GlennB

Good plan

Hi all. I've been away from fishing, and AnglersNet, for 12 years (living abroad where the fishing was total rubbish) but now back in the UK and about to get back into it. I've sorted my tackle and joined the local AA but the line on my reels is ancient. I've replaced the mono already but I'm reading mixed reports on how long braid lasts. Just play safe and replace it anyway? It's 3 big reels and a lot of braid! Cheers!

Says the man who doesn't know how to spell "you're" ??

I'll risk disagreeing with chesters (usually a bad idea ) 72-73 I worked at the soft drinks quality control lab of Reckitt+Colman, who at the time manufactured Kia Ora. It was the bees knees in terms of real fruit content and minimum artificial ingredients. It won blind tastings every time. The nearest was (as I recall) Sainsbury's 'best' own brand, whatever it was called. Who makes Kia Ora now and what's in it I have no idea.

After all these years I've come to the conclusion that nobody every quite held a candle to The Who, and Quadrophenia was by far my fave Who album. I wonder if their tour will head down to Greekland ???

Ah, so Wade is that bloke on the telly. And Boote is that bloke who always sprinkles his posts with tales of the dusky maiden he was bedding at the time? Wikipedia is funny on Wade : CriticismFellow avid fishermen posting in various fishing groups online have expressed criticism of the presentation of River Monsters as 'sensasionalist', whilst some question its premise, his process and results; including Wade's conflicting timeline statements about catching mahseer "for the first time" in Jungle Hooks: India in 2006, his book Somewhere Down The Crazy River on catching mahseer in India published in 1992, and his first fishing trip to India in search of the same, in 1982; and sharpeyed viewers of River Monsters can spot his fishing rod's colour having changed three times while trying to reel in the same fish.

My parents told me never to eat food that was still playing with itself.

I'm struggling to picture an egg carton for 5 eggs

What you do : If you win the toss, you kick off and aim to score 6 own goals pdq. The opposition can only hope to charge downfield and stop you. If by some chance you fail to score an own-goal you charge upfield and defend the opponents' goal, to prevent them scoring 6 ownies Probably all you'd really need is a coin-tosser and one captain to make the call, then it's pretty much done with. And nobody has their 'self-esteem' damaged and they can all sit at home playing video games.

Most numerous? My guess is roach, though maybe bleak. Roach go where bleak don't, but if there are bleak there's an awful lot of them.

Pretty close , but it's worse than that

I've just read that in a Canadian schoolkids footie league there's a "5 goal winning margin" maximum, exceed this and the rampant team loses. To protect the "self-esteem" of the rubbish team (dear Lord ) it seems. Now, - just as a logic puzzle - what should be the outcome of a match assuming both teams do their best to win the points available for the match, and the rule is applied literally? Take your time

Hi finlayson87, and welcome I'm not even in the UK any more, so it's a few years since I fished for pike or even chipped in to the coarse forum here. And I was never a very experienced pike angler, but maybe that's a good reason why I might be able to offer advice? I was pretty much a novice too Hooking your first pike on something like half a mackerel is like no other coarse fishing experience you'll ever have. Truth be told, there's only one thing that's really likely to be on the end of the line ..... and if you've read about pike, deep-hooking, teeth, gill-rakers, resting a hooked but tired fish, nursing a fish before release, forceps and wire cutters, suitable landing nets etc etc, you'll realise that getting the fish back in a healthy state is no gimme. What are you going to do if a loose barbed treble gets terminally snagged up in your (woven) carp landing net while a pike is attched to the other hook? Chew through it? You might have covered all this beforehand, but have you actually done that research? The fact that you're starting on a weedy water and even mentioning bite alarms makes me worried. Was that a line bite, or a pike with your bait already half way down its neck? With a float you might well spot this, with a carp style bite alarm setup you might not .... This might sound like a put-down. It isn't, it's well meant. If you don't take the right (even theoretical) knowledge, and equipment, you might find your first piking experience very unpleasant. Make plans and it could be the thrill of an angling lifetime Now - if you started out luring on a relatively simple water you'd be much less likely to run into problems Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but the pike gurus here used to step in pdq. Where are they all? All the best !

Oh - and in these parts they say you must whack the freshly-caught octopus on rocks 100 times, to tenderise it.

Yeah. Cook it barely enough. It's like liver - slightly over-cooked and it becomes like rubber and then you're facing hours to re-tenderise it. Cut into 2cm cubes, bunged on a skewer and flash fried or blasted on a bbq for a few minutes is about all it takes. The twiddly thin bits even less ... mmmmmm