Norm B

I have an unused Drennan Tench float rod in brown bag, 12ft 9' 3 piece, cork handle, lined Fujis, 3-6lb reel line. I don't know what mk it is because I've had it a long time.

I'll have a look, I'm sure there was a new Drennan Tench rod in the stuff I bought, what are you offering, just in case?

Far too difficult. I know what sea gear is worth but not a clue on this puddle dipping stuff so I'll keep it in my garage until I'm better or join a puddle dipping club and hawk it round the members. ?

Cod! Day after day? You're obviously not talking about the Solent area. I haven't caught a cod in 5 years fishing for them. The area is trawled and netted to death.

Thanks.

I'll look at the "to be collected" idea as I know how expensive posting rods can be as I've sold some shore casting rods and it's between £20 and £30, depending on length and value so I would prefer collection. ?

Earlier this year a friend died and his widow asked me if I could sell his tackle for her. Sooner than selling it piecemeal I looked at it and paid her half it's new value, which was a fair price as some of it is "as new". A few bags are missing but otherwise it's in good nick.. Everything from quality carp rods to match, float and ledger gear plus keep nets. Would this be a good place to sell it or should I put it on E Bay or the like?

As matter of interest, what did it sell for?

Shimamo Torium 16. Heavy shore, just add a mag, or medium boat reel. Loaded with braid with nylon leader. VGC. £75 ONO. + P+P

I think my closest call with danger was a grass snake swimming in front of me. ?

? Mine too. I used to buy SA, AT and AM and I've won prizes from all of them but I find it more interesting and informative to now read online news groups. I can't remember when I last bought a magazine.

? If it was closer I'd put a bid in but too far to travel. ?

? Sea Angler used to quote 45,000 readers and there were 3 sea fishing magazines. Now there is Sea Angler and possibly one other but I haven't seen it for ages and someone says that Sea Angler now only prints 5,000 copies and the Editor is now self employed, not sure how true this info is though. It suffered the same fate as others. Constantly regurgitating old stories, blatantly biased towards its advertisers and not having anyone on it's staff that could identify sea fish so wrongly giving prizes to the wrong fish. I'm almost tempted to bring out another magazine to put it out of it's slow lingering death.

?My local councillor has informed me that planning permission for 4 two bedroom flats has been applied for in the cleared area, it's thought to be, "over intensive use for the area" but will probably be granted if it goes to appeal, the government likes building. ?

? Not quite in the same boat as you, excuse the poor pun. My general health is fine but worn or compressed discs in my lower back and a possible trapped nerve in my neck limit my casting ability and a case of arthritis in my hip limits my walking so overall I'm limited, especially for the "rough stuff". I've spent a fortune on coarse/carp fishing gear but not brought myself to use it yet, it's a gigantic step from fishing for monsters around the world's hot spots to puddle dipping, although that's what originally gave me the fishing bug, although joining the RN at 20 gave me the bug for tackling the monsters of the 7 seas. I did have a shark trip out of Weymouth a couple of weeks ago which was exciting, successful and hard work, I'd do it again but it has to be calm. I'll probably bite the bullet next spring and buy my puddle dipping licence and either join a club or buy day tickets for various waters as my brother is a keen carp angler and lives near Blackpool so the knowledge is there. Good luck and keep the net wet. ?

Probably died of starvation after the super trawlers wiped out the food fish stocks. ?

? Seen more pairs of dragon flies lately so may be a good year for them but again no tadpoles for them and the newts to feed on but newts doing well with a long breeding season. Bad year for the birds, thanks to the magpie lovers, Chris Packham and his mates at English Nature, loads of magpies this year as we couldn't cull them last year. We have 2 pairs of Gold Finches which normally have a brood between 6 and 8 chicks, 14 in total, this year we saw 2 chicks early on but just lately we've seen 10-12 so they must of had a second brood which managed to hatch, thanks to my trusty .22 and a serious late magpie cull. Black birds didn't fare too well either, only saw 2 chicks and NO Hedge Sparrow chicks this year, only seen 1 Robin chick also. Box nesting birds doing well as usual as the nests are safe from predators. No young hogs, although we have a pair of adults the hot weather may have encouraged them to nest in the open, bad idea with the amount of foxes and cats around here. Was looking at moving to a smaller property with a lot more ground as we wouldn't have to pay tax on it, under£500,000 but Mrs B not too keen as we'd have to get rid of a lot of furniture as ours is for a big house and wouldn't fit in a smaller house so my idea is on hold unless we see something she likes and suits me too. ?

? I used to donate monthly until that woman complained about their personal mugs, she was offended and they had a disciplinary against them so I don't donate any more.

Now seen a couple of pairs of dragonflies so hopeful that they breed but no tadpoles for the larvae to feed on so newts may take a hit but a very good breeding year this year as they started early and finished late.

At my last house we never saw a slow worm until I turned over the compost heap and found some adults and heaps of baby ones so they were there. I built a pond and within a year there were frogs spawning in it then newts arrived. Asking questions it appeared that over the road where there is now a school there used to be a sewerage works with settling ponds and cinder filters and strainers but it had long been replaced by a more environmentally friendly one underground one so the frogs and newts were just keeping damp waiting for a pond to appear. Loads of hedgehogs too, I counted 7 feeding on food I put out for them one night. Natterjacks like shallow ponds in sandy areas which sand lizards like.

Don't know who it is as plot was up for sale then sold, a couple of months later trees were felled and brambles etc cleared, no planning permission applied for as yet so wait and see.

Hedgehogs DO eat slow worms, snakes too. A field near us was going to be sold for housing but an environmental search turned it down as there were rare plants growing there so all went quiet for a year or so, now planning permission has been granted, no reason but a contact tells me that due to the lack of planning permission the owner sold it on to a developer, now planning has been granted, strange?

Found a dead hog on front lawn last week, no visible injuries, possibly someone has put slug pellets down due to the rain bringing slugs and snails out. I've got a neighbour one side who has lost a rat trap, thinks a rat has dragged it down a hole, I think it may have caught a hog and it's dragged it away, I have told him that traps should not be placed outside as they can also catch birds but some people are so paranoid about rats they don't care. :-(

New neighbour? We live in one of three closes in a clover leaf shape, no through roads. If you mean the plot down the road, that is out of our closes on a through road and no planning has been applied for as yet. Can't understand what is going on there. Pay to have trees cut down and ground cleared before applying for planning permission? No doubt they'll get it as it's government policy to build, build and build again until there are no trees or grass left.

Final score on GCN's, as seen, 4 females, 1 male, smooth newts female, loads, smooth newts male about 6, palmate newts, can't tell the difference in the water, less than last year, for some reason. All newts spawning prolifically, several damsel fly pairs, no dragon flies again. Hogs doing well, seem to have inherited a pair of big ones from the plot down the road that has been sold, all trees cut down and ground "tidied up", not sure what the plan is but council have not had any applications for building on it yet! Council also said that they'd not been notified of tree felling and would "look into it". Owners obviously have friends in high places or they wouldn't of employed tree fellers as both owner and fellers can be fined.