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Newt

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Everything posted by Newt

  1. Old (and good) times again indeed. Welcome back all.
  2. If you ever have a chance to get over to this side of the pond, our rivers, lakes, and most ponds still have plenty of carp that have never been near an angler. I'm near the Atlantic coast and phone is around 1000+ miles west of me but both areas have plenty of water and plenty of fish. When I was able to get around, I loved targeting carp on fast water since they thrive there and tend to be very strong & active. I even own several lever drag reels so I could adjust the clutch to barely maintain the bait location no matter how strong the current. Carp in dam tail race waters can often be seen jumping & playing as if they were salmon. My bait of choice was a range cube which I don't think you even have available in the UK. It is a cattle feed supplement made from alfalfa and similar grasses mixed with molasses and compressed into hard, long cylinders then broken into 3-8 cm pieces. It needs an electric drill to use them for hair rigs and in the water they slowly dissolve (around an hour in summer-temp water) from the outside into a sweet grassy mix that carp seem to think highly of. A 10 kilo bag costs about 12-15 pounds so not costly. My wife preferred pack baits in quiet waters and usually outfished me by a significant margin.
  3. Sweet corn (people food) for us is very different from hard/dent corn (maize) used as animal fodder or ground (cornmeal) and used as a flour for making a number of dishes such as corn tortillas, tamales, pupusas, and many others. Probably more common in Mexico/Latin America than is wheat flour and is called "masa". I fished some with sweet corn but really preferred hominy which is dried maize treated with alkali solution (nixtamalized). I can't be sure it is better digested by fish but I suspect it is. Chesters - aflatoxin, a toxin produced by certain strains of the mold Aspergillus flavus grows on peanuts that are improperly stored. It will make people and fish very sick and often, very dead.
  4. For people, maize can be a good food source but without a simple treatment (nixtamalization) much of the food value is not available to us. For some fish species maize is an effective bait but I wonder if it also lacks food value it should have for them if treated properly before being used as bait. https://www.seleneriverpress.com/corn-cornmeal-primer-nixtamalization-must-read/
  5. Rather think the "N" word is inappropriate on a friendly, online forum!! For two pins, I'd report you to Admin' !!!! In fact - I have!!!!!!!!!! Martin - if Phone had used the racial term you are bothered about as slam against folks of a particular ethnic origin I'd agree it was offensive (although I wonder that you aren't equally offended about the others in his comment that apply to French and Chinese folks). However, he did not. If it becomes a problem, the forum software offers the option to render certain words into nonsense (such as N***** or N-bad-word) or similar) when they are typed in a post. I don't think we have reached that point yet. As to Phone, I don't know him but I gather that he is (as I am) what can be termed a WASP (white anglo-saxon protestant) although in my case, substituting "heathen" for "protestant" would be more accurate. That said, WASH would seem a bit silly so I won't object to WASP.
  6. I've been happy with Irfanview for dealing with photos. Not as full-featured as some but more than adequate for my needs. Free, reliable, and been around for over 14 years. The program and the add-on set of plug-ins are updated regularly. Resizing and lots of other tweaks are available and simple.
  7. I'm well old friend. Jan died several years ago - sudden, unexpected, cause unknown. I'm remarried to an old friend and fishing buddy who'd also lost her husband.
  8. It is certainly good to see your smiling (Avatar) face again.
  9. I think that recent events in the UK still feel so raw (as they probably should be) I'll lock this topic. Note: KenL - you might want to vet the site whose link I removed.
  10. I'm assuming the operating system is some flavour of Windows. It would help to know which version. Are you using a built-in utility for the defrag or a 3rd party product?
  11. For what its worth, my late wife & I traveled about 4000 miles to attend a Wingham fish-in and if I were youngster in my 60s, I'd be tempted to try it again. As usual, we owe "thanks" to Steve and his lovely wife for making such a venue available to AN members and to his staff for making it a pleasant several days of fishing.
  12. Bobj - our Brit friends don't ever get storms of this magnitude and can't really have a feel for the magnitude or overall awesomeness of these critters.
  13. Hiya Capt Mike. Good to hear you are having a great Spring and looking forward to a few days out with you in November.
  14. I'm sorry to have to tell you this Dave but you simply must stay healthy enough to fish. You are about 10 years older than I am and reading about your continued outings always reminds me that I'm enough younger that I don't have any excuse to quit. Speaking of which and if you'd like a change of pace, Bobbi & I will be doing our annual week of fishing the inshore waters of Florida's mosquito lagoon this November and the boat easily holds 4 anglers so there would be room for the pair of you. Mild weather, good fishing, and civilized surroundings with a great skipper. This fellow is our guide/skipper.
  15. Had to do a bit of Google searching since your wood ants are called carpenter ants on this side of the pond. Interesting little critters.
  16. Not sure how this is a technical issue but in any case, it seems that no one has any suggestions to offer.
  17. Scents certainly can help - but it depends on the species. With some it can be a great addition but with others it doesn't seem to make a bit of difference. For instance, in the US using a scented lure (especially the soft plastics where you want a fish to give a positive strike and hold the lure for as long as possible) does seem very worthwhile for largemouth and smallmouth bass but with pike it does not seem to improve the rate of takes. My thinking is that using scents might help and certainly should not hurt even if not effective. Given the low cost and lack of a downside, I'd say it would be worth a trial and using your own results to make your decision to use or not. At the very least a scent should help mask the human odor - especially good if one is a smoker.
  18. One in a trillion means really, really unlikely, not impossible.
  19. 3 hours into the new year and so far, so good.
  20. Thanks Martin. I'm now 3 hours into 2017 and so far, its a great year.
  21. Newt

