Golden Paws

Steady on Elmo, your blood pressure is at bursting point! I get it you don't like Boris. I would have more nightmares if that weasel Corbyn had got in. (Dianne Abbott for Home Secretary anyone?) It's easy to say that Covid could have been handled better but it has been the worst global pandemic for a Century and with global travel, it had the legs to move quickly. Although we all value our personal freedoms, most people agreed to lock down with good grace as at one stage about 2,000 people a day were dying in this Country. It's a fine balance between the almost draconian place we were in a while back and where we are now. The winter will almost certainly see a resurgence in Covid deaths. I wouldn't have liked to make the judgement calls on when to lock down and when to gradually ease them. They have gone along with the medical experts to a large degree and any Government would have done the same. The EU dithered on buying vaccines (probably still talking about it!) but Boris got in early, done the deal and secured the vaccines we needed. When they realized they had messed up, the EU tried to stop us getting them by underhand tactics. All elections or referendums rely on fear, persuasion or lies and the Brexit one wasn't that different. You just have to study the arguments and make a judgement call.

I'm afraid I disagree. When the Common Market (as it was then) was introduced, it did seem like quite a good idea to form when was effectively a gentleman's club to make importing/exporting easier. If I have been able to vote at the time, I probably would have voted for it. Roll on 50 odd years and it has turned into a monster of many heads that just talks endlessly but achieves very little at a great cost. One of their great achievements was standardizing jam! They ruled that jam could only be made with fruit. Fair enough, you would think. The Portuguese objected as they had made a carrot jam for many years. To get around that little problem, carrots were re-classed as a fruit! My main problem was lack of democracy. In this Country, every 5 years or so you have to opportunity to vote on who runs the Country and have the power to replace the Government if you disagree with how they have run the Country. Although we used to have MEP's, they wielded very little power and it was the eurocrats who run things and most were un-elected. I'm afraid the other great lie was how much migrants contributed to our economy. OK, so they paid tax on their earnings. When you calculate how much it cost to educate their kids and pay for NHS treatment, I doubt that many were really truly paying their way. Drink driving was falling for many years amongst most groups of people. When the influx of Polish occurred, the rate shot up sharply as they do like a bit of Vodka. The UK has been unshackled and now has it's ability to trade with Countries outside the EU bubble. We also have the right to decide who comes to our shores. Although I did vote for Brexit, I did weigh up all the pro's and con's and made a decision based on the long term benefits that leaving would bring but was also mindful that sometime it is better the devil you know. I would vote for Brexit again tomorrow with more conviction than first time round.

A pastie, steak slice or sausage roll cooks well in the monkey and only takes about 10 minutes - just pick it up or eat it out of the pan to save washing up. A chunky soup eaten out of the saucepan also fills a hole in the cold weather. For afters, pop some custard in the saucepan and when warm, add some apple pies. Breakfast is cereal in the summer in a small tupperware and just pour the milk on top, in winter add some boiling milk to some weetabix. A pack of chocolate digestives keeps me going during the day as the tea is too wet without one!

On my local lake there was a barbed ban for many years and some of the fish are a bit "gummy". A micro barb will go in and stay put during the fight and even the idiots on my local Committee seem to have got the message as they have revoked the barbless rule.

I've been using this rig for a while. You get the heaviness and stiffness of the fluorocarbon and the supple section at the end which you can regulate by adjusting the size of the loop. Easy to change hooks and also change between swivel, bait screw or rig ring.

I've got to agree Yonny. Despite being old enough and hopefully clever enough to see through advertising spiel, I bought some Boom and Krimps to make my Ronnies like a good Korda clone!

Yes, I watched it the other day. Typical no nonsense stuff from Adam and always makes me think. I tried the Ronnie when it first came out and was convinced I was going to bag up but still found that my favoured combi rigs outperformed them and don't use them any more.

I rest my case, Your Honour! Common sense has gone out of the window and the French want to convict anyone who wants to travel there. It's got so crazy, that we on the mainland can't export sausages to Northern Island, which is a part of the UK and there are shortages on the shelves. I can see the divorce papers being ripped up if they continue to try to treat us like fools.

