Ken L

Just sent this: "I have just read your story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yo...ire/5029872.stm and am most suprised by the glarring ignorance displayed by this piece. Lead fishing weights in sizes that represent a risk to swanns and other water foul have been banned for more that 20 years. The risk to Swanns from disguarded lead was identified back in the early eighties and the fishing tackle industry worked hard to develop viable alternatives before a ban was agreed jointly between government, anglers and the RSPB. Please stop making angers out to be a bunch of uncarring environmental terrorists when we're not." to here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/feedback/default.stm

Simply put, the front drag system is smoother and makes for a lighter reel. Mat. Some of my backup reels are Okuma's and I've generally been very happy with them. I've not personally tried the "Payback" reel listed here http://www.tackleup.com/new_page_25.htm, but if one of their 40 size reels (Equivelent to a shimano 400 size) suits your style of fishing, it would seem to fit the bil.

Depends on yourfishing method. If you float fish, there are many advantages to a front drag. If you tend to soak baits on a lead, there are obvious advantages to a baitrunner reel. Not a recomendation but it narrows it down To narrow it down further, what do you mean by not breaking the bank 'cause with a few exceptions, you're going to pretty much get what you pay for.

Filters are great ! My favorit story involved a UK based IT company that simply blocked all traffic that contained unacceptable letter strings. Apparently, it was a month before anyone realised that the were getting no data from their Scunthorpe office. Think about it.

Safe trip both. Bet you'll be comming in August for the next visit....

Way better than google earth for detail in many areas. It looks like it's going to be low re but as you zoom in, everything suddenly clarifies. Just a shame that you can't bookmark places on it.

All they'd need is a seagoing boat with a really big balast tank and a holliday that starts in Holland and ends in stourport.

That's be about right if you're 5'3" and six stone. Seriously, it's really hard to judge. Better to carry a little digi scale and a weigh sling. The sling can be kept tidy and permanantly damp by squeezing it into a tupperware type box - just remember to take it out and stick it in the washing machine occasionally.

Just three weeks to go before the nights start drawing in

There's no mention of what the reel is going to be used for. If it's for bait fishing, it might be worth a shot at the session Carp forum, if it's for beach fishing, try the sea forum or if it's for super heavy spinning and popping, try posting the question on Caranx.net.

The news that people will have to work till they're 68 instead of 65 before they get a state pension would have been greated by riots in France but the British just rolled over and took it. Two weeks ago, my employer, the DWP (and presumably the rest of the civil service) removed compulsory retirement ages - we can now work till we're 90 and drop dead in the office - and given the pension provision for office staff (Not the senior civil service fat cats), a lot of people will have to do just that. No doubt other employers will be following the civil service model. Now, we have this in the news http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5019568.stm. Ever get the feeling that somebody is out there trying to convince you that you actually want to work yourself into the grave ?

The Da Vinci Code was a good read and very, very cleverly woven through existing conspiricy theories. Angels + Demons was probably a better book than The Da Vinci Code but was rather impausable - a bit of a ripping yarn, rather like Jurassic Park. Deception Point isn't great. and Digital Fortress is a pretty dire read. It's hard to see where he's going to go from here with everybody expectin another consipiricy laced blockbuster. Then again, The Da Vinci Code has made him so rich that he probably couldn't care less.

Well if they did, they might reduce the number of Mink about.

Of course hindsight is always 20/20 but ideally, you should have demanded a written explaination of why he was hitting your machine at the time - and then threatened them with a criminal damadge claim. If you ask them now, they'll just deny it ever happened.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13526109,00.html Edit: There is a better version of the story here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/glouces...ire/5027868.stm

Sorry Norm but just as there are generally accepted (if rather arbitary) ethical limits on the size and species of fish that it's acceptable to use as livebaits, so there are ethical limits on what it's accepable for sport. Removing and killing a creature like that is in my view totally unacceptable. It is all the more unacceptable because it wasn't caught and killed for food, It's death was nothing more than an act of vanity.

Maybe you need to stand outside wearing a Sandwich board saying "If you wan't to know about PCWorld customer service, talk to me" Nothing slanerous but I 'd bet they'd pay up sharpish.

I don't recall anybody mentioning Sweden and unfortunatly, a search of the site doesn't show much up. Sorry http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.p...highlite=sweden

An astonishing feat of angling on stand-up gear but a sorry end for an incredible creature. Better to have let the memorys and the photographs speak for themselves than kill something so magnificent for the sake of a record - and have the whole angling world thing you a bit of a vain ****.

I've got both kinds. Country & Western.

So go do it. You should be able to fly out and live the drem for a little over a grand. If you wait till you win the lottery, it'll never happen - and you spend a long time looking at the lid of your box wearing your best suit.

I've used WMA for ages but have recently switched to MP3. A big deciding factor was the number of people I know that have MP3 playing car stereo's. It's possible to burn 70 - 80 track CD's with MP3. Can't do that with WMA. On a portable player, 64 bit WMA sounds fine. On a PC linked to a half decent Stereo, 160 bit WMA or 190bit MP3 is really needed or you'll notice the shortcommings of compression to often.

slodger. To far to either end of the scale is no fun. I wouldn't want to not know that I was going to be able to afford my next meal whilst fishing thousands of miles from home. Equally, I see very little merit in travelling to a third world country, staying in a five star hotel, having a coolie to carry your tackle out to a pre-selected peg that's been prebaited for a week by your boy, getting comfortable whilst the ghilli sets up your tackle and rows your bait into position in the prebaited area, being plied with drinks utill you get a run at which time the ghilli will free your line if you're to incompetent to control the fish and finally net, weigh and pose with you with your well earned catch.

4lb T/C sounds about right but as you say, its to do with the dynamics of the rod as much as anything and uptiders in particular do tend to be very tippy and unforgiving with big fish. I actually quite like my uptider as a bait fishing tool but it's just to long to use for casting 120 - 150g lures all day - especially when you're sat crunched up in a tiny boat. My back and shoulder were killing me after two or three hours with a 10 footer so I definatly wouldn't fancy it with a 12. I hear that Penn have some new products waiting in the wings that might suit what I have in mind, so I'll be waiting till the planned release in August or Setember before deciding whether to lay out more hard earned cash for yet another rod. BTW. One of the 150lb fish was obviously a pussy. Was the other a sturgeon ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/webcams/coast/index.shtml