chub and a 3:12 bream. An old glass rod that creaks in the corks at a one-pound pull can be a big help! As can hooking the chub in the pit of winter when most of the snags have mouldered away. Actually, at least one of the latter pair may have been on a 24; why else would a bream stick in my memory so? Balanced gear, soft hands, shy fish, spheroids of gold or brass, brown corduroy trousers and a stiff slice of luck...

Not a single one offering a right-hand wind option. First one to realise that ten per cent of the market are southpaws will be pushing on an open door "Bless ! Somebody tell him that the handle unscrews and can be fitted on the wrong side of the reel to accommodate the disabled......." A number have tried, but as they can't swap the flyer round so the line peels off onto the inside (as opposed to the nail) of the controlling finger, and appear to lack the ability to realise that that makes their reel useless, I am forced to conclude that the disability is theirs, and non-physical.

Not a single one offering a right-hand wind option. First one to realise that ten per cent of the market are southpaws will be pushing on an open door... but no, let's struggle for a tiny share of the bigger market. If their engineering is as good as their logic, you may as well stick to Intrepids bodged up with superglue.

From Kirisute's link: "However, where they coexist with fish, crayfish become able to distinguish among species, adapting the intensity of their response to the effective risk. Our results confirm the relatively high learning capacity of P. clarkii reported in previous studies and suggest the existence of mechanisms that make predator recognition particularly efficient in this extraordinarily successful invader." As if it isn't bad enough being sneered at by something a lowly as a fish, we are now about to be outwitted by invertebrates. Not good for the self-esteem.

Beavers were hunted out, for their fur, in historic times. Their ecological effect seems largely benign: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Beaver . Seem to recall that when they fight, they go straight for the goolies, so they might keep otter numbers within reasonable bounds. Then all we'll need is an outbreak of white-tailed eagles at our inland cormorant colonies, and Merrie England will be fully restored. (Yes, I know they eat fish, but not as many as a flock of cormorants, out of which they scare the living guano).

Length of snout forward of eye less than diameter of eye, orange underfins, white-ish scales (its old name was "white bream") - that's a silver.

Thanks, Phone. Thanks for the PM, too! I'm aware of the perils of pig poo (Clostridium welchii - not nice) but I've never heard of pathogens being a big issue with sheep, cows or geese, all of which were traditionally farmed by our forbears who caught everything and survived to breed us. Obviously, one mustn't get cavalier about lax handling of such things, but neither must one try to wash the countryside in disinfectant... I'll try these out, sometime, where the stuff is going into the water anyway. Tigger, apologies for going off-piste, that's a cracking dace; if I caught one like that I'd be following up with a lobworm and a long, soft quiver-tip. It used to work on the Windrush (though the rod was a little Japanese fly rod, quiver-tips being but a gleam in their inventors' eyes then).

For plumbing the depth, try this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEWyIno6CLA; part of a series that you may find helpful. Also, use the search functions on websites such as this, Youtube, and Google, entering, for example, "float fishing rivers" or "swimfeeder", there'll be rafts of articles, videos and discussion threads to pick at; once you find an author/presenter who works for you, search their name and look up their other articles. Best of all, get a decent "How to" type book or two. You'll soon be back here asking more specific questions, and we'll be more able to help. [edit:} This : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Complete-Book-Co...ad#ht_500wt_927 - looks good - Pickering is one of the best match anglers ever.

Absolutely so, but they don't willingly abandon the first fruits, so to speak; those little round raisins one sees have been twice through bunny and probably aren't much of a snack for anything. Dung-flies, dung-beetles and carp may have a different opinion, of course.

I think the confused words are "Euphemism" and "Merganser", and claim my five pence... Edit: P.S. "Green baits" ... OK, I'll bite, in a strictly metaphoric sense - how the blazes do you persuade a goose turd to stay on a hook? Twisted up in a bit of stocking? Dried to semi-crunchiness and hair-rigged? "Balanced bait" style behind a wad of breadcrust? In a UK context, do goose, cow, sheep and rabbit dung carry any transmissible pathogens? I'd have thought our heavily -screened cattle's effluvia safe to splash on all over, but wouldn'tbe sure of the others... Come to that, are sheep and rabbit any good, or too efficiently processed by the producer? The possibilities are endless... and unpleasant, in some cases.

Vagabond, thanks for that; such a sequence of events hadn't occurred to me, I shall reserve my polaris/loc-slide floats for weed-free situations!