mark barrett

i am sorry Jim, but you are clearly talking about something of which you know little. Football in some sense may be cheap, but not as cheap as you say. after all you will need boots, anything from £30-£150. to play properly, as that is realistically what you have to compare, you will have to pay match fees, as a pitch around my way is minimum of £25 per game to hire, plus you will have to pay for a kit, match ball, practice balls, medi kit, drinks bottles etc. not looking so cheap now is it? Likewise cricket. a decent bat will cost you from around £80- £400, pads £30, box £5, gloves £25, whites £50, boots £30 - £90. plus there are plenty of other bits that you will need. Then you have match fees and subscriptions, because cricket pitches cost a fortune to maintain, i know, i used to do it. The reality is that any sport is as expensive or as cheap as you wish it to be. The difference is that for your £25 a year you get to go as often, or for as long as you like, and you can spend on top from that base as much, or as little as you want. Personally i have huge issues as to how the rod license money is spent, but not that we have to pay it. Finally Jim, myy apologies if you are the student exception, but how much do you **** up the wall in a week? i bet its more than £25.

anderoo, i use the 15lb soft wire all the time for perch and never noticed any difference in results on using it, and thats predominantly on a small, clear river. i have had them up to 3lb 11oz on it ad really rate the stuff. dont rate it at all for zander though as its not heavy duty enough for the way i zander fish and you do want to check it regularly as it does go off after a few fsh. especially pike

Stephen himself will be at the convention on the PAC stand selling signed copies of the book, along of course with the much awaited PAC30 book. I have been lucky enough to have a sneak peak at the book and it's just a stunning looking book, more a work of art than a piking book! Stephens last book "Broadland Pike" has become a much sought after book by pike anglers and changes hands for over £200, the new book looks likely to follow in the same footsteps. http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-2/945996/THEPikeofbroadlandsmall.jpg' alt='THEPikeofbroadlandsmall.jpg'> full details can be obtained from stephen@aitch2.co.uk

should be fine mate, especially with cooler windier weather coming in this week. As far as i am aware, theres a fair few fish coming out from most of the drains and rivers

trouble is mate, if you put it up on here, then literally thousands of anglers can get access to it. if you really want the chance of a thirty why not join the PAC and apply for the priviledged access days on lochs fad, vencher and the lake of menteith, all proven thirties waters.

dont they ang on!

yes Nick Odanance survey landranger series 143 in that you will find loads of strips of blue, pretty much all of them have pike in and most zander. get out there and do a bit of exploring and enjoy.

You havent got your messages set up mate so i have had to reply to the thread have you sold those 10,000 reels mate, cos if not i will have them, i can pay cash, or i have two 8010 GT's in very good nick that i would swap. either email me on wit6372@aol.com or tel 07733306921 i am in Cambridge so i could meet you half way, say thetford or similar or if worst come down.

budgies pretty much nailed that one. Grafham is a cruel old mistress and to be honest these days just really isnt worth it as a pike water. the pike get fished for too much by the fly boys in the summer and its had it by oct. there are still the odd decent pike caught, but they are few and far between. when i go these days i fish for the perch, now they are worth catching, as are the zeds.

sure there will be, but i doubt it will be a pike that they demonstrate on

whereupon it will be pounced upon by the little rudd and get no where near the big ones. sorry mate but you actually need it to drop quickly, i often put a small shot near the hook to make it drop quicker. because you are getting the fish above into a freezy the big ones are actively seeking the bait that those miss.

been using a riot pike rod for a little while mate and you wont be dissapointed, its a very nice bit of kit.

absolutely mate, every cast at least.

look for some cover if you are fishing in the daytime and spray corn. If not then fish in the same area with corn again either feeder fihed or on a float.

the critical point that you are missing newt is that A. local people do not want this B the lodes themselves are two feet higher than the surrounding fen, to create the fen, the lodes will be dropped. they are no more than 3 feet deep now afyer this drainage and drop they will basically cease to be.

Peter from the area that you are talking about. thats just a fraction of the fish species in those loads. There are Rudd, Bream, roach, tench, Gudgeon, Pike, Perch, Zander, Bitterling, Gudgeon and eels. Do you think those will do well in an inch or two of water? Whittlesey mere, was just that a mere. it may have resembled a fen in its later life, but it was a lake. I say again do you expect anything to do well in an inch or two of water?

no offence mate, but do you know what a proper fen looks like? its inches deep and pretty stagnant as far as supporting fish goes

i imagine its on their website. the reason for flooding it is to make it bigger. thats all.

