Anderoo

https://www.ft.com/content/5eb0944e-f67c-11e9-9ef3-eca8fc8f2d65

Thanks for responding John. My initial response is that if you're worried about trust, you wait and see how a totally unrestricted Tory party treats the UK. I can't think of a better reason to remain full active members of the EU. Deregulation and erosion of rights all round. Say what you like about the EU, but protection of its citizens is taken extremely seriously. You won't want to hear this, but they are on your side even if you aren't on theirs. I've said before that the remain campaign was terrible, all negative and none of the positives of membership. A second referendum would be very different, and is one of the reasons it's so hard to secure. It would be a positive campaign and it would win. The government's own 'get ready for brexit' adverts are already a decent anti-brexit campaign. As well as being a colossal and unforgivable waste of public money. If the current actual written down legal text was at the centre of the leave campaign, it would have lost. The only way to keep people invested in the idea of brexit is to let everyone have their own idea of what it is and to avoid written detail at all costs. As soon as it's written down, it gets pulled apart in seconds. A decent case in point now is Johnson saying his version of the withdrawal agreement is what 17.4 million people voted for, and Farage saying it's exactly what 17.4 million people didn't vote for. Who is right? That's why I'm asking for people here to write down actual real things that will be better once we've left. No-one can. It's all just vague concepts of things that may or may not happen in some unspecified future. The actual possible version of brexit - i.e. the published legal text, not vague assurances or ideas - needs to be compared to two things: 1. the promises made in the leave campaign, and 2. what we already have with EU membership. It is obvious that it would not stack up against either. 'Delivering on the result of the referendum' is delivering what was promised. If they can't do that (and they can't as all the promises were contradictory), we deserve a final say on whether what is actually possible is what the majority want. The reality is so far removed from what was promised, that the two things are unrecognisable. I will pre-empt the comments about 'and if you lose another referendum will you just keep asking until you get the result you want', with 'no'. A second confirmatory referendum would be on the negotiated legal text v remain. If the majority want to proceed and leave with the negotiated arrangements, fine, that's an informed vote and everyone knows exactly what we get either way. The first one was won with impossible promises. If remain won, well that's the will of the people, and we all know how important that is to leavers.

OK, so the first two things are negatives. We all now know the negatives. I was looking for tangible positives. We are already sovereign, so sorry but that's not a benefit. Any future trade deals with anyone involve trade-offs here, that's just how they work. We already participate directly in making laws and policy. We elect MPs and MEPs. The 'grey homogenization' of the EU is not a real thing. I think, with respect, that's just in your head. So, so far the one benefit we have is avoiding the knock-on effects of the collapse of German banks, which I have to admit I don't recall being one of the big selling points of the leave campaign and I haven't seen reported anywhere. I imagine if this did happen, not being in the Euro is probably beneficial. (Leaving has cost the country c.100bn so far, so I'd wager we could have remained, taken this hit, and still been in credit.) Any others welcome. To put ourselves and our country through this nightmare, surely there must be some. John mentioned not being in an EU army. I'd be more worried about an international army that we don't belong to rather than one we did belong to. In any case, as full member of the EU and a sovereign country, we could veto that if we chose to. Come on, this place is full of passionate leavers who knew exactly what they voted for and have that fantastic clear vision of Britain's best years ahead, let's see that list of all the benefits! Every time I come into here and read through the last few pages of posts, I always end up wondering what it is you're all so afraid of. Grey homogenization, EU armies, no control over our own country...if you still really feel this way even now, there really is no hope. This takeover by nationalists and populists has diminished and damaged the UK so much, and yet people still cheer them. Do you really think that Johnson, Gove, Farage and the rest are really on your side and are looking out for your best interests, or even have any opinion about you and your lives at all? If you really do, that list of benefits is going to be really long and detailed

All this sound and fury aside, just remind me again what the benefits are of leaving the EU. What, for you personally, will be better once we have left the EU? 'Because we voted to' is not a benefit. Real things. Tell me something I can look forward to, something that will be better than it is now.

Lure fishing and fly fishing helped me get over the confidence hump with fake baits. I always used to think that flies and lures needed action to trigger fish into taking them, but I've now lost count of the number of trout I've caught on tiny static buzzers fished under an indicator, or zander and perch caught on static soft plastics fished vertically. As people have said, fake baits are only good in some situations, but in those situations they're amazingly effective, more so than real baits.

I actually like fishing fake baits when fishing for low stock fish, just because you tend to leave baits out for long periods of time without recasting or checking the bait. With a fake bait, you can be confident that it's safe to leave it as long as necessary.

I was fishing a local gravel pit last year and the guy in a neighboring swim came over to talk at me, and show me his special hooks. He said he orders them specially and they cost £1 a hook because they're hand-sharpened and then packaged individually. Sharpest hooks in the world, he reckoned. Honestly, some people just deserve to get ripped off. I showed him my hook sharpener, which cost a few quid, but he wasn't interested. The hooks he had were also straight point rather than beaked, so they'd have got dulled on the gravel anyway, and he had no way of sharpening them once the point had gone. Probably spent more on hooks over a season than bait, tickets and petrol!

