yorkio

Did you really join an angling forum just to get advice about your computer?

The population of Africa is growing. Or at least according to the UN, it is - see http://esa.un.org/unpp.

Not terribly different to the sort of thing that goes on in most people's kitchens most nights of the week though.

A big hike? The coarse licence has gone up by one whole pound and the migratory fish one by two pounds. And concessions are going to have to find an extra 50p!

I wish. Rivers, perhaps, but I'm finding it hard to think of many stillwaters that don't now contain carp, and most of those contain more carp than anything else. Maybe that's not so much the case down south where you've got a greater variety of coarse fishing to choose from, but it certainly seems to be the case up here.

Shincliffe could fish very well for chub on occasion – I had several 4lb-plus fish from there, plus lots of dace and chublets. There were a few barbel too, for those with the know-how and the time to put the hours in (ie, not me). DCAC didn't (and probably still don't) stock trout in their stretch of the Wear, so a pounder was a pretty decent fish, I'd say. Personally, I'd rather catch smaller wild fish than bigger stockies, but I know some club members were a bit disgruntled about that. Pike are a bit of a challenge in the North East, so far as I can tell. I've never targeted them, but from what I understand, there are only a handful of places with pike in them, Brasside being one of them. (I remember seeing a picture of big 20lb-plus fish from there a year or two ago, but from what I remember, just like you, most people blanked when they tried targeting pike at Brasside.) I know the Tees is supposed to hold a fair head of pike, but I've never fished it and wouldn't know where to start. According to the Ferryhill website, a number of their stillwaters contain pike, but again, I wouldn't know which ones actually contained enough fish to bother targeting. If you're really interested, you'd be best off getting in touch with the regional contact of Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain and picking his brains. I'm sure they'll have forgotten more than I'll ever know about piking in the North East! If you've not caught pike before, it would probably be a good idea to go out with an experienced piker anyway, just so they can show the ropes regarding handling and unhooking.

Fair enough. I must admit, it's been a few years ago since I last saw a copy so I didn't realise they'd had a change in editorial direction. More carp, eh? Just what the world needed… I always want to like Coarse Fisherman, but somehow it always ends up getting on my nerves as much as any of them.

Ah right. I was a DCAC member for a few years and I must admit I never fished Brasside, just the river. Still, Ferryhill's probably worth a look. Another one which might be worth investigating is the pond at Cassop, which I know can fish OK. It's also free, which is a nice bonus. Unfortunately, as a free water, it can get a bit messy so is probably best fished at the crack of dawn over the summer to avoid the kids.

A copy of the above and a year's subscription to Improve Your Coarse Fishing should do the trick, I'd reckon.

Sorry to take a while getting back to you… We're not exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to day ticket waters up here, so if you're not looking for anything really specific, your best bet would probably be to join a local club with a fair selection of different waters. Durham City AC has a couple of miles of river fishing on the Wear plus a stillwater complex at Brasside ('complex' makes it sound a bit grand!). Have a look on their website for more info. Or there's Ferryhill, who might be a better bet. Like Durham, they've got a decent stretch of the Wear, but have a number of stillwaters (six or seven in fact, IIRC) plus a couple of other stretches of river. What they don't have anymore though is a website, so you'll have to ask in your local tackle shop for more information about them, I'm afraid. Edit: I've just read that the Ferryhill website went back online today! You can find it at www.deltaflash.co.uk/FDAC.html.

When you registered with Adobe, they should have sent you a gift certificate: one of the choices was a 30-day subscription to the lynda.com training videos. There was also a 30-day subscription to Safari Books Online if you prefer written material.

What sort of fishing are you looking for? Rivers? Stillwaters? Big stillwaters? Small ones? And whereabouts in County Durham? If you're at the southern end of the county, that opens up North Yorkshire too.

Okuma are distributed by Svendsen (I think they're actually owned by Svendsen, in fact). There's an email address for spares and repairs at www.svendsen-sports.co.uk/?q=node/1 as well as contact numbers etc.

You could try www.troutfishing.co.uk. They don't have them listed on the site, but I bought some R50s from them a year or so ago. They were just about the only place that had them.

Just curious… What is the best way to give your adopted child a hiding without anyone getting the wrong idea?

The UK Fly Dressing website? would be a good starting place for patterns. There are links to recommended suppliers on the site too. There's also a list of step-by-steps on http://flyforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14091 Ironically, while we were on the bank on the Middle Level, David Wolsoncroft-Dodds was giving a talk on fly fishing for pike at the Spring Flyfishing Show just 50 miles away! (I had a bit of a chat and watched him tying the next day when I was there.) Forgot to say. Although their speciality is apparent from the name of the site, www.uksaltwaterflies.com/ seem to have a bigger selection of Flash/EP Fibres etc than anywhere else I know of.

It was only when I was getting back into the car that I realised that apart from Budgie and Angly, I actually didn't have a clue who I'd met! I'll make sure I'm not in such a hurry next time too - after leaving the fish-in, I drove up to Scunthorpe for a dinner with some friends and then we were up at the crack of dawn the next day to drive back down to Newark for the fly fishing and shooting shows. Then back to Scunthorpe for a cup of tea and to pick up the car and then back to Gateshead! And all without so much as wetting a line all weekend…

Seconded. Although I only had time for a brief flying visit in the end, it Budgie's teach-in was immensely useful and well worth the journey. Sorry to hear that there weren't any fish for those who did stay though…

So why did his waders drag him straight down to the bottom of the pool? And why did they need to be cut off before he could dragged up to the surface? Sorry if there's a really obvious answer to this one that I'm just not getting.

Blimey, Budgie could have had his pick!

And already loaded into my sat nav. (A mere four hours and seven minutes of driving to do on Saturday morning then…)

No problem - glad to hear you're sorted out now tellywise.

Well, I should be coming past on the A1 at about 10.30 next Saturday morning, if you're about?

Five years in prison is still five years in prison: whether it's five years without parole or ten years with, it all amounts to the same thing in the end. I don't see why it really matters so long as sentencing is consistent.

How far are you off the A1, Jeepster?