Tim Kelly

I use 13lb american fishing wire when I'm jigging for perch and zander. I find a 1 or 2 turn half blood works perfectly. The more turns I tried the more difficult it was to seat the knot properly and the traces didn't seem any stronger. I haven't had any traces break or knots come undone with this system.

Bin the reel Janet. If it's not working for you it's no use and as your other reels work fine it's not you. Maybe next time you'll win the winners prize and not the booby prize!

Seems to me that while traditional river anglers, fishing for roach, dace, bream etc are definitely on the decrease they have been replaced by stereotypical carp/barbel anglers who have umpteen rods cast as far as possible in every direction and spend all their time shouting "Oi mate, I've got a line out there" Not really an improvement.

Good to hear Neil. Boats are fairly easy to deal with, unless there's a huge wave on you shouldn't have any difficulties once you understand the basics of boat handling. If you are going to bait fish you need to know how to anchor the boat properly, so it's relatively still and need to fish floats set at the right depth for good indication. That is more difficult than bank fishing, but again it's something that is relatively easy if you use big floats and leads. Make sure you fish with heavy tackle and don't mess about with the fish once hooked. If you can unhook the fish in the net over the side so much the better, especially if it's not one you need to weigh or photograph. If you want real help for pike fishing the PAC has a members website with a helpful discussion board, Pike and Predators magazine has a website with a good board, though sometimes it gets a bit over excited! There's lots of good infdo out there, though don't expect people to mark your map for you, joining the PAC would probably help you too, the local regions have meetings which are good for meeting people and learning about techniques etc. Good luck with it. Unfortunately Trout waters open days seem to attract some of the worst anglers to them. I've seen all manner of sea rods etc being used by people who clearly have no idea what they're doing and even if they're completely inept they still run the risk of catching a fish and not knowing what to do with it.

There are lots of places worth a trip for pike, but with the greatest respect, you don't sound like the most experienced pike angler, so it might be wise to avoid the trout waters for a while until you're used to handling pike well. Trout ressie pike are much more delicate than river or natural lake fish for some reason and require quick efficient handling to stand a chance of survival it seems. There are loads of rivers and lake which have a good head of pike which would be a great way to learn how to handle the fish. Hope you don't take that the wrong way. It's a bit like someone asking if the carp fishing is any good in Redmire and whether they should give it a go. Learn your craft first and you will appreciate better fishing as you go along the journey.

If you use a camping tent, rather than a fishing bivvy, make sure a bedchair will fit in it.

Nige Williams is normally in the naughty corner, you might try there first....

Thorpe park is only fishable by its employees for most of the year, and even then only when the public are not there. In the winter there's a syndicate on the ski lake and occasional access some years on the main lakes to special groups.

Take the ungrateful sods to Twynersh the following week and make thm sit on the opposite bank all day.

I've just read this thread and funnily enough I was thinking 4-5lb! If you look at the picture of the five and a half on the snowy day and compare the two you can see the fish isn't carrying as much weight as that one as the fins look disproportionately large on the smaller fish, for a similar length. Easy to be wise after the event though!

There's a Bass Pro In Vegas too. Tackle shop heaven!

I was there at the beginning of June. You can hire boats from the marinas on Mead and there are a gazillion carp and a few stripers which live around all the docks. Amazing site when a kid tips in a bag of popcorn! Saw some big carp and stripers looking down from the hoover dam too. Unfortunately it was a bit windy when we were there so the wussy Yanks wouldn't let us hire a boat, or I could have told you a bit more about the actual fishing! Here's a pic of the carp at the marina docks to whet your appetite...

Wonder what I'll get on the 27th July 2007. Got to love that fishing crystal ball, especially as it comes with pictures now!

There used to be a bloke from Humminbird who posted on here very often and was very knowledgeable. http://www.wmi.org/boards/electronics/index.html

They might be a transducer connection, power connection and a link to another Humminbird unit. The Humminbird Matrix series can have the smartcast device connected to it, and maybe the base unit you've got it what the Matrix units use as a reciever?

I expect the genius who named the rod carry cases "bazooka" was responsible for that little misunderstanding!

A few years ago I got stopped at Minneapolis airport (after flying in from Winnepeg) on my way back to London. The "Homeland Security" bozo decided that the downeast clamp on rod holders in my hand luggage were an offensive weapon. I pointed out that they weren't any heavier or more dangerous than the ABU 7000's in the same bag or the bottle of whiskey. The little man in the uniform just asked if I'd like to have them confiscated as well then? Rules like this are made in paranoid countries like ours and America and only enforced in these countries. Last year flying to Greece we had a 4 hour torturing going through customs 2 metal detectors on our way out, but on the way home the customs guy was on his phone not even glancing at the X-ray machine. My advice to terrorists is to take your bombs with you on your flights to America or the UK as it's much more difficult on the way back! Joined up thinking I think they call it?

Really? Hadn't noticed. Anyone have any views on the Countryside Alliance?

Abolish the mandatory closed season! If anyone (club or riparian owner) wanted to continue with the closed season it would then be down to them to police it.

Mine hasn't arrived yet either. Pretty poor service really, but then I don't really have anywhere to fish at the moment anyway.......

The whole area's a toilet.

I virtually don't fish in the closed season, though this is not through choice, just that virtually all the lakes and rivers I fish have a closed season imposed on them. As I said in previous posts, most of the places I fish have self imposed closed seasons in effect anyway as either weed growth or water temperatures make catching fish virtually impossible for large parts of the season. I'm sure there are places that get heavily fished. If the fish were really suffering from the effects of it though the fishing would soon go off and the pressure would subside.

If your rested the commercials the fish would starve. Hardly a better way to go than having their lips gradually worn away, though close!

There's always something.

John, it's not so much wanting it easy as wanting it possible! If a lake is unfishable all summer as it looks like a mown field and the fish are dour most of the winter the period in spring would be an ideal time to fish for them. Trout angler probably traditionally aren't bothered about trout in the winter because they're out shooting in the winter and fishing is a summer hobby. But for the "neuvaux" trouties they can happily fish year round at the miriad ponds scattered all over the country. Coarse commercial fisheries have no interest to me as they only seem to cater for those wishing to catch either monster jelly belly carp or hundreds of hungry little carp, Oh and they also have carp in them. How thrilling?