Golden Paws

I had my garage done a few years ago and they took my fishing bag and a rusty drill I was glad to see the back of. I 'phoned my Insurance Company (can't remember their name unfortunately) and they tried to fob me off with "equivalents", like replacing my Avon Scales with a set of Little Sampsons. I had my name and 'phone on the inside flap of the bag and I got a call to say that it had been dumped and all my gear was still in it, the only thing missing was my £20 emergency fund, My mate is always selling on Facebook Market Place and not long after showing a shifty looking character around, he got done big time and in a professional hit, they made off with £8,000 of quality gear. He was with Lloyd's and couldn't fault them for the way they dealt with the claim. I got a heavy duty padlock bolted to the ground and an internal Yale alarm - my mate's alarm did go off but they filled it with expanding foam. I don't really trust Insurance Companies, they are normally quick to take your money and slow to pay out and even then, the bare minimum. Beef up your security as much as possible without drawing too much attention to the shed. If the worst does happen, don't expect the Police to come rushing round, they will only want to give you a crime number!

If it's not been subjected to light, it should be fine. If you are worried, walk it off and reattach it so the inner line is now the outer. I've kept lines in an old biscuit tin for years without any worry. As Yonny says, give it a good test.

I use a Slip D combi rig made from fluoro with a loop of hybrid to make a rig. I've also got a couple of rigs in my wallet made from heavy coated braid with a stripped loop. I prefer the fluoro version because it is stiffer and more invisible. I tie a large loop of about 2 inches at the other end to attach it to quick change swivel and this doubling up really helps to reset the rig. We get "done" far more than we think and I have more confidence in the fluoro resetting but it's probably only marginal. Tie the fluro rig with the albright knot and test it thoroughly with a couple of line pullers to ensure it doesn't slip.

A Green Party policy that actively encourages the burning of carbon based products??? The world is going mad!

All anglers are "Green" by definition but that doesn't mean the Green Party is on our side. In Germany where they have coalition Governments almost by default, the Green Party had enormous power a few years ago and wanted to ban angling but rather than do it outright, they decreed that all fish caught were to be killed. Very green. We all want to see greener energy and all the major parties are too slow to act. The damage to the environment by burning fossil fuels is getting more undeniable and the folly of relying on cheap Russian gas has been exposed. Unfortunately the Green Party dream means that we will have to revert to horse and carts again!

I think it's down to who you ask! One man's large is another's jumbo (Ooooohhhhhh, matron!) https://hinders.co.uk/search?type=product&q=tiger nuts*

I bought a set of Shimano XTE's recently and they have disabled the bail arm shutting after turning the handle, you have to pull it over manually. I did find it a bit strange at first but can't fault the smoothness and ridiculously brilliant line lay.

Do you normally talk to yourself?

Fishing can be an all consuming hobby and it can take over your life. When my kids were young I used to get away at every opportunity and I do regret it now. I don't get out as much these days but feel I have a better family/fishing balance. You were a prolific and interesting poster and we'll all miss your contributions but if you need to completely step away, then that's what you must do. I worked for the same Company for 30 years after leaving school and felt "tied" to the job despite the signs it was going downhill rapidly, the redundancy package was what kept me going until the end when it closed down. In the 15 years since, I must have had about 20 jobs but it was liberating because if I wasn't happy, I left. I had 2 jobs when I told them to stick it and left the same day. You don't know how good that feels! Hopefully after a while, you'll come to realise what it was you enjoyed about fishing and hopefully it will outweigh the negatives you are feeling at the moment. Good luck for the future.

I hope it doesn't go but I do understand that a Site like this needs traffic or sales to survive. I was in the market for some reels a while back and got each one £44 cheaper somewhere else but it wasn't in stock anyway. I just had a look at the shop and on the bait page, the first 24 items on the page are out of stock! Unfortunately I couldn't be bothered to search any further, a classic case of not expecting to find anything and going somewhere else. Unfortunately the Site does seem to suffer from Safety Certificate issues and it has been down for at least a week about 3 times in the last 6 months at my reckoning. I prefer this Site as it is smaller and friendlier. I think that a subscription model would kill it (isn't everything on the net free?) but it might stop the spam messages that seem to pop up regularly but take an age to get taken down. This isn't a pop at Nick or anyone but a genuine request for idea's that would secure the future of the Site. Any suggestions?

After many years of using Shimano 5000 and 6000 Baitrunners, I finally upsized and bought 3 x XTE 14000's. The line lay is ridiculously good and although I haven't fished a large water since I bought them, I can reach the far bank of my local water which is probably 70/80 yards with barely a flick of the rod. If I really wound it up, I'm sure 120/130 would be easily achievable. That said, all the reels you mention would be a good buy. The old saying "Buy cheap, buy twice" might apply to some of your earlier purchases.

I used to fish for barbel with a quarter of a tin of spam! (The photo is only a sixth of a tin) The first time you cast it out, you feel like a complete noddy and can't believe it's going to work. I also caught plenty of chub as well. The photo is a genuine dropped run - you normally fish the bail arm open and allow a few seconds for the fish to get the bait into it's gob properly.

Just watched it, another classic.

Got a new kindle for Christmas (had a hand me down 10 year version with poor battery life and unreadable if it was a little bit dark) and started to reread An Obsession With Carp and really enjoying it. It's amazing he caught anything the amount of time he used to spend in The Horse and Barge!

Yes, I'm just getting over that cold after 3 weeks and plenty of people I know have had it as well. I had Covid a few years ago at the final lockdown and that was a piece of cake compared to this one (I was treble jabbed, so that probably helped.)