M.P

LOL Ken. No mate his name is John. No, what you read in those days was probably all true. However hundreds of anglers never bothered with reporting their catches. Very few ever took cameras, or looked for glory. We never bothered with any of our fishing trips outside a club sessions, and even then it was only to get a top 10 badge. That was a saw-on badge club members could win for catching one of the heaviest fish caught in a week throughout the UK. It never had to be a monster fish, i won mine with a 2.9oz Eel, biggest Eel caught and recorded, in any UK club match that week.

Personally i can use either, up or down. Mostly it will depend on what style of casting i am doing, this depends on what rod i choose to fish with. Normally my favorite style is the Back-cast, with either a multi reel or fixspool, either reel will be mounted down the butt. Pendulum style, i will have my multi reel down, but if using a fixspool, it will be up, purely because with a fixspool in the down position the line slaps at your arm or coat sleeve. Distance wise, reel up or down makes little if any difference when fishing. Out on the field with maximum power being loaded into the rod, reels tuned to perfection, then reel down the butt is favored by most. As for having trouble reeling a fish in with the reel in the down position, this should not be a problem if you use a reducer. The reducer removed for casting, and fitted for reeling in.

Hello Vagabond. Nice to hear that there are still some out there that can recall these magic sessions. It's hard to try/ tell or explain to the later fishing arrivals of how good it once was. Must point out to everyone, even though there was an abundant of big Cod caught, there still remained some anglers that never managed to hook and land a double figure fish. One of my old mates, started fishing same age as me, fished beside us regular, caught endless amounts of Cod up to 9lb, but he never caught a double figure fish in his life. Uncanny, but for some reason he just never got lucky with the big double figure fish, either off the beach or out in the boat.

I just read through this topic. First, what a cracking fish. Even in the 60s it would have been a nice fish, today it's a terrific fish. Well done, not only for it's size, but for getting it landed, something many anglers on here would fail to do, even if they had one like it on their hook. As for the comment of fish this size not being caught in the late 50s- 60s- 70s, WRONG. Beach fishing. My best Cod, 28lb 7oz, next best 23lb 11oz, umpteen between 18 and 20lb, and just far too many to recall under 15lb down to 10lb. Never bothered us a lot, about how much they weighed, just a quick check on the scales to see if it was better then any others you had caught, basically this was just for your own personal PB record. Never bothered with photos, who the hell wanted to lug a Brownie camera around with them. We were never into all this magazine rubbish with photo's or record breaking weights, Just get the fish gutted on the beach, get it home ready for the pan, eaten the next day, no freezer in those days for us. I still remember our best days fishing ever, two of us caught so many Cod, many in the double figures, we just gave up completely knacked and bored stiff, a daylight session off the beach at Slaughden, that's Aldeburgh, Suffolk, for the local guy's who have a good memory, as i don't think it's on the map these days. How many did we loose? who cared, just tie on another hook, try again. It didn't matter a monkeys about losing a fish, never even talked about the one's that got away, plenty out there, just get on with it. I could rabbit on all day and all night, about the fishing, the tackle we used, the rigs, the bait etc etc, but it would probably bore you all to tears. Those golden day's fishing results, we use to have when i was a lad, were magic, and the memories can only be shared with those that were there to remember them. Shame that many have now passed away, such as Ian Gellespie. As for boat fishing, i won't go into that.

OK Ferret1959, was just wondering if maybe something could be done to help you. I was once involved with the ministry, special fittings of safety equipment for disabled drivers, often complete rebuild of driving compartments, conversions that were almost impossible at times, with foot controls, steering wheels, seats etc etc. We got over most of the problems, seat belts were quite easy to overcome. However, these were for one car only, no use to anyone that drives several different vehicles. Hope you can find a way to overcome the problem.

Spent hours looking at all the camera options, one thing that surprised me is the prices, a lot cheaper then i thought. I was expecting to spend around £350-£400, but it looks like a half decent Jobie can be purchased for a lot less. Only thing is, it seems like the best are the big ones, i need one to slip into my pocket and there the problem lays. So far, i can-not find one of the smaller slim jobs with all the gizmo's and spec of the bigger models. Will have another read.

Medwaygreen Thanks for that site info, very interesting, pity they leave off the prices, but got some idea where to start.

I'm looking for a new digital camera, something with good zoom. Don't quite know where to start, and what to look out for, so looking for some professional advice. I have already got a budget priced Fujifilm, FinePix 1300, which is 1.3 MEGA PIXELS, WITH f=5.8 lens and it has a sort of zoom in or out, but it's useless for long distance shots. Plus it doesn't take a real good photo. Example, if i take a picture say of a swan, the photo of the swan will be recognizable and pretty good for a snap shot, but there are no feathers, it's just a white mass. Hope you know what i mean. I don't really want to be loaded up with loads of add on accessories, or a large handful of camera as i will be carrying it around in my fishing tackle box or pocket. Main subjects of interest are fish, boats and birds. Thanks in advance for all feedback.

Sam, gaffing was as you say barbaric, everyone did it, also cut off the bleeding tails, because they were scared stiff of the Stingers. Shame really because i use to fish in the annual Sting Ray matches and one year would have won it, if some dip hadn't chopped off it's tail, making my fish weighing less then the other guys.