Very sad to hear you whinging again about Brexit again. When Britain left the EU, the intention was always to have a cordial arrangement based on mutual respect and dare I say it, friendship? The EU have tried to punish Britain for daring to want to leave and not subsidising them to the tune of billions of pounds a year. The EU is a bloated, inefficient talking shop where very little gets achieved but many bureaucrats do very well out of it, thank you very much. After the protracted "divorce" was thrashed out, I believe that if the referendum on membership was rerun, it would be rejected by a landslide. The final nail in the coffin was when Britain was awarded "null points" at the Eurovision Song Contest! I can't say I've ever heard of the bloke and if he was gigging at my local boozer I doubt I'd go to watch him but it was totally predictable. Covid is obviously muddying the waters and it's difficult to tell sometimes whether a decision on quarantine is based on medical facts or a continuation of the *** for tat agenda. I understand that your British pension might not go as far nowadays but as a full time worker and tax payer to the British economy, I'm afraid my opinion might count more than yours!

That's the sort I use, the bigger the better. The first one is far too small. When I first started using the knot, I did have a couple of disasters and ended up cutting the braid and starting again. The trick is to slip the knot on and watch it and make sure you reverse the procedure when you go to undo it. On the second occasion I put the clip on and off about 20 times in a row and my brain "remembered" it. Probably OCD but I can always do it first time now without any problems. The clip stays on virtually all the time so just slip on a lead or spod at will, only taking it off for using a depth float.

https://www.carpfeed.com/fishing-advice/how-to/carp-hack-the-two-loop-trick I use this method (shamefully copied from Tom!) I normally leave a large American swivel on the braid as I can change from a lead to a spod or spomb of different sizes as required. If you want to use a marker float, a decent sized loop allows you to slip it on. I've had the same knot on for several years now. That little tag end is a huge edge and time saver.

Just checked out the club. They have 2 waters. A match lake of 0.75 acres with 17 swims and the main lake at a whopping 1.25 acres with 24 pegs! I hope the members are friendly because you'll be sitting very close to them!

Most Committees are run by old farts who don't have a clue! My local club are run by such a fine body of men. A couple of times I've attended an AGM with the intention of "putting something back" into the sport, both times I've left shaking my head in disbelief at what I'd witnessed. The proceedings were conducted with the efficiency of the Kremlin and it was a real old boy's network. Any suggestions from the floor were treated with disdain! Another local club that sells day tickets has a long list of silly rules. Despite other waters nearby being busy and theirs is always quiet, I've voted with my feet and given it a miss.

I think that Kev is on the right track, very seldom is braid banned as a hooklength. If it is, make a small hole at the bottom of the bag and thread the hooklink through, make the bag as per usual with the lead against the hole and then nick the hook back into the bag. (Whip the hole with a bit of PVA tape if it lets bait through.) By doing that, you have all the advantages and it should be tangle free and straighten as soon as the bag bursts.

It's finally out!

Coming soon!

I think they are incredibly clever because they have learnt how to read!

I have a love/hate relationship with fluoro! Love it's heaviness (twice that of water), love it's invisibility (similar to water) but hate it's stiffness and (lack of) casting and the fact it curls for a pastime and fraps up for no reason. If you want to use it, you have to learn to treat it different to mono's. Stretch it regularly and it should behave better. Also prone to picking up algae and rubbish so have to clean it by rubbing it through a wet wipe whilst winding onto the spool. I'm currently back on mono!

I wouldn't even think about it at the moment. Things are still too fluid and you could find yourself at the mercy of new rules that come into effect virtually overnight and you could find yourself isolating on both sides of the channel. Most venues over here are rammed but if you go midweek for a few days, things should be almost bearable. Hopefully 2022 should be OK but it's still worrying the amount of younger people being infected. Last summer Covid dropped right off and it created a false sense of security. The vaccination program has been a major success and has almost certainly prevented the massive number of deaths recorded last year being repeated. The anti vax idiots will ensure that Covid isn't eliminated but they will find it difficult to travel abroad in the future. I expect the European Court of Human Rights to uphold their complaint!

They come in 2 versions of RB (rear brake) or FB (front brake) or drag or clutch or whatever you want to call it. I'm pretty sure the DL refers to Dyna Balance which is the dual handle system, which virtually eliminates any wobble.

For days only sessions I don't take the bedchair or any cooking stuff, relying on sandwiches and a flask. I've tