Free to a good home

[Newt]

Well - I've never seen or heard of these getting stopped by weed.

 

And yup - I plan to have fun and even catch a few fish.

[HOPPY4]

Newt, Great looking boat! We look forward to seeing it in person next May. I am sending you a PM for info on quarters once we arrive. The NEW boat looks like the Real Deal as they say and should provide you with many years of enjoyment.

 

Budgie, You would show those pictures and remind me of how nice it realy was! I miss the time that we spent down there on those boats. We have been using an inflatable for the past 2 trips and it has worked. We have driven directly to most places using the levy access. You know me, I will go on a recci in a heartbeat.

 

Later,

HOPPY4

[Peter Waller]

The Dory that Budgie showed, his first picture, is what I use. They are incredibly stable and safe, an ideal fishing platform with bags of deck space. Their only downside being that in a chop they are wet, but a leccy pump takes care of that. With a good trailer they are excellent angling boats.

[Peter Waller]

Thanks Newt, it arrived this morning. The enclosed lure is good. Looking forward to trying it on the river where I reckon it will troll well. The smaller hooks that you sent, look good to me as being ideal, if not perfect for perch and those wiley old river carp that I go after. Thanks mate, hope you like the goodies that I have sent you to cover the postage!

[Newt]

Peter - now that you've had the echo sounder for a while, has it seen any UK water?

 

Also love to hear about the good & bad results with the hooks.

 

For my end - I've melted a few of the PVA bags and two of the melts resulted in fish. Nothing huge but high doubles so I'm happy.

 

The Korda Carp video was a nasty trick. It did show me a few things I need to do differently and that was good. It also showed me a few bits I now place on my 'must have' list so here I go sending money to the UK once again. Ah well, such is the life of a tackle-tart angler.

 

As I told you, I have not gotten near the Drennan Team England cap. Wife appropriated it and says I'm to keep my mits off it unless I want to lose a finger or maybe a whole hand.

[Peter Waller]

Hi Newt, yep, the sounder works! But we haven't used it for fishing as such. As I said it's for the grandkids boat which we are still working on.

 

But being portable we made good use of it the other day. A nearby lake has, for years, held a good head of assorted fish. It is also part of a nature reserve. But this year the fishing has dropped off and herbage started to die.

 

The sounder shows no fish life whatsoever. There had been no apparent fish mortality but where were they? We had a good search but found nothing. Subsequant tests show that the lake has developed a leak and salt water has seeped in & and has probably slowly killed everything.

 

As for the hooks, the small circles have proved excellent for bream and perfect for holding deadbaits onto a rig, very useful hooks indeed. Want to try them for perch but the wee beasties haven't yet co-operated.

 

The lure I haven't tried yet. More of a summer job and right now its not lure waether and our pike are in the deeper water and laying on the bottom, slow trolling, bottom bouncing job.

 

Glad the hat has gained you a few browny points! Since your wife collects base ball hats just maybe a few other ANers will send her UK angling type hats, if you publiscise her collecting habits that is!

 

Re must have carp tackle, best put you onto Terry Doe! He's the ultimate tackle tart, so I understand. If you need any 'must have' tackle I'd be pleased to get it together for you. Sent as a gift might save you some tax.

[Newt]

Ah so. I had assumed the grandkids craft was operational. No real reason - just assumed.

 

Sad about the lake.

 

Circle hooks for bream - now that's one I wouldn't have thought of since I've never been near that species. Maybe some of the bream guys on here will pick up on the comment though; always assuming, of course, that anybody besides you and I are reading this thread.

 

The hat gained YOU the browny points. Probably a good thing since her hatness has no objection whatever to the package I'm doing up now for sending over your way. It will contain lots of thingys that are better for cold water (and warm water too for that matter), strange hooks to rig them with, odd weights to sink them with, and even odd weights moulded around strange hooks, and a DVD by Woo Daves on how to fish them. The DVD was the hold-up since it took longer to arrive than I'd thought.

 

I know some UK guys fish soft plastics in fresh water but I'm betting your reaction to the DVD will be similar to mine as it made me think that while I'd spent lots of time getting them wet and some time hooking fish with them, I never really knew how to properly fish them. All Bass sessions but I imagine you can adapt them easily to pike/perch.

[Peter Waller]

I'd better send a few more hats out there then!!

 

The kid's boat has been in and used all summer but we decided to fit a new gunwhale and really tart it up whilst they are at school.

 

Those circle hooks and bream, don't know that our bream are the same as yours, Abramis brama. We fish great lumps of bread for them and those hooks are the nuts for that.

 

That DVD sounds intriguing!

[Newt]

US Bream = sunfish / bluegill sort of things.

 

Nothing like the UK snotty exists here as far as I know.

 

Oddly enough I use circles for them too but mostly because otherwise the greedy little fellas swollow the hook really deep as soon as they get near the bait. The standard 'bream' hook here is very fine wire and with a very long shank to make unhooking easier on the angler but since the fish will usually be fried, fish welfare is not a consideration for most US anglers.

 

Jan just like to catch them and then release them and we have found this pattern does nice lip hooks on them most times. I like them for live bait for flathead catfish so am also interested in getting them in the net and then to the livewell in good condition.

[Dick Dastardly]

Newt ,why do you think that circle hooks are so good at lip hooking?

 

Still not got round to trying them for Cats yey but my initial trials with them for Perch are very promising.Only problem I have is the sizes! they are so different to normal hooks that the normal size rating means nothing to me.The ones I have are fine for livebaits but I want to try some different sizes for worms.

 

Anyone know of a UK source that I could actually see and handle them at? Or maybe Newt you could scan a few different size/makes with a ruler for reference?