malevans

Thanks Budgie....you have jogged my memory I have heard of the Doc before.

Selecta fly do quite a few as do sportfish. Crazy charlie bone fish patterns do Ok for us, but nothing big caught yet.........CC are easy to tie and my missus does ours now. We bought a few to disect initially.

Mr gudgeon is a good bet, fished fairly high in the water in my experience. Big lobbies in Autumn bagged my biggest 3 todate. Have not done it for a few years must give it a try this Autumn.

Do you use a bug coat ? I do and it helps. I also use mangrove sun gloves (designed for fishing the bonefish flats) to protect my hands. Don't forget your Avon skin so soft. Plus I smoke which helps a lot. You are right about the breeding.....in what is supposedly a low biomass environment, it beats me as to where several solar masses of the little bu****s come from.

The difficulty with this whole subject is the nature of individuals. Firstly angling has a couple of particular challenges when we consider the views of the rank and file. a) A common definition of the common goal of angling is problematic. There is no agreed common position, which the masses will sign up to support. There is very little respect between the branches. This is particuarly true when negotiating stances are required. c) Angling also has a specific challenge because negotiation is very tricky. Any concession is always a position on the slippery slope to eventual abolishion. It is an act of misguided faith that such a slope will exhibit asymptotic behaviour at some point. For example: any reasoning quoted for say a "keepnet ban" can be reused and extrapolated to drive the next concession. d) The vast majority of anglers who grab their float rod and bag a few roach or perch over the warmer months, don't actually understand the factors involved, and don't actually care that much. Neither does the guy who does a couple of fish at his local fly fishery now and again. So back to individuals. e) Finally the biggest hurdle of all is individuals. Firstly the sort of people who end up on these bodies exhibit certain characteristics through "natural selection" which gets them into such august positions in the first place. However well intentioned they start out, the primary objectives mutate into a different agenda, such as keeping ones post on whatever body they have made it onto. (and in that sense are like all politicians.) Eventually the wielding of power and influence become the prime directive. Secondly their views and positions will be diluted to address the needs of maintaining relationships and keeping dialog open. f) Whose manifesto do such organisations and individuals advocate ? I was appauled when one of our highest authorities advocated a keepnet ban, quoting a need to respond to a public perception, obviously not understanding the causial route that it would lay down to further concession. I don't use or own a keepnet, but the bigger picture is the key. Like many on here I dabble in all sorts of angling, but many out there are single mode anglers, whether they be carpers, trout fishers or whatever, when you get into a debate their field of view is smaller than that of even an electron microscope. The best examples I can think of is the: You can't use a carp as a live or dead bait, because well ermmmmmmm.......well its a carp. or from one published fly angler..."the barbaric and unsporting practise of deadbaiting, where a deadfish if festooned with treble hooks". The point is each branch will concede in an area that means "im all right jack for that particular branch". On top of this there is personal conviction, which operates even within the branches. I am guilty also: I would support a ban on bait boats. I would support a definition of angling, in terms of what we fight to preserve, that states: The bait must be cast using a rod and line from the bank, or a boat if the water is greater than 10 acres. I would support a rule that states that alarm heads must be silent and receivers must not exceed x decibles and be audible from a distance greater than 5ft. I would support the right for any angler to take a limit of any species for the pot, where the species is not officially designated as endangered. I am not writing so we can argue the above points, only to illustrate the challenge before us. And finally do we really stand a chance when our rank and file includes those who, would on discovering they have not caught the target species, either a) throw it into the grass to die or drop kick it back into the water. Its going to take a hell of a General to effectively wield an army whose ranks include the above.....and the terrain is primarily swamp and quicksand. Oh and we do not seem to agree on a definition of what angling is........or is it fishing we are defending.

"according to the sun there are a million poles coming to britain" And there are a "million" jobs going to Poland so something is going wrong in the coordination and communication. I have been and am now heavily involved in planning to move functions from UK, Belgium and Spain to Poland. If I do not do this we cannot compete in the market place. Will have completed these moves by end of this year. I expect to see some significant impact on the economies of the traditional European low cost Geographies such as Spain and Scotland, the Indian Sub continent will also feel the impact in due course. It will not last however because within a relatively short time frame the new Eastern European members plus all of the aforementioned, will feel the impact of china. I would like to see the sums that show that overall expansion is good, bad or neutral. I also believe that the put and take rainbow flyfishing segment is in decline, but the new market for put and take Carp fisheries could be worth getting into early But given the decision to expand has been taken I also extend a warm welcome to our new European brothers and sisters.

Hi Cranfield. Caught at just after midday on 9th of April 2004. Not weighed or measured, and successfully returned. Compared with other salmon I have caught it was very long for its weight and I estimate weight as circa 10.5lb. Size 6 double Hairy Mary on a floating line and copolymer leader. A very large fly for the river in question as the fish on gallery from last year took the usual size 10 & 12 doubles. Venue River Garry, Scottish Highlands. Also missed a take in this pool plus lost a fish in another pool about an hour and half earlier. But at least we are off the mark. Roll on spring bank week !!!

Because the ones above give me a dog on a bed chair. Gibber Gibber......

