Anderoo

I'd bring the pike down to 20lb personally. I'd accept 25lb as a compromise! And I reckon that a 2lb roach is still a specimen.

Pike's thread got me thinking. If the rivers were unfishable for whatever reason and the only lakes available to fish were commercial pools, what would you do? Go and enjoy it, as you do now? Go anyway and put up with it? Give up fishing? I'm talking about purpose-dug lakes overstocked with a variety of fish available on a day ticket. Think about the reality of it before responding.

No doubt. For angling to be a natural pastime it has to be experienced in natural surroundings and conditions. Commercial style fisheries are a world apart from natural/naturalised lakes or rivers. It's not uncommon to hear people (usually youngsters, but not always) say 'my pb is only 20lb, but I've only been fishing 6 months'. It makes you want to weep! I firmly believe that angling can shape people's personalities for the better. It can teach respect, patience, exploration, love of fresh air and the outdoors, a primal buzz of interacting with the natural world. But only in the right circumstances. What it shouldn't teach people is that dragging in the biggest number of misshapen overstocked fish is an achievement, because it isn't. Removing the close season affected the collective angling mentality in my opinion. The respectful view that nature needs a break is gone; no-one wanders the banks simply observing during those months, learning about fish behaviour and getting in tune with their lakes and rivers; it's now just an extra 3 months to add to the tally of 20s and 30s. I reckon the close season makes people better anglers because it makes them not fish; but the true angler wants to be near water, and will learn things by being near water and not fishing that they would never learn by fishing. So yes, in terms of catching fish today's anglers have it easy. In terms of understanding what angling is actually about, it's more difficult, sometimes impossible. A comparison can be made with Karate - if you think Karate is about being able to beat people up you don't understand it at all. (You can call me a tree-hugger now if you want to )

Thanks for the update Steve, and hats off to the Times. It's not Wingham is it?

Is this confirmed yet? Have I missed pictures in the comics?

It still does for me. Spring is trout fishing time, then 16th June still remains a magical day. I couldn't bear to lose that feeling once a year, and I feel sorry for those who've never experienced it. (I'm not that old by the way...! )

I've had a frustrating season interspersed with some memorable days. I moved house twice and jobs once during the season, so that didn't leave a lot of time for fishing. When I did manage to get out it made it all the sweeter. My best day was 16th June, tench fishing, when it all went right; I caught lots of tench and beat my pb twice (a 7lber then an 8lb 4ozer ) and also managed to fluke a carp (from a very large water where any carp is special). I had some great days stalking small river chub and some lovely evenings carping in the margins of estate lakes. Piking has been terrible for me this year. I have the last weekend of the season planned out, fishing with an old friend, so hopefully there's time for one last surprise. Soon time to dust off the fly rods and spend the Spring trout fishing, which I'm really looking forward to. Then back to those tench on 16th June!

No, I haven't. The only instances when I think I could have benefitted from a coach is when I was learning to cast a fly and when I first went piking (how to unhook). Everything I've learned about fishing has been from books, magazines and trial and error.

'Providing more chances for more people to fish with double the amount of active anglers from black, minority and ethnic background.' Too right Let's hope people cease to be put off fishing because of smallminded opinions.

There's certainly been a lot of worry/paranoia about since the fox hunting ban, but I think it's fair to say fishing is so different there's no present danger, especially with articles like this to back us up. The general public's (pretty accurate!) view of us is of rather bedraggled, quiet, harmless eccentric types who like to sit by a river in bad weather not really achieving much but doing no harm. As long as we keep it that way, I don't think we have a problem Although some will accuse me if being blase and shortsighted. PS nice to see the social benefits highlighted.

You could try sweetcorn. I used this a lot last year with hemp (barely used boilies this season) and had some nice fish. No-one uses it any more, but no-one's told the carp to stop liking it. About 50p a tin.

Newt, that's amazing! A great example of a 'compact, very clean knot'.

