Vagabond
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Posts posted by Vagabond
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On 9/14/2021 at 5:04 AM, Martin56 said:
I've Emailed Dinsmores about their Split Shot - They are having a Laugh!!.
Martin BurnellTwo points Martin
A Buy Anchor shot -its softer and re-usable, and you do get a few (only a few) more shot for your buck
B If you see a bit of nylon in the mud at your swim, pull it out - often its part of a cast with shot and hook attached. Take the shot off for re-use - a thumb-nail opens them or a pen-knife blade if they are stubborn. Add the nylon and hook to your own rubbish for disposal at home. I find I acquire shot nearly as fast as I use it - but I agree shot prices are a rip-off
Enjoyed that - It's not often one can give a Yorkshireman advice on thrift
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Nothing - Took my used hearing aid batteries in to swap for new freebies, the woman in charge offered to undertake the fiddly job of renewing the plastics tube between ear mould and the aid itself. Rather foolishly, I agreed. Next thing I know she had busted the input duct to which the plastics tube connects.
Subsequent conversation established that her qualifications for this fiddly but exacting task were an IQ of less than 90 and a thick-skinned complacency
Not her fault, the problem would seem to lie with
A/ whoever appointed her (needs removing from a decision-making role)
B/ whoever was responsible for training her (needs dismissal as unfit for purpose) and
C/ whoever organises the equipment for this activity (same as for "B" above ) Her "tools" for dealing with hearing aids worth several thousand pounds sterling included a blunt craft knife (producing a jagged edge to the tube end projecting into the inner ear, and a plastic golf tee in lie of a tube dilator.
The lady did, however, seem well trained in the anti-Corvid rituals that preceded the main purpose of my visit.
This is one of the "helpers" on which we are told the NHS relies - in a few seconds she put a £3000 piece of equipment out of commission - the lab responsible for repair tells us the waiting list is "at least two weeks".
It is fortunate that I have no desire to listen to any of the "music" mentioned so far on this thread. For normal conversation I have, of course, a 'phone that "translates" speech to text but its programmer must have had an IQ matching the lady under discussion.
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On 8/23/2021 at 7:56 PM, Bobj said:
Fun being an eighty odd year old kid, innit? I still clamber up and down a 17 ft granite rock, carrying 2 rods and a back pack
Good on ya' Bob , keep at it while yer can. because at some point (mine came about five years ago at age 83)
you can still get down to the water- but can ya get back again ? Now my 4-wheel electric scooter dictates which swims I can fish.
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Yep, Lord Edward of the Flashing Blade - Ted Dexter aged 86
Love the story of how other Sussex batsmen were not doing very well so Ted, as captain ordered net practice for all on their day off. Whilst he went off to a horse race meeting ! The critics were all sharpening their pens for the next match, looking forward to making charges of elitism. but alas the other Sussex batsmen continued their poor form, whilst Ted carried his bat for another century.
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On 8/23/2021 at 8:34 PM, The Flying Tench said:
I've delayed responding to this till I've been out for a couple of outings, and I certainly see the point in what you are saying, Dave. Is there any reason you don't mention orange, the commonest colour for shop bought floats?
My problem today will be hard to solve, I suspect. I was trying to trot a Thames weir stream, and the reflections from the trees around my float were a mixture of dark green, light green, yellow, bright, dark - with lots of ripple in the water as well. The effect was like camouflage, I lost my float completely in it all. Any views, anyone? I gave up and moved to another swim.
Orange was included in my mutatis mutandi group- I thought I had given enough examples for people to work things out for themselves, However, if you want a specific case, I used to use orange floats when fishing down the light for bass (ie a bright clear day, fishing in blue / blue-green water with the sun behind me)
By contrast, fishing up the light, with the sun glinting off the sea, I would choose a black float - which brings us back to your Thames weir stream and Tigger's sound advice.
Light direction and background colour are important, not only in the angler/float relationship, but in the fish/angler/fly (or lure) relationships also.