Yes I ended up using fake baits almost exclusively at Wingham, and other local gravel pits, when fishing for tench/carp/bream. The other thing I forgot to say is that because they are naturally buoyant, they are even more likely to be sucked up when a fish is hoovering the area. I used to use groundbait with lots of different, small items in it, so it was a nice fine, attractive layer on the bottom, The PVA bag was then a focal point and one suck would inhale the lot. What's on the hair is irrelevant, although I was never brave enough to fish a bare hook (although Budgie swore it would work and I do believe him!).

Ebay is a good source of cheap Chinese braid. I got a very cheap, massive spool of 10lb braid in the past for backup, and it was great. Seemed the same as standard powerpro to me. If you get any, get a bright colour (I like yellow) as it really helps you see the bites and see what the lure is doing. For fishing mepps or jig heads up to about 10-15g I wouldn't go heavier than 10lb personally. Trace can either be wire if there are pike or flouro if not. For knotting braid, all you need is a grinner/uni knot (two turns through the swivel) which is absolutely solid. See for example https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PE-Sea-Fishing-Line-100M-300M-500M-1000M-4-Strands-Dyneema-Extreme-Braid-Strong/392350516610?var=661353023607&hash=item5b59e9c582:g:ibcAAOSwowddPTwd

PS when buying jig heads, getting the right weight is important - too light and they may never reach the bottom or you just lose contact with them. Too heavy and they drop too fast to be effective. So it's a balancing act taking into account the depth and flow of the waters you intend to fish. PPS the zander fishing Tigger mentions above is exactly the same principle, just using heavier tackle in much deeper water, and fishing vertically from a boat.

Hi John, for those rods fishing those waters for those fish, I would probably stick to good old mepps spinners and spoons. For perch and trout and the odd pike, a mepps will be pretty much ideal. I have done quite a bit of ultra light lure fishing with soft plastics and would definitely recommend it, as it's great fun and very productive. You do need the right type of rod though, and even a 10g casting weight rod may be too heavy and/or the wrong action. I usually use 2-3.5g jig heads with little rubber lures, and for those you really need a dedicated fast action rod with a low casting weight (they usually have spliced in quiver-type tips and then are very stiff further down the blank). I would also seriously recommend light (8-10lb) braid otherwise you might not feel the delicate bites. You can but a few little jig heads and soft plastics and give them a go though - AGM Discount is excellent value and very good service: https://www.agmdiscountfishing.co.uk/ The rods are cheap by the way, I have Shakespeare and a Mitchell UL rods and neither were much more than about £20. (Which is good, because the tips are delicate and easy to break if you're not careful!) Most of the bites come as the lure is dropping, so you reel in 2-3 turns without moving the rod, and then let the lure flutter down on a tight line, and then reel again. With the braid and the sensitive rod tip you can see and feel the little pluck as a fish picks it up. I haven't tried it in fast water though, so I'm not sure how you'd do that. There are also floating lures, which you fish in a jig head in the same way, but these stand up off the bottom. Twitching these back along the bottom is very effective.

John, the remain campaign was absolutely dreadful, we can agree on that! All negative, nothing about the benefits of being a full Eu member. I would hope that since then people may have realised what a good position we currently have/used to have, but this has been so horrible and divisive that everyone has navigated even more to each extreme. Its really grim. This thread is a brilliant example of that, same old stuff from the same people for nearly a thousand pages. Me included. The population hasnt moved on one bit. The leave camp now demand the most extreme version of brexit possible because thats the only way to keep the dream alive, and the remain camp will never stop until we have rejoined. In the meantime the rest of the world looks on with pity and gets on with their lives. Its all just really sad.

Id go back to mono John, I like braid for some things but if youre cracking off its not worth it.

Just noticed that my hair rigged twig is in fact my profile pic!

Fake baits are really, really good in some circumstances. For example, if you want to avoid lots of little fish and target fish which feed by hoovering the bottom, or if you want to leave a bait out for a long time and know for sure it wont fall off or be nibbles off. Other times, a real bait may well be better. Ive caught a lot of tench, bream and carp on fake baits. Usually fished hair rigged with a pva bag over groundbait/loosefeed. The bait isnt important in these circumstances as the fish you want just hoover the whole area and your pva bag us a focal point. Theres a post by me on here somewhere where I caught a tench on a hair rigged twig.

