John Bogle

I've been all over the place with a Bazooka tube and never had any problems at all. Got a couple recently for my dad and a friend for an absolute bargain price of about £30. I paid nearer £70 for mine a few years back. I'll try and find the address...

I've never actually fished with braid for pike. I just remember they always used to recommend it in books and magazines about 10 years ago to avoid bite offs from Pike. Guess you can't always trust what you read in books then! Budgie, Most of my best perch on the rother have come from just above the weir at Pothmans Heath Budgie. I have had several from the bridges of both Balckwall and Newbridge. My mate had a couple of around the 2.5lb mark from Blackwall. He also had several nice perch from Bodium. I have for the past 10 years or so worked on a farm, so have never been free for much fishing in summer-Autumn, so have concentrated mostly on early season tench, bream and carp, and then winter pike. I have a year away from the farm this year, so hope to find some of the perch once again this year!

quote: You should have every chance of catching some huge cod upto 40 - 50Ib if you are going where I think you are. Personally, I'm born and raised in the stunning Lofoten/Vesteralen group of islands, another North Norwegian area with some amazing sea and inland fishing. Vidar Thomassen Vidar, Me and my father shall be fishing from a place called Olderdalen. I have heard about Lofoten and it is famous as one of the cod breeding grounds around Easter time I think? I have seen the pictures of 80lb+ fish! To be honest the stories I read about the fishing in Norway sound too good to be true, so I am going with not too high expectations and will wait and see exactly how good the fishing is. I would be very happy with a cod of 15lbs and 20lbs would be a dream come true for me. I also hope to see plenty of wildlife as this is half of the enjoyment on my fishing adventures. I very much hope I can see some big white tailed eagles up close. If you know much about the fishing in Norway I would be very keen to hear any tips you have as to what techniques work best. We have use of a good boatfor the week but also hope to try from the shore a lot too. John [ 16. May 2004, 09:29 PM: Message edited by: John Bogle ]

I'd be surprised if pike can bite through braid as it's not that simple to cut through it with a pair of scissors! Possibly after a few fish it may get frayed and weakened that way? You should be able to get away with decent strength braid of about 20lb or more quite easily since it's so fine. With regards to the Romney Marsh Budgie, I'm right on the edge of there. Live in a place called Wittersham which is on the eastern edge north of Rye.

Hi Andy, I don't have much experience of Canal perch, but have caught several over the years from my local river Rother which is very slow moving in summer(almost no flow at all), so almost canal like. No monsters, but had a few to just under 2 lbs. I found that early in the season you will often see them chasing fry. I always fish for perch around conctrete obstructions such as bridges, sluice gates where water is pumped from ditches into the river, etc. In summer I always fish with small livebait or whole lobworms for them. Livebait does attract pike(then again I've had pike to almost 10lb on lobworms too!), but to be honest I used to fish for many years with just 8lb nylon when livebaiting for pike and only ever had lost one fish when the line broke, and this was when I had a mid-double on when very young, and someone tried to hold the line to land the fish, the pike decided to run, they didn't let go, and it broke! You could fish with braid or some of that fine knotable whire in about 15lb which is very soft. Both would eliminate bite offs from pike. This was successful for the first month or so of the season I found. It then became good once again around september/November when the river started to clear and I would catch a lot on livebaits again. Come October/November I would catch a lot twitching free-lined lob worms along the bottom close to the bridges. When waggler fishing lob worms I always fished them at about 2/3 depth and if it went quiet, twitching the bait often produced an instant response! Hope this is of some help John

Hi Henry, Not been to Finland yet. I am going on my first Europe trim this August to Norway, a little north east of Tromso and quite close to the Finland border. I shall be sea fishing though. Hope to find some nice cod and coalfish and possibly a halibut!