Sharkbyte, Tag along with us hooligans at our next meet. Terry got lucky, could be you next time.

Jason. Years ago there use to be an old lady fish off Felixstowe pier for Flounders, she used nothing else other then small silver spoons or red wool, NO BAIT. She said, the silver spoons only worked in very dull or dusk conditions, and the water was well colored. She also added, that if it was a clear day, silver would scare the fish. When the water was clear or conditions were sunny and bright, she would only use red wool tied to her hooks. She said, no other colors would work as effective as red. Never tried it myself as we could always get proper bait, but she nearly always caught more fish then us.

Some brilliant stuff there Leon.

How long ago are you turning the clock back??? True it is, that once upon a time catching Skate off the Walton pier was a common practice and many a day/night you could go on there and see anglers with them hanging from the rails, IN THE OLD DAYS. Nowadays if a skate got caught from there, it would be talk of the month. Same goes for Shotley and Shingle Street, once all very good Skate venues. But no harm in trying.

We get them all time especially from the pilot boats going in/out of Harwich. Just watch out for the wake, slow down and head straight at it. I don't like them when sitting at anchor fishing in the harbor, and the wake hits you broadside on.... just sit tight and hang onto your tea..lol

I guess you don't like it. IMHO, It was once, one of the best Cod beaches along the Suffolk coast. Even today it can still produce the odd big fish and still is a very good Bass venue. We had more double figure Cod from that venue then anywhere else along the East Anglia coast. The venue was never popular with a lot of anglers. Tackle losses could be very high, and the top marks were too far along the beach for most people to walk. It's safe from trawlers, they can't get in close enough to ruin the sea bed, which is clay, full of food to attract the fish, such as White Rag, King Rag, Lug, Hermit crabs etc etc. Just got to know where to fish it, be prepared for a long walk and the loss of a bit of tackle.

OK, so it's a car, with a new designed, wallet friendly engine, but i wonder if it could be fitted into a boat. Just imagine, would only need to fill up once a year. ................................................................................ ........................................................................ Swiss researchers have developed the world's most economical car that could circle the globe on only eight litres of fuel. The Pac-Car uses hydrogen fuel cell technology and was developed by a team at the Swiss Federal Technical University headed by Professor Lino Guzzella. He said the "car could drive around the earth only using eight litres of fuel", and that it could be ready for mass production in the next couple of years.

Could save lots of arguments. Four-legged chicken A Romanian farmer is hoping to make a fortune after a chicken was born with four working legs. Doru Grigoras said: "Think of all the extra chicken drumsticks you can get off a chicken with four legs instead of two." He is planning to keep the black feathered chick until it grows up at his smallholding in Dambau and then breed it to produce more four-legged birds. If the breeding is successful he will sell the chickens to a fast food chain, and if not he says the chick could still make him a fortune through advertising. Grigoras added: "Everyone from around the region wants to come to see my chicken. Apart from its extra legs it looks perfectly healthy, although it eats a lot for such a small bird.

Maybe a pair of these would help get you out of trouble. ................................................................................ ... A Chinese schoolgirl has invented a pair of shoes that enable her to walk on water. Wang Wenting, from Chengdu, says she got her inspiration from watching ducks. The high school girl took nearly four years, experimenting with different materials, to come up with the design

Incredible how quick all this has happened. Spent many a night sleeping in that little bunker, looks like we would get wet feet now....lol. You know, when i was a kid, that bunker use to be on top of the cliff. My old mate Jason could tell you a few tales about this area, he lives just up the road.

Your dead right Norfolk Boy. Erosion of the coastline is taking place everyday and faster then we realize. Take East-Lane, we use to fish from the old forte courtyard, now we cast out to sea onto the courtyard, and that was only a couple of years ago, during which time we have not had any real bad sea's. I wonder how much land, in that area, will disappear if we ever get some real rough weather and huge waves.

We will be going Sat/Sun. Not too bad down this way, wind off shore. A bit chilly in the wind, but won't need the thermals just yet.

Codroamer. I don't think your idea works very well, got to get out there as often as possible, fish won't hang about, here today, gone tomorrow. Nothing worse then hearing of anglers catching lots of fish, yesterday. I always reckon, it's better to just get up and go, even if it's only for a few hours and be the first to start hooking the fish, not the last. Also i think, Three 3 hour trips spread over a week, is better then one 9 hour session once a week. However, i guess that depends on how far you live away from the sea.

I think these are what we use to call the "cheese wedge". We used them where the sea bottom is like a clay field. They helped to lift the line off the bottom and stopped it cutting into the peaks of the clay and getting snagged up. Later they were taken over by the flat DESERT spoon shape. These were made by pouring molten lead into a desert spoon. The wide end had a hole drilled into it and a wire clip inserted. They weighed just on 4oz.

Spent a few hours down the river yesterday, Flounder bashing, Had a few King rag, and a half bucket of fresh Mussel i collected from the marina. Defiantly an easy bait to collect, got half a bucket in 15 minutes. Object of the trip, was to see how good Mussel was as a bait. Result's...not good for the Mussel. Caught four small Flounders on the King rag. ..Only thing i got with the Mussel is sore fingers, not one single bite. Maybe Flounders don't like them, will try a few out at sea next time.