Bill Eborn

Is the land crowned owned or owned by the local authority? If it is owned by the council then they can probably impose whatever conditions they want.

I am sorry FACT, I don't mean to be rude but this has got to be one of the worst press releases I have ever read. If you are reading this, please in future concentrate on giving us the gist of the story in the first paragraph, using the formula 'Who', 'What', 'Why', 'When' and 'Where', with perhaps two, three or four subsequent short paragraphs providing further detail. Quotes should be at the end to support the point that the press release is looking to make and to introduce your spokespeople. The good press officer wants to save a journalist the effort of re-writing the story for them. If we can get a nice lazy journalist to copy and paste our press release in for us word for word and stick their name on it, then we can be content that have done our job very well. If the point that this press release was trying to make, is that anglers recognise that they have to share water with other users then we should be realistic and recognise that on public land, we don't have any choice. What I would think we can do though, is to try and encourage other river users to respect our presence and where canoes and so on are hired out, to get the hire companies to encourage their customers to do the same. An intelligently conducted media campaign could achieve this I would think. It's not much of a problem on the rivers I fish here in Sussex where I am mainly on private land. On the one occaision where it was a potential problem, I suggested that the guy could ask the landowner for permission and pointed out the big house at the end of the drive and he disappeared. The canoeists were a right pain in the butt when I was fishing on the Haute Loire in the summer. In the end, I just took the first canoe coming through as my cue to pack up for the morning and go off and find some breakfast, so they just became a further incentive to make sure I got up early enough to make sure I could get a good session in.

As a southpaw, am I right in thinking that the Daiwa 125m is the only closed face that you can convert to right hand wind?

John For much of its length, the River Avre forms the border between the Departements (the equivalent of our counties) of Eure (to the north) and Eure et Loir (south). The Avre is what the French define as a Categorie One water - predominately Trout water. If you get a Carte de Vacance you can fish just about anywhere in the departement (but only that departement) for up to 15 days for about twenty quid. You can get day tickets - Carte Journaliere - for about 6 Euros, although you can only use these on category 2 rivers (coarse effectively) and what are described as first and second category Plan D'Eau - I think these are either Municipal lakes or smaller reservoirs. The local Mairie (council office) is listed on the Eure website as the contact address for the local fishing club, so you can probably get your tickets there. The River Iton which is a few miles north of Verneuil Sur Avre is a categorie two river and could be your best bet if you don't want to fork out over twenty quid for a couple of days fishing. I don't know anything about it at all but I would assume you will get the usual coarse species and as it is a tributory of the River Eure which in turn feeds into the Seine, there may be some Barbel too. If you go to www.unpf.fr and then click on the link that says 'cliquez ici pour continuer' you will come to a page with a map of France which links up to the individual websites for the different departements. If you then find the tab that says 'Domaine Pisicole' you will get taken to a colour coded map which shows you all the rivers in the departement. I'm off to France for just over a week myself tomorrow but way south of you in the vicinity of Lyon hunting Barbel and Chub with natural baits - or at least that's the plan - good luck and have a great holiday! Bill

I hope you don't mind my reviving this one as I am thinking about popping up to fish on the Ouse nr Milton Keynes in early March. I would probably come up early on the saturday and stay over and fish until the Monday. As I like to rove when I am chubbing I would like to know how feasible that might be bearing in mind how busy these stretches might get at this time of year. Any suggestions of cheapish angler friendly B&Bs also gratefully accepted.

Just a thought, but on the Cele in the South of France there is an agreement where canoeing only takes place between 11.00 and 4.00 (I think) and anglers have the river to themselves the rest of the time.

Lots of organisations use shocking ad campaigns. It is a clever cost effective campaigning tactic. For example, a large childcare charity recently used syringes in a campaign recently that was reported to the advertising Standards Authority, It generated controversy and accompanying press coverage resulting in a far a greater level of publicity than would have been achieved with a few more conventional adverts including TV coverage, and I guess was all part of the strategy. Does it work? - well we are talking about the PETA campaign here aren't we. The trick is not to offend your core audience and PETA will have calculated that the images used won't have done that, but it will raise their profile.

Isn't that why they have concentrated their resources in these areas. The sports which have prestigious international competitions, world cup, olympics, test matches etc?

Vagabond Sussex Ouse Conservation Society were mentioned in the article, but I will forward the copy anyway. The Cuckmere is mainly controlled by Southdown AA although I think the police and Sussex Piscatorials have got some sections. I only have tackle shop contacts for Southdown and the Sussex Piscatorials but I will put a call in to them tomorrow. The copy I will send you contains the addresses of the places where you can examine the detailed proposals if you want to. Regards Bill

South East Water have made an application to the Environment Agency to cut by roughly half the minimum flow on the Ouse and Cuckmere Rivers here in Sussex so that they can refill the drought ravaged Ardingly and Arlington reservoirs. According to the Environment Agency the current "minimum permitted flows are the lowest required to protect fish and other wildlife". The Sussex Wildlife Trust are quoted as saying "increased abstraction could affect Sea Trout and Brown Trout which are about to begin their migration to spawning grounds in the upper parts of the Ouse". The Environment agency are consulting on the application until November 12. I will scan in the copy from today's Argus at work tomorrow and save it as a pdf file. If anyone would like a copy, send me an email and I will send you a copy. Bill [ 05. November 2003, 07:27 PM: Message edited by: Bill Eborn ]

Thermal underwear and a fleece hat. The theory goes that if you protect your vital organs - brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys etc - then your body doesn't withdraw the heat away from your fingers and toes.

