Tim Kelly

It's the people who pay to do it that I worry about. Why not let people pay to go into an abbatoir and kill a bullock with a humane killer, or perhaps they would like the thrill of chasing a pig about, stunning it and then slitting its throat. I'm sure there are some people who would pay for the thrill of putting a dog down in a vet's surgery. Perhaps their money would be better spent on a penis enlargement. I'm positive many people would say the same about people who impale fish on steel hooks, drag them around a bit then have their picture taken with them and then put them back so they can repeat the torture next week. People in glass houses etc etc....!

Chesters, you'd be amazed at what some rich, predominantly American, people will do for a trophy. A friend of mine makes a pretty good living as a guide. Most of his business comes from Americans who want to shoot different deer species. He takes them out all over the country for standard deer, like Roe, Fallow, Reds and even Sika, but they are just as happy to go to places like Woburn to shoot Chinese Water Deer or even the fallow and Roes as they are often much better specimens than truely wild deer. It's a bit like stamp collecting I suppose. Not something many people would want to do, but those that do pay very well for it and keep the economy going in various peculiar little backwaters!

In Africa the national parks were funded to a fairly large extent by allowing hyper rich people to shoot elephants, lions etc for huge amounts of money. If that's what it takes to keep these things going, and people are prepared to pay so much for the priilege, so be it. same in America with these game ranches. No different really to breeding pheasants or partridge to be shot. I doubt there are many native pheasant in China now either.

Not only that, but the wild west side of the country too. Unimaginable!

The OBVIOUS thing would be to try WITH a trace so that if the blades were getting bitten you'd get your lure back! Still, it's all a lot of fretting about nothing!

Go fishing for whichever species you would prefer to catch. It is not a great idea to discuss or invite discussion on any specific water on the internet as it can lead to unwanted pressure being put on an area.

Know what you meanabout the airfares Newt. We've just booked our holidays in New England for early June to avoid the price bump. We've got a couple of weeks driving round Cape Cope (stripers? ) then off through Maine etc and down to Philadelphia where my dear wifey will be flying home and I'll be heading off for a weeks bass (small and large) fishing with my mates in the bass club! Don't know quite how I get away with it...

I would have thought it would be easier, or at least no more awkward to use a conventional buzzbait with a short wire trace. That thing looks like it would cast horribly! You're determined to catch pike on one of those aren't you Newt! I think the best chance you'd have is on a river for chub, which take buzzbaits very readily in the summer. If you're coming in May though, we have a problem... Maybe a canal? Jeepster, it would sink like a stone. No real threat to anyone or anything - only Newt's wallet!

You get far better contact with the lure if you work the shad off the reel rather than with the rod. Braided line floats and the thicker it is the more buoyant it is, giving the line an upwards curve in the water, so when you retrieve a couple of feet of line the shad rises, then drops again when you stop. Using the reel for the bait movement also means your rod is always in a good position to strike from.

I can't believe it makes any difference! If you're moving the rod tip say 10ft during the strike I don't see that it makes any difference which direction you go in, the line has to change its angle in the water by the same amount which ever direction you go in. Most of the time lurefishing I think the pike virtually hook themselves as they turn their heads away, that said, i still give them the butt to make sure! I'd agree with Newt. A 3oz fish will just get pulled through the water further than a 10lb pike!

Tha balence is that critical, but whether the bait hanging perfectly still is to the fish..... I doubt it!

Water temperature (and therefore density) make a suprising difference to whether baits suspend or not. I used to make some neutrally buoyant glidebaits and if you got them suspending in the summer they'd float up in the winter, and vice versa. Suspending jerkbaits (musky definition of the word) are less effected by the hardware than bass jerkbaits due to their size and the relative weight of the trace in comparison with the bait itself.

I believe it's only legal to bow fish for carp, though there are moves to allow the technique for barbel now too as they are becoming the same shape.

That would be the trace again Newt! 12" or so of trace, often with a swivel at the top of it means you get through a lot of tip rings casting with a 3" drop. Ask my American friend Luke. Whenever he's here he usually destroys at least one tip ring on one of my rods. I'm going to have to put a rubber bead on above the trace to curb his enthusiasm! Bass anglers...pah!

Does anyone know who controls the fishing on those big lakes you see by the M4 at Theale?

Just looked at you pottery site Newt. Are you going to bring any supersized pots with you like the one you're standing next to? Would love to see the wheel that bad boy was thrown on!

I doubt carolina rigs are used much here at all. The trace is always what spoils many bass techniques over here. I don't doubt it would work, especially for zander which generally hunt close to the bottom, but most venue I fish either have very snaggy or weedy bottoms which makes the dragging technique used with carolina rigs ineffective. Drop shot, vertical jigging and swimjigs are of more use here generally. You will be dissapointed by the lack of predatory fish here. No rock bass to keep you on your toes or sunfish constantly nibbling at your offering!

I use 4/0 and 5/0 wide gape or standard offset for perch in things like 6" sluggos. Always rigged "texposed" though as burying the point makes hookups even less likely. For pike none of the above are very satisfactory. A fully exposed hook is required, usually on a jig head. Anything from 1/4oz to 2oz head, depending on bait size, water depth etc. If you are going to try texas rigged plastics when you come over make sure you bring a fast actioned stiff rod. You Ugly sticks will not be nearly adequate for setting the hooks. Looking forward to seeing you.

Love the sonar screen grab! Hopping the jig along to the fish, fish grabbing the jig and being hauled to the surface - great stuff!

I expect you'll find that it's too thin for a baitcasting reel, it will just bed into itself on the spool. Should be fine on a fixed spool outfit though.

Like Glen said. Dave Lumb (www.dlst.co.uk) sells good replacement nets which are pretty hook proof, but you should always have some hook cutters to hand to cut away awkward trebles, whether they are in the net or the fish. It's a good idea to try to get into the habit of only netting fish which are awkwardly hooked or big enough to weigh if possible. Hand landing, done properly, reduces the time the fish spends out of the water and the amount of damage they can get from being netted and removed from the water.

Fly fishing is a great technique when you're fishing a light floating line for trout. The further away from that you go the more difficult, impractical and frankly stupid it becomes! You will need a 10-12 weight outfit to turn over big bulky 8-10" pike flies. A heavy outfit also gives you a chance to get the fish in without totally exhausting them. Heavy single handed fly outfits were developed for sight fishing - only making a cast when you had seen a fish - and not blind casting for hours on end. If you can't sight fish for pike, and I don't know anywhere where you could, you either have to accept the pain of casting the unweildy outfit or use your head and use appropriate lure tackle.

I think Gerry has misread the size of the lures you have bought. Frankly I would think they'd be next to useless for pike fishing. They're so light you've got more chance of casting them on a fly rod and you're right, any trace, or indeed line heavier than about 6lb will probably kill the action stone dead. I don't doubt that a pike would take them given the chance, but the practicallties of using them make them a poor choice. Gerry's suggestions are a good place to start.

Any hooking in fact, and probably most playing and landing as well! Have fun with it in 2006