Gillies

I enjoy watching Angling shows on TV, where you can see that the presenter is thourghly enjoying his days fishing, adds a little hummor, and gives you information that is memorable, without them coming across to full of themselves. I have watched Henry Gilbey a few times over the past few weeks, and think his show is pretty good, I enjoyed his Ray fishing from the boat one a few weeks ago, and his shore fishing one for Ballan Wrasse at the weekend. I dont think he thinks 100% before he says some things though, and comes out with some daft things, as well as seeming pretty dull. But I think is show is generally OK. My favourite show is Paul Young's Hooked on Fishing though (not that since I am also Scottish)... I just really enjoy his show, apart from when he is fishing for farmed freak fish (Rainbow Trout). I find him funny, and really into what hes doing. Incidentally, Davy .. what was the biggest fish thats been caught on an Angling Programme? I know my mates were up Scrabster the year before last Shark Fishing, and they filmed a Portbeagle been caught ... which was VERY impressive, and seemenly thats one of the biggest fish caught on video camera been caught in British waters. Back to the subject of Henry Gilbey, was he featured in the Sea Angler magazine many many months ago (front page maybe)? also showing pictures of him rock hopping with his rod in his hand, with the sea crashing against the rocks??? with no apparent safety aids (inflatable life jacket etc) ... I'm not a person who really takes any moral stances, but when I remember seen this, I thought this was a terrible example to be setting to kids as it looked so dangerous. Gillies

I think its a .NET problem with Internet Explorer, I use version 6.0 and the British Midlands site refuses to load at all, where as it loads fine with Netscape 6.0 on the same machine. I have to say though, I think ASP.NET is fantastic, it has made web site/application development so much better and structured in my experiences ... Gillies

I wondering if anyone who does web/desktop software application development and has the new Microsoft.NET framework installed on a machine having problems accessing some certain web sites that are developed with ASP.NET web pages (.aspx)? I often try to get onto the British Midlands site (www.flybmi.com) whilst doing work on my development machine, and just can't .... as the site is developed using ASP.NET and I getting the .NET web page errors coming up. Gillies

Hi I'm wondering if anyone yet knows the dates for the EFSA European Boat Angling Championships that are due to be held in Ireland in 2004? I'm asking on behalf of a number of people I know whom intend on fishing it ... and are looking to book accomodation early. Gillies

I photograph different species of fish, when ever I see them, and put a little info about them along with the photo in a species section on the site I maintain, if you would like to use any of the photos for your proposed fish types section, let me know and I can send the orignal digital photos for usage. http://www.stornowaysac.co.uk/sea-angling/...ies/species.htm Gillies

An old one, but good one ..... sorry A man takes his Rottweiler to the vet. "My dog's cross-eyed, is there anything you can do for him?" "Well," says the vet, "let's have a look at him" So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, then checks his teeth. Finally, he says "I'm going to have to put him down." "What? Because he's cross-eyed? " "No, because he's really heavy" Gillies

I'm wondering about the famous 'Abu Krill' Spinner, I've always wondered why it dis-appeared from the shelves at the end of the 80s, and only in the past few years has been re-introduced? does anyone know if there was any apparent reason? In my younger days learning to fish, spinning from the shore for Mackerel and Pollack, the 'Abu Krill' was seen as the Rolls Royce of spinners among me and my friends ... I think back with great fondness of catching many fish with them, and then been upset when you got snagged and lost them and then patiently waiting for the tide to go out to hopefully retrieve the prized spinner from among the rocks and kelp. Gillies

I used to use them ... for both shore and loch fishing, I bought a handfull of them from the Glasgow Angling Centre .... they worked great, although a bit annoying on a windy day Like Jim says, remember to take them off when you cast .... thats why I only have one left !!!!! Gillies

I heard this joke the other day, think its an old one ... but definately is a "very" bad one. Q. What is E.T short for? A. Now most people say "Extra Terrestrial" or something else ... but ... The answer is: "Because he has wee small legs." It may take a while for this one to sink in before you get it, and also may take a few reads ... It really is bad, and worthy of one of worst jokes ever! Gillies

Hi Dave, and welcome ... good luck with your first venture into sea fishing !!!!! Gillies

