Norm B

The landing technique will be fairly similar to the SA method - Sit on yer arse and pray basically Just one day to go now, wooohooo! [/QB] You mean there's no fighting chair! :cool:

I've got one of those in a canvas bag along with an old split cane rod that an old guy gave me years ago.

I'm sure we'll get it, I've just found some 400lb swivel links.

To see the prototype you need to get the gang together again. Some good news for you. Berkley are doing 1/0 & 2/0 swivels with crosslock snaps at 175lb & 200lb BS. i ALSO FOUND SOME SNAPS AT efftex BUT THEY'RE OBSOLETE NOW BERKLEY ARE DOING BETTER ONES.

I`d trust `normal use` as much as I`d trust a politicians promise. Paul. [/QB] Well when you consider that Sand Tiger had his 195lb skate on a 50lb shakespeare braid rod, the new one should be at least as good but with extra length.

Shakespeare have kindly given me a 30/50 conger rod and a set of Aftco braid rollers to convert it into the new Catchalot skate rod.. The rod is about 7ft 10 inches with a nice firm action and joins at the winch fitting. At the moment it has rings but that is about to change when the prototype comes out. If it is deemed successful it will come into production, probably next year. Shakespeare are very good at listening to their customers. When they were told that some of their rods needed to be longer, they brought out some longer rods. When I said that their 9 foot 15lb class rod would make a superb braid gilling rod if fitted with braid rollers, they had one made and sent it to me to test, it's great, hopefully it will be out next year. Gilling rod, it's great with crabs for smoothhounds too. I like the logo, "unbreakable in normal fishing" I assume common skate are normal fish. :cool:

I'm in favour of a licence to fish from a boat and shore, although dosn't Magna Carta give us shore fishing by right for free. I'd expect it to be free as the commercials didn't pay for their licences, only the ones they've since bought with or from other commercial boats. I raised the license idea years ago with MAFF and they didn't want anglers to have a license because we'd then want our own quotas and a say in fishery management. Anglers have always been a pain in the butt for MAFF, the commercials were happy to let MAFF stand back and let every last fish in the sea be caught by them. Then the CFP came along and really allowed MAFF to wash their hands of the whole thing, which is what they've all ways wanted to do. All they have to do now is to try and enforce the rules the EU makes, and they seem to have quite a bit of leeway there. At the end of the day the UN with their ruling that the fish in the sea belong to the "commons" has done us a great favour, and that is why the government are now talking to anglers, any votes they pick up will be a bonus. That ruling meant that by excluding other "stakeholders" from fisheries policy was denying us our human rights. How many years has it taken to get there? It may well take as many for us to get OUR fish. Hopefully it will be in my lifetime but if not, we leave a legacy to our offspring. :cool:

Handsome hound

Hi, from my limited experince of F/S reels, "you are doing it wrong," as they say. With a f/s reel the line comes off the spool the same way as it goes onto the reel, not from a rotating spool, this puts kinks into it. There are only 2 ways and you will see which way it should come off when you do it, 50/50 chance to get it right first time. Cheers, Norm B.

Hi Norrie, I'm stil waiting on a date for the A.N. Costa Rica trip. He's bought a bigger setup now and wants me to have a look but I'll wait until next year if anyone's still going, gets a bit lonely going all that way on your own.

Buy them from a US supplier - even after import duty and VAT, it normally works out cheaper to buy a lot of components from the US That's maybe what I'll have to do but Holloway and Hopkins, Seymo, are the importers and they're getting back to me. :cool:

I wouldn't like to do a tackle shop out of any business but six shops buying one blank or rod each wouldn't get much of a deal, where as if I were to organise six or more I could get it through a shop at a decent discount. Or even better get 10 made up as "Catchalot Skate" rods. There are a few decent rods around but they don't suit everyone, we all have our own preferences and tastes. There is a problem with the proposed new "Catchalot skate rod", there aren't any sets of Aftco braid rollers in the country, well not that I could find today. Hopefully there will be some in later on. There are of course other rollers, such as the Aftco ceramic lookalikes, as used on the Daiwa 30-50R. I've been to EFTTEX today, European Fishing Tackle Trade Exhibition and had a good mooch round, some good new gear coming on the market soon. I found some links for Davy, made in India but they look strong enough. :cool:

I wouldn't like to do a tackle shop out of any business but six shops buying one blank or rod each wouldn't get much of a deal, where as if I were to organise six or more I could get it through a shop at a decent discount. Or even better get 10 made up as "Catchalot Skate" rods. There are a few decent rods around but they don't suit everyone, we all have our own preferences and tastes.

How many would be required and can we all agree on the specification?

Hi Davy, as I said, I'm at EFTTEX tomorrow and I am looking to talk to various dealers and manufacturers so your dream rod could become a reality sooner than you think, although it would have to be a commercially viable project. What are you looking for? A 7ft plus 80lb glass blank, plus winch fittings and rollers, is that it? Or would you like it fully made?

Hi Davy, I'm going to EFTTEX Saturday, all the big names will be there so I'll have a look at what's new. You never know, I may see just the rod.

The 80lb class stand up should be a good rod as long as you use a decent reel fitting and the Aftco rollers, braid or otherwise. Or if you prefer a longer rod the normal 80lb class. I've got the 50lb class and I've had conger of over 70lb and sharks of over 200lb on it. :cool:

Glad you liked it. It's only a southern paper because nobody north of the border sends anything in since Greg moved and I can't get any Scottish businesses to pay for adverts. That's not quite true, Tackle & Guns of Glasgow are in the TSD so they get papers and C.J. Patterson of Kirkwall, Orkney are too. Norrie does a good job of delivering them for the benefit of our northern cousins. Glad you got the engine sorted too. :cool:

Hi Alan, it was posted tonight, along with most of the others, enjoy, cheers, Norman. :cool:

:cool: No I believe it's his 51 years of experience that tells him.

Try Reelvalue of Newton Abbott but a 7000 is an easy reel to service, your local tackle shop should be able to do it :cool: