Ken L

http://www.esox.co.uk/new_page_63.htm

Many thanks guys. All downloaded as suggested. Mind you, I'm a bit p'd off with PC World 'cause yesterday their website was ofering a 320 Gig Toshiba branded external HDD for £89.95 but it was out of stock for net ordering. By this morning, they had the same HDD back on sale for £130 and miraculously, it is back in stock.

Shred it up and make a nice light ceasar salad. Don't be doing the bottled sauce thing though, get a nice Romain lettuce and go wild with the raw egg, parmesan, garlic etc. Alternatvly, make up a big batch of turkey, mushroom and vegetable #(Ok, leftovers) pie filling with a cheasey sauce and either make your self a pie or stick it in the freezer.

My entire CD collection has been ripped and stored on my PC for a couple of years now, with the little silver discs being religated to a box in the loft. Now, HDD's are getting bigger and cheaper and I'm seriously considering doing the same thing with my DVD's. Can anyone recomend any DVD ripping software that will allow me to rip DVD's from several regions, in both NTSC and PAL formats and then manage and play them simply (through a TV) without any significant loss of quality ? Also, is copy protection an issue and can it be sidestepped ?

Likewise. I still do the occasional trip out to the coast to target the bass, pollock and wrasse on lures. It's a bit annoying though when you travel down from Birmingham to Devon or Cornwall, spend £25 a night in a B&B, then cough up tourist prices for drinks, snacks and a pub meal only to find that some local wideboy who's working whilst drawing benefits has drapped gill nets all over your favorite bass marks and cleaned them out. As said, these trips are now only occasional 'cause I'd rather spend my hard earned and use my annual leave on a trip abroad, knowing that I 've got a good chance of decent fish.

If I can get the photo to upload, this was Scott's best fish. YES ! It worked. My first photo on AN.

It does lok like the lure has been tossed up the bank after loosing it's tail. There are indeed some idiot anglers in the world. You can tell that they're stupid and thoughtless 'cause anyone with a brain would have removed and re-used the belly hook or even welded a curly tail on in place of the paddle.

I'd just like to take this seasonal oppertunity to wish every forum regular (as well as the newbies and lurkers) a very merry Christmas and a safe, happy and prosperous new year for themselves and their loved ones. Chears all, you're the best bunch of mates I've never met.

Ah Newt, I can see that you're detirmined that bass fishing tactics can and will catch pike. You're right, they will but one thing that's going to do your head in is trying to pull a hook through a Texas rigged plastic worm when the latex has been peirced by 15 or 20 pointy teeth. Same problem with your Scumfrogs and similar lures only more expensive.

I had a few Manns Buzbaits and a couple of smaller ones of unknown origin. I worked them to death (I didn't have many lures at the time) and yes, I caught fish but there are MUCH more consistent catchers on the market for the same sort of conditions and they do take up a lot of valuble tackle box space. Personally, I don't rate buzbaits at all. Spinnerbaits are of course a totally different proposition. Newt. If you're out to make a point, you're certanly comming at the right time of year. May and June would be my favorite time for surface lures on stillwaters.

Personally, I wouldn't hang them at all unless it's very cold and if they were shot, that applies twice over 'cause the pellets often pass into the birds gut allowing bacteria and all sorts of other delightful stuff to leach slowly into the flesh. Pheasants are a bit small for roasting and carving so I don't bother trying to pluck them. Just lay them on their backs, cut them up the middle, take both breasts off, push the skin off the legs and then remove the thighs and drumstics (snip though the lower legs once you've cleared the skin of them) and just chuck the rest of the carcass in the bin. Give the skinless portions a good wash and either bung them straight in a casserole or poach them, let them cool and strip the flesh off for pies and the like.