A Bass of any size would make me happy as I've never caught one. The waters up here around the Isle of Lewis aren't home to many of them, although I do know of them been caught in numbers in Spring time a few years ago ........ why they aren't here in Summer time I do not know. Anyone any ideas why? I would of thought with the slightly warmer waters in the summer months they would show up ... but nope, none that Ive seen. Every year, I try to catch a new species of fish ... Bass has been on the list for a very long time but I think they hear me coming and hide when I fish for them in spring time, this year though I did catch a new species for me in a small Blue Mouth , which was a pretty little fish ... until you grip it the wrong way!! Gillies

Finding it hard to get motivated and do anyprogramming at work today, I thought I would write a daft wee web page for the angling site I develop and maintain, the Stornoway Sea Angling Club one ( www.stornowaysac.co.uk , I think the majority of anglers whom are members of clubs through out the world have had experiences of "Arm Chair Anglers" ... and following yet another weekend of critisism from ones I felt compelled to about the subject. and thought I would paste it here first, before I put it onto my club web site. I'm wondering if its a growing problem that many angling clubs have? The Arm Chair Angler Every angling club must have them, these guys (or girls) whom have plenty of time to go fishing and are perfectly able to go, but don't, and only go once or twice a year, and spend the rest of their year thinking about fishing from the comfort of their arm chairs. When ever they meet you they talk about fishing at every opportunity, be it in the bar, on the street, your house, work, or at their regular fishing venue “in their house”. When you meet the Arm Chair Angler they are always bragging about how they always have and will catch bigger, better and more fish than everyone else, and when you return from a days fishing they happily stand their smiling and mock you, always claiming … if they had been fishing that day with you, they would have had a much better catch. The Arm Chair Angler has the very best of fishing gear, but prefers to leave it in their garage or shed and admire it all year round as ornaments collecting dust. On the rare occasion’s that they can pull themselves away from the warmth of the armchair or couch and venture out fishing, they spend the day tangling with you, arguing, making a mess, accidentally cutting your line, telling tall tales, the list is endless, and of course its always someone else’s fault that the days fishing they had was not as good as they normally boast about. Tips to deal with Arm Chair Anglers: 1. Humour them; they seem to shut up quicker if you just agree with them, remember in their mind they are always correct, so maybe your just as well agreeing with what ever they say. 2. Make them feel guilty; ask them why do they spend so much money on fishing gear for it only to be ornaments in the shed or garage? 3. Quiz them; the Arm Chair Angler is always happy to talk about fish they have caught, and fish others have caught, but they become irritated when you quiz them about the fishing they do currently, so ask them how their fishing this year is going, and finish the conversation with: “I guess you are not really into fishing anymore, since you don’t go fishing that much anymore, why’s that?” 4. Insult them; jokingly ask them if you can buy some of their dust collecting ornamental fishing gear from them for a ridiculously low price, but appear very serious when you make the offer. Such as offer £20 for their hardly used latest ABU multiplier. 5. Ignore them; when the Arm Chair Angler begins to get into verbal flow about fishing, don’t listen and just make up an excuse to leave, it’s the simplest way to save your ears from a deluge of Bull S**t. Funnily enough, it seems that the statements Bull S**t and Arm Chair Angler go perfectly together. Gillies

In the English Premiership over the years the majority of the top winning teams seem to have not been managed by English men, they have been mainly either Scottish, Irish, or from the continent. I’m wondering people’s opinion’s on whom is currently the best English manager? Currently I don’t think there are many good up and rising England born managers, I think former national team managers Bobby Robson and Terry Venables are still streaks ahead of all other English managers, with Bobby probably edging it in my opinion.