    Santa

    Kids - Magical : sounds like a good match to me. I vote Yes to Santa.
  22. Interesting article and I too found out how few of the "facts" I knew were actually true.
  23. I'm not a member but when I took a look, the .co.uk version red-flags as a source of malware while the .com site flags as safe.
  24. A man walks out to the street and catches a taxi just going by. He gets into the taxi, and the cabbie says, "Perfect timing. You're just like Frank." Passenger: "Who?" Cabbie: "Frank Feldman. He's a guy who did everything right all the time. Like my coming along when you needed a cab, things happened like that to Frank Feldman every single time." Passenger: "There are always a few clouds over everybody." Cabbie: "Not Frank Feldman. He was a terrific athlete. He could have won the Grand-Slam at tennis. He could golf with the pros. He sang like an opera baritone and danced like a Broadway star and you should have heard him play the piano. He was an amazing guy." Passenger: "Sounds like he was really something special." Cabbie: "There's more. He had a memory like a computer. He remembered everybody's birthday. He knew all about wine, which foods to order and which fork to eat them with. He could fix anything. Not like me. I change a fuse, and the whole street blacks out. But Frank Feldman could do everything right." Passenger: "Wow, what a guy!" Cabbie: 'He always knew the quickest way to go in traffic and avoid traffic jams. Not like me, I always seem to get stuck in them. But Frank, he never made a mistake, and he really knew how to treat a woman and make her feelgood. He would never answer her back even if she was in the wrong; and his clothing was always immaculate, shoes highly polished too. He was the perfect man! He never made a mistake. No one could ever measure up to Frank Feldman." Passenger: "How did you meet him?" Cabbie: "I never actually met Frank. He died and I married his wife."
  25. Phone - I think you got the wrong slant on that gathering - the 49th annual one as it happens. Take a look at This article - a brief part is below. "The peace-loving Ahmadiyya Muslim community is the very antithesis of the extremism. It is a community that defines itself as 'Love for All, Hatred for None' and its membership of tens of millions in 200 countries is known for its public spirited works; it collects for poppy appeal, practices loyalty to country as a part of their faith, runs a major charity for projects in Britain as well as development programmes including schools and hospitals in Africa. Among the Muslims at the convention, held for the past 49 years in Britain, will be journalists, judges, barristers, accountants, city traders, teachers, doctors, engineers – standing shoulder to shoulder, united in faith, with people of all races, professions and nationalities."
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