Personally, I'd have doubts about the integrity of a plastic lure that was glues together. Almost without exception, comercially made hollow plastic lures are cast in two halves, have the wirework and any rattles etc inserted and then the two halves are ultrasonically welded together in a purpose made jig - Glue doesn't get a lookin. Wooden lures can be drilled and rattle chambers can be added if you want to really play and of course there are loads of little glass and plastic rattleing thingies (I belive this is the industry standard term) that can be added to jigs and soft plastics. If the aim of the enquiry is to save a bit of dosh by building lures then I'd suggest that Neil has a look at buying bodies, split rings and hooks seperatly and doing his own assembly. There are lots of supliers but this is a good place to start: http://www.barlowstackle.com/fishing-lure-bodies.html

I think that the last report that I read on torture said that it undoubtedly does work. It'll get you the information that you need almost every time. The down side is that historically, those administrations that have routinely employed torture have become so unpopular that they have been removed from power by their own people.

Why are these unfortunate animals always called Lucky ?

They're not married. They have a "Civil Partnership" that entitles them to some (but not all) of the same privileges as married hetrosexual couples, such as automatically being treated as next of kin, reduced pensions, reduced Social Security etc. Where I'm not sure is whether they'd also get the same tax breaks as married couples. Am I offended by it all ? No, not really. I've had loads of gay mates at one time or another although I'll admit that the camp lisp sets my teath on edge and two blokes kissing does make me sot of uncomfortable.

I've no problem at all with Christians celebrating their main festival. It just strikes me as odd that the symbols that are "traditionally" associated with Christmas are in fact co-opted from other belief systems. I can't actually remember the last time that I saw a public display celebrating Christmas that revolved around the nativity - even the "angel" on the tree is usually refered to as a "A Fairey". Of course, we are rapidly heading towards the point where all of the traditional symbols whether Christian or Pagan are going to be replaced by shopping.

Another urban legen I'm afraid. http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp Mistletoe - Very, Very Pagan.

Christmas trees - Pagan Holly - Pagan Ivy - Pagan Santa - Nothing Christian there. The suit is interesting though. There are stories that indicate that the red and white sympolises blood and snow (with the feast to follow) or alternativly that it's the colour of those nice psycadellic Fly Ageric mushrooms. The date - Pagan again. There must be more in a similar vein. Don't even get me started on Easter !

Protecting angling (and therefore fish and fish habitats) is a PR battle, plain and simple but at the moment, although the anti's have weak arguments, they are gaining ground. What can we do to improve the perception of anglers and angling ? Personally, I reckon that high up on the list should be pittle plastic signs on every fencepost allong a river saying something allong the lines of "This style and the adjacent riverside walkway are controlled and maintained by ********** Angling Association for the use of anglers and the general public. Please respect the countryside code. Close all gates and take your litter home. In the event of a polution incident please contact the Environment Agency on **** **** *****. If You see an animal in distress or have concerns about the conduct of persons using this area, please contact the association secretary on **** *** **** with details of the problem." Any other suggestions ?

Difficult one and I suspect that the answer will largely depend on when people target pike. For the October to March guys, I suspect that baitfishing will win out with livebaiting outscoring deadbaits significantly. For the year round or summer only guys (me included) lures are likely to come top of the list if people are specifically targeting pike rather than doing as I do and fishing for whatever is there. It's not that lures are more attractive to pike, it's simply a matter of the amount of water that gets covered.

I'll wait till February. There'll be even less weed, still no boats (so it'll be clear water) and by then, the preds will have really thinned out the silver fish fry from this summer. Then, out will come my newly re-built and re-designed side planer with a little size two or three mepps or maybe a soft plastic.

Blast frozen sardines for about 2.80 for a 1kg bag from the fishmongers in Birminghams Bullring. Lots and lots of strange and interesting fresh and saltwater baits are available from your local Chinese supermarket (I use Wing Yip's) - I have a box of 4" "Ladycarp" sat in my freezer right now for that impulsive pike or Zander session when I get back to the UK. Forget the big supermarkets though, as has been said, most of the fish that they sell is in a sorry state.