Every year I have said to my self I'm going to try dogfish .. and always chickened out of it. We have the oppurtunity up here in waters around the Isle of Lewis to catch a lot of species of fish, and in good numbers, this year though, was the first year that during our club competitions that not one single Spurdog was caught. Its been a gradual decline, that we have seen happening over the years due to the over fishing of Dofish by commercial boats ... where we have heard tales of commercial boats getting #### boxes of them. 10 years ago, we would be catching them three at a time and have a shoal of others follwing the ones we would be winding up from the bottom there was so many of them, it really was a sight to behold there was so many of them ... also they were a pest when targeting other species .. so we limited the number per competition to three. I cant remember the last time I seen three been caught though! Hopefuly the Spurdog will return soon, and I really really hope that the Cod are not heading the same way as them. Incidentally, can anyone tell me what Dogfish tastes like? Gillies

Yep, I agree about the problem of Salt, especially when your fishing in rough seas and the reel is constantly get getting covered in sea water. That is a problem Ive always been concious about, so always taken measures to get rid of the salt build up, by giving the reel a good cleaning afterwards. I have to admit, I've been tempted to try the 525 mag or 535 mag for rock fishing. Gillies

I got one of the 535 reels from (I think) it was a well known tackle dealer that you always see at the back of the Sea Angler magazine, the other one (which I think was a GS - is that the adjusted version with a slightly slower retreive designed for uptide fishing????) well I got that one as a prize for a boat angling competition. I have sent one of them away to Penn through my local tackle shop in May/June ... and am still waiting for it to return. Possibly the 535 in my opinion is just more prone to wear and tear in excessive use, than say an ABU 7000 ... looking inside both reels and comparing them, I think the 7000 is built to last and serve an angler extremely well for many years (my first 6600LD in exception), where as the 535 may require a little more care and maintenace to give it a good life span. Also, maybe as a shore only reel the 535 will serve very well, but in my expeirences for usage 3-4 times a month over a season for boat competitions and fun trips .... it could not handle it, and needed more care and attention maybe than I was prepared to give it. However I do have a friend whom looked after his very very well, fishing same amount as me, and his packed in, whereas the other owners whom have been owners of 535 over the years I would guess they looked after theres the same amount as me. To use I found the 535 a dream - nicely designed, comfortable, smooth drag, good retrieve .... just a pitty that it wasn't made a we bit tougher. Gillies

I'm wondering what kind of experiences people have had of the Penn 535 range of reels? When they first came out I thought they were great preformers!!!!! easy to use, very rugged, and had an excellent feel about them. I had two of them ... and used them mainly for drift fishing from the boat, and rock fishing. After a year though, one of them started to slowly crumble inside and not function correctly .... then the other one, one day just refused to go into free spool and let line out. Maybe I did not maintain and care for them as good as I could, but six other people I know whom owned them had similar problems after a year ... and they just gave up using them. It seems like it is a case of great on the outside, and seriously lacking on the inside regarding its quality, which is a shame. Or, its a reel designed for occasional use? Older Penn reels like 4/0 etc were great in ever way, and built to last ... so Ive no idea what happened to the poor 535.

Here is an explinanation of Yahoo Mails Flagging that I found online, hope its a help. Yahoo Mail, lets you put the equivalent of a blank post-it or a penciled-in notation next to your email messages. After you open up a message sitting in your inbox, you can click "Flag This Message." That way, a, well, flag will appear next to that message the next time you see it in your mailbox (assuming you don't delete it, of course). Whenever you log in to your email, you can choose to read just your flagged messages by clicking on "Flagged" right next to the View command. Why flag at all? Perhaps as a reminder to wait on the message but get back to its sender eventually, or perhaps to read the email again more closely. Whatever the reason, a flag serves to draw your attention to that particular email and makes it stand out from the rest, instead of letting it sit there and pile up like unpaid bills or overdue library books.

Every game is full of "what if's?" what if one or two of the numerous good shots that the Macedonian players were taking from distance at the England goal had dipped earlier or gone a foot to the left or right ... England could of quite easily lost that match! What about the Slovakia game? England were really hanging on for the win at the end there ... Slovakia were running them ragged. It has been terrible England performances, the game against Turkey will be an interesting one. I think both Turkey and England showed complacency and vastly underestimated the Macedonian team. I'm not getting at England, I think some major changes in tactical play by Sven, changes in the team line up, and mostly changes in attitude are needed. DavidP and Howard make some really good points regarding the team I think.

