Vagabond

Although I will not be attending, I have offered a COMPLETE set of Waterlog magazines Reserve £70 100 issues in good condition Note that I have not received Issue No 100 yet - due out next month and I want to read it first ! Heavy lot - Buyer collects - either from my home or a mutually agreed location.

Well, good fishing everyone. I will be trying to increase my species list down in Cornwall Bloch's Topknot and Cornish Sucker are on the hit list, but I expect lots of Common Shannies will get to the bait first.

I thought you moved there for grey mullet and chips

Ie "get on their bike" - as Norman Tebbit said his dad did. Norman took a lot of stick for stating the obvious

No, I mistyped All my fault, sorry, Now corrected Must be getting old !

I didn't say it did ! Angle shades overwinters as larva, If small it will need to grow before pupating ...and yes it has a long season and more than one brood per year, so the overwintering larva could be of various sizes - another site says you can sometimes find the adults in any month of the year.

Brian A larva is a "caterpillar" A pupa is a "chrysalis" Different moth species overwinter at different stages of their life cycles some as eggs, some as small larvae , some as fully grown larvae, some as pupae and some as adult moths. Angle shades does so as small larvae, hence in early spring they need food to grow larger, pupate and then emerge as moths. from May onwards. The one photographed here is a bit earlier than usual - possibly due to the mild winter - but they need food as well as warmth so a early moth which overwinters as a larva must have had access to early leaves whilst still a caterpillar.

It struck me that there is an inconsistency in the above post. A food supply is needed to get from winter pupa to adult by late April, and that presumably requires young leaves by February/March - yet none of the four plants listed meet that requirement. I therefore revisited the list of food plants and found Brassica, lettuce and spinach listed. Gardeners amongst you will know there are winter varieties of all three, That seems a likelier explanation than the caterpillar eating the remains of last year's bramble leaves ! Correction - that should be "larva"

Only just seen this thread Yep. Angle Shades Phlogophora meticulosa They are quite common, and overwinter as larva and will eat many common plants, including nettle, birch, oak and bramble. Usually flies from May to October, so if this is a recent photo it is unusually early (because of mild winter ?)

Two things 1 The Queen's birthday went by without comment by the BBC - I may have blinked and missed it, but time was when there would have been a playing of the National Anthem, guards marching, etc etc (that's leaving aside the issue of the banality of the anthem itself - as has been said before, it needs replacing with something more appropriate) Its bad enough to have saddled the royals with Nicholas Witchell ("odious little man" to quote the Prince of Wales) but we have a constitutional monarchy for a reason, and its time a few at the BBC recognised that. 2 Ever since the election was called we have been bombarded with Jeremy Corbyn, Jeremy Corbyn, and Jeremy Corbyn. The only respite was a "political correspondent" telling us what Jeremy Corbyn had just said Fortunately for the BBC, I am not in charge of their funding, else I might consider halving their grant and suggesting Corbyn and his cronies make up the deficit.

Mine too. Didn't buy it. Found it lying (in its bag) on a farm track leading to one of the first pay-lakes in the area. Put a note on the notice board by their "reception" office, but nobody ever claimed it. Have used it a time or two. Not impressed, neither with the rod nor the pay-lake.

I can count mine on one finger - and he lives in Western Australia ! As Norma's grandmother said, on reaching her 90s "The trouble with living so long is that all your (peer) friends are dead" I have been privileged to know and count as friends, some very good anglers indeed. All, bar one, now gone. One way to remember them is to keep going fishing.

True, and I would have preferred solitude as well but never mind, there was some light entertainment - one of the matchfishers fell off his chair.

First fishing trip since last October, so not too ambitious - about fifty yards from car park to a quiet woodland pond. Quiet ?? Well it was to start with, then no less than four separate cars turned up and four young chaps started what seemed to be a match fishing session. (by "young" I mean whipper-snappers in their middle sixties) Nothing much doing, I had a few perch, schoolboy size, and no runs on the rod baited for larger perch, The matchmen, lined up on the opposite bank, only had about three small fish between them. Despite the sunshine it was a chilly north wind blowing, but it was good to be out in the fresh air, see a few woodland spring flowers, and listen to some spring birdsong - yes they came near enough for even me to hear them. Nothing special, unless one has been waiting all winter, waiting for repairs to the old ticker, and hoping that no coronary episode comes along first, Like I said earlier - every trip a bonus from hereon.

