DavyR

Sometimes used in court as a defence against a murder charge - "Yes, your honour, I did cosh the victim over the head, but had no way of knowing about their congenitally thin cranium. Someone with a normal skull would merely have been stunned, which was, of course my intention in delivering the blow." Edited to say - Whoops, sorry - crossed with Steve's reply.

The nurse who took her own life disclosed nothing, as far as I recall - she simply put the hoaxers through to another nurse, who did comment on the condition of the Duchess. It was obvious from the first nurse's accent that she wasn't English and so less likely to recognise that a stupid prank was being played. Tragic.

The word you were looking for is "earworm", Cory - You really don't want an earwig in your head! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earworm

Another possible relation?

I used to, back in the early '80s - mostly 25mm fantasy wargaming stuff. I've still got a load of figures (some unpainted) in a box up in the loft! Some of the metal miniatures from those days sell for a fair bit of money on eBay now, as it appears the cost of the metal has caused many of the manufacturers to switch to plastic.

I remember reading advice donkey's years ago in one of the angling weeklies that the wool on the Ondex should be closely trimmed, or the hooks would rust due to retained moisture. Anyone ever found that to be the case? I imagine the more recent incarnations of the Ondex have stainless hooks anyway?

Old books on fishing often included advice on how to "scour" worms for the hook and that advice usually advocated the use of moss. I think it applied exclusively to lobworms and I'm not sure it would have any effect on other types of worm. I thought the practice of "scouring" worms had more or less died out anyway - or is it one of those angling fashions that comes around every now and then?

I think its value is more that it's full of worm amino acids, courtesy of the mole's diet.

And what sort of Mid-Atlantic parlance do you call that?

I knew they reminded me of something! When I was on holiday in Ireland a few years ago, this seemed to be on RTE all the time: http://www.irishpaintmagic.com/ One of Bob Ross' disciples, apparently!

Very impressive - but why has it suddenly become fashionable to decorate practical (and vulnerable) items of tackle in this way? I could more easily see the point of decorating a float case, box, or tube than the floats themselves.

The bear was the real star of that show - him and Captain Weird.

Yes, although some unscrupulous types also use the phrase to mean a rod used in addition to the number allowed by the fishery rules, or one not covered by the rod licence(s) carried by the angler!

Not necessarily - most canal fish appear to be fairly nomadic. Certainly on the Macc Canal it doesn't seem to matter too much where you fish - the patrolling shoals will home in on your feed, so long as you keep trickling it in. Holding a shoal (especially a bream shoal) once you've got one in front of you can be difficult, though. If you start catching bream and you want to catch more (not everyone does, especially dedicated roach anglers), it can pay to up the feed rate and maybe put in a bit of groundbait as well as your loose offerings. Not much use if you have boats regularly churning up your swim, of course, but a good ploy for evenings (especially in the summer, when most of the boat people have gone to the pub).

At my age, I wouldn't be able to see a size 26 hook, never mind tie one! I've never fished that canal Chris, but this thread from another forum might be of use: http://www.maggotdrowning.com/forum/topic....amp;whichpage=1 As Darren suggests, in general the smaller/lighter you go during daylight hours, the more bites you can expect. This is really because the fish that are actively feeding then are more easily spooked and are likely to be only catchable on small baits like a single maggot or pinky. Trying to fish these on hooks bigger than 18/20 and lines stronger than 1-2lb bs makes the bait act differently to the loose feed and results in fewer bites. The main boat channel (aka the "track") and both shelves can all be good taking spots, but boat traffic can make it difficult to fish anywhere other than the near shelf. If you can find any features to fish to, such as moored boats or reed fringes, so much the better.

Hi Chris - It would help to know which canal, as there's a world of difference between fishing say, the Oxford Canal and the Manchester Ship Canal! There seems to be a revival of interest in canal fishing recently, judging by the sudden rash of posts on here. The advice you'll get will vary depending on whether you intend to fish "match style" during daylight hours or "specimen style" after the boats (if any) have ceased operations for the night. I only do the latter (on the Macclesfield Canal) and from springtime until the first frosts my first priority is to avoid the attentions of signal crayfish as far as possible. This generally means fishing for roach and bream with liquidised bread as feed and flake or crust on the hook. During the late autumn and winter months when the crayfish are less active, I switch to worm for the perch at dusk and back to bread once it's fully dark. If you fish a canal with no crayfish in it, you can use whatever bait you like as they generally all work. I use a standard float fishing approach, with the float (tipped with a Drennan Night Light after dark) set at dead depth or just off-bottom. I allow any "tow" to pull the bait in to the bottom of the near-side shelf and keep the feed going in "little and often". This approach works well for roach and bream and also picks up occasional tench and carp. Fishing during the daytime is a different ball game and not something I enjoy due to the activity of boats, joggers, cyclists, etc. If you prefer to do that then you'll need much lighter tackle than the 4lb line and size 12 or 14 hooks that I use. The average size of the fish you catch will probably be smaller as well. Don't consider fishing after dark unless it's a "safe" area with no dodgy characters loitering around!

Are there any red signal crayfish in the canal you're fishing? There are loads of the blighters in my local (Macclesfield) canal, and apparently un-missable bites that fail to connect are (I suspect) often due to them.

Are we talking 1958 original or 1993 remake? If it's the original, I think it was just another in a long string of films about giant ants, spiders, etc. and someone thought "why not a giant woman"? I haven't seen the re-make, so I don't know if it has more a feminist sub-text than the original (which, as far as I know) had absolutely none!

I don't think there's any magic associated with a particular type of float - I usually use a crystal insert waggler on the canal too, although lately I've been using vintage porcupine quills without seeing any obvious difference in bite detection or catch rate. When you say the other angler was spotting bites more easily than you, do you mean he was getting more positive ones that were pulling the float right under? This could have been due to a number of factors, including shotting pattern, bait size, how much of the float tip was visible, etc.

Based on my own experience of fishing my local Macclesfield Canal, I'd recommend above all else not starting to fish until any boat activity has settled down for the day, and then continuing (if it's a safe area in which to do so) for at least a couple of hours after dark. Fish that earlier in the day appear to be almost uncatchable or even non-existent suddenly become enthusiastic feeders as the light fades. There are quite a few large carp on the stretch I fish, and my tackle and methods have to take that into account. Winter and summer, I use 4lb bs line and size 12 hooks, baited with small pieces of bread flake or crust, float-fished at dead depth or just off bottom. This is mainly for two reasons: I'm usually targeting roach that go to well over 1lb, and the canal has a problem with signal crayfish which home in very quickly on most baits, but which seem to be less keen on bread (although they will still have a go). From the end of October, I also use worm as it's getting dark, in the hope of contacting one of the big resident perch. This is hopeless earlier in the year as the crays won't let anything else get a look-in! Good luck with your canal fishing and do try evening sessions if you can - it's a totally different ball game to fishing during the day and the results may surprise you!

Test curves aren't usually stated for float rods, but the Youngs website says this: "Designed for use with lines of between 5lb and 8lb and for targeting tench, big bream, carp, chub and barbel." The recommended lines for a 1lb tc "Avon" type rod are 4-8lb, so it would be reasonable to assume the tc for the Youngs rod is pretty close to that. Come to think of it, why does it matter?

Emily Portman does it for me: http://www.myspace.com/emilygportman Not to be confused with the American country singer of the same name!

Well, if it was good enough for Mr Crabtree...

It appears that Richard thinks you have misrepresented him by not quoting the whole of his post. Personally, I can't see how replacing the missing section of his post would change any of the meaning. Maybe I'm missing something?