Ken L

Just a quick word of caution. I ordered some 10lb powerpro last year and when it arrived it was labled up as both 10lb and 10kg. Having had a play with it, I have no doubt that it is in fact 10kg. It's a bit stiff for chucking UL plugs and spinners for chub but nice for general light lure work. If you're ordering from a european distributor, double check the stated BS in both lb's and kg's. I am interested to hear that they definatly do make lighter lines though because although the stuff I got was a bit heavy for what I had planned, I can't fault the quality of the product.

Just a quick word of caution. I ordered some 10lb powerpro last year and when it arrived it was labled up as both 10lb and 10kg. Having had a play with it, I have no doubt that it is in fact 10kg. It's a bit stiff for chucking UL plugs and spinners for chub but nice for general light lure work. If you're ordering from a european distributor, double check the stated BS in both lb's and kg's. I am interested to hear that they definatly do make lighter lines though because although the stuff I got was a bit heavy for what I had planned, I can't fault the quality of the product.

Maybe He'd heared about the nail knot and decided he needed to bring the hammer along. Ok, so it was a crap joke but you can't read the report about what happened and tell me the guy had come from anywhere other than the shallow end of the gene pool.

Maybe He'd heared about the nail knot and decided he needed to bring the hammer along. Ok, so it was a crap joke but you can't read the report about what happened and tell me the guy had come from anywhere other than the shallow end of the gene pool.

Interesting point Newt, but $115 works out at about £79 or 60% of the UK list price and you can hardly pt that down to a VAT differential - esp as most US states seem to levie and equivelent tax at about 5%. For the record, I'll be relacing all of my aging tackle when I go back through Singapore (with prices like that and the Sustain reel comming in at £78 I'd be mad not to) and will end up spending a total of about £700.00 which would otherwise have been spent in UK tackle shops. I agree about the apparent quality of the Okuma's, but I know that Shimano are reliable in the long term. Perhaps when the brand establishes itself with a track record for long term reliablity, they will force the likes of Shimano to revise their pricing policy. BTW, keep an eye out for Tica tackle, their reels seem to be making abig impact on the Asian market and will no doubt appear in Europe soon.

Interesting point Newt, but $115 works out at about £79 or 60% of the UK list price and you can hardly pt that down to a VAT differential - esp as most US states seem to levie and equivelent tax at about 5%. For the record, I'll be relacing all of my aging tackle when I go back through Singapore (with prices like that and the Sustain reel comming in at £78 I'd be mad not to) and will end up spending a total of about £700.00 which would otherwise have been spent in UK tackle shops. I agree about the apparent quality of the Okuma's, but I know that Shimano are reliable in the long term. Perhaps when the brand establishes itself with a track record for long term reliablity, they will force the likes of Shimano to revise their pricing policy. BTW, keep an eye out for Tica tackle, their reels seem to be making abig impact on the Asian market and will no doubt appear in Europe soon.

The UK list price for a new Stradic 1000 is (I think) about 128 pounds. About the best discout price I've seen for this reel in the UK was 70 quid - and that was the result of a clearout by Shimano. The other week, I spoke to a very nice chinese guy in Singapore who offered me one for 37 quid. Now I know that the UK has 17% VAT where Singapore has it at 5% but this sort of price diferential is bloody silly in a world with an open market. Now, my initial conclusion was that UK tackle shops were ripping us off but there's always someone who's prepared to expose this sort of thing with a low overheads internet based operation, so I now think this is unlikely. This leaves the question: Are tackle firms ripping off UK customers in the same way as the car and record industries ? I suspect that anyone who has been in a french tackle shop and compared the price of hooks, lures etc will come to the same conclusion that I have.. BTW. Sorry about the lack of pound signs, Thai keyboards just don't want to generate them.

The UK list price for a new Stradic 1000 is (I think) about 128 pounds. About the best discout price I've seen for this reel in the UK was 70 quid - and that was the result of a clearout by Shimano. The other week, I spoke to a very nice chinese guy in Singapore who offered me one for 37 quid. Now I know that the UK has 17% VAT where Singapore has it at 5% but this sort of price diferential is bloody silly in a world with an open market. Now, my initial conclusion was that UK tackle shops were ripping us off but there's always someone who's prepared to expose this sort of thing with a low overheads internet based operation, so I now think this is unlikely. This leaves the question: Are tackle firms ripping off UK customers in the same way as the car and record industries ? I suspect that anyone who has been in a french tackle shop and compared the price of hooks, lures etc will come to the same conclusion that I have.. BTW. Sorry about the lack of pound signs, Thai keyboards just don't want to generate them.

