JBee123

Where are you fishing???

Is that an offence? better put the local bobbies onto the fishmonger then. He sells the things in broad daylight. mate you really are lucky not to find yourself on an assault charge I can tell you that for nothing, what if one of them had drowned?

Arent we missing the point of the original arguement. Immigrants? Some are good news, some are bad. There is no doubt that certain areas of crime in certain places are linked to certain "members" of certain immigrant communitites. Customs need to be changed. We have to educate these people. If they continue to re-offend then let justice take its course. I am sure once they start to see this happen they will be educated. Theft is theft at the end of the day. If they take fish where they are allowed to as disheartening as it may be its not an offence and we have no right to deport them. If they take from private waters where taking fish is not allowed then, throw the book at them and deport them. By being here, they by and large contribute( be it through taxes or through services rendered, no smutty comments please). If they want to stay here then thats fine learn to stick by and play by our rules. If they continue not to do so then take the action necessary. But what we musnt do is to tar them all with the same brush. There are bad ones, there are good ones. They are not all theifs and pimps, by the same token they are not all hard working and honest. Same in any society, I know of some very english people who are as rotten to the core as they come. Where do we deport them to? Dont welcome them all with open arms, dont send them all packing. A little moderation and acceptance on both sides is what is called for. Make noise to the people that matter, MP's. If enough of us make enough noise to enough MP's then surely one of them will take up this worthy cause on behalf of the biggest participation sport in the country. There's a lot of money and a lot of votes tied up in Angling.

Its not illegal hunt with all animals. only Dogs, just so fox hunting and hare coarsing are outlawed. Setting a cat free in a shop is hardly hunting. otherwise you could certainly be done if your moggy is let out of your sight and accidentally kills a bird, rabbit or a mouse. I would go with the cat option myself. Ferret may have a tendancy to gnaw at stuff.

Does this exist. And if so where can I lay my hands on some? Cheers JB

Are you mobile? There were some cracking waters around Hertford for pike fishing. Recent years they have taken a bit of a battering from whatever source, poaching being amoung these. The lea has some good stretches as does the stort at Hoddesdon prior to fields weir, sadly the weir has been poached to death and no longer holds the sort of fish and the numbers that it used to! Get your walking boots on and try the lea, its certainly not the most peaceful of rivers and you will be plauged by crays but you should get some results if you pesevere!

Sorry last time I looked this was not a police state. Nobody can force anyone to make a statement. If they did I think you will find that that statement would be inadmisable in a court of law military or not as it would have been taken under duress. Having said that, I would still report it to the police having spoken to the pair of them. That way you have given the option of coming clean. I have a mate who thinks its funny to nick other peoples stuff and then pretend he knows nothing about it, winding people up a treat. I dont particularly find it funny and we have nearly come to blows over it. Are you sure that one of the other two couldnt have the same sense of humour. If not I do agree that maybe the conning aspect and say that you have informed the police and that they are investigating the matter. Hope that your rods and stuff are returned!!!

Nah tried it on a few different lakes one of which in particular I know to have a gravel bottom. Thanks for the help anyway guys I shall put these into practice next time I am allowed out to play!

I have bought a Nash marker rod and am having trouble using it. Basically speaking I cant seem to find features with it. Depth marking is easy and I am happy with this, but apparently I should be able to see what the bottom is like through feel and action of the tip as I wind in? I am using braid and a feature finding weight. Can anyone give me any tips as to what I am doing wrong, or is this just what I should expect from a Marker?

Quick mate check your maths and do an edit I think that the majority of Pike anglers wouldnt use anywhere near that amount of baits. not a chance. Not the johnny come once in a while bugger me its far too cold outside to go fishing types, who everyone else would have us believe are the scourge of modern pike fishing.

You jump to conclusions far too quickly my friend. If you look at the vast majority of stats produced by either side there is usually a rather unhealthy slant on things. Take for example the initial worries about sea level rises if the Greens had been right and the initial Headline figures had been exacted out as originally stated then we wouldnt have the norfolk broads by now, London would be under water. All I was saying is that these people have an agenda. for whatever reason, and we are forced to behave in a certain way because of what someone says. fact is that scare tactics have been employed for millenia to keep the masses on track. No different now. Terrorism, in the global scheme of things very very rare. Thats not to say dont be vigilant but dont change your ways because of it. Global warming and climate change. No conclusive proof despite over 200 years of industriualisation and deforestation. Disease, I quote, Sars, CJD, Bird flu. all within the last 5 years. how many have come to fruition. Not one. Here is an interesting stat for you. in 1970 there was a ratio of good news to bad news stories in the national press of 3:1. The figure is now 1:18. Its the way these things are reported for soundbite tele and radio which make things seem and feel worse.

David, Chill out, I wasnt even replying to you. its just that to me the canal system is for everybody, and Anglers have enough bad press at the moment without generating more for ourselves.

In the 70's we were all going to die in a new ice age, in the 80's and 90's it was skin cancer from the now healing OZone depletion. What produces more Greenhouse gases? a)The world population of Cattle b)The use of Cars and electricity industry. Its the cows!!!! These people have an agenda and will use any method, scare tactic, carefully worded report to produce stuff to keep them in a job. Lets face it if there was nothing for the Greens to report on, they would have no agenda. Its important that we look after the planet, not just for our generation ,but its also important not to overreact. Load of Bull if you ask me!