Just a sample of the potential for Congo. Caught last month! [ 13. May 2004, 10:13 PM: Message edited by: John Bogle ]

No way! Definitely return all fish alive if possible. I had one Nile Perch die on me in Uganda (after over an hour trying to revive it!) but the lodge made good use of it. Goliath tigers are quite hard to release alive since they really tire themselves out in the fight (so I understand) but I definitely intend to release all fish I catch if possible. I accept that sometimes the odd small fish might be taken for food, but I try to release all fish alive if possible. It's not like Kenya where all fish have to be kept. That's why Kenya isn't really considered for Nile Perch now as all fish caught were killed. U undersatand the problem is quite bad with Tiger fish on Zimbabwe's lake Kariba too. Comparing a trip to Africa with a trip to Florida is not exactly comparing like for like. Africa Is in a totally different league to Florida. For starters Florida is dirt cheap because thousands, if not millions of tourists go there each year, so the numbers bring the prices down a huge amount. I doubt the places I go get more than a couple of thousand tourists a year (If that!). In Africa you quite often get the place to yourself unlike Florida where there's hundreds fishing there every day. You have the wildlife, the remoteness, everything. Ok, so florida has lots of big fish, but it's not quite the same as going to fish one of the most untouched and spectacular locations in the world where very few people have fished before.

I agree with Newt that it's good to have some adventures while you're young, but then again, it's not essential to go on an expensive trip to have a great experience and great fishing

It was indeed The Mayfly toggle! I had a walk up the footpath to a small bridge over the river and believe it or not saw a golden orfe of around 5lbs there! I've never fly fished in my life, but watching those trout made me seriously consider it! The brown trout looked beautiful in the water!

Yeah I'm afraid these trips aren't cheap but I'm a bit of a mad fool and work my ass off all year to go on adventures like this. You only get one life, so my plan is to try and fulfill all my dreams!

You can bet they wouldn't touch a thing if I had a rod! The number of times I've seen fish eat just about anything you throw at them when you can't catch them but when you have a rod they won't eat a thing! The bread fly does sound quite a good idea though. you wouldn't have to worry about it going all soggy and casting it off at the cruical moment or the swarms of minute rudd that frequent my local ponds pecking it to buggery before the carp had a chance!

Nah. Now they've expanded the EU we can get in and out freely I took advantage of this to go feed the trout on the test on sunday Sat by the river in a lovely pub chucking bits of my bread into the water and watching brown and rainbow trout all 4-5lbs gulping them down every time. If only I had a fly rod!

Blimey! All this money I spend on long haul flights and all when there's equally as epic an adventure to be had on my own doorstep!

Hm... that's an interesting one. I'd imagine keeping them live like worms would be the best bet? Perhaps build a sluggery?!

Hi, Looking for some very serious and adventurous anglers to make up a couple of group trips to Africa next year. I'm not a travel agent, just a mad guy looking for other mad guys to make up a group and make some serious fishing dreams come true. Uganda - Trip planned for June/July/August 2005 Fishing on Lake Victoria and the river Nile at Murchison Falls for Nile Perch, Vundu and Bagrus catfish. Catfish can apprach 100lbs with Nile Perch have been caught to almost 240lbs! Price in the region of £2000 for 2 weeks. Congo - trip planned for around next easter. Fishing the Congo river for Goliath Tiger fish! This is for real! Fish caught over 120lbs in recent years. Fishing very unknown and very untouched. A trip to this location a few weeks ago produced 2 fish approaching 80lbs. The river also holds Nile Perch and catfish though nobody has seriously fished for these as of yet. For very serious anglers only. No real fixed price yet, but as a rough guide £3000+ for 10.5 days fishing. For more details contact me at fish@fishy27.freeserve.co.uk or have a browse over my website to get a bit of an idea.

The trip I was on was with Steve McGuire of Mola Mola. The lodge we went to has now established contacts with a game boat in Luanda and can organise game trips. They're rather pricey, but then all game fishing is pretty expensive. The lodge is pretty popular though and you need to book a year or so in advance probably.

