Tim Kelly

If you were being vigilant you wouldn't need an alarm at all. Having one means you need to concentrate less, but having one that doesn't work properly is surely the worst of both worlds!

Apparently roller front alarms can be unreliable when you are fishing with an open bail and a drop off indicator as the line skips over the roller. Not something I have any experience of, but I have been told it can be a problem. Those rear drop off alarms should be more reliable and they're pretty cheap too. BTW, I don't know that pike are too bothered by resistance as much as by a change of resistance. I doubt that fishing with an open bail would make much difference over a baitrunner as long as they were both set up well with heavy enough leads to keep the resistance similar.

Bending has never been a problem for any telescopic rod I've seen. Stiffness on the other hand has always been missing.

I was in Exeter angling over new year and they had them for £55-60 depending on length. Looked like really good rods, I almost bought one myself but couldn't decide between the 7-8ft or the 8-9ft.

In the world as it is at the moment, the fisherman! Otters have been effectively extinct for 30 or more years, largely due to pollution and habitat destruction. In that 30 years man has changed the face of the rivers completely. Anglers have had a large influence on the cleaning up and stocking of our rivers, so the otter is, in terms of how the country is now, very much a newcomer. I'd be quite pleased to have an occasional otter in the places I fish, but it would need to be there at a sustainable level. If they started having an effect on the population of fish they would need thinning out. Like cormerants, they are perfectly capable of moving on once the food source has been depleted, so they don't live in a "balanced" way in the same way as fish predators do, relying on the food in the water to sustain them.

I would imagine in the case of the ouse, rather than feeding causing a larger population of fish it in fact causes a population of larger fish - with attractive boilie bellies!

Hey Budgie, looks like we're getting some of my idea of good piking weather now! Nasty still high pressure's on its way out and warm southerlies are coming with cloud and strong wind. Really pleased I can't get out fishing!

Thanks for that. I just confirms what I thought I knew. I realise the shop is really mainly at fault, but I don't see why either the shop or the manufacturer would want to stick to the minimum requirements of the law! After all it's about getting and keeping a good relationship with your customers and not antagonising them and doing as little as you can get away with.

You're quite right Tigger, but it's a fairly cheap £30 rod which I'm not likely to use too often even if it wasn't broken. I can hardly be bothered with going through all the hassle. I have had quite a bit of experience dealing with American companies and they have always been very quick to make something right if the customer has had a problem with it. Even if they get taken for a ride occasionally by an unscrupulous customer they would far rather maintain the good will with the customer than to antagonise them for the sake of a few dollars. The general attitude to the customer is so different to the attitude over here where you have to justify you claim and be dealt with with the utmost suspicion and distain throughout. The shop failed, but I would have hoped Daiwa would be big enough to step in and make it right. After all, it's them who supplied the inadequate or faulty rod in the first place and ultimately you would think they'd take responsibility for it?

Bottom line is that shop didn't make it right and Daiwa didn't make it right.

Summertime is totally different and fish are much easier to catch whatever the conditions - unless it gets too hot. Gravel pits get cold and a hard overnight frost with still air and bright blue skies kills any chance of a good day in my experience. A mild windy day with cloud cover is much more likely to get the fish moving. River are a much easier prospect in winter as the fish are compelled to eat more often as they have to use more energy against the current than stillwater fish. Also, interestingly I am coming round to the idea that pike are much more likely to take lures during a "feeding window" when they might also take a bait than would be the case in warmer water where they can hit a lure when they might not bother with a bait. Canal fishing, in my limited experience of just fishing the slough arm for a few years seemed best after the water got properly cold, with a few frosts. This also coincided with less boat traffic and clearer water. I had an amazing day the first day of the thaw on there a few years ago. It had been frozen for a week or two and I turned up the day it started to melt and the fish went bonkers! Again though, it's a rise in temps...?

West London, Ealing.

Love to Budgie. I'd also like to take you out on one of the days I think we're both describing on one of my pits!

Generally they're too weedy to really drag something across the bottom effectively from the bank, and I've only been able to boat fish one gravel pit, but on those days when the pike are really not having it I have caught occasional fish by hopping a smallish soft plastic across the bottom on a jig head and I think if you happen to drag it right across the pike's face they occasionally take it, but it's a bit of a needle in a haystack as they aren't prepared to move to the bait. In fact I caught my first twenty doing exactly that!

Fishing gravel pits the one time I can almost guarantee a tough day with lures is a typical high pressure winter day. An overnight frost and "bluebird skies" make pits impossible for lures. Deads occasionally get a take, but even then it's going to be a grueller. Don't have much experience with lives under these conditions though, but I'd be amazed if they were a magical solution. Rivers and broads may be different, but my experience of winter rivers is that the water conditions are far more important than the weather conditions.

Firstly I'd forget all that Rickards nonsense about what method to use due to the air pressure. Secondly, if you are going to fish pits in the winter live and deadbaits will be more reliable than lures. Lure days on cold pits are less common when the temps get low. Rivers respond well to all methods in winter as long as the flow and or colour don't make presentation too difficult.

Calm down John, I got it the first time!

I expect roach could get a boilie gut like all the other fish that have been spoilt by that style of fishing as well Newt!

Me too

I know. Good innit, I've only been going there for about 15 years and always try (though usually fail) to spend my money with them before I look online and consider them friends. I went fishing with the owner the day his mum died because he needed to get away from everyone else and just wanted to chat. Sucks all round.

I bought a Daiwa Vertice 9ft tele spin to take away with me in september. Felt pretty good in the shop and appeared well made. After fishing for about an hour it snapped mid cast above a joint. Seeing as I was at the beginning of my holiday I stripped off some rod rings, undid the sections and bodged a repair, then taped the rings back on. It did OK for the rest of the trip. I took it back to my regular fishing shop and got told to deal direct with Daiwa as they had some "gold service plan" or something. Rang Daiwa, they'd never heard of the plan and insisted I post the rod to them before they would do anything about it. I suggested that the tackle shop had seen the rod and could easily confirm the damage, but no they wanted it back with them. I was furious because I really didnt want to go to all the hassle of finding something to put the rod in to send it to scotland at my expense for them to look at it and confirm that it was broken! Bloody typical british customer service. Fed up with the shop for not taking care of it and extremely cross with Daiwa Uk for their bad attitude on the phone and poor service. As an upshot, they've won and I feel a bit cheated. I'm not going to the hassle of sending a £30 rod to Scotland, but I will certainly look at any other rod before I buy another Daiwa! Oh yeah, and I'll tell anyone who'll listen too!

Poor guy. Really sorry to hear that Vidar. He was a good chap and Martin and I had an amusing trip with him when Martin first won his boat. Great shame.

Had my first trout out of the Wensum many years ago, so hopefully there will be some in the stretch you're fishing if you're there in the second half of the month. Does the county club not have any info on the fishing?

On gravel pits my experience has been the total opposite Budgie! Those bright clear cold days, usually with an overnight frost have been the kiss of death! Lure fishing has usually been hopeless and the only ones who have had even moderate success have been the deadbait soakers! Rivers may be different, but gravel pits in winter are tough at the best of times. I'd take a mild cloudy day with an absolute storm blowing over a clear bright cold day any time!

A bail arm?