Of course, if for a given situation you have not got the recommended float to hand, you choose the next best. As a desperate last resort, ANY float ! When I was a kid all my floats were twigs - should please the camouflage lobby.
If you want to pursue light direction in angling. Read Halford on the dry fly. Skues, Ollie Kite, Frank Sawyer on nymphs and "Sunshine and rhe Dry fly" by Dunne = there's your winter reading list sorted !
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Yeah - after about age 70 your wading really starts going downhill. Its akin to Jim Callaghan's advice "After age 7o, don't stand on one leg to put a sock on"
In Iceland the melting of glaciers each spring gives an extra push to the rivers, and the boulders soon become the size and shape of snooker balls. stand by the river and you will hear a low rumble as these snooker balls grind against each other. It demands very careful wading technique. Went to fish salmon in Iceland - I was by then (about 12 years ago at age 75) becoming a bit doddery, but not admitting it, and waded in regardless.
Jorg my guide probably saved my life by stretching his English and tact to the utmost, saying "Dave, you are a brave wader, but not a good one"
Its hard when things like rock-hopping and wading enter the past.
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On 8/20/2021 at 11:26 AM, Tigger said:
I can understand why people go to the trouble of making floats.
Yep, and the same applies to rods, flies, reels, right up to fishing huts, marlin boats and your own fishing lake. The two main ways you benefit are firstly that you can spend a little time work[ng on your hobby when circumstances prevent you actually going fishing - eg flood, spawning season (both the fish's and your own), Covid rules etc etc. Secondly the satisfaction of catching with something you made yourself is profound - I have caught trout and salmon on flies that I tied myself, from feathers from birds I had shot myself (said birds cooked and eaten by self and family)
One benefit is unlikely though - don't kid yourself you save time and money. I have spent more of both on fly tying than ever I spent buying flies in a tackle shop. As Tigger implies, each to his own.
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14 hours ago, S63 said:
Cheers Vagabond
a detailed reply which has given me some comfort and confidence going forward.
Good luck with the second eye.
OK, glad it helped - good wishes for both your eyes.
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Hi S63 Yes, I agree with your apology re thread hijacking -mainly because it makes things difficult to look up, so will add my own apology but "having started, will finish"
I had my right eye done in October 2018 but don't read too much into that as (a) the left cataract was developing only slowly (b) I had a lot of trouble with angina - numerous angioplasties at King's and I have lost count of the number of stents lnserted (or attempted to be inserted) (c) Covid hit in 2019
I would refuse monovision for myself - it seems an un-necessary complication to do the same job as a couple of spectacle pairs.
Compared with angioplasty the eye procedure is a cakewalk, Angioplasty carried out by an expert is a slightly longer cakewalk, Angioplasty carried out by an average or below average hospital doctor is a nightmare or in the second case a long bloody (in both senses of the word) painful nightmare, I have experienced all four.
The eye procedure is carried out under local anesthetic. You will feel nothing and see nothing except a bright light. It takes about 20-30 minutes, You will be told to lie still. Believe me, knowing what is going on your main desire is to LIE VERY STILL . I suffer from a slight tremor so I asked that my head be taped down to make sure it kept still. I also took a prophylactic dose of glyceryl trinitrate to control my angina (the word "angina" elicits panic in non-cardiac medics - I suspect they cannot distinguish between angina and a major cardiac arrest)
My left eye is scheduled for "treatment in October" said my ophthalmic surgeon. If I were taking bets my lowest odds would be on early 2022 !
Naturally, eye operations cause apprehension - in my case being deaf aggravated my fear of the op going wrong (imagine being deaf and blind) Now, with one eye fixed, I am far less fearful. It is sensible to be apprehensive - it shows you are intelligent - but really the chances of something going wrong are very small - courage mon ami
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On 8/16/2021 at 9:14 PM, chesters1 said:
,9 varieties of blight "resistant" toms all but one plant dead in 3 days and the one left is looking sick (obviously that one a little more resistant?)! too late to concoct bordeaux mixture (its banned as is anything else that ever worked garden wise).