Sorry guys, but its not your god given right to fish the canal. Everyone else has a right to use it for their own legal recreational purposes. People have the right to walk dogs, boats and barges to use the canal(After all thats what it was put there for in the first place) ,canoeists to canoe and cyclists to use the toepath. If you dont like it, dont fish em! Simple as. I have lost count of the amount of dirty looks and snyde remarks I have had just for having the gaul to jog past a miserable angler without slowing to a walking pace. We dont own these places we have to share them, it is quite simple really. These sorts of comments and actions just get peoples backs up and make us look like a right bunch of miserable old farts.

Once they have been munched up by those pharyngeal teeth I dont think it matters how hard they are. If they can cope with nuts and snails in the wild then they can certainly cope with Boilies.

Alright lets put it differently has anybody tried using cuts in boilies. did it make any difference? Would anybody be up for experimenting with Boilies this weekend putting a round one on one rod and a square on the other?

Seems a stupid question but I am reading a book on koi at the moment and it says that their eyes are more adept at picking up angular shapes than round ones. Being as they are effectively Coloured Carp then. Question begs then why are boilies spherical?

Bit early for an april fool isnt it?

Read it again. Did I say all weekend. Difference between All and at the? Probably the difference between Criminal offence and non-criminal offence. Believe me I had better things to do at the weekend than worry about what some nomark busy body is doing reporting non-events to the police.

Had a think about this over the weekend. Would you report every person who came past you speeding in a car? The answer I would suspect is probably no. Thats the simple fact of the matter. Calling the police wasted police time they have too much to deal with as it is. There are more important things in life than fishing and things related to fishing. Let the police deal with real issues. Not waste time with trivial things like unattended fishing rods. All those who back Ferret, put down your copies of the daily mail and try and find something more interesting to bother you. obviously far too much time on your hands.

So whats the fishing issue with that? Angling forum isnt it? Not a moaning, Miserable, string em all up if they so much as look at you in that tone of voice forum is it? Not worth arguing about as the majority on here only see things their way. The police are lazy are they. do their job for 1 day, get spat at, get peed on, get moaned at from all quarters for just trying to do your job to the best of your ability while all around you seek to undermine you. As for the man who has filtered me, all I can say is its a shame you wont see me call you a moaning,miserable, narrow minded old fart with nothing better to do with his time than find fault with what others do. My brother used to complain to me that anglers were a miserable bunch of tossers who never spoke to or smiled at anyone while he walked along the local toepath. Starting to see his point really. We need to potray a bit more of a friendly face here. Rise above it. they were in the wrong. But by phoning the police you were informing the wrong people and wasting valuable time. However genuine your complaint what did you hope to achieve other than giving your telephone company the price of a phone call(I presume of course that you didnt ring 999). did you ever think that the police would do anything other than laugh? Right last I will say on the subject I promise.

The police wont be able to reply they will be filling out the file on the two 13 year olds who they caught leaving thier fishing rods unattended. Entirely different matter. One is a criminal offence. One is an offence. Had ferret actually started swearing he would have of course been guilty of an offence. Come on all is called for here is a little bit of common sense, which seems to go out of the window where some people are concerned. Common sense dictates that you only stir up trouble by mentioning things that dont need mentioning. hardly robbing old ladies. Common sense also dictates that dispite all appearances not all people who leave rods unattended will go on to steal someones gear. Grow up and get a life.

Its exactly the same all over the country. not enough police to go around. I point out again. Who is the one causing the trouble here, the one taking the law into his own hands and shouting across to those that have left the rods, or those that left the rods in the first place. not saying that he should ignore it, and its a sad state of affairs, but had he just walked passed and ignored the fact then no trouble could have started. Informing the police and then reporting the officer again, Ferrets fault. Should have informed the EA who will be more inclined to deal with the problem. Would you report a traffic offence if you saw one? No why because its the job of the traffice warden. Just as this was more likely to be the job of the local Baliff or the EA not the overstretched police. Sorry, I dont care what way you dress this up. This is a non issue reported by an old busy body with nothing better to do than waste valuable police time!

Right lets get one thing straight. Leaving a rod unattended is not a criminal offence. Under the law its an offence but not a criminal one, its in the same category as speeding and parking violations. It will not get the offender a criminal record hence it is not a crime. Not demeaning this in any way but our police are hard pressed enough as is. Think about the quoted figures for the amount of Metropolitan police, currently 30000 full time officers. Sounds a lot doesnt it. Then think about this, 4 shifts of 8 hours(1 on break). So at any one time there are aproximately 7000 police officers on duty. Take off another 10% for sickness and holidays and you are left with 6500 police officers on duty at any one time. 6500 officers covering a quoted population of 7,465,100 people. Works out at approx 1 officer per 1150 persons. With crime figures as they currently are, and the insistance of the government to push community police officers with no powers of arrest is it any wonder that offences such as the above are laughed at. If every offence that is reported is dealt with and recorded and an offence takes roughly 3 hours at a time to record because of the reams of red tape that these people have to go through is it any wonder that you were laughed at for reporting an unattended fishing rod? I hope your house isnt burgaled and that when you report the "crime" that the police have enough people to deal with the job and that they are not all down walking the local toepath looking for Burping, noisey yobs. They are at the end of the day Human beings, they are doing a very difficult job. Rightly so you were laughed at for reporting an offence such as this. Wasting police time is a criminal offence. In this case I think you are the criminal.

Just a quick one Jamie. not having a go, but next time you take a photo of a fish, do it so you are kneeling down or holding the fish low over a mat. That way if worst comes to worst and you do happen to drop it it wont kill it. Drop it from a standing position and you will more than likely kill it.