People out for a nice Sunday stroll along the top of the bank on a low river, talking at the top of their voices with the sun behind them.

quote: Originally posted by Ferret1959: Isinglass = Any of various minerals consisting of hydrous silicates of aluminum or potassium etc. that crystallize in forms that allow perfect cleavage into very thin leaves; used as dielectrics because of their resistance to electricity.[/QB] "Isinglass is made from the swim bladder of the South African Sturgeon by acid treatment. Isinglass is the fining agent most commonly used by British breweries" Graham Wheeler (1990) Home Brewing - the Camra Guide pg 111

And if the anti is a vegan, ask them if they like drinking beer and did they know that Brewers use either isinglass (made from the swim bladder of the sturgeon) or Geletine to get rid of the cloudiness. Well thats proper beer anyway, god knows what they put in lager. [ 15. October 2003, 07:32 PM: Message edited by: Bill Eborn ]

quote: Originally posted by jangar: [QB Anyone know what the nusic score is called on The Third Man. ????????? [/QB] dum de dum de dum de dum (Anton Caras) The Harry Lime Theme I think. I watched Empire of the Sun again again the other night, grown man of 40, Dad to an 11 year old, he's not a million away from Jim actually which was maybe why I was in floods at the end of it.

Its true, which is why its a good tip when you proof read documents to do it top to bottom first to make sure it makes sense and then do it backwards. That way you look at individual words rather than sentences, and you see what is actually there rather than what you think is there.

The Third Man - Orson Wells, Joseph Cotton, Trevor Howard, a Graham Greene screenplay and directed by Carol Read - they just don't make them that good anymore

Another really exciting way of catching Chub in a small river at this time of year is to try for them with a bit of floating crust. Sit very quietly and out of sight at the top of a run, drop bits of bread in and watch it float downstream. Usually the chublets start going for it first, but when the bread gets to the area usually a feature of some type where the bigger chub hang out, after a while they will start to pick up the confidence to take it. Sometimes it is a very subtle little take, sometimes they seem to almost attack it. Wait until you are as certain as you can be that you are going to get a bite and then hook up your crust. I use six pound mono straight through to a size four with nothing but vaseline on the line between the top ring and a distance about three feet from the hook. Cast out and don't dare to breath until you get a take. I don't think you get the biggest fish off the top and you can spend maybe three quarters of an hour building up a swim only to spook them and totally blow it, but it is heart stopping stuff.

Not with my Shimano Sahara 4000 GTE it isn't, apart from that it's great though, especially bearing in mind that the majority of my fishing is on small rivers where tackle takes quite a bit of punishment. If this is less of a problem on the more expensive models I might think about forking out the extra and getting one.

Would that be the Des Taylor that changed his name by deed poll from Peter Lonker?

Peter I guess the advantage about central taxation is as you say that everyone would be contributing to the maintenance of our waters, the other advantage would be that it would be based on an ability to pay. The present rod licence is a bit of a poll tax after all. With anglers paying a specific angling tax though, does this give us a level of influence which we would otherwise not have? The French system does interest me though. I spend a lot of time surfing through their web site (www.unpr.fr) and apart from all the incredible waters they have, the set up of the Union National pour la Peche, which is based on a an alliance of Angling Clubs at a Departmental level which form a national federation does seem a very good one. I think angling has a healthier public profile over there than it does here anyway, but a structure like that must have a lot more political power.

I'm no fan of the blue bananas and like (I assume) some of the previous respondents to this thread think it is a good thing that we contribute to the EA through our rod licence. But since there is widespread evasion and policing the system does have a cost, perhaps it is worth asking whether the current system is the most efficient that there could be. I often wonder if there is anything we could learn from the French system, i.e you pay your Taxe Pisicole when you buy your Carte de Peche. Would a system which shifted responsibility for collection to clubs / fishery owners with anglers paying a levy on top of a day / season ticket free up more resources for the EA and raise more money?

ditto - and maybe a big black juicy slug or two

Just in case anyone doesn't know there is a lovely programme on Radio 4 on the arts of the angle with readings from Isaac Walton and featuring John Bailey amongst others. It is on at 2.45 pm this afternoon (Sunday) and archived on the site below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/philos...opherdove.shtml

Thanks chaps Alan, I have replied to your email, I will give you a bell when I get there. Tony, thanks for that. I can't sympathise with your daughter's taste either. I'm lucky with Holden, he is becoming quite an accomplished blues harmonica player for an eleven year old, listens to Miles Davis as well as some better quality contemporary stuff and would never, ever give any houseroom to Blue.