Eatlard

This post has self destructed..please see my other one

Many thanks for that Steve. The Image Resource site looks very helpful, I'm just going through the Product Advisor now to see what it comes out with

Hi, Looking to get a reasonable digital SLR but having some fun and games choosing. I want a camera that has alot of options from full auto through to full manual and lots inbetween. Needs to have a decent Optical zoom but I will be looking at additional zoom / macro lenses for later on. Wanting to use this for nature / wildlife photos mainly. I'll keep my old Fuji Finepix for fishing photos. I don't want to go too mad pricewise but around £400-500 would be fine. Can anyone point me in the right direction please. Maybe you have something similar you can recommend? Many thanks in advance.

Thanks for all the replies. I decided to try out the Penn tubes as they are reasonably priced. Have ordered a couple of the longest ones from Tony's Tackle, Eastbourne and hopefully will be picking them up later this week / this weekend. I was quoted £19.99 each which isn't bad. I'll let you know what I think.

So far - I've not been out when it's really tipping down but even in a small shower its being absorbed by the top layer on impact. I can only assume in a long enough shower that it will soak right through?

Hi all, I can't seem to find anything on this generally but am wondering if anyone is aware of a way (other than washing) Titan gear that will re-waterproof it. Just been out in a small shower in my jacket and it's pretty much just soaking the water up - no run off at all. Thanks in advance.

Hi all, Thought I'd share a quick tale from my first year I visited Alderney a few years ago. I visited with 2 others - my brother Roger, and Paul. We all have a fair bit of experience but wanted a shot at something decent and chose Alderney Breakwater for its conger. We are used to catching from South East beaches so anything a few pounds or bigger is a decent fish! It was a beautiful September evening on a massive tide that was due to top out at about 10.30pm. After messing around a bit with small baits and floats with some success I decided to put a whole squid down the wall for a try at a bass. It was still very much light but the sun was just beginning to drop. After about 15 minutes I noticed a small nibble and picked up my rod. Feeling like a small pout nibbling at it I just held the rod for about 30 seconds before I felt a proper tug with the rod tip nodding down. It went again, I reeled down and struck and felt something bloody huge get angry at being hooked. I was on 4/0 Kamasans and realised quickly that this was a conger. I've had smaller ones from the shore before and realised I'd be lucky to get it in. I shouted for the others who were off float fishing, they came charging back to see my rod tip dipping violently before the inevitable slack came. Reeling in it had bitten through the line, no surprise at all. There was a mad scrabble to get the conger gear up and in 2 minutes flat we had 3 conger rods out. Calm....the 3 of us staring intently at our rod tips, ratchets all set. Nothing happened for about 10 minutes. Roger gets a small nod on his rod. He's gone with a squid down the wall (who wouldn't). Roger just happened to be the least experienced in this type of fishing and turned to me and asked "what should I do?". He had picked the rod up and I advised he wait until he feels the fish moving off, normally obvious when it happens, then reel down and lift into it and get it moving. The bottom was very snaggy. "Ok" he says, I see the rod tip pull and he reels and lifts. Then all hell breaks loose. This clearly is an enormous fish and he's "ahem" not really got the right reel for the job. In fact he had a 6500CT loaded with 30lb. The line is ok but the reel isn't really geared for this type of thing. To top it off he's tightened the drag right up while I wasn't looking and he's now got his knees bent almost to the concrete of the wall and the rod tip is almost in the water. Roger's vocab has now been reduced to one word. The F word...lots of times and loud. I honestly thought he was going to either get a bath or lose the rod, fast as i could I managed to get to the drag and free it up enough for him to stand up properly. The fish was still going mental but by luck more than design, after 2 big dives he managed to get it to the surface. Next problem...although I carry a gaff when congering I'd never used one. Would rather beach it on rocks if possible but this was not coming out without a gaff. Thankfully the tide was so close to the top of wall that I could literally lean down and lip gaff it. It took me and Paul to lift it out. Roger was stunned. We tried to weigh it. Our scales went to 44lb and cluncked down immediately. Hmm. Oh well. Photo time and get it back alive. I stress - it went back alive. I hate killing fish without need and would also see it go back than kill it just to weigh. Roger's face was priceless. A fish of a lifetime. He looked so proud and every time I think of that night it makes me smile. Incredible. Well...I'm never going to beat it but I'm going back this year to try. We have been back once already and didn't come close to this size although we caught a fair few good conger. Now we always take a huge drop net. Shall i tempt fate by buying scales man enough to weigh this? Picture attached I hope...

Hi all, Last couple of times I flew and took my beach rods we made a huge tube with an 8 foot length of earthing tube that could hold 7 rods and 2 rests. Despite us testing it by jumping up and down on it, the airline still managed to punch a hole in it and damage a rod. As the airlines (going to Alderney so Aurigny) didn't really like it, I started looking into transporting them in smaller tubes in pairs. Problem is Im having real trouble finding something suitable. I have 2 rods that have 7' tips (AWB and a Nemesis) Is there anyone out there that can recommend a supplier for me please? I have 6 weeks before travel so plenty of time to ship them in. Thanks in advance.

Quite correct - you cannot shore fish from the Maldives. For a start it wouldnt be very sporting - I was feeding the fish from bread held in my teeth - the water was boiling with fish. Most places there now you can't even feed the fish, which I can understand. The only fishing I could do in the Maldives was handlining from a "Dhoni" - their local craft. Still great fun but basic. I would agree with trying snorkelling - incredible experience, I swam with a Whale Shark, sat in huge shoals of incredibly coloured fish, and generally spent my time looking for species I hadn't seen before. I think the Red Sea is similar for species. Try It!

I was lucky enough to swim with one off the Maldives last year. Just a standard snorkel trip where typically I was looking at the reef edge rather than at where most of the fish were. It passed just a few metres away. Even knowing it's harmless it felt quite strange being in the water with something that size. We got back on board the boat, went past it along the reef and was lucky enough to get a second look. That scene from Jaws where the shark swims under the boat...it felt like that, I was back in the water and it swam right under me, the tip of the tail almost touched my stomach. An incredible moment.

First post for me - hi all. My targets - Back to Alderney shore fishing (been twice so far) - to try and catch a Black Bream and a decent sized Ray ..and to Alderney bass man - my brother had a 50lb plus conger a couple of years ago. Can you believe his first ever conger and our first conger on Alderney. Great place It went back alive so It's there somewhere. Unfortunately we couldn't weigh it properly as our scales only went to 44LB and it clonked down on that so fast......shame we will never know. We only managed to land it as it was a HUGE tide, we were on the Breakwater and could literally bottom lip it from the wall. Next time we went we took a huge net made of plastic plumbing pipes, was like dropping a paddling pool down but it did the trick for fish to 30 or so.