Gillies

I expected the game in Norway to be tight, with Norway just winning - thank goodness I was very wrong Great first half performance, and second hand defensive performance ... thought Norway looked nothing special at all. As for the other game .... well I have always said the England team is a team of very good individuals whom are useless together and now they seem to have run out of steam the teams cracking up .... they just can play together, but the Superstars cant be dropped however **** they are Gillies

I am a passionate supporter of Aberdeen - though we have been to say the least ... "extremely poor" over the past few years, though last year hopefully our new manager has turned things around a wee bit. When ever Im in Glagsow (usually once every second month or so ... heading there on plane tonight ironically) I go to Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic matches (when I went to University there I even had a season ticket at Ibrox for a season for free of my mate when he had to head off to Holland), sitting among the home support ... always with a glimmer of hope that the home team will loose. I enjoy been at any game, atmosphere etc. Most of the time back then (2000) when Aberdeen played Rangers or Celtic it was a cricket score ... if we lost 3-0 we were getting off lightly. Down in England, I watch highlights of every match but dont really have any favourites ... Im always up for the underdogs, last season it was good seen Everton do well. Gillies

It's just your luck, I often buy fishing tackle for my club from BassPro or Cabellas - sometimes (75% of the time) I get hit by customs ... nice surprise when I dont If ordering anything from the US for myself I get it delivered to a friend in the US's house, whom ships it as a gift to me to avoid customs charges. I am awaiting a new camera lens from the US just now, this time I timed buying it to when a friend in coming over here for a wedding and they are taking it over for me. Gillies [ 22. August 2005, 10:52 PM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

Nice catch of Cod there Paula, would of put an enjoyable bend in the rod I bet Hope they were good on the plate! Gillies

Im still quite happy developing to suit 800x600 resolutions - the main body of my pages are usually around 760 pixels wide ... and come up just fine on an 1024x768, and above. Im sitting working on web sites day in day out, surrounded by 4 computers humming away in my ear (slowly driving me round the twist) - Ive developed simple static content sites (just html pages) to full e-commerce web sites and pretty complex web page based applications for Citi Bank over in the states .... but the hardest part of a web site for me when starting it from scratch is always designing the look and layout of the thing. The main reasons I develop still to suit 800x600 is mainly for usability, user-friendliness and I take pitty on the 800x600 resolutions and like to save them the big no no of having to use the left to right scroll bar. I could type for ages about usability and userfriendlieness (or HCI Human Computer Interaction as some geeks would call it) - a lot of it is just plain common sense though, have a look at a number of popular web sites and you will notice a number of common design characteristics for how text, images, links etc are layed out. For the screen resolution ... of the top of my head things I'd keep in mind are: - Table widths (carefull when using percentages) - Image alignment if using percentages in tables - Font size (be carefull - to big looks nasty on a smaller resolution ie 800x600) - Number of words in a paragraph going across the screen ("they" say its easier to read 9-15 words across, then go onto the next line down ... rather than reading 30-40 words plus across and going onto the next line) ---- this is one reason I still develop to suit 800x600 resolutions. - Text alightment (again percentage values in text boxes may make the text alignment look odd) - Empty space can be a good thing for emphasizing content on a page Are loads more issues, but its to late for me to think of them right now Next you have printing the page issues ... but thats another story (and where making a printable version of each page can come in handy) One of the most user friendly sites I look at is the BBC web site ... ie http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/s...rem/4143512.stm their site is a good starting point for ideas on layout and usability. It may not look the prettiest of sites (infact pretty boring looks wise), but how its layed out for a person to read and navigate is pretty good I think. I would maybe look at frist making your site as user friendly as posible first, then work on how it looks ... always keep in mind though, not everyone has broadband ... so try to keep download times realistic. Thats my 2 pence worth Gillies

While riding one day, a cowboy met an Indian riding along with a dog and a sheep and began a conversation. Cowboy: "Hey, cool dog you got there. Mind if I speak to him?" Indian: "Dog no talk." Cowboy: "Hey dog, how's it going?" Dog: "Doin' alright." Indian: Look of shock. Cowboy: "Is this Indian your owner?" pointing at the Indian. Dog: "Yep" Cowboy: "How does he treat you?" Dog: "Real good. He walks me twice a day, feeds me great food, and takes me to the lake once a week to play." Indian: Look of total disbelief. Cowboy: "Mind if I talk to your horse?" Indian: "Horse no talk." Cowboy: "Hey horse, how's it going?" Horse: "Cool." Indian: Extreme look of shock. Cowboy: "Is this your owner? " pointing at the Indian. Horse: "Yes sir" Cowboy: "How's he treat you?" Horse: "Pretty good, thanks for asking. He rides me regularly, brushes me down often, and keeps me in a shed to protect me." Indian: Total look of utter amazement. Cowboy: "Mind if I talk to your sheep?" Indian: "Sheep liar."

Leon, good point - we have 2 of the smaller tackle outlets here that give a 10 to 20% discount to club members. The bigger tackle shop up here, I think would be affraid to do that, even for kids ... as our club has around 600 members, though many of them just social members. Might be worth asking them ... for just the kids, some kind of discount if they show a membership card. We normally have 3-4 adult anglers escorting the kids (whom are regular club match anglers) each time they are out in the boat, and always make sure they have the right rig to suit the kind of fishing ... ie 3 down of a boom when fishing for Flatties and Rays, jelly lure rig for Pollack and Coalies, and simple beads and spoons rigs for Haddock and Whiting. The more that they get into it, and see other boys/girls with different rigs they have made themselves they begin to start making their own ... but we always make sure they have the right rigs/tackle for the kind of fishing they are doing ... they learn quick, and soon pick it all up. When we have coaching sessions, they all go away with a good amount of tackle, and rigs we have taught them to tie. It's good when you see them out with rigs they have tied themselves and have the enjoyment of catching. Each time they are out on the boat, its a competition ... and the friendly(ish) rivarly keeps them going for the more experienced kids, for kids new to it though ... its just the pleasure of catching a fish (no matter what) and all the various different species they get. Anyway, I think we're all agreed though ... main thing to get kids into fishing is building upon those smiles on their faces Gillies [ 14. August 2005, 10:12 PM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

Having gone out with two girls from New York, a school teacher and an Intellectual Property Lawyer, I agree with the title of the post "Dont mess with the Yanks" - especially if they are women Shaun - the lighhouse joke was almost a reality here a few years back ... in a sense, the US navy are often doing exericses of the Western Isles ... here is what happened: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2122687.stm Gillies

Tack4 - great shot, as everyone agrees .... its the smile on the face that says it all, and makes taking kids fishing well worth it. Wullie, if you have any spaces in the name of the file you want to display replace them with '%20', so if had an image called "big fish.jpg" you would need to name it "big%20fish.jpg" Gillies

Norrie - cant agree with you about the colour of his shirt blue & white would be just as bad, red and white with a wee bit of wool is more my colour Shaun - one of my mates is doing a lot of shore fishing, and fishing into the nights seems to be bringing in the bigger Turbot ... but the mark I fished last weekend (same bay as this young fellow got his) produces larger Turbot with a good cast. There is not many kids who can say his first ever sea fish was a Turbot ... mine, probably like a few peoples was a Mackerel The enthusiasim been shown by kids is great, the whole scene seems to be exciting to them, all the various rigs and lures, baits, and of course catching the fish itself. I had to laugh the other week when one of them caught a 7 lb Spurdog in the boat, as it came to the surface they were all shouting "shark ... shark" and became top of their lists for fish to catch ... of course when they came aboard and seen the fish close up and seen the spurs they would not go near it (rightly so). After a 4-5 year absence due to overfishing by commericals, we are seen the Spurdogs again inshore ... (for me, one of the best fighting fish around for its size) ... We fished in 70 fathoms a few weeks ago, a mark with Whiting up to 2lbs ... it was full of Spurdogs also, and if you were to slow in getting the whiting up you got it back in bits, devoured by the Spurs. Gillies

Wullie, did a slight ammenment to the url to replace the spaces you have in with '%20'. Here it is. Wullies photo above ........ very nice fish by the way !!!! Gillies [ 12. August 2005, 12:32 AM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

I think we should be trying as hard as we can to encourage as many kids into sea angling as possible - it's something we try our best with at our club as we have a pretty heathly junior section. Anyway, this was the first ever time this young fellow had ever been sea fishing, and first sea fish he had ever caught. I took this shot last Friday night (not the best of shots)when we held a kids fishing coaching session at an outdoor centre. It's not the biggest of Turbot's, but he didn't care, and that smile didnt leave his face all night (it was priceless) ... and he could not wait to get home and show his family ... he carried it about all night with him in a plastic bag after that, so much we joked that the print of the words "Co-op" will come of the bag and be tatooed on the fish. (his granfather thourghly enjoyed the fish I hear) On the Saturday we had them out on the boat, catching fish such as Thornback Rays, Spotted Rays, Pollack, Mackerel, Dabs, Plaice, Red & Grey Gurnards and Coalfish. One of the smaller boys struggled so much with a Ray, him and his mate were having turn about at winding it it. Despite a few of them been sick, they were raring to have another go at it. Gillies [ 11. August 2005, 11:20 PM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