Thanks. Except I have had to totally rebuild my PC and have now lost the URL you use for uploading to the web site you then point to in the message. Grrrrrrr

Best way to get a newcomer into the sport. First get those nuisence rods out of the way and into the pod. Get the bbq lit, open the tinnies and put a good DVD on the portable. Go friday evenings so that getting up early on saturday and may be even sunday morning as well, is not necessary, nice lie in until its time to open the tinnies again. They will be hooked straight away and another angling widow will be born.

The number of stones I throw into my swim to move the swans (for their own good) is more than any kid throws in. I also paddle, its just that I wear waders. plus 40 8oz spods, unfortunately, seems to get the bitty fish into the area faster than you can say "they have eaten all my bait and worn my alarm batteries out"

Well at least I am not alone. I have been away working all week hence slow response. Peter's feet in ice water sounds grim at least in france the food from the hyper market was super as was the vino. I once decided, whilst fishing Lodge lake in MK to use some flipflops for rapid response to runs overnight as I exited the sleeping bag. I was fishing the swim next the out of bounds fence pitched at the top of the slope. Had screaming run burst out of bivvy (it had been raining) skied down slope (not with style) and took my pod and rods into the lake with me. Also went to the Ebro, caught nasty infection just before I went, on day one I stuck the front and very serrated dorsal fin ray of a carp (who did not fancy being the bait) all the way up under my thumb nail. My chest infection got so bad each night that the other party members thought I might expire. Over time the groove under my nail grew out and the scar on the flesh under the nail healed. But every few weeks the thumb got very tender for a day or so. Several months later as the nail grew out the final (unknown ) piece of carp fin ray fell out onto the table. Thumb has been fine since.

Cracked it !!!!!!!

http://www.go-fishing.org/upload/files/Salmon 9th April 2004 - Down load.jpg

http://www.go-fishing.org/upload/files/Salmon 9th April 2004 - Down load.jpg

What am I doing wrong ?

Trying again

Anyone else had a disaster of an angling trip ? I have had some great ones, but one I had to france in 2000 was a catastrophy. Sounded great, big carp and the lake to our selves for the week. All the criteria were there. a) a group you don't know apart from the friend who is a mutual friend. you arrive to discover that there has been no swim draw and those that arrived a couple of hours before are all set up at one end of the lake. c) the local river is in flood and so is one third of the lake in terms of swims being under water d) the preordered bait is not there and no ETA is available e) The flood means the kitchen and club house are underwater f) The toilets don't work due to flood and neither does the shower. g) The very fastest of french trains zip though 30 yards from lake h) The very loud and long diesel trains use that line over night. i) The people who got there first caught lots of carp all week between 19 and 39 pound, and lovely fish they were. j) The five of us at the other, imposed end, of the lake did not even get a line bite in 7 days. k) The water level dropped mid week, I moved swims, following day awoke to see my video camera bag bobbing gently past my bed chair. Moved back to one of the carp desert swims. l) Could not seem to get the phrase "swim rotation" translated into a language the occupiers of the other end of the lake understood. It would be nice to know I am not alone in an experience such as this. Cheers

"Now if that had been my kids, they would have got there arse slapped ( by the way i do not slap my daughter, before anyone thinks "you bad mother" )" Afraid you lost me with that one :confused: I sense some indecision ?! Kids will be kids when water side, I have 4 kids aged 6 through 15, two boys and two girls, all fish with varying attention spans. Admittedly my wife and I also fish a lot with out the little darlings for company We do however fish private no kid venues. However we do family fishing in the public parks, not sure if we do it properly though, if we go fresh water then the younger ones fish until they are bored and do something else, from chase butterflys to throw the odd stone in. When we go sea fishing they can do what the hell they want as they cannot throw stones as far as I can cast with my beachcasters. Neither my wife or I would turn fishing trips into "discipline experiences" after all we want them all to fish and assure the future of the sport. So if you don't like kids, don't set up next them. Better still take your kids fishing, the sport needs them, and it leaves the possibility of responding in kind open to you. Kids are a dam site better than than dogs that p*ss against your seat box or try to nick your dead baits or their OAP owners. Which reminds me that when I a costed the said dog who was relieving him self against my seat box and complained about control to the group of four OAPs whose dog it was, the male member of the group (about 70 yo) asked me if I wanted a fight. I could not stop laughing as he stood there, in a put em up pose. I pointed out that if he did not run along I would blow hard and something would break when he fell over. Which begs the question..... Why can't some kids control their parents and why do they let them out on their own in control of dogs !!!!

Buzzers can be fished either way. They usually sink and all you have to do is find the taking depth. However some buzzers come with Polly balls fitted to the top so they float. So take ya pick....

I would agree that they are most likely taking buzzers. If memory serves and I would need to check in a book the Hawthawn fly is terrestrial in origin. They may also be in the margins after damsel nyphms when the weather is wet. Enough of them metamorphosed in my bivvy last weekend to feed a shoal.

Well mine always said disruptive and on two occasions threatened to demote me. We had banded classes A to H. After the choosing subject exercise I got slung out of art because I was forced to do it and hated it (i was also Cr*p at it) so when asked to paint a plant I did a microscopic one (best described as a sphere covered in small volcanoe shapes and then I painted a space scene with planets and (sorry folks a grid to reflect warped space time) and a metorite as the centre piece, except this metorite was a flaming erhmmmm male organ. They let me do extra science and maths after that.

I have found plenty that allow three for members, but two on a day ticket.