Tony U

I am with Jim Gibbinson with this one; cane is great for stringing up your runner beans and little else. It's just misty eyed nostalgia that feeds threads like this.

Leon The method you describe is known a the washing line, and should be used with a floating/midge tip or intermediate line when the fish are up un the water; not the best thing in cold winter condiations but you never know, a prolonged mild spell will bring the fish up as there will be sparse midge hatches. I would go along with most of what Steve says but different patterns can do differing things for example you could fish a lure or a flashy wet on the point to act as an attractor to your buzzers or you could fish an emerger patern on the top dropper and fish this on or just under the surface. If I am fishing a team of buzzers I tend to fish a heavy superglue or epoxy buzzer or bloodworm pattern on the point, a realistic pattern on the middle dropper and an emerging or skinny buzzer on the top dropper and change colours to find out what the fish want. It is also worth remembering that if takes dry up a change of colour rather than a change of pattern may also be succesful. When do you fancy a trip out then??

He will be tweeting next or is that "tweety pie-ing"????

Anderoo The months will just fly by; Sue and I hope to be included and will certainly come down just to say hello if we are not.

Anderoo I would not feel too guilty about the Thames tributary fish; sight indicators were developed for just that scenario. It is when you see anglers fishing with indicators the size of pike bungs, that can be seen from the fishery car park, in small put and take waters that gets me mad. Why can't they just watch the end of their floating flyline and adjust the leader length and weight of fly to account for the depth. Tony

Ziggy Have you put a bid in?

Leon Did you catch anything at all or did you just have the smash take? It could also be worthwhile you increasing your leader tippet strength to say 8lb test, this is not too heavy many of the trout match boys do not use anything below 10lbs test (double strength or fluorocarbon). Tony

Leon As Steve points out, any fly can be fished static and you don’t even need to suspend them under an indicator; I have twice had fish pick up a lure on the bottom whilst extracting my running line form a tangle in the nearest bush. I suspect you would even get takes on the dreaded Consett Budgie fished under a bung if you were prepared to give it a go; it is not a method I would use myself though. I have found that the solution to getting weary fly fishing is to fish shorter sessions half day rather than full day sessions and in the summer only fish the evening rise. Tony

I had a few decent Perch out on cheese a many years back, when I used to fish the small pond at Killingworth, I tried after a youngster had a couple of two pound fish out on it as he had no other bait.

Exactly

Ken re "Ok, so the good people of Hartlepool haven't strung up any simians for a while" How do you know; How do you know?

Dave Re: In the Baobab and thornbush scrub behind the beach, we found some excellent birds, including a third species of Ground Roller. It is very like the Mexican Roadrunner in size and shape, but much more colourful. Was that the Long Tailed Ground Roller?

Nice one Dave It's great when you don't end up in the Oggin!!

Vagabond Well at least you have got a tale to tell you should be able to write a book on that trip alone. I can't wait for Part 2. Tony

A merry Christmas to you Nurse Judy, we will be wending our way up to Snowy Newcastle on Christmas Day so it should be fun. Tony

Chocolate is also a good bait to use in the trap; the trouble is I keep catching Sue rather than the mouse. :D Happy Christmas

Ah the Daily Mail, the paper that supported Oswald Mosley, it is nearly as objective as the Morning Star!!!!

So?

Very good :D

Steve I hope everything is OK with your daughter I am sure it will all be OK. I was in Faversham this afternoon and it took two hours to get home, thanks to the police closing the A2 at Ospringe and it was not bad enough for us to even put the car out of high ratio 4wd. A different problem for those hot hatches with 19" wheels, low profile tyres and no tread though. T6ny

Emma you are right I ate Zander in Bulgaria a few times and it is really nice; sort of Whitingy. Tony

I wonder if those Chochos would make a good particle bait for carp? Mojama is a Cadiz and Costa de la Luz speciality I like this with a chilled Fino or Manzanilla, rather than beer. Tony

With Cruzcampo I'd prefer Chicharones or Chochos, (Dave, before you comment Altramuces is considered the polite term), Andalucian rather than Valenciano influence.

MB Are you fishing club or public waters on the Medway and are you just fishing the main river or are you fishing the tributaries, like the Beult or the Teise, as well? Tony

I've never denied that they were not collecting for beer money....we certainly do; though at our age we can't do "with menaces" we just go for the sympathy approach.