Good points, at the moment, Labour is not only unfit for government, it cannot even function as a credible opposition. OTOH A landslide Conservative victory in June might mean that when May stands at the despatch box to confront the "enemy" she may find her main enemies are behind her.

There are plenty of ways of bunging feathered lures (euphemistically called "flies") a fair distance Fixed spool reel and bubble float used to be common on Scottish lochs Four ounce weight, beachcaster and a string of mackerel feathers can be scaled down to an couple ot swan shot, a light spinning rod and a #16 Pheasant Tail .....and many others But using traditional fly tackle is NOT difficult - if I can do it, surely any reasonably competent angler can learn to chuck a fly far enough to catch a fish.

One doesn't become elderly without learning a thing or two. The technique with a chocolate liqueur is to down it quickly, hide the glass, and change your seat. With luck your host may think you haven't had one and pour you another. ...and yes, if I were a chub I wouldn't last long

The last two days have produced zero mice We seem to have won on several fronts lately Mice no longer raiding our greenhouse Roe deer no longer eating our anemone shoots Pheasants no longer rooting up our tulips Jackdaws no longer trying to fill our chimneys with dead larch twigs Next-door cats no longer using our garden as a latrine Too good to be true ? Wonder what else is lurking out there Good job we haven't got a belfry.......

AHHH, if only it were that simple......... I fish a big gravel pit. It is managed so as to produce few, but good-sized fish. I usually target the perch that are there - - and have had a fair number of sesquipedalian perch over the years from this and all sorts of waters , but this particular venue is far from being easy fishing. One day I chose a swim, yes, with the wind in my face, elected to float fish a bunch of lobs, and serendipity, there was a strong undertow out away from my bank that allowed me to trot the tackle out across a submerged gravel bar, At the limit of each trot the undertow petered out, and at that point,. down went the float Plenty of perch that day, including some two-pounders. The next day, same swim, same wind, same tactics, same result..... and again the third day, the best fish just over 3 lb. "I've cracked it !" I thought to myself Haven't had a perch over 2 lb from that lake since ! Wind in face, even an undertow setting away from the bank, but just because I have found it doesn't mean the perch have.

In Cuba we had a group of "guides " who were really political minders It was shortly after Russia pulled out of buying their sugar crop and times were hard. We came across a boa constrictor (about eight ft long) they killed and ate all of it between four of them - probably hadn't had meat for weeks

Useless. Next door have three cats, they don't even frighten the birds away from our feeders. All these damn cats seem to do is eat stacks of expensive cat food and "cat treats" and then sneak into our garden and try to use Norma's seed beds as a litter tray. I have trained them to flee in terror whenever I even look out of the window.

Just coming up 1714th anniversary of St George's death (died April 23rd 303 AD) We need a better national hero - any wimp with a long lance can slay a dragon, but it takes real courage to ride one - ask Daenerys Targaryen. Its why little boys always wanted to be engine drivers..

Just come off the Giant Hogweed thread. A relative of that (Alexanders - found growing near the sea) was used to "cure" snakebite in the Middle Ages, Not a lot of use if you are bitten in Surrey and the nearest Alexanders is growing on Folkestone cliffs.

Lutra has the right idea - if you see a small plant that you even think might be a young Giant Hogweed, stamp upon it. If you are unhappy about identification, then a study of the Umbelliferae is a must, but be warned, it is not easy There are plenty of good foods in the family. Chervil, wild carrot, pignut, fennel, wild parsnip, samphire, alexanders,, sweet cicely, wild parsley etc Equally there are some really poisonous nasties Cowbane, Hemlock. Hemlock Water Dropwort, Fool's Parsley Giant Hogweed etc Neither list is meant to be exhaustive, and there are plenty in between ranging from bland but harmless to vaguely unpleasant. Messing with Umbells is a bit like messing with fungi - fine if you know exactly what you are doing, dangerous otherwise. Oh, and if anyone thinks they know the difference between Hogweed and Giant Hogweed,, bear in mind the two species hybridise and the hybrids show intermediate features. These hybrids are common and getting more widespread.

Absolutely. apply that to companies that fiddle the books, bankers who lend irresponsibly and wealthy wrong-doers everywhere. Could wipe out the National Debt within five years.