What a cracker of a fish --- wish we had Bass up here in numbers! Agree 100% with ColinW ... get angry at the netters who catch way to many fish. Well done to the young lad for catching it, hope him and his family enjoyed a few good meals from it. Im to scared to post photos on fish here, dead or alive ... as there always seems to be flack attached to it in some way or form. I am very concerned about the fence though Gillies

Summer - its a long story, short version of it - I was very very impressed with their Greys Pirker and how it handled pirks of various sizes in different conditions, and told them so, I dont think there is another rod around for handling pirks the way it does ... so the shop up here that stocks Greys were asked to give us the Apollo to try for the year, along with a 20 lb rod. For me they are great value for money ... great performers, and of course the unconditional lifetime warrenty! Gillies

I used the Greys Apollo M2 13' on Saturday for the first time, it was kindly given to our sea angling club by Greys to try for a year. I was using it from the rocks casting out into the sand - teamed with my ABU 6500, what a performer ... "a superb rod". It says 6oz on it, but I started of with a 4oz lead ... I was getting a decent enough cast with it, but felt it was itching for a heavier lead to get out there, so I stuck on the recommended 6oz, I was getting a fantastic cast with it, almost double I was getting with the 4oz with a good bit of power behind the cast. Lots of power in the rod, and was great for pulling the fish up over 15 foot of jaggy rocks below me with the full force of waves from the Atlantic crashing against them. Gillies

Ammended the URL for you ... this should work: http://www.go-fishing.org/upload/files/dodgy%20geezer%201.bmp Gillies [ 10. August 2005, 07:56 PM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

Did a spot on Shore fishing on Saturday and yesterday ... I havent been shore fishing much the past year or two, as Im usually boat fishing ... but am hoping to do more and more. On Saturday I had 2 Turbot and 3 Dabs in a 4 hour period, yesterday had 15 Pollack in 45 mins (only 45 mins as I was fishing of a small island that I could get to at low tide) ... and got snapped of twice by 2 pretty large Pollack ... biggest caught just over 7lbs, all returned alive. A couple of weeks ago I got my first ever Turbot form the boat, so it was nice to get ones from the shore also. Gillies [ 09. August 2005, 04:05 PM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

I've had one before also, a bonnie wee fish, especially the male one ... is full of neon like colours and has a tall dorsal fin (compared to its body) ... whereas the female is duller in colour and doesnt sport the large dorsal fin ... I may be wrong. Gillies

Got a 3 lbs Ling from the shore on a spicey chicken leg one time. Gillies

He seemed a pretty straight guy, unlike Mr Blair ... and a very good politician. His resignation in the House of Commons was very dignified, and was a good reflection on the man he was. Sat behind him on a flight from Edinburgh to Heathrow once, and listening to him talking it was clear he was a nice guy, and knew what he was talking about. Gillies

High Priest of Scandanavia Known in some parts of the world as: Hermes of The Cruel The Great Archives Record: Fond of wine and the finer things of life and death. A creature of nasty habits who preys on innocents. Gillies

countless cans over the head .......... could not manage it Gillies

ha ha Does make me wonder if there are many guys around called 'Richard Head' whom go by the name of 'Dick'??? Gillies

Seem the same shade to me ... played around with it with a Graphics program, and both seem to be a value of (#6B6B6B). Gillies

I used to get sea sick even on the flat calmest of days as a youngster, I would even be feeling sick the night before (psychological bit). I found just fighting it, and not letting it beat you is the only way ... watching what you eat, and if you do feel ill dont go into the wheel house or fill up on junk (eat stuff that your stomach can handle easily) .... if I do feel a wee bit queezy on a bad day, I just take some water and it usually sorts me, and never sit down with my back against something. The last time I was sea sick was a 2-3 years ago (first time in 8 years) in Scrabster out on a horrendously rough day ... all the drink the night before (hangover in morning), and the big fry up with chips in the Fishermans Mission first thing in the morning did not help at all Gillies