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Vagabond

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Everything posted by Vagabond

  1. I wonder if Nicola Sturgeon is listening....
  2. Yep, mine also. So would the chap who bought my set of all 100 at the Wingham "fish-in" auction please get in touch and I will arrange to hand them over. Weeks of reading lie ahead !
  3. A priest giving presents to children - something that these days might spark a police investigation. .... and if there is anything in the folklore, the presents manufactured by slave labour Ho Ho Ho
  4. There seems little point on discussing the issue of the number of guns involved. None of the guns fired themselves - ergo, the discussion should concentrate on the nature of the gunman. After all,many Americans own lots of guns, but mercifully, very few run amok with them (yes, I know one is too many, but the vast majority of legitimate gun owners in this country are responsible citizens and I am sure that goes for any civilized society) So, back to this gunman. "Deranged" said Trump. Well yes, but in what way? US police say they don't know. Many deranged people reach that stage via a period spent as single issue fanatics. The "single issue" might be religion, politics,or even artistic opinion - google "Portland Vase" Could this guy have had a hatred of pop music?
  5. Very interesting - I had reached that conclusion by way of my own life experiences and until now have not been aware of the book you mention. But then, I don't go looking for such things because with immunity from g.d. comes disinterest - ie i have more interesting things to do than bother about god botherers. Perhaps the next stage, after diagnosing the disease is to come up with suggestions for prevention. Education alone is not enough - it just enables rellgiionists to add sophistry to their arguments.
  6. The god delusion exists in a benign form, and in various stages of malignancy, Most people regard the benign form as harmless or even praiseworthy. However, by analogy with benign and mailignant tumours, the benign can become malignant. Unfortunately the benign form is as contagious as the malignant - rather like typhoid being spread by carriers who appear to br symptom-less. Dawkins drew attention to the god delusion, but not to its aetiology - ie how the delusion becomes a disease The prison service is beginning to understand this, at least in an empirical way - they isolate extremists lest they "radicalise" other prisoners
  7. Alas, now unlikely, partly for reasons given in the previous post, but mainly because of mobility. I could probably still scramble down to fish, but not much hope of scrambling back up again. The ultimate in small stream fishing is when you catch from a stalking position where your heels are higher than your head, and you are reaching down to get the rod tip into a space large enough to make a cast. I miss it......
  8. Similar experience to Steve, with the addition of trout in E Sussex. My farmers said the same thing ! Alas the "salt-of-the-earth" Sussex farmer has largely disappeared, His place now taken by "farm managers" - box-ticking automatons obsessed with public liability, "elf-an-saffty" and the like. Nice catch, pics and report BB
  9. Wish we'd known that - we picked up Crimson, Long-tailed, Masked, Double-barred and Star finches - but saw no Gouldians - and we were there in a November
  10. Nice barra, Bobj We had plenty of Barras up to about 80cm in the Ord River next door to the Keep (Norma pulled a huge one out of a sunken brushwood pile, only to have it come off the hook at the boatside -"over a metre", said our guide) but never got to fish the Keep We did however hire a car and have a birding trip into Keep River National Park - and still have the video we took there of some dancing Brolga Cranes. I remember also the Little Woodswallows (my favourite Aussie bird) and the Plumed Whistling Ducks we saw there, and Norma getting very excited when we located a pair of Black-tailed Treecreepers.
  11. Yes - and without a healthy primary production an economy cannot survive by taking in each other's washing.
  12. Someone is alleged to have said something like that over 2000 years ago and provoked yet another offshoot of the god delusion.
  13. Hmmmm ..... Yes..... Being deaf myself I am not keen at becoming a potential target for "trigger-happy morons " (as an ex-policeman described an armed response team) although OTOH much time, trouble casualties and expense are saved when terrorists are shot dead during an attack. On balance I think a well-trained armed police force is acceptable, but perhaps "well-trained" for all eventualities is expecting too much. The case in point above was shot by taser and by firearm. and was not carrying a gun. That will take some explaining.
  14. Only just seen this thread. Glad you made it. I was facing something similar last winter, but the NHS got the stents in place in good time. Every exchange on AN has now become a bonus, and a fishing trip a huge bonus. May we both have many more such bonuses (not "boni" I'm British, not Roman)
  15. Like Brixham, There are several notices saying the penalty for fishing in the harbour is "up to £1000" Further along, there is a space next to the lifeboat station for lifeboatmen on shout to park their cars. The penalty for unauthorised parking in this spot, possibly delaying the lifeboat launch and increasing the risk to those needing help ? Just £50 Good to see the Brixham authorities have their priorities right
  16. True, but its a brave man who would stop my grand-daughter fishing - She fished the (Broadland) marina whilst the rest of the family were still loading the boat, and had a two-pound eel first cast.
  17. There are hybrids between the Himalayan Cotoneaster, Cotoneaster frigidus and C salicifolius (and also with other species iin genus Cotoneaster), Most are shrubs, one or two are trees. That with C.salicifolius gives the "weeping" form - as you might predict from the scientific name - salicifolius ="willow-leaved"
  18. OK, sent to your book address - the only one I have on my PC
  19. Steve, the larger fish had no stripes at all, the other one had (arguably) two very faint stripes - would you like copies of the pics ?