All through this wet summer Norma has been cursing the rain and expecting blight. We are at present harvesting a bumper crop of blight-free plump delicious toms. What do we gardeners know ? Mild detergent has been the only anti-blight agent used.
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This will show my age !
The Quiet Underpants
The Thief of the Underpants
Tarzan and the Underpants Women
Duck underpants
Torah,Torah underpants
Angels underpants
All the brothers were underpants
The Blue Underpants
Thunderhead, son of Underpants
King Solomon;s underpants
No underpants for Miss Blandish
The Battle of the Underpants
Underpants alright Jack ?
Underpants new, Pussycat ?
Seven underpants for seven brothers
Snow White and the Seven Underpants
The underpants experiment
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This was a comment on S63s post but the quote function has gone lost in cyberspace. Me too!! I am halfway through and waiting for a date to treat the second eye. So. one done, one waiting you can look forward to a number of interesting phenomena that happen at this juncture.
Got home from the op. Went to the bathroom for a clean up. Removed eye patch - to find the bathroom furniture had become Persil white. Has Norma discovered a new Dazzle-Oh wonder cleaner ? No - my right eye was telling me the surfaces were shining white -close it, and the left eye was reporting the dull misty-yellowish colour I had got used to. Went out into the garden, alternately shuttiing and opening either eye. The weather had improved !! Instead of a dull greenish grey the sky was bright blue. Spent the next half-hour blinking my way around the garden , reveling in the half forgotten hues of the flowers.
Later, I discovered something even stranger - all my life I have been able to see fish in clear water that were invisible to people not wearing polarized spectacles. I could not understand why angling writer after angling writer advocated polaroids - I never needed them. "Plagiarists all" I muttered to myself. Well, my apologies - L found my "new" right eye could no longer see through the water surface, so it looks as if, when my left eye is de-cataracted, I will need polaroids after all. Similar things happen to reflections from a window pane but I won't bore y'all with that. So - do cataracts have a polarising effect ?? I will leave the ophthalmologists out there to ponder that one.
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I can't remember EVER buying a float - no not quite right - I did once buy a set of Avon trotters from a chap I knew to be trying to start a business (the floats were OK but his business fizzled out) . Otherwise I always made my own from bird quills, porcs, corks, balsa wood, Norfolk reed stems etc - soon I had several lifetimes worth of floats (and I have been fishing for over eighty years) Then I started finding floats in bushes, up trees, on the bank (once found a whole float-tube full) - even in the water attached to snags ! Always regarded it as a challenge to get someone else's lost float back. Now I'm such a doddery old bugger that I find it enough challenge not to fall in whilst netting a fish.
Lots of good advice in this thread already - I will just add the concept of CONTRAST. In a thick pea-soup-coloured lake - use a bright magenta float top. Summer trotting with bright green leaves of riverside bushes etc reflected in the water = use a scarlet top. Dark peaty water or under bridges - use bright yellow, ...and likewise mutatis mutandis. One more tip for late night sessions - use a BLACK tip - it will contrast against the reflection of the sky , Paint your own float tops Buy a paintbrush or two and a set of kiddies acrylic paints and your in business.
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On 7/31/2021 at 9:34 AM, Ken L said:
The first thing I did when I read it was to think that it can't be the same guy = and a quick search for - Steve Wozniak fishing - confirmed it.
As far as I am concerned there is only one Steve W that matters - nothing remarkable about several guys having the same name - didn't Dave Gorman find scores of Dave Gormans and write a book about it ?
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On 6/27/2021 at 7:35 PM, Simon8132 said:
Good advice! Got my rule book Friday no lure fishing in the summer and no braid hook lengths so that’s a few things to leave at home.
Best check re baits also, many stretches of the Wye ban worms and maggots if there is the slightest chance of a salmon taking them. Hair-rigged pellets seem accepted most places and give you a fair chance of barbel
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Not his age, not his cricket score, but the number of species caught.
Steve is the top man of we species hunters -his tally of 2000 makes the 502 that Norma and I have knocked up look puny. It would be easy to make excuses, like "it helps if your home base is California and you have the time and cash to travel," but these 2000 species still have to be caught - so one needs plenty of all-round angling skill and know-how.