Just had a proper look around the revised site and spotted the polls section. The main topics seem to revolve around what should or shouldn't be banned in angling. Now just as with last year the weather is warming up and it's not unreasonable to assume that when Parliament has it's little summer break, the nice boys and girls from PeTA will be back trying to take advantage of the lack of mainstreem news. So the question is : Is it a good idea to show the cracks and give directions to the best places to drive those wedges in ? Secondly, is is a good idea to have argumemt and counter argument played out in a public forum so that the hand of anyone who has to support angling in the media is efectivly tipped ?

Just had a proper look around the revised site and spotted the polls section. The main topics seem to revolve around what should or shouldn't be banned in angling. Now just as with last year the weather is warming up and it's not unreasonable to assume that when Parliament has it's little summer break, the nice boys and girls from PeTA will be back trying to take advantage of the lack of mainstreem news. So the question is : Is it a good idea to show the cracks and give directions to the best places to drive those wedges in ? Secondly, is is a good idea to have argumemt and counter argument played out in a public forum so that the hand of anyone who has to support angling in the media is efectivly tipped ?

I planted some Buggie seed once. Three weeks later........ Millions of the little chirping buggers.

I planted some Buggie seed once. Three weeks later........ Millions of the little chirping buggers.

I did pretty well last year with Storm jointed thunder sticks. I did even better with small cheap shadrap type lures which also turned up plenty of nice wrase. I'd love to have got the surface action going, but they wouldn't have it on the venues I was fishing. My holiday was to Devon and the local beaches were shingle running down to a mix of rocks and sand. If theres one tip I'd give for this type of venue, it'd be: Fish at low tide. That way, the lure is being fished over structure rather than most of the retrieve being over dead shingle.

Seen it happen when a mate hooked up on some old line on the middle Severn. Having 30lb braid on the reel, he just pulled the tackle tight so the lure was suspended a foot above the river and started to give the whole lot a couple of shakes before giving up and pulling for a break. The lure jiggled above the river for a couple of seconds when a 7lb pike launched itself into the air and grabbed it. As the jaws came together in the air, it sounded like a dog barking, but the good news was, it shed the snag and gave a top scrap before comming in. BTW, he always pees on the bank now..........

Seen it happen when a mate hooked up on some old line on the middle Severn. Having 30lb braid on the reel, he just pulled the tackle tight so the lure was suspended a foot above the river and started to give the whole lot a couple of shakes before giving up and pulling for a break. The lure jiggled above the river for a couple of seconds when a 7lb pike launched itself into the air and grabbed it. As the jaws came together in the air, it sounded like a dog barking, but the good news was, it shed the snag and gave a top scrap before comming in. BTW, he always pees on the bank now..........

Float fishing in the rivers will produce plenty of small Barbel and Mullet. Bait fishing on the bottom should produce Carp and Cats (we fished baits for the cats and missed the only run that was definatly from a fish). If you are going to fish static baits, make sure you have long handled pliers and/or forceps in case you have to unhook a turtle - these things grow huge and cound severely mash up your hand, so be carefull.

Float fishing in the rivers will produce plenty of small Barbel and Mullet. Bait fishing on the bottom should produce Carp and Cats (we fished baits for the cats and missed the only run that was definatly from a fish). If you are going to fish static baits, make sure you have long handled pliers and/or forceps in case you have to unhook a turtle - these things grow huge and cound severely mash up your hand, so be carefull.

I'm back in Goa at the moment and that's where the Barra are in the rivers. No joy with the Barra but there have been some almighty fish chashing into the bait shoals and huge Barra and Queenfish jumping. I doubt that it'll last though, there were 15 boats trawling within 1km of the river mouth the other day and from what I could gather from the locals, this is a recent thing - the big operators moving further afield because they've fished out their local area. I did have an Estuary Cod of about a Kilo which caused much excitement until I put it back - at that point everyone agreed that I was mad. You have to laugh at the local government who constantly drone on about wanting to develop high income and eco tourism and then allow a potential sport fishing industry worth millions of rupees go down the drain for the sake of a few thousand rupees worth of fish in the market. Big Barra just 8 hours and a cheap charter flight from europe, just think about it.