My vote would have to go to John Logie Baird. A true pioneer whom shaped the world we live in today. How the likes of Tony Blair, David Beckham, and Boy George are in the top 100 I dont know, there achievements havent made any real difference to our lifes ... when you looka at names like Alexander Graham Bell, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Dr. Alexander Fleming and of course Charles Babbage. Gillies

I think Paul might be right, check the CMOS, Jumpers, and the battery. One suggestion that might be worth doing is removing the memory, and then giving it a wipe, then putting back in the machine, and then try switching it on. But I think it could be something to do with the battery or the CMOS. I've a spair P2 board lying about that you could try if all else fails, that you could try or take parts from.

The Scotland team is not that great right now, and the game against the Faroes more than proved that ... but it was a wake up call for many player I think. The last two games against Iceland and Canada (not the best teams I know) shown that the player's are at least playing for their jerseys now, and are beginning to play more as a team ... it was very clear that they are now much much better since they played against the Faroe Isles. Berti Vogts inherited a useless team when he first came, and experimented making major changes and gave a number of players chances ... which hopefully will work out! Incidentally German were VERY lucky against the Faroes also, dont you think? Scotland's next game against Portugal, should hopefully be a good indicator of what work needs to be done to make the team something decent. I think the performance more than the overall result will be whats important.

I know we cant slag anyone, but what Im getting at is a team with so many so called superstars are playing no where like the old England teams used to play, the players seem to have no passion for the game and believe their vastly over hyped press in the media ... and its easy to see many of them are just totaly over-rated. The media constantly over hype the England team so much, and yet cant take it that the whole team is pretty bad right now. Im not slagging the England team at all, as I enjoy watching England play, same way I enjoy watching Ireland, Wales Northern Island ... and of course Scotland.

From a non-English person's point of view I thought I would give my thoughts on the current England team ... I'm wondering what other peoples thoughts are, going by the last two performances. Is the England team full of over rated, over hyped, over paid, predicatble players whom just can not play together? The England team don't seem to have any passion at all, they seem to expect to win rather than try to win. There are no natural winners in the team, they need Terry Butcher, Ray Wilkins, Gazza, Alan Shearer type players in the team ... right now there is none. No natural passionate winners!!!!! The current so called "star players" .... David Beckham in my eyes is the best kicker of a ball in the world, but as a player he is nothing special, and his attitude towards the game and other players is horrible. Micheal Owen must be the most over-rated player ever, against a solid defence whom have speed he is next to useless !!!!!!! The only thing he is clever at is diving and getting awards penalties and free kicks !!! The England team needs serious work to it, a wooden defence, a predicable midfield that can "only" play down the right, and no decent strikers. Sven sure does have his work cut out for him for the next game !!!!!!!!!! Also, I think it was disgusting that the England players refused to shake hands with the Macedonian players at the end of the game ... YES they did time waste ... but I seen England do the same against Argentina. England really did come out of that game ... in a different light. And, of course there is poor David Seaman, all these years of tremendous service to the team, and hes now public enemy No.1 ... I dont think there is anyone good enough to replace him !!!!!!!! Calamity James ... or Nigel Martin certainly are not International Level yet !!!! Also, the commentators on BBC 1 were a laugh ... especially Ian Wright, at half time saying England would knock a pile in !!!!!! Yet again, another case that shows the England team is totaly overhyped !!!! You can have best players in the world (or in England case mediocre players) ... but if they cant play together they are useless. What can Sven do to make things right?

I would go for © ... so at least the fish has not died and gone to waste. Kind of an insult to the poor wee fish I think if you kill it and leave it to the flying rats (aka Sea Gulls) or return it to the sea to die in misery ... and end up belly up on the surface. If throwing back, I would say make sure its out of its missery and make sure its sinks to bottom so hopefully another fish can eat it and the natural lifecycle continues. On a small fish that size if the hook is that far down, the hook has undoubtbly done so much damage to its vital organs, your aswell to put it out of its misery I would say. On a bigger species of fish such as the common skate or tope, due to biological structure etc of the fish and hook sizes normaly used when targeting them species. The damage is more often minimal and I'm sure it will survive another day as the hook has not damaged anything vital inside. Thats what I think anyway, I may be wrong. Gillies PS: The royals could probably kill a thousand undersize fish and get away with it!!!!!!