We're not just anglers though are we, we're also human beings and members of society. Seeing this as an 'us or them' situation isn't going to help. There have been a couple of polls recently that I'm aware of asking the public their views on the acceptability of fishing (one in the Independant and another on a TV programme, I forget the name), and they've both been overwhelmingly in favour. I don't think fishing is in any danger of being banned and I don't think there's a serious problem of fish being removed from waters. I do accept that there are some people who don't agree with fishing, and that there are perhaps some problems of fish removal very locally on some specific waters. On the latter point, these should be dealt with on a case by case basis, not by getting all worked up about unworkable national standards. I suggest we do what the general public think we do, relax and go fishing, and not become embroiled in these false crusades, which may well come back to haunt us.

That's the great thing about Perch, it could literally be anywhere. I'll guess a carp water where they're largely ingored and get fat on silver fish, but I'm really hoping it's from a river (the Thames near where I live please!)

OK, leaving aside the race issue, say the law is changed due to popular demand as you suggest - who will enforce it? It's a non-starter. I belong to 3 clubs (one in Norfolk, one in Surrey/Hampshire, and one in Oxfordshire) and this season I've had one club book checked about half a dozen times, the other two checked zero times and my rod licence checked zero times. If immigrants are not stealing fish, and pikers are using insignificant numbers of fish as bait, and a tiny minority are taking the odd fish home to eat, the issue isn't what have we got to fear, but is there an issue in the first place?

Now the evenings are getting a bit lighter I'm going to sneak in an hour after work a couple of nights in the week - so it's back to these lovely neglected swims with some deadbaits and try to catch something before 14 March. I can't bear 3 months of looking back in frustration!

Well done Dave, that's a fantastic brace! You must be buzzing

That's a wondeful fish to bring the season to a close. Let's hope it wasn't fluked on a boilie! It must have looked massive - my biggest is 3 1/4lb and that looked huge, but this is in a different class

Yep, Carpbutt is on the ball. The real secret of fishing isn't rigs, it's watercraft and (especially, in my opinion) feeding.

Nice fish, congrats! You win the challenge, I went out on the Thames yesterday with a foolproof plan - catch a few livies on maggot and paternoster them in some gorgeous looking swims I've found. The only problem was that I didn't get a single bite on maggot, so went home defeated again! This weekend sums my winter up - it's been a grueller

Sorry, yes, petition not poll. But I would suggest that this means it's an opinion poll created by people who are easily influenced and posted to people who don't really care. As someone said previously, over a million people marched against the Iraq war. This issue is virtually insignificant and is being blown up by the AT in order to increase sales. Anglers are on the bank almost constantly. If this rubbish wasn't being pushed down our throats would we have noticed anything serious out there in the real world? If it was a real problem we would have.

I wonder what's in the AT this week, can't wait to find out! Now I can't even avoid it without buying the damn thing Please bear in mind that anything that feels like a crusade in a newspaper (including a fishing newspaper) is primarily designed to provoke an emotion in order to to sell said newspaper. Don't be fooled into thinking your vote will make a difference This is a poll of people's opinions, nothing more. And people's opinions are being heavily influenced by the propoganda surrounding the poll. Sorry folks, that's the reality of it.

Well, I went to an old favourite banker lake in my favourite banker swim, and blanked! In similar conditions this time last year I had a dozen pike to just shy of 20lb. I had one dropped run all day. I tried a few other swims too, but they didn't want to know. It was incredibly windy and this is a big lake, and the waves and undertow were terrific. It felt like piking in the sea! Not to be defeated though, I'm off to the Thames shortly to see if I can tempt a nice fat river pike. Russell's winning so far by, oooh, about 12.5lb

Hi folks An hour until I have to go home, so swift replies appreciated I'm considering a last minute change of plan for tomorrow and having a day piking on the Thames (instead of an old favourite lake). So, what I need to know is: - are deadbaits any good? Any particular ones? What about lives? (I won't be lure fishing) - swims: anything special I should know? E.g. are steady currents good, deep water, ANY TIPS PLEASE! - conditions look OK - the river's at a normal level and it should be sunny/cloudy tomorrow. Pressure quite high and NE wind (OK, not so good...!) On the stretch I'll be fishing there's a wier that I can fish downstream of, bends, snags near shallow water, deep steady sections, slacks - god, pretty much everything! I've been piking for a long time but this water is completely new to me. I have some strong suspicions about decent areas but it's the bait thing that I really need a help with. Thanks

I second this idea. Let's see what the reality is. PS Judge Judy