Tony. If you bought the same Storm branded soft plastic shrimp that i did (they have a sort of "hinge" in the middle) then pack some by all means but don't bank of good results - I never had a touch on one. I reckon they'd be better for catching fish that are feeding on squid or cuttles than on prawns. I do rate the DOA shimps though and there are several other similar hard plastic prawns on sale for the Aussie market. Chears for the tip about the rubber bead. The knot that I used resolved the problem of reeling in in hard swivels and the like but I'll file that one away for my late night summer pike lureing. Did you manage to pull any of those Karnataka hotspots out of the old fogging grey matter for my mate who's going to be out here for a while ? No good to me on this trip though, I'm now in Mumbai and will be on the plane back to the freezer tomorrow.

"Bloomimg heck Chesters thats almost poetic!" Chesters Haiku: Beech trees still have leaves. Lots of oaks are still green. Snow is cool. Fun on the bike.

Tony. One of the real eyeopeners has been the success of 4" rubber shads on heavy (1oz +) jigheads with saltwater hooks. I've tried plenty of swimbaits as well but don't really rate them. The best technique has been to cast them out, feel them hit bottom, twitch them up, crank them slowly for a couple of metres and then let them touch down again on a tight line - so that they swim down rather than drop. With the jigs, you feel a very definate thump as the lure hits bottom (and generate a nice fish attracting low frequency thud) but this didn't work as well with the swimbaits 'cause the rubber coating on the nose and the different weight distribution make it much harder to feel them touch down. These lures can also be cranked back steadily above the bottom and doing this got me a nice Mangrove Jack last night. Another successful technique has been to twitch and crawl 4" soft plastic gubs along the bottom (this accouted for Scott's brace of fish) on the same or slightly smaller jigs. With only one hook and a big weight to provide leverage during the headshakes and jumps, you do loose a frustraiting number of fish but when you're hooking five and six times as many fish as the locals, you still come out a winner. You may recall that I was on the lookout for the type of jighead that I've been using (with decent saltwater hooks) a couple of months ago but I never did find a UK suplier at reasonable prices. As I'll be leaving the few that I have with Scott (he'll be travelling and fishing for the next 9 months or so) I'll probably have to put in a Bass Pro order for some more when I get back. Another succesful lure has been 6" Bomber Long A's in both the solid and jointed configurations. In almost every case, light coloured lures have outfished everything else (the exception being some black and grey grubs used by Scott) and I have one white rubber shad that's definatly getting to be a bit battle scarred. This isn't that suprissing as almost all of our fishing has been at night by moonlight. If the oppertunity for plagic fishing for trevelly and the like presents itself (it hasn't really on this trip) I will use metal slices, pencil poppers and sub surface ripping lures but this definatly requires wire. Hopefully, we'll be up and about early tommorrow for a crack at this 'cause we have spotted a big flat rock with access to some deep water. If there's one lure that I wish I had in my box, it'd be a big Rattlin' Spot type lipless crankbait. The stuff that hasn't worked are the 6" Halco's that I packed. Great actions on them but their extreem boyancy just makes then to light to reliably cast any great distance. OK, time to pick your brains a bit. Scott will shortly be off to Hampi (Vigayanagar) which is close to Hospet on the Thungabadra river. As I know you've dove a fair bit of Mahrseer fishing, can you recomend any fishing excursions for him that arn't going to break the bank ? He's found a couple of opperators on the net but they're kinda pricey. PM would be most welcome (I can e-mail it to him) if you're not happy about posting it up on the board. Quick edit: I forgot to add that I'not ding any line doubling or fancy stuff like that, just keeping it simple with 25lb flouro fireline knotted onto a 12 - 18" heavy mono leader and finished with a big Rosco snap link. I did start off with a longer leader but the leader knot knocked the liner out of my tip ring on the first night. I was fortunate that I was able to click it back in and carry on fishing (and secure it with super glue the following day) but I very quckly cut it back to 12 - 18" after that. The linkage I've been using is a Double Uni-Knott with 5 turns in the mono and 10 on the braid. The only thing that you need to be careful with is tightening it up slowly (else it gets HOT) and making sure that it's well lubricated with saliva.