Hi All The Cambridgeshire Lodes are once again under threat! These historic waterways, probably of Roman origin are in a "new" plan by the National Trust to extend the Wetlands of Wicken Fen. This will involve lowering the Lodes, thus transforming them into internal drainage ditches. We successfully fought this issue 30 years ago. This is completely unacceptable for all anglers. The Lodes hold specimen fish of all species and are ideal waters on which to teach youngsters. These small waters have special memories for many of us and must NOT BE destroyed. I urge all anglers to support this cause by signing the online "DON'T DITCH OUR LODES" E-petition to No.10 Downing Street, using the link below: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/OurLODES/ and reads as follows: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ensure that the Cambridgeshire Lodes don't get ditched! Some 30 years ago, a successful campaign was waged to save The Cambridgeshire Lodes, ancient canals of probable Roman origin - principally Bottisham, Swaffham Bulbeck, Reach, Burwell and Wicken Lodes - which were threatened by the then authorities. A decision was made to maintain and to preserve The Lodes. Such is the situation today: The Lodes have been maintained and preserved. But new documents indicate that The Environment Agency has commissioned a 'scoping report' costing some £200,000 and that it is looking critically at The Lodes, an option again being that of converting all or some of them into ditches. The old campaign slogan - 'Don't Ditch Our Lodes!' - is just as relevant now as it was in the 1970s. A new factor is The National Trust's plans to buy up and partially to flood some 10,000 acres of rich fen land and the Trust says that 'lowering' some of The Lodes would be 'acceptable.' Lowering is much the same as ditching. The Swaffham Internal Drainage Board and Swaffham Prior Parish Council support The Lodes being maintained. But the Philistines could be triumphant if their opponents are inactive. So, this is a call to those with influence to use it!" My friend, Geoffrey Woollard, a retired County and District Councillor, is coordinating opposition to this plan, but we need help from as many anglers as possible. WE URGENTLY NEED AS MANY ANGLERS AS POSSIBLE TO OPPOSE THIS PLAN QUICKLY. The Lower Great Ouse and Fenland Fisheries Consultative Committee, on which I serve, are to oppose this at the highest level. Chris, Press Release etc. would be important as discussed. Dave, can something go on the PAC Website. Mark, can you sort something out for the P/Predator Forum, and Carp Anglers you know who fish the Lodes. Neville, an entry in the PAC magazine. I thank everyone in anticipation. Denis Moules PAC Liaison Officer, Anglian Region

my views on summer piking regardless of method have always been the same. dont do it, and if i ran a water i wouldnt allow it, lures, deads or lives. but they are my own views.

HE DOESNT LOOK IN ALL THAT OFTEN BUDGIE, PAC FORUM WOULD PROBABLY BE A BETTER BET

tigger, the barrels are not oxygenated, in fact the organisers refuse to do so, claiming that the fish would be too frisky. also those barrels are not nearly long enough, a good double would have to be folded into it, add to that the very small entrance and exit flap and the fact that as can be clearly seen in the picture there is no more than a couple of inches of water in it and i cannot honestly see how anyone can defend these as a method of retention, for anything up to five hours and more than one fish at a time. As a example, three weeks ago a match was held on Lough Ennell using exactly the same barrels and on that match virtually ALL of the pike died, this is verified by a WI inspector, as these fish were due to be moved to another venue. Also remember that these barrels are used to retain the pike till they are taken to a weigh station, up to 3 miles away! The organisers turned down the opportunity for the local PAC branch to supply up to 14 boats with 28 stewards to make retention uneccessary. Add to that that one of the organisers actually sells competitors the barrels. These guys have Pike welfare nowhere on the agenda, believe me, because I have been over there and met with them on these issues.

for what its worth john, i actually agree with you as regards the cult status of carp, but not as regards the carp spawning. if they havent taken over in fifty years, why should they now?

i cant see him being overloaded with answers to that one Elton. my advice would be to get out and get an OS map of the area and do a bit of pioneering or trial and error.

hmmm there doesnt half seem a heck of a lot of scaremogering on this thread. As fars as cats go, gozzer you are presuming thst this is something new. There have been cats in the great Ouse for at the very least twenty years, but you go and try and catch one, its a long old wait mate! As for Carp, again these are nothing new and havent done any damage so far. My dad used to try and catch carp off the thames when he first came to this country, in the late fifties! They havent taken over, or displaced the other species, arguably its never been better. Likewise the Delph round my way. The carp have been in there sine the fifties when numbers were put in from lakes that were suffering oxygenation problems, no problems there either. the reason that they dont become a problem in our rivers is that we dont have a climate that allows the carp to breed succesfully often enough. thats why Australia etc have problems. I dont see the french, dutch etc having problems, and they have been there far longer than here. for the same reasons i cannot ever see the cats becomming a problem in our waters, because arguably they dont really seem to suit them. zander were different in that they were given a hand in a lot of instances, were put into a river system in the first place (quite legally) and the environment suited them for the greater part. Yet despite all of this, the numbers of prey species on the Ouse and the riers and drains round here has rarely been better. Zander got a lot of blame for things that had other explanations. for instance gudgeon are a fairly rare fish around here now, but the reason for their dissapearance wasnt predation, but eutrophication of the rivers. My local river used to have lovely gravel beds and bottom, these days they are full of silt and blanket weed and instead of gudgeon there are far more tench and bream than there ever was. I dont think that introducing new species into a river system is a very good idea in the long run, but i vehemently dont believe in killing these fish just because you dont like them, its hardly their fault and may offer other anglers a different challenge. As for the guy that killed a cat because their were 12 in there, what a muppet.