Adz

Complete nightmare to get the replacement off if you need to though! Araldite is damned hard once set and a lighter won't do the trick ;-) Best bet is hot melt glue, you don't need a glue gun to use it and you can buy a pack of the stuff, enough to do about a thousand tip rings (at least) for under a fiver from most DIY stores. Alternatively, if you're not too far from Kent Zappagod, I've got a glue gun and can either loan it to you or replace the tip ring for you (provided you bring the replacement ring) free of charge mate. Cheers,

That's just some anglers bobbyf, much the same as some carp anglers look down on some pike anglers... Personally I like fishing the fly, but I don't give two hoots if someone else prefers to use bait, provided they don't mind me using a fly and they're happy to stick to the fishery rules. Cheers,

The stomach doesn't dissolve, but it does atrophy (shrink considerably) - whether this is to prevent them from eating or because they don't eat I don't know. Certainly there are significant biological and biochemical changes in the salmon to allow it to survive in both fresh and saline environments - possibly this is where the feeding changes appear? It's not only female fish that can return, cock fish can too, but from what I've heard it's significantly less likely to encounter a returning cock fish than a hen. This could be because cock fish service more than one redd whereas females spawn only the once before resting/returning. Apparently, from information I've seen at a glance for the Spey, only some 2% of salmon returning, that were caught, were repeat spawners - although a much greater proportion had spend multiple winters at sea but were making their first spawning run. Kelts are much more vulnerable to predation than fresh running fish too, so this is most likely where the majority of mortality occurs. Please note, I'm not an authority, just a layman, so some of the above may well be incorrect - but it should give you an idea. Cheers,

You need a Salmon and Migratory Trout licence to fish for them - cost is £60 odd instead of the usual £20 odd. It's also illegal to keep salmon in England and Wales before June 16th. Tackle should be strong with plenty of backing on the reel - they fight with the strength of a freshly hooked pike but tend to go in for much longer runs up or downstream than any other fish you can catch in the UK than I can think of. Incidentally, the penalties for poaching salmon or sea trout without the appropriate licence are far stiffer than fishing for coarse fish without one - best bet is, don't!

Well... it was quick I suppose! I wonder if that was the family pet? Since it's a garter snake, indiginous to North America, but the voltage on the back of the PC is 230V, it would seem likely :-/ Cheers,

Could be... it's certainly the oft repeated reason for the West Coast Welsh rivers having such good runs of sea trout - the habitat can't support the numbers of trout smolts so a good proportion run to the sea. Trout, being predatory, will out compete and predate to extinction the other, coarse, fish which aren't able to tolerate a saline environment and therefore run to the sea to maintain their breeding stock. Odd thing about the grayling though - you'd expect them to be in the same situation as the other coarse fish. Perhaps predation on the trout by man keeps the balance since the introduction of the grayling or possibly, and this could even be more likely, there were once coarse fish in the rivers but all fish including the trout were wiped out, either by pollution or some environmental change and the trout are the only ones able to recolonise thanks to their ability to run to sea? Good topic this, very interesting!

Hmm... how about carp on the fly not too far from NYoike newt? Know of any locations? Cheers,

What a pain... I've just tried to renew my licence for next season online and I get the following message: "Licences to start on this date are unavailable at this time" Start date would have been 01/04/2003 at midnight for a Salmon and Migratory trout licence. It seems a little strange that the date field goes up to 2006 but you can't actually buy them... doesn't it? Anyone else had the same or similar problem? Cheers,

Peter, Don't get me wrong mate... I've a great respect for your honesty and lack of guile about what happened to you. Let's face it, if you'd have given a plausible, but false, name and address when asked by the EA official you'd never have ended up in court, let alone with a conviction! Personally, I'd much rather see courts of Justice than courts of Law. Justice being a concept, perhaps victims would be able to achieve some sense of resolution for crimes commited against them, instead of the system we have at the moment where more 'care' seems to be lavished upon those who commit terrible acts than those who suffer under them. My apologies if my earlier post offended you, it certainly wasn't meant to. Best regards,

Surely you mean - Had a nice house in Hampshire, a country 'retreat' in Scotland and built other peoples houses, to pay for it all, on the flood plain? Mind you... you can't really blame the money grabbing fat cat land developer - at least he's honest about his intentions. I blame the town planner and the planning dept. of the local councils. They're paid to protect public interests by stopping development in unsafe or unsound areas... doesn't look like they're doing their job properly does it?

They're courts of LAW mate - justice just doesn't come into it, nor does fair play or common sense - just what can be proven and what cannot.

If you mean bait fishing, then I can think of a few place where they're happy for you to float about face down for even suggesting the idea... but not to catch fish. Sorry can't help! Cheers,

It certainly could be part of the spawning features but it's more likely a result of trauma during death or post mortem, or possibly a deformation during life. I'm not a fishery scientist to be able to give you a definitive answer though and without a photo all anyone can do is give you a good guess ;-) From what I've seen on this board, Bruno is your man to get a more definitive answer from. Cheers,

That's a cracker... salmon are a vastly different species to Barbel and there's not a great comparison that can be made between salmon and barbel in terms of habitat. Since salmon spend the majority of their adult life at sea and never feed in fresh water, let alone 'still' water - spending money on expensive stock fish which will most likely only ever go back in weight until caught and killed for food would seem to be an excercise in going out of business for most fishery owners. Barbel on the otherhand, thrive as individuals in stillwaters. Food is usually plentiful and easier to come by than in traditional barbel rivers, in addition less energy is expended fighting the current than in a river as there isn't one. The only points which could be said to be a disfavour to the barbel is the quantity of dissolved oxygen is less, but not usually harmful and there is little to no opportunity to breed naturally. All in all, it's not something to get too het up over - the fish don't suffer ill effects in suitable stillwaters, of which there are plenty. So apart from the novelty of it... where's the problem? There's still plenty of barbel in rivers to catch if that's what you want to do and now there's the option of catching some elsewhere too. Is it just the sour grapes "it wasn't as 'easy' for me" aspect of it? You've got to wonder eh? Cheers,

