wunnus

A spot that I like near to Barham is the Gipping section down from the old lock at Blakenham to the railway bridge. It takes all the abuse the public throw at it and still produces some memorable scraps with chub. Some of the swims are challenging, well if you wish to retrieve the tackle they are! It is one of the few sections of the Gipping that equals the variety of the Stour,

Now...if you had a pint of mixed maggots you could have lived things up by sorting them into colour groups. I admit it is only marginally more exciting than watching paint dry but who wants to lug a litre of emulsion about?

I have it on good authority that if you discharge high voltages of electricity into the water it stuns the fish long enough to scoop em up. The only thing is ... you will need damn long jump leads to reach, and apart from that you will need to get up the pylon. It will revolutionise fishing, none of those smelly baits and if you get in quick then no one else will get any!! Ha!! Some of em might even be ready to eat!!

I agree that you keep the annual one as a necessity. But if you chose to keep the regular ones, keep them separate to the annual...otherwise there will be no insurance if affected by fire!!

It's the idea of changing into the neoprene suit and holding your breath below the ice that puts me off.

Spiders probably do

In the current UK weather... you will be using them still frozen!!!

Keep Maggots (so entertaining on a blank day to separate out the colours) Worm (gets the garden dug as well) Bread (Waste not want not, this is the only bait that I am willing to eat if the fish do not want it!!!) Ditch Boilies....pigs fart flavour is so hard to find these days Hemp (abso murder to get on a hair rig, often involves burning the midnight oil into the wee hours in the garage) Stuff stuck to corkballs (effin glue gets all over tackle!, then it sticks other thing together and then the bits drop off the cork)

For any fishing you like I aim to fish light. I wish to preserve the back muscles by not lugging a trolley about, especially a challenge when you come to a stile. Mr Crabtree was very rarely seen poking his nose out of a bivvy. In the days when I frequented a few carp lakes I observed that the first thing that the carp angler did in setting up was to set up the bed and have a snooze. Well, they certainly needed it, and a medal for the effort for carting all that junk to the swim. At an adjacent lake there was an elderley couple where the angler's wife dutifully came to keep the angler safe and spent most of her time in the open air reading and knitting. Now there is a market opportunity for Fox, Nash etc to exploit. I would support the individuals right to buy as much claptrap as possible but equally I would support the right of the rest of the population to enjoy watching them get to their swim. So schhhhh dont let on...just dream about the day when we hear the click of knitting needles instead of the scream of line bites on audible alarms.

The biggest problem is that the various species of fish are reluctant to play ball. Tench have a nasty habit of heading for my 3m whip road and that is just not on, usually involves me wading into the water (leaves unsightly stains on the M&S bargians). I have also noticed that carp tend to avoid my carp rod loaded with 60lb line, making the investment in the reinforced size 1 hooks a complete waste of money. Could we not fund some training for these unfortunate creatures before they are put into our respective waters? Then they could associate the sight of me in my bright orange reebok trainers and Patagonia Super Alpine Men's Jacket with eating a grilled maggot on my hook. Choice of rod would then be immaterial.

I would like the EA to be force to reckon with but.... If they are unable to get a licence to you, or even acknowledge that you have paid for it.. show little interest in those flouting the closed season plan river water levels so that they hinder wildlife, well, I feel that the EA is really just a token...

Where have you got those right hand fingers?

Lakeside is one of those little gems. The bivvy brigade go for the catfish, but the real gems are the rudd (not just ya cross bred rubbish here). There is a wide range avaiable and the lake somehow always stays in balance. The stream adjacent can be interesting in a pike sort of way. Even if you blank (BLOODY RARE) it is such a good place to spend a day. Pub is Greene King as well. But that is why it is standing room only on warm bank holidays..........

Is this about food?

Ok lets get the cull going with people who get in the way in any shape or form, then lets move on to Jack Russels, from there we can move to all those people who arrive at the waters edge and make a hell of a noise, swiftly followed by all those people who judge everything by the cover, instead of finding out what it is all about, if there is any time left this week we can then move on to anywildlife that is anyway likely to harm for no reason (after the jack russels I think that this would be only wasps but I did want to leave the door open!!) I think we will need a day or two to clear up.

Cannot help with venue but would stringly reccommend that you use elasticated whip rod or top end... no tangle , and no casting up a tree. The focus is strongly on regular feeding for the silverfish. Every now and then something stronger will arrive, but the noise will put em off. I was told that i had "more than a full time job" when I used to take 5 fishing.

Only open it if it lets you open it, but if it is sleeping I would leave it a while.

Rolling ledger. Hooklength... as you will. Stop shot / knot/ledger stop stc Drilled shot ledger Deadly in a flowing stream.

Yep... in Suffolk. Reddish ball with a tail. About the size of a star lasted seconds

No doubt to all that But my local stream is way too low.... getting to be a number of pools with little in between.

OK two points only 1) Cut the birds nest into 4 cm sections then it can become part of a bird nest. Nuff'said 2) Walking distance? Is there any other way to get 2 miles form the nearest person. ?

Hmm snow tyres are designed to go on snow, How much do I need to go on snow??? Hmm Are my local roads covered with snow/iced up? Can I afford a spare set of tyres..ouch! i find it hard enough to maintain the set that I have. I suppose a caterpillar drive vehicle could look like a logical alternative. but I do not have enough pennies. In reality I am prepared to use ABS and traction control + slow speed to tide me through. If I am going to have accidents then make em slow ones. Or avoid driving. Some products seem to be developing for occasional use. http://direct.asda.com/TEX-Car-Snow-Socks-...default,pd.html I live in an area that very few think will freeze... they all steal the rock salt/grit from the side of the road. They wait for the gritting lorry instead of chucking it on the road themsleves. So I suppose snow tyres will be less attractive. The whole thing comes down to perception. If you perceive that the conditions on the road that you travel along will cause problems for you then you will invest in tyres etc. The weather conditions that we get means that we only expect a small number of days to wake up and be presented with those driving conditions. Those not just driving to work or round the corner can justify the expense. Then there are those like the tackle tarts that just want to spend.

Driving on the road carries risks. If someone is doing 15mph in the fast lane it will cause frustration. I question the sanity of expecting that driver to do 70mph, will not while I am on that stretch of road. Instead make a note of the number plate because that car is worth looking out for on the 2nd hand market

That also pi**es the dog off as well.

I was just a tad concerned about where this lot would be turning up.... cos I would want be somewhere else