Sharkbyte

Hang on, Bob! My reply to Paul was very tongue in cheek, his Labour vs. Tory threads are famously black and white and always great sport for both 'sides' of the 'debate', but I suspect your 'cut them free' jibe is nothing of the sort. PS. Paul, you haven't mentioned Maggie thieving the kiddies' milk yet. Either you must be losing your touch, or we're slowly drawing you away from your political comfort zone.

I say devolve Yorkshire, completely, give them back their favourite Labour spendthrifts, with a new civil service job created for every man, woman, and child, and a final salary pension from the age of 50.....no, make that 45. They'll be back to living in caves, and will be speaking in fluent German within twelve months.

Stop being so cynical, Steve! Next you'll be claiming that Ramsay's previously televised fishing exploits were also fuelled on BS and fabrication. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6900463.stm

Cheers, Glenn. I'll keep checking as and when I can. Ron posted on here about the link being currently unavailable (was for me too) at 6.54pm on the 26th. Unfortunately, the cached version is 7.28pm on the 26th. Is it possible that an earlier version, if there is one, may pop up at some point?

Some truly fantastic posts that you have made on there, Worms.

Merry Christmas to you too, Glenn. It'll be good if you can confirm, one way, or the other.

Is it just my imagination, or has part of the article been removed since it was first published? I could have sworn that there was a paragraph, something along the lines of 'putting it to the vote amongst the membership'. You're pretty clued up with all things webby, ST. Is there some sort of cache that people could check?

Correct, ST. However, look more closely at Arthur's wording surrounding the AT and a sea angling licence. Does it not strike you as rather odd that a man who holds such an privileged position (Ambassador) at the Angling Trust, should have trouble getting to the "real bottom" of an AT quote suggesting that it will campaign against a rod licence for sea anglers? I am assuming that, as a journalist, he does endeavour to fully research the subject matter dragged into his articles by making a few calls, sending some emails etc. Seems that he even considers the possibility that the quote was in-fact a misquote.

It would, wouldn't it!

Ron, the preverbial has just hit the fan in a big way! I'm told that Arthur has "unwittingly" pulled the AT's pants down around their ankles with regards to a sea angling licence!

You would have caught more if you'd have been using 'naturals' for bait.

I always wear my polaroids when looking at angling forums, Watatoad. Do you think that fish might be the same one that Bob caught 20 years ago?

Can anyone else see something in the water to the bottom right of Rusty's first picture?

I take it that you have your invite, Bob.

IMO, that shthole is to angling what Big Brother is to television. Loved the reference to a ‘centre for excellence’. Is this 'supremo' for real? PS. I wonder if he's trodden on a few toes up at the AT?

Luck in angling....hmmmm. Depends on who's calling it. Picking up on the mention of non targetted species, some would call hooking 20lb+ winter carp on livebaits as 'lucky'. I prefer to consider it as an ef'ing curse.

As Peter will tell you, the only practical way to keep fish is on ice, and in a box.

Declining marine fish stocks leading to Cormorants moving inland......thought that'd get a mention in amongst all the usual theories. Anyone on here, other than Worms, actually been sea fishing in the past five / ten years? That particular theory is about as credible as the sea having become too acidic thus stinging their eyes.

Another vote for the humble plastic bag, here. Just watch out for the fish looking all 'foamy' when it comes to taking a pic. Seems to happen occasionally when a fish thrashes whilst in the bag. Best to give it a quick breather / wash in the landing net between weighing and pics.

Being a 'swimming lake', couldn't someone just toss in a chlorine tablet to clear the water up?

It's a well known fact that a 1lb 15oz perch turns into a 4lb'er with it's very next meal. After that, it leaps from 4lb directly up to 5lb in weight, missing out all those nuisance ounce things in between. In all seriousness, I am struggling to think of a stillwater that we have fished for perch that hasn't yielded a 2lb fish, often on the first session of targetting them properly. I would say that the majority have soon gone on to produce 3lb+'ers. IMO genuine 4lb+ perch waters are still far fewer in number than people are led to believe.

The idea of an Anglian meet sounds good.

As Anderoo says, really good to see you posting, Steve. I swear that the leaves cling on to the trees around here until a perch thread appears, featuring AN's very own guru on the subject. Best dust off my garden rake now. BBQ perks, Budgie.....I reckon you'll find yourself on it the way you're going!

Great to the seasonal tradition of a perch thread appearing on the forum. Fairly briefly, we made a start on Monday, returning to a relatively young venue we have not fished properly for the past few seasons. Results were pretty solid, mainly down to the favourable 'perching' conditions, with twenty odd decent fish falling to our rods. Most of them were in the 2- 2 3/4lb bracket, with the best fish going to Russ with a very empty 3lb 8oz specimen. Other than the perch, we managed to hook a 20lb odd carp each, fair and square, on roach lives. Whilst driving out to see a client on Tuesday, we passed a lake that we had neither seen or fished before. On the return journey we popped in for a look (it'd be rude not to, eh) to be greeted by a very promising spectacle indeed. Whilst information was virtually non existent, it just felt 'right'. Russ drove home, grabbed some gear, and made the drive all the way back again for a few hours exploration late that afternoon. Seventeen proper fish to 2lb 11oz, bearing in mind the size of this water, and the fact that he had absolutely nothing to go on, speaks volumes about it's true potential! Other than his eventual catch, all the boxes were ticked in terms of what depths, predominant bait / food species, features, feeding activity we look for in terms of a 'giant perch' water. Fingers crossed - is the the one we've been looking for?

I think the Labour Party would be best off bundling Red Ed on a flight to Spain.....one way preferably. By rights, he should just love the socialism, striking, unions, civil unrest, collosal unemployment figures etc. etc.