Stunted Rudd... what a fantastic bait for perch they are, especially a freshly caught live one! Not too sure about sticklebacks either... the difference between a stickleback out of spawning colours and a minnow is pretty negligible really and minnows don't have spines that need removing. Was a little concerned by the "having to wait ages for the fish to take the bait" part - I've never had a problem with perch taking any bait, let alone something as small as a stickleback, minnow or little rudd. How long are you leaving them Barbel and Perch Man? As with everything fishing, your mileage may vary. Cheers,

Graham, The kype in atlantic salmon is moreoften indicative of sex, not age - along with sexual organs in their first year, the kipe is part of the spawning trim and not present until they make their first spawning run. Most likely you've found a dead male grilse, just one of many that didn't make it back to sea post spawning. ISTR that only something like 2% of salmon spawning are 'repeat spawners' from the previous year and more often than not these are females, so if you've found one, you're quite likely to find others too. Cheers,

Peter, there is large and then there is LARGE! Some of the salmon gye's I've seen make the fish in them look more like quilts than fish - great for scale removal, not so great for the fish. I've got no scientific evidence that this would damage internal organs, but from my laymans common sense point of view, if it's at all possible that a particular mesh will cause damage, then a different mesh should be used. I wholeheartedly agree with you about holding fish by the jaw only - in fact it's debateable whether very large fish should be removed from the water at all. Certainly double figure rainbow trout, 'factory farmed' for put and take fisheries tend to suffer badly when released if removed from the water for unhooking. The body shape isn't too different and the position, size, shape and composition of internal organs are almost identical too, so it's at least relevant to draw comparisons. Cheers,

Hehehe... the ultimate answer to next door's cat crapping on your geraniums! Got to get me one of those! Where can you get 'em from? Cheers,

It's not the worry of a fish slipping through the mesh, it's the potential for split fins and the possibility of damage to internal organs through inadequate support while suspended in the net that worries me. Steve Burkes comment above about hooks catching in the mesh is another good point - all too easy to cause damage to the fish that way too - there is a happy medium between micromesh and the mesh you get on most gye nets and that's the one to aim for. Let's face it, fish feed to stay alive, during winter months they're having a hard enough time of it anyway, so we're really doing them no favours leaving them with injuries to heal as well as finding enought to eat, regardless of how minor the injury is - this is particularly relevent on the run up to the spawning season. Cheers,

I wonder how they released any undersized fish?

Just to burst that particular bubble Tatiana, that spend is what ordinary people spend on their pastime - "they'll just spend it on something else, like beer, or football season tickets" is probably the real view of most MP's and VAT on the above is just the same as it is on fishing tackle. The only real measure of 'loss' would be the rod licence sales - some 750,000 of which were sold last year - which isn't more than a weekend's pocket money when considered against the whole UK 'budget'. The finance argument just won't work. Regards,

Just got sent this... so I thought I'd pass it along. How do you know when you're staying in a Kentucky hotel? When you call the front desk and say "I've got a leak in my sink," and the person at the front desk says, "Go ahead." An Arkansas State trooper pulls over a pickup truck on I-40 and says to the driver, "Got any ID?" The driver says, "'Bout what?" Two Mississippians are walking toward each other, and one is carrying a sack. When they meet, one says, "Hey Tommy Ray, whatcha got in th'bag?" "Jes' some chickens." "If I guesses how many they is, kin I have one?" "Shoot, if ya guesses right, I'll give you both of 'em!" An Alabamian came home and found his house on fire. He rushed next door, telephoned the fire department and shouted, "Hurry over here-muh house is on fahr!" "OK," replied the fireman, "how do we get there?" "Shucks, don't you fellers still have those big red trucks?" Why do folks in Kentucky go to R-rated movies in groups of 18 or more? Because they heard 17 and under aren't admitted. Ida Mae passed away and Bubba called 911. The 911-operator told Bubba that she would send someone out right away. "Where do you live?" asked the operator. Bubba replied, "At the end of Eucalyptus Drive." The operator asked, "Can you spell that for me?" After a long pause, Bubba said, "How 'bout I drag her over to Oak Street and you pick her up there?" Know why they raised the minimum drinking age in Tennessee to 32? They wanted to keep alcohol out of the high schools. Where was the toothbrush invented? Arkansas. If it were invented anywhere else, it would have been called a teethbrush. Did you hear about the $3,000,000 Tennessee State Lottery? The winner gets $3 a year for a million years. A new law was recently passed in North Carolina so that when a couple gets divorced, they're still brother and sister.

Personally, I don't like the mesh sizes on most trout or salmon nets for C&R fishing. They were, most of them anyway, designed before the days of C&R game fishing really became 'vogue' and, put simply, don't meet what I see as the requirements for a C&R net. The design is great for carrying them but it makes them a bit on the expensive side when you have to buy a new mesh for the net as well as the net. Having said that, eBay is probably your best bet, find an old salmon/gye net and just replace the mesh when you buy it. Cheers,

Ah... "Sorrow" also featured on "A Delicate Sound of Thunder", as did "Dogs of War" - the track which follows "Dogs" is "On the turning away" No towns in there either, at least not that I can see

>86 LIES AND DREAMS FOLLOWED THESE DOGS(8) "Lies and dreams" - lyrics from Sorrow by Pink Floyd, "Dogs of war" is a track on the same album "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" The song which follows "Dogs of War" is "One Slip" but I can't see an obvious Town or City name in any of the above... might kick start something for someone else though ? Cheers,