  20. The first is soon told. We set off for a Kent gravel pit, in the campervan, with loads of bait aboard, hopes of a decent perch or two, and looking forward to a couple of days appreciating the wildlife and ambience associated with that venue. Approaching Canterbury the clutch pedal failed to respond – pressed down, it stayed down. Obviously a failure of the clutch’s hydraulic system. Called out the breakdown service who sent an “engineer” in a van. (just an aside - there are plenty of half-baked grease monkeys in the motor trade masquerading as “engineers”) Anyway, this “engineer” proceeded to spray everything he thought relevant with WD40 – to no avail. We were not amused to be told it was a common problem which even affected his own Golf - which hardly helped our confidence in his ability So back home on a recovery truck. Large bill to put it right – it was the slave cylinder, positioned in a most difficult place that was leaking. (and the leak was difficult to detect under a coating of WD40) Anyway last week, van repaired, bait and hopes replenished, off on the second trip. Contrary to the weather forecast, we were met with a NW gale blowing at the southern shore I wanted to fish. I usually float fish worm here, but the wind made that impracticable unless I hiked half a mile round to the other side (my arthritic knee said “No!”) Anyway, isn’t facing the wind supposed to be a Good Thing ? So , I elected to fish across a large hole, 13 ft deep in the middle, and fish the far shelf where it was about 6 ft deep. It needed a cast of about fifty yards. I decided the bait should not lie on the bottom A sliding float with a running paternoster was my choice, so that the bait was suspended about a foot above the bottom (which was covered with weed as my weight bore witness on each retrieve) There followed some thought on the geometry of the rig. A fifty yard cast. The rod tip two foot above the surface, the lead eight feet below, the bait a foot higher. A sliding Polaris float to steepen the angle of line from surfaceto lead. By how much ? Hmm, that needed some guesswork, but I tried the lead on a five-foot running link, with a short hook length of about 9 inches. #6 hook loaded with as many dendroboenas as I could cram on, and out it went. Out went a second identical rig, Gave each about fifteen minutes and leapfrogged the two baits along the opposite side of the deep hole. About the third cast, got a bite – a “teenage” perch of a pound or so. Then it was a-bite-a-chuck for half an hour (4.30 to 5 pm) which produced another “teenage” perch, two tiddlers and one of 2-8. This was a remarkable colour - all yellow, no stripes. In fact when it rolled at the surface, and I got a glimpse in the waves that half concealed it, I thought “small tench ?? - it isn’t fighting like a tench” but of course it was this perch. No further bites until I packed up for the night, no matter how much I searched. Next morning, started with the same tactics – nothing until 9.30 am, then half a dozen “teenagers” and another “yellow” perch – not the same one, but smaller at 2-1.all within about 40 minutes Apart from a jack that attacked the worms on the retrieve and bit me off - that was it for the day. The third day I had a few hours before leaving at lunchtime – the wind had veered to North and only two tiddlers wanted my worms. Thus all the sizeable fish were concentrated into 30 minutes on the first evening and forty minutes the next morning – just a confirmation of the roving and shoaling nature of gravel-pit perch. What was intriguing was the catching of two yellow perch. All the others were normal stripey perch, from the same swim in the same time intervals. The first “yellow”was the first such coloration I had heard of, let alone caught - perhaps it was not too remarkable to catch another the next day, obviously the same cohort, probably from the same spawning. Any other catchers of stripeless yellow perch out there ? Took pictures, and will try to add them as soon as possible
  21. Still stacks of house martins hawking flies over a Kent gravel pit we fished on Friday. Norma turned up 42 species on a recce round the lake, including blackcap and chiff-chaff, so many migrants haven't gone from the SE yet (some chiff-chaffs don't leave at all) The blackberries were early though - freezer full of frozen fruits, shelves full of jars of bramble jelly a good fortnight ago. Crab apples and chestnuts next !
  22. One of Fred J Taylor's little whimsies was if one of his mates caught a good fish. An example..... "Oh ah, nice roach, Dick, nice roach - it just goes to show there must be fools amongst fish as well as amongst anglers"
  23. When using my old greenheart rods, and even with these new-fangled split-bamboo - both are jointed via brass ferrules - I always rub the male ferrule across those hairs of my scalp that I still have left. The natural grease (from the sebaceous glands in the scalp if you want to be technical ) puts sufficient lubrication on the ferrules so that they come apart easily when one packs up. Done it all my angling life and never had a stuck ferrule. Survived the "Brylcreem" era without ever using it - from observation I thought it attracted the wrong sort of bird.
  24. These days I only fish for pike with lures (I remove some trebles, and de-barb others as most lures are over-armoured) Were I to baitfish for pike in the presence of catfish I think I would opt for a single J hook. and strike early Ease of unhooking is in the interests of both pike and angler.
  25. One of the reasons I could afford to fish in all sorts of exotic places was that I never spent money I didn't have to, and made sure I got my money's worth from what I did spend. Wrap the reel in a clean piece pf tea-towel - it will protect it from grit and scratches just as well as a fancy reel case. Rinse in fresh water and dry the reel if it gets near salt water, always dry it off after a wet day's fishing. Use sewing machine oil or similar quality - before the reel starts squeaking !
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