teebee

My first reel was an ABU closed face that came with a tiny pistol-grip spinning rod. Obviously designed to be fished atop the rod, but I didn`t know - I wondered why my mates thought it odd that I had to wind backwards ! Next one was a Mitchell 324. This reel offered the owner the opportunity to claim ownership of a Mitchell, but not much else. It was a nasty, unreliable piece of junk, prone to bail spring failure, and it just loved to get your line under the spool. I was earning £3 a week at a paper round when I bought my first Mitchell Match - at £20!!!! I loved that reel, and acquired various 300`s and 410`s after starting full-time employment, and used them all for years. Then, a few years ago, I bought a JW Avon Quiver that came with a free Daiwa reel. I was staggered at how much better this cheap reel was than my beloved Mitchells - beautifully smooth, and a drag that actually worked. You see, years of Mitchell use had made me into a backwinder, pooh-poohing those who relied not on skill (like I and all backwinders did !) but on the reel to do the job for them. Reality was, though, that the Mitchell drag was so awful, requiring such a massive tug to get it going, that owning a Mitchell pretty much dictated a different approach. I now have a pair of Daiwa TD1650`s, the best reels I have ever owned. But the fact is that today`s £30-ish Jap reel knocks the old Mitchells into a cocked hat !

I was twelve years old and on a pit adjacent to my local river. The fact that I shouldn`t have been there made it all the more scary (this was of course in the days when kids respected authority ). I`d heard tales of monsters that lurked in the deeps of this forbidden pit, and armed with five or six two-to-three inch dace livebaits, I nervously cast out, watchful of the now darkening skies. I had a take almost straightaway, and heart pounding, struck. Oh, bugger, a bite-off. What was a wire trace anyway ? I fumbled around in the gloom for a new hook, and cast another dace to the same spot, heart pounding like a John Bonham drum solo. Another immediate take !! My little float rod bent double as a furious pike of about 12oz shook his head. I then realised that I had a tiger by the tail, as it were - my problems had only just begun! I eased the poor little baby into my tiny net - and decided there and then that I wasn`t about to touch the bloody thing. So I did what any twelve year old would do (then) - I cut off the hooklength and curled the pike into my sandwich box, snapped the lid on, and cycled the three miles home as fast as I could, heart still beating double time. How else would my mates believe me ? I was still scared of that fish even after it had died. Those eyes, that "I`ll get you for this" expression. Jeez, seems like yesterday.......

What`s a pint of maggots in your neck of the woods - £2? Well, 5% on that is 10p. Easier to find than £23, isn`t it ???

Even 12oz is too big for a livebait. Although I`ve livebaited many many times, I`d never consider using what another angler might consider a `nice fish`, and those that do ought to hang their heads in shame. Livebaiting and fish welfare/conservationism are very strange bedfellows, don`t you think ??

Can anyone point me to where it says that buying a license makes you less likely to drop litter or disturb other anglers ??? Did I miss a meeting ? I think I read somewhere that only about 1M anglers buy a license - so lets say that raises £30m. How much would be raised by a 5% levy on all tackle and bait ? At least everyone would then have to pay..........

I`ve emailed NACA about the restoration work downstream of Costessey Mill, and how it might affect my fishing, but I`ve had no reply. I`ve not had much opportunity to fish this year, so don`t know if it`s started yet ? Can anyone help ?

Howdy all. Keepnets - haven`t used one for years, therefore none of the fish that I return swim like their noses are glued to the surface, waiting to be mopped up by a predator. A `high-up` at a local water was telling me one day how he'd had two keepnets full of roach from a Danish river in a session, and how the fishing was really back on song there. He seemed to become a little spikey when I suggested that filling nets up like that was an excellent way of dragging the fishing down again. Have to say guys, the leap on this thread from `fish welfare in keepnets` to `best livebait storage methods` is rather an ironic one ! Always an interesting forum. Here`s to many more posts !!