Anyone who thinks that leaving under any circumstances on 31 October will be an end to this is living in a cartoon world. Whatever happens, we've barely started. No deal is not an end to this, it's the beginning. Also, no deal is not even delivering brexit, it is a failure to deliver brexit. It is failing to do anything. It is delivering quite literally nothing, while discarding what we already have. It's easy to get the country to 'pull together' - just write down how things will be better than they are now. There shouldn't be any 'price worth paying' or 'consequences' for something that's better. If you can't do that, don't expect sane people to suddenly convert to this crazy religion. If it's not going to be better, don't do it. And blame the conmen who promised you the earth and delivered precisely nothing. The greatest achievement of these liars is convincing you that this is what you wanted all along, while simultaneously shifting the blame for this shambles to the people who have been saying from day one that it was either impossible or undesirable. PS the millennium bug was not the same as brexit, although I doubt this or anything else will change any minds: https://www.itpro.co.uk/bugs/32143/the-facts-of-the-y2k-bug-and-why-it-was-nothing-like-brexit

That frustration and anger you feel as you realise that brexit is going to be nothing like you imagined - direct it at the people who promised you the impossible, not the people pointing out that it was always impossible.

The reasons I find fishing the Thames in summer so much more difficult in summer than in winter are that there's little flow, which makes working out where the fish will be more difficult, and all the little fish are ravenous and everywhere, which makes catching the ones you want that much harder. On top of that, there's boat traffic, dog walkers, swimmers, hikers, and all the rest of it. In answer to your question, I have to say that in general they could be anywhere. I've had perch, roach and chub tight to the bank, out in the middle, far bank. Tight to cover and snags and out in open water. On the bottom and mid-depth. Ditto bream, although generally on the bottom. Except in flood conditions, I don't think the Thames ever flows too hard for fish to tolerate. In general, I'd be looking to fish in the flow than out of it, even if it seems fast on the surface. Even in winter, when I fish for roach and chub it's almost always in the flow. Perch possibly less so, but with the flow so much slower on the bottom I wouldn't dismiss it. So, this is the problem I have too, not much to narrow it down unlike in winter! I wouldn't worry about legering, that will still definitely work. You can use a long hooklength if you want a slowly dropping bait. On the upper Thames I'd probably try to find steady, flowing water and start fishing out to the middle - get some feed out and just see what happens. If it's no good, move to somewhere a bit different (deeper/shallower, faster/slower, deep margin/outside of sharp bend, etc.). Just try things til something works and then remember it for next time. Time of day is important too - the middle of a hot summer day might be pretty poor regardless of everything else, dusk might well be better. The other main difference between winter and summer is that in winter, they often won't come to you, regardless of how you do the baiting. You need to be in the right place. In summer, I think it matters less as they're more mobile and more likely to move to a baited area. So if you're in generally a decent area you should be OK. E.g. if you fishing for roach and chub which are hanging around at mid depth, if you get some heavy groundbait on the bottom they will move down to eat it. Doing that will usually get past all the bleak and other small fish up in the surface layers.

Hi John. I think the above quote is the answer. Think of the feeder as just a delivery mechanism for a ball of groundbait. How hard would you squeeze a ball of groundbait if you were throwing it into the river? That's how hard to squeeze it into the feeder. You'll never know for sure what happens on the way down, unless you can find deep, clear water and watch it. If in doubt, I'd err on the side of caution, squeeze it hard, and then wait til it's on the bottom and strike it out. Do that a few times before actually fishing, and at least you'll know you have some bait down there.

Nice

^^ wot Tigger said. If it's anything like a Thames weirpool, an inline lead will just wedge itself in the rocks more often than not.

Probably true of many species Tigger. Sounds like there's something you're not telling us though

Enjoy your retirement Steve, you have certainly earned it. This has stirred many memories for me, starting with my first ever trip at the 2006 AN fish-in where I was instantly bewitched. I never expect to replicate that experience, Wingham is and will remain the most incredible place I have ever fished. As well as the wildness, the haunting atmosphere, the beguiling mystery, and the enormous, immaculate fish of many species, it was also a place where I met many friends with whom I shared countless amazing experiences. So, Steve, thank you. (I could honestly write endlessly about Wingham, I am having to stop myself from launching into a novel-sized post!) PS I've just found an old photo of Rich fishing one of the platform swims:

As BB says, you should be able to use a match/lighter to melt the glue and pull out the broken bit of rod tip. It doesn't always work though, I last tried this on a lure rod and no matter what I did I couldn't get it out. The old tip ring might fit once you've tidied up the broken carbon end, or it might be too small. If the latter, or if you can't rescue the original ring, new tip rings are cheap on ebay. A bit of araldite will glue it on.

Sorry, forgot that bit, I always used 2 trebles on a wire trace, hook size to match bait size but usually 10s or 8s. I'm sure you could use a larger single if you preferred. If so, you may want to wait for a more definite run before setting the hook to have the best change of the hook being in the mouth. With 2 trebles you could strike at smaller indications and have more chance connecting. But, that's only speculation really. Depending on where you're fishing and time of day/night, you could also try float fishing. The last time we were canal lure fishing for zander we say a guy doing this and he'd caught a couple in daylight. Just a thought, as it might be more up your alley than legering. I've never done it though, so can't offer anything based on experience!