malevans

Done

Wow that was a most unexpected thread, with some interesting evaluations there in. All originating from folks with bad school reports. I can recommend the following for anyone who still has the stomach to bottom the argument out in another place or is seeking some late life extra credits to mitigate against the afformentioned school reports . "Einstin" by Ronald D Clarke. "Constructing the Universe" by David Layzer The whole of the OU third level honours course "Understanding space and Time". "The Ascent of Man" by J Bronowski I do not recommend "A brief history of time" by Hawking, worst book I have read on the topic by miles. Neither do I recommend watching reruns of the recent super strings programme.....contained nothing, said nothing, and pushes the Hawking book close.

I am sure you must have spotted that Freestone is in fact a model of wading boot. Given the wading boots (unless you wear a life jacket) stand between you and death, suggest the best pair you can afford. I suggest felt soles with studs. Get very rigid boots that offer strength and support and prevent ankle twists and bruising. The river I fish in Scotland is very bouldery (stretching the language for a moment) and slimy. I also prefer separate Neoprene gravel guards as these provide additional cushioning to the ankle against twists and bruising. The built in gravel guards as a wast of time unless you fish gravel bottom rivers. Mine are Simms Guide boots, which I use with Simms Guide stocking foots and Vision Extreme subzero neoprene stocking foots. I always use the separate gravel guards even though the vision waders have thin Neoprene built in ones. Obviously a wading staff is a must.

Yes my 4 all get school reports each year. Sadly the imposition of PC denys us gems like yours.

Thanks chesh, the tape has come off the main bivvy big time, the canopy has just started. I must admit that I get condensation even with the second skin on. Cheers

Sounds like the money the boaters pay goes to good use. Liam's point on the political power of the license is also very true. But our greatest power lies in the economic value of angling, particularly in rural areas. But having purchased two rod licences for my self, two for my son, and one for my wife ( in her case to fish man made,as recently as 1989, small stillwater lakes stocked with put and take rainbows), the after taste is still bitter. Having already puchased two syndicate rods on a river in Scotland where the rod licence is not required, plus one carp syndicate membership, one MKAA ticket, and my son the local village angling club membership. I have with other anglers paid my equivalent of access and mooring fees. However this has been very informative as I did not realise that dingy sailors or rubber dingy paddlers needed to buy a license. Which given the number of times I have considered getting a boat, but not gone through with it, is worth noting in the cost equations next time I consider it. Safety considerations not withstanding I always thought I could buy a canoe and go paddling on the great ouse, and likewise on lakes with a normal boat. Excepting having to pay for land access to launch the craft, where one is not the land owner ones self. Similarly where a lake is owned by a company I had always calculated that water usage fees would apply. But it appears a licence is required also. I must confess that the contributions from tax top ups by walkers and twitchers does not interest me because if this is the case I am contributing to the cause also. Anyway thanks for the information.

Sorry John I should have answered your query earlier. My son had a 2lb pike strike at his 28gm toby a few years back and that was hooked well and truely in the eye. Made me feel quite "delicate" actually. Its only simple if you translocate the brain function to explain the descrepancy in brain form, and one also associates the tendency to pull harder against the alleged pain with a higher masochistic trait. Therefore your proposition is actually not the simplest, the simplest is that if the relvent organs are not present then the phenomia is surely absent and the pulling against the angler would imply a lack of any sensation that would discourage the fish from pulling harder, which of course is what pain would do in an human. Add these two observations together and QED. Cheers

I would agree with Jeepster the GRX stuff has a few more miles in it yet. Plus if you have only been once a rod faster than a GRX is probably premature if not undesirable in terms of your casting suffering. But I understand the issue, needing to cash those fishing tokens before someone else lays claim to them. Don't understand the last bit of your previous post ?

Peter, whats this money you guys have to pay for ? What is it whoever you give the money to licences you to do or for ? I understand a mooring fee which is service received in return for payment. I agree with you on the licence and where the money goes, as I said above I think many water users pay for some "facility" or access aspect, but they are not generically and directly taxed on antional basis which anglers are via the licence. In fact given the example of needing a licence to fish a "pond" you create and stock on your ones private land it now becomes clear to me. Its a rod TAX, nothing more nothing less.

With a fly rod I would go and try one its all about what suits. I have both Hardy and greys rods as does my wife and both are excellent. I have three ultralites (7.5ft, 9ft and 15ft) and they are superb, they have started going quite cheap now they have been replaced if you shop around. Highly recommended if you can stand having not the latest model and they suite when you try them. Even though they have become non current I cannot see me ever replacing them other than breakage if Hardy cannot repair. Rods like those are friends for life. Greys we have a GRX saltwater each but I also recommend the missionary ranges, lure and fly. I also use almost exclusively Cortland lines and a WF will cost between 30 quid for a 333 to around 60 for a 555. The exception is my main spey line where I prefer a Lee Wulff triangle taper. Cheers

Hi all, I noticed after my first outing this year that my Titan Viper and the Extreme canopy need some attention. The Canopy needs some attention to the seam tape. The base viper needs the same but also some stitching repair. Can anyone recommend someone who does this sort of thing ? I live just north of Milton Keynes in South Northants. Many thanks

No recently in the last three years, but I used to get checked about twice a year fishing the MKAA waters. Once got checked in the lake district.

The new greys stuff is great. I have the missionary fly rod as well and also the heavy missionary spinning rod. Both excellent. My wife had the wading jacket which is super quality. The two GRX Saltwater fly rods we have are also excellent value for money for the occasional saltwater pike fly angler. They are not made in the Hardy factory but the hard QA and design input is plain to see.