So I for one will drink a toast tonight to Steve's achievement - I hope many of you will join me.
Species hunting gives you a new oerspective on angling - for instance my 95th UK species was a porbeagle shark, my 96th was a ten-spined stickleback (or perhaps t'was t'other way round) anyway, the total effort put into catching each was about equal - the macho bits of bullying a 3oo lb shark was matched by the persistence needed in locating ten-spined jacksin the maze of brackish dykes they live in and getting them to take a scrap of harbour rag (size 24 hook) before a myriab of tiny bass, perch, sand smelt, roach (yes they are all there!) beat them to it.
Well done Steve !!
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On 7/18/2021 at 11:59 PM, wotnobivvy said:
Used Maxima for over 50 years and had no problems. mainly straight through with no hooklength
Me too ! Not only that but some of the line I have on bulk spools was bought over thirty years ago. Provided your line is stored where it is cool, dry and dark there is no reason it should deteriorate. I cut off the last few inches of line at the end of each trip and replace the reel line once it is markedly too short (that takes years, not months) Before Maxima my "go to" freshwater line was Luron - anybody else remember that ?
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Here is a reel (and rod) that was very cheap, they are replicas of those I made in the 1940s.
There was a war on, no tackle in the shops, and at eight years old I couldn't afford them anyway. My parents didn't believe in fishing, nor pocket money.
My mates in the late nineteen nineties didn't believe it either - so I got a nine year old primary schoolboy to make the replicas under my supervision, and fish with it. Both he and I caught a lot of 4lb plus tench on them -my best was 5-6
The rod was rowan or mountain ash - the yggdrasil of Scandinavian folklore - It is the best British wood I know of for rods.
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Re lift bites. Those of you who fish close in (I mean REALLY close - within three inches of marginal reeds/bulrush/reedmace/flags etc) have a good chance of glimpsing the real cause of the "lift"
Tench feed on tiny snails and other invertebrates that feed on marginal vegetation. These invertebrates lie concealed in the mud when not feeding and crawl up the stems of the marginal plants to feed. (Think of the way slugs, snails, some caterpillars and beetle grubs do the same thing to your lettuces, cabbages. dahlias and petunias etc.)
The tench come along and pick the inverts off the stems (that's why careful observation will show flags, reeds etc "shaking" for reasons other than wind. If Mr Tench is still hungry, then he goes after the inverts lying concealed in the mud close to their food plant. Head down, the tench appears to "bounce" on its head. I've seen a group of tench keep this up for at least half an hour, without going horizontal
If, like me, most of your tench fishing is done on old estate lakes on clay (Wealden Clay in my case) then all you will see in the murky water is a tench tail that arises then disappears. If you get the opportunity to fish a clear water gravel pit then you will see the full monty. Tench, head down, each behaving like something on a slow-motion pogo stick.
Once you have seen it, you understand the full extent of the lift, and also why you get so many line-bites
Choose a long thin float, (I use a porcupine quill) get your shotting right (see other's advice above), keep quiet and still, use worm. meat or maggot, and you should be in business
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"Once more into the breach, dear freinds......cry....HARRY, ENGLAND and ST GEORGE"
King Henry V. Act III, Scene 1
From Henry V's speech before the capture of Harfleur - which preceded England's greatest away victory - the Battle of Azincourt. Perhaps the first time since then that the rallying cry is appropriate.
Dunno about this George fellow, though. Any fool or knave with a horse and lance can kill a dragon. It takes real courage and much skill to tame and ride a dragon. Cf "Game of Thrones"
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As has been said, everything was bigger in the good old days !
My good old days were in the 1940s - Britain at war and the countryside almost unchanged since mediaeval times.
I invented/discovered fishing for myself - as far as my family went I was First Angler
Homemade rod, reel, and real linen thread line, all tackle home-made (read "Angling Vagabond" for details) Two things I knew nothing about were split shot and maggots.
The absence of split shot was weird - if your float cocked - you had a bite ! Bait was worm or flour paste.