The place I'm looking at is about 1h45mins up river of the capital Brazzaville. I am in contact with a guy who hopefully can put me on to some Goliath Tiger fish as well as hopefully finding Catfish and Nile Perch. The place is pretty much unknown, but there have been some very big Goliaths caught there in recent years. It's a bit pricey at around 4 grand for a 2 week trip! I fished a newly set up lodge on an island at the mouth of the Rio Longa in Angola. In the first couple of weeks of it opening there were Sand Shark, Cubera Snapper and Threadfin Salmon all caught over 100lbs from the shore. We had one trip to the mouth of the Quanza river and were amazed to find 2 other guys fishing there already! We caught a few stingrays there but spend most of the time there watching huge tarpon and threadfin salmon rolling well beyond casting range in the middle of the river. At Rio Longa we saw big Kingfish chasing in the breakers, but always just a few yards further than we could cst! They've since had tarpon topping 100lbs trolling the surf line. Also some small tuna species. Not sure if they're taken toe boats as far as the Quanza,to try for the real Tarpon!

Hi, I fished at a a newly set up fishing lodge in angola in 2002. I understand we were one of the first few brits to fish in the country. Henry gilbey wrote an article on the trip in this months sea angler. When I was there, the lodge was just being set up, so we were pretty much restricted to the shore or river mouth in small boats, but the fishing was phenominal First fish of the trip was a 150LB sand shark! Since then the lodge has amall boats they troll the surf line with and catch Tarpon over 100lbs, and stack loads of GT's and other fish. Aboiut an hours drive from the lodge we fished the mouth of the Quanza river and watched schools of Tarpon around the 200lb mark busting on the surface beyond our reach all day with huge threadfin salmon amongst them. we heard a guy caught one of approx 150KG a few days before we were there, and that's over the official world record. Fish apporaching 200KG have been reported from there! Now the lodge is now in with a game boat in the capital of Luanda, and can organise blue water fishing trips for Marlin, Dorado, etc. Luanda had it's first 1000lb+ marlin last year I believe! I may return next year, though am personally more interested in the shore and inshore boat fishing. I have the tempting prospect of fishing in the Congo that may keep me away for a year o two yet though!

Also used to teather a fish in the water to recover, not just to take home to eat. Used a lot in India for Mahseer where they tie the fish up in an area of slack water to regain their strength before releasing them. Same for Nile perch in Egypt. Here we tie them down in deep water where the oxygen levels are much higher. It's very successful. Either tie them with cord to let them recover before taking photographs or tie them with nylon which they will break when strong enough to swim freem

Oh no wait. I've found it now. Not hard to miss really! Link seems to be down atm though

You're gonna fly fish for those cats?! Wouldn't mind having a go at fly fishing one day. Had a chuck about once in a field with the plan to have a go at tiger fish with a fly in Zambia. the lodge never had any gear to hire though, so I've yet to achieve anything more than dasies. I'd be interested to know what response you get from the company. Xingu river was one of the places I had been tepmted by. Also a place in Venezuela for the Payara. Haven't really studied all the info on the sites thoroughly. I'me looking into several options for next year atm. My main aim is Uganda for around Feb next year, and then probably somewhere in south america if the season fits in well with this (and my job which most years is on a farm, so summer June-Oct is out), though there is a possibility of going to the Congo river or a couple of west african countries for some serious sea fishing. Wherever I go I'd have a fortnight at least. Partly to make the most of the journey. It's not that pricey to get to brazil I think, but probably a long journey. The internal transfers could be pricey. Also, 2 weeks gives plenty of time to suss out the location throughly, the techniques, the fish etc. I'd hate to travel somewhere and only suss things out at the end of the trip. Also, the longer you're there, the more chance you have of coming across a monster! I'm quite keen on the wildlife side too. As you say, traveling alone makes things pricey, so would be keen to meet others interested in such adventures. Not been to the Ebro, but am tempted now as a cheap destination with all the good reports. Tend to pass over Europe on my way to africa. Never fished between Jersey and Egypt! Where is the galery you talk about btw? Don't see any link for one on this site...

Found that site last also last night. Very good site. I think I'll be going next year!

Used to catch loads of Ruffe down here in late autumn. They were buggers at taking lobworms intended for perch despite being so small! I have used them for livebait also and they were very good as quite hardy, and no I have never been to Lomond before you ask!

I'm sure even earthworms have teeth over there!