Well I would love to come. Meet some of the folks on here plus it sounds a type of fishing I rarely manage to fit in my normal schedule. Is it a day only session and at a weekend ?

Thanks that is very interesting I was not aware not aware of any legal requirement to be licensed, with threat fines etc for non compliance, in order for an individual to canoe. Do you know what percentage of the revenue finds its way to the EA ? But the issue is I don't have anything against canoes (actually I love the white water stuff when it comes on the telly and we always have a polite exchange when they paddle past when I am in scotland fishing) but all users of the water need to make their contribution. So, being fair, as canoes are always the illustrative example, lets consider dingy sailing instead. Do they need a sailing license as well as their sailing club membership ? Do you need a licence for a narrow boat on a canal ? I genuinely don't know the answer. I could be mistaken but I guess if I go to Willen Lake in the summer there will be: a)sailors b)wind surfers c)bird watchers d)model boaters (not bait boats which are banned) e)Anglers Amongst others.... We all pay our tickets for usage. But only the anglers have to be licensed by the EA (otherwords government.) with the threat of fines looming over them.

Goes back to the point we touched on on an earlier thread. The question is the key to the value of the answer received. Don't know where intelligence came into this ? However I am pretty lacking in knowledge but I know all coarse fish are not small and I know the difference between match fishing and other forms. I also know that someone who hooks an 18lb salmon on 4lb line was targeting something entirely different and relatively small (or is totally reckless), but a feat of fish playing that is note worthy none the less, so well done. I know of people who have been trying for 15 years with much stronger stuff and have still to get off the mark. But it sounds like everyone is making up now so alls well that ends well.

I totally agree Poldark. Can't wait until the canoe license is introduced, correct that, I am 40 now and don't have enough years left to see it. :mad: And what justification if I dig a hole in my back yard put some fish in at my expense.....and then I need to pay for a licence to use my whip in it. :mad: :mad:

I find the close season origins quite confusing. The spread of spawning periods when one considers Pike thru Tench and its sensitivity to water temperatures etc does not stack up regarding it being from Mid March to Mid June. Secondly there has never been a coarse close season in Scotland as far as I can remember, and there certainly was not one in Cornwall when I was a lad, but there was in the Midlands where I originated from, before moving to Cornwall. So the breeding season did not seem to matter in these extremes of North and South. Neither was there a coarse close season in Ireland. I find the sentiment around the close season surprising, not knocking it, but it has caught me by surprise. Because prior to the "any method trout" period. Coarse anglers in significant numbers migrated to Ireland and Scotland (more pikers based upon my contacts to scotland) once the waters closed in those regions of England where the close season existed. Closed season for brown trout kicks in 30/09 for reasons not clear to me and pertains to still waters also. Although in the era of catch and release this makes little difference and the browns are returned anyway rather than kept. Salmon is also varied. Some southwest rivers are open into december, others also stay open quite late like the tweed. The tweed and south west rivers are known as late rivers. The start of seasons also varies from Jan to April. Most seem to go for closure sometime in October. The river I fish closes 15th of October, which is bad news as I cannot exploit October half term. So in short the whole thing beats me.......... But I am very glad the close season has gone for still waters. It means I can exploit the Easter, and May bank holidays for fishing trips, saving a valueable 4 days annual leave, whilst getting either some variety of trips in or some extended trips. Absolutely Priceless !!!

Better than any game fish when it comes to taking to the air.

PS. "Good news" was my bivvy became an excellent lab for studying the behaviour of still water aquatic nymphs and their behavior particularly around the act of emerging. All results passed on to missus ready for her next outing.

Took wrong wardrobe carping this weekend. Should have taken wet suit and bloody aqua lung. Camo of course.

Excellent John, we agree at last, there are lots (myriads even) of sound reasons for behavior modification, of which feeling pain as we define it, is but one candidate. The excellent news is that the other reasons do not require us to speculate regarding function translocation between brain components to bridge a few layers in the evolutionary pyramid. Which brings me back to the percentage shot and Ockams (not sure how you spell it and no time to look it up) Razor. I also agree that the act of capture conveys some form of biological stress. We await data to see if the return of salmon in the long run has a truely positive impact (given netting and sea predation) or just shallows the curve for a while, as fighting an angler must have a serious impact on the finely balanced energy budget of a fish entering a river in April or earlier to breed the following winter and its potential for successfully doing so. Agree with Nik reference hook avoidance confering advantage. Lots of parameters to set to see whether the fish are selected before extinction kicks in, in the 100% kill model. An interesting project for an A level computer science or biology student. Friend of mine did his on a similar basis for rabbits, predated by foxes. Unfortunately unlike the rabbit model the normal S curve population model does not apply properly as we do not starve, decreasing our population, if the numbers of fish get too small. Which of course is why we humans are the most dangerous animals on the planet.

fish on that is Thats what comes of multi tasking on here whilst on conference calls

Matches slaughter the lakes I feed on. Its at least a week until they have cleaned up all the free bait. But the fish are bigger the week after

But John Clarke you are missing the point. Natural selection has been operating a long time to favour those fish that learn quickly and modify their behaviour accordingly. They would learn this for no other reason than fighing an angler is not good energy budget management. "We don't know they do feel pain as we understand it." well neither do we know that they do, and the evidence you quote would imply a significant percentage shot that they do not. The chemical releases associated with flight/fight response in humans can be addicative, ask any extreme sports enthusiast. Or for that matter successful salesman. Finally why does the hair rig repeatedly work when the hook is in full view ? I think anyone who thinks that there is serious probablity that fish feel pain and emotional distress the akin to humans or mamals should put their tacke on Ebay immediately and give up.