Michael G

Thanks Mike. I'll check it out and I'll post here if there is anything to report.

I have a weekend to myself and I want to go and look for pike. I live in Wexford in Ireland. Can anyone tell me where to go in South-East Ireland? I plan to dead-bait and also to use my cute little Australian one-handed spinning rod with a small multiplier.

I wanted to try the centre-pin and not spend a lot of money, so I bought the Okuma. Last month in County Cavan I found out how perfect it was. I was trotting the channel at the bridge in Killykeen and I found that if I lifted the rod so that the line was out of the water, the current alone was enough to draw line off the reel. As my float came close to the bridge I got bite after bite from roach, but the line was tight enough to hook them if I just clamped my thumb on the reel and lifted into them. It was perfect fishing. Perhaps a centre-pin costing three times as much would be that much better, but I can't imagine needing it. (Experienced centre-pin users may laugh at me, I realise, but I'm happy with my Okuma.)

It happened to me, and I think her hard drive has died. Nothing for it really but to get her a new PC. But as some of the other posters have said, if you link up her old hard drive either to your PC or to her new one, you will be able to transfer any valuable files.

There is a quick, free but uncomfortable solution. Put your hands in the water. The shock will jump-start the circulation and quite soon your hands will be red and warm, and will stay like that. However there may be some tingling at first which some people may find unpleasant.

Bring on the chavs. I used to fish for tench on the Grand Canal in the centre of Dublin and made friends with people I would have crossed the street to avoid in other circumstances. The thing about chavs is: they are not wimps like us and they will chase away the Poles so our fish won't get eaten!

Thanks to everyone for that. It makes sense in theory but I need to try it in practice (before the water gets too cold). Last time out, my own fault because I didn't pack the right gear, I found myself fishing with floating braid (I didn't even know there was such a thing, and I certainly don't remember buying it).

Thank you for that. But to ask what is probably another really stupid question, how can I tell when the feeder has hit the bottom?

I was prompted to post this by reading the Advice on legering thread but I thought I should post it separately. I am casting a large swimfeeder fairly long distances on an Irish lake. I'm not sure whether I am tightening up too slowly or too quickly. Should I tighten up as soon as the feeder hits the water, or would I be emptying the feeder and pulling the hookbait away from it? If I leave it until the line sinks and goes slack before tightening up, am I missing bites? (I think I might be, from the number of sucked-out maggots I pull in.)

Don't touch IE7. Best thing I did was buy a copy of Norton Ghost a couple of months ago, and an external hard drive. It meant I could go back and restore my computer as it was before I foolishly loaded IE7. I use Firefox normally because it is so much better but my web designing software (Net Objects Fusion 8) seems to be addicted to Internet Explorer.

Great! Thank you for the tips about speeding up Firefox. I hope they don't block it when they realise that you have told everyone about it.

I bought the fish-finder, just for curiosity, and tried it out on my local carp pond - I shoved it out with my landing-net handle, but the drift kept bringing it back in to the bank. It was just frustrating to watch, though - I could actually see fish swimming past my swim, but nothing was biting except some very small carp. I found out there had been a match the previous day so the fish just weren't intrested. But I reckon it could be useful as a depth-finder.

quote: the fish were ****** off from being harassedGreat software. The ****** was put in automatically - I had typed something else altogether.

quote: Yes, I think I'll start with mono as I'm new to the centrepin. Anyway I want to use it initially for short-distance fishing in a local carp puddle; perhaps later this year in a small lake in Cavan where the tench aren't too far away. Might try braid later - I use it already for ledgering and deadbaiting for pike and I enjoy the feel. I tried it out today on my local carp puddle. Not a lot going on but there was a match yesterday so I assume the fish were ****** off from being harassed. I got a few small carp. But the reel is lovely to use - so light. The rod feels almost like a pole.

I bought the fish finder. I'm going to try it on my local carp puddle. When I'm deep-sea fishing the skipper is forever telling us that there are masses of fish just under the boat, but we never get any. I want to see if this thing is any help in targeting a carp. I'll report next week.

Really? I thought they had stopped. Can I suggest that any concerned readers should protest to the Irish Minister for the Marine mailto:minister@dcmnr.gov.ie and (usually more effective) the European Commission for the Environment mailto:stavros.dimas@cec.eu.int. That kind of savagery needs to be wiped out.

quote: Go for mono initially. If you end up having to shift heavy-ish lead around regularly, then you can use braid - even rope... Yes, I think I'll start with mono as I'm new to the centrepin. Anyway I want to use it initially for short-distance fishing in a local carp puddle; perhaps later this year in a small lake in Cavan where the tench aren't too far away. Might try braid later - I use it already for ledgering and deadbaiting for pike and I enjoy the feel.

Thanks. Those reports are quite encouraging, especially the suggestion that there are more cod than last year. Must give it a go quite soon.

Hello Blackwater. I actually did wonder whether you were Irish, with a name like that. Your latest post certainly makes the position a lot clearer. I tend to fish lakes rather than rivers and I wasn't aware that there were still game anglers who regarded pike and other coarse anglers as vermin. Surely there can't still be many who think like that?

Admittedly we Paddies are savage and primitive and I humbly apologise to Blackwater for our racial inferiority, but I haven't seen an angler kill a coarse fish here in Ireland in the last 20 years, except for Germans taking pike to freeze and bring home. It is perfectly true, unfortunately, that there are now eastern Europeans netting coarse fish and eating them. I know of one angler who was beaten up when he refused to hand over a large pike he had just landed and was going to put back (presumably he wasn't Irish). We do have a problem with eutrophication from phosphates, principally around Cavan and Monaghan where there are a lot of intensive pig farms, but we're getting on top of that now as well. Anyway coarse fish are far less vulnerable to eutrophication - it's the salmonids that suffer.

Thanks. I called in to my usual tackle dealer and asked him the same question. He said mono, definitely. Anyway I'll try it out on Sunday and see how it goes.

Any deep-sea news from South-East Ireland (Kilmore Quay etc)?

OK, but: braid or mono?

Most if not all of the Irish fisheries boards have now grown out of the pike-killing habit. I think the North-Western Board was the last one to stop it, about three years ago. No, we have a problem with immigrants taking fish to eat and using commercial methods to catch them.

This all comes too late for me; I bought a centrepin last week (Okuma Aventa Pro). Haven't taken it out of the box yet. I want to use it on a carp pond where 8lb is a big fish. So should I use braid or mono? If it's braid, should I put some backing on?