It was not until my aunt married an angling farmer that I learnt of these innovations - my floats cocked and became more manageable and maggots were THE bait. These maggots were "farmers' maggots", bred from deceased hens, turkeys, lambs, pigeons, rats, - you name it... Big maggots, but not fat - " lean, mean and far from clean" best describes them.
Ah - the good old days - almost the last thing the late Roger Standen (I recommend his book "Always Fishing") said to me was "Dave, I reckon we've had the best of it".
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On 5/25/2021 at 3:29 PM, Vagabond said:
re crucians. I don't think it matters much what set-up you use as long as it is sensitive , I use tiny peacock quills (Elton sent me a bunch years ago) attached by cycle valve rubber top and bottom, dust shot close to hook, weighted so about eighth of an inch float showing - that will show a lift or a "gozunda" bite equally well.
CORRECTION
Oh dear, must be getting old - although I use PEACOCK quills for many purposes, for crucians I use (and meant to write) PORCUPINE quills - sorry if I misled anyone.
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17 hours ago, BoldBear said:
Hi Anderoo, nice to see you back again
Keith
I second that. re crucians. I don't think it matters much what set-up you use as long as it is sensitive , I use tiny peacock quills (Elton sent me a bunch years ago) attached by cycle valve rubber top and bottom, dust shot close to hook, weighted so about eighth of an inch float showing - that will show a lift or a "gozunda" bite equally well.
I discovered early in life that crucians will hold the bait in their mouths without moving any part of the rig (so when you lift out to check the bait -surprise surprise, there's a crucian on!) So it pays to give a gentle strike every few minutes - where I used to fish you got a few extra crucians that way. Best bait for me were tiny red worms, but most baits will catch.. If you have any influence on fishery management - please discourage stocking of ANY form of goldfish - brown, wild, fantailed, longtailed, gold, silver or what have you, in your crucian water or the purity of your crucian stock will be compromised
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Read the caption and thought "Why doesn't he sit sideways on his bed-chair like other carp-fishers ?"
I'll get me coat...
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Groundbait for sea fish
in Coarse Fishing
Posted
Taking the second point first - why not use the real thing. Freshly caught and chopped raw fish, attracts almost everything from pout whiting to porbeagle shark.
Prior to a trip to the Dingle Peninsuilar, Pete phoned the day before for a final check. He mentioned he was bringing a mincer to clamp on the boat's gunwhale to process any spare fish . Thinking of domestic mincers, I wondered if it would be big enough. There was a derisive snort at the other end. " BIG enough ? That's a commercial mincer. That weighs twenty-eight pounds. That would mince a bloody crocodile ! "
So it would, but one tip if you try it, Put any mackerel that you mince into the mincer TAIL first - if you try head first, the gut contents get squeezed into the tail. Mackerel skin is elastic, and will expand accordingly. There is a physical property call "the elastic limit"....; When this limit is exceeded the tail bursts, showering the boat's crew with mackerel guts au naturelle.
As for mullet - mashed bread in water is good (take it in a bucket and groundbait with a soup ladle to avoid ending up looking like breaded haddock desttinied for the frying pan) Bread flake on the hook of course. Other methods, loose feed maggots and pretend you are roach fishing or use sea slaters (like king sized woodlice) on the hook and take a bucketful of freshly gathered rotting seaweed and chuck in a handful now and then - it will be full of slaters, sand hoppers (like king-size gammarid shrimp) and other creepy crawlies. Sand hoppers are easily gathered by baiting a seaweed-strewn beach with anything edible - which will be covered with the beasts within minutes. A rocky beach will produce slaters as well.
The same Pete and I fished Beachy Head rocks for bass one night. Mr Hollowlegs (Pete) had an inexhaustible supply of chicken drumsticks to ward off starvation. Soon he had to put a half-eaten drumstick down to wind in a bass. Job done, he picked up his drumstick and took a large bite. He then found he had a mouthful of frisky sand hoppers and subsequently wasted a flask of coffee by using it as a mouthwash.