I'm back in Goa at the moment and that's where the Barra are in the rivers. No joy with the Barra but there have been some almighty fish chashing into the bait shoals and huge Barra and Queenfish jumping. I doubt that it'll last though, there were 15 boats trawling within 1km of the river mouth the other day and from what I could gather from the locals, this is a recent thing - the big operators moving further afield because they've fished out their local area. I did have an Estuary Cod of about a Kilo which caused much excitement until I put it back - at that point everyone agreed that I was mad. You have to laugh at the local government who constantly drone on about wanting to develop high income and eco tourism and then allow a potential sport fishing industry worth millions of rupees go down the drain for the sake of a few thousand rupees worth of fish in the market. Big Barra just 8 hours and a cheap charter flight from europe, just think about it.

Not done a great deal of fishing since getting here. I fished the Tungabadra river and caught small marhseer and a snakehead on lures but almost all of the bigger fish seemed to have been wiped out by the locals with nets of every description as well as rod and line and the occasional grenade. I had expected to find myself on the Krishna river but anyone travelling with the Lonely Planet guide should be aware that both the books all India and Karnataka state maps show its course incorrectly. I'm back on the coast now and have discovered that the rivers hereabouts contain Barramundi. They're not present in great numbers but they are big. Fished last night without a touch but was talking to a french guy who has had fish upto 20kg in the last couple of weeks - needless to say I picked his brain without mercy. I'll give it another bash tomorrow night and hopefully things should come together as the time of the tide should fall a bit better by then. If I have rave success in the next couple of nights, I'll post details but otherwise, the next stop is Singapore.

Not done a great deal of fishing since getting here. I fished the Tungabadra river and caught small marhseer and a snakehead on lures but almost all of the bigger fish seemed to have been wiped out by the locals with nets of every description as well as rod and line and the occasional grenade. I had expected to find myself on the Krishna river but anyone travelling with the Lonely Planet guide should be aware that both the books all India and Karnataka state maps show its course incorrectly. I'm back on the coast now and have discovered that the rivers hereabouts contain Barramundi. They're not present in great numbers but they are big. Fished last night without a touch but was talking to a french guy who has had fish upto 20kg in the last couple of weeks - needless to say I picked his brain without mercy. I'll give it another bash tomorrow night and hopefully things should come together as the time of the tide should fall a bit better by then. If I have rave success in the next couple of nights, I'll post details but otherwise, the next stop is Singapore.

First off, nobody will believe you're trout fishing if your fishing the backswims with a 7 inch plug. Assuming that you're after trout, a small mepps or rooster tail is the way to go. Make sure the hooks are needle sharp and use fireline or similar to improve the hookuk ratio. Casting upstream and drawing back is more effective than casting down and allows you to walk upstream along the river bed without spooking fish. Trout are great fun but there's not many of them unless you have access to a stocked river and they're delecate things so it's worth considering a change to barbless and/or single hooks, they also go off pretty quick so if you catch one at the start of a four hour session and kill it, it wont be fit to eat by the time you get home so catch and release is the way to go - especially if you read up on toxin accumilation in slow growing pedators. On the subjest of single hooks, does anybody know a source of singles with eyes big enough for a split ring ? I'm looking fo sizes 10 to 4.

First off, nobody will believe you're trout fishing if your fishing the backswims with a 7 inch plug. Assuming that you're after trout, a small mepps or rooster tail is the way to go. Make sure the hooks are needle sharp and use fireline or similar to improve the hookuk ratio. Casting upstream and drawing back is more effective than casting down and allows you to walk upstream along the river bed without spooking fish. Trout are great fun but there's not many of them unless you have access to a stocked river and they're delecate things so it's worth considering a change to barbless and/or single hooks, they also go off pretty quick so if you catch one at the start of a four hour session and kill it, it wont be fit to eat by the time you get home so catch and release is the way to go - especially if you read up on toxin accumilation in slow growing pedators. On the subjest of single hooks, does anybody know a source of singles with eyes big enough for a split ring ? I'm looking fo sizes 10 to 4.

Lure fishing arround the rocks will produce trevally, jacks and grouper. Among the better tacktics are casting small to medium metal slices and burning them back with the rod held high to avoid the coral and trigger stikes. If you have a bit of depth close in, try the diving plugs. Don't forget that the estuarys are hotspots for barramundi as well as the usual pelagic species - as per Rex Hunt. I've not done any bait fishing in the salt but would expect sharks, rays and spikey nasties. Finally, if you're flying in via Singapore, buy your kit there (except beachcasters) 'cause it's half the price.

I'd go with the personal protection option. The viels that fit over a hat work both inside and outside the bivie and don't require any nasty chemicals. DEET is very effective but if it will eat your glasses and watch strap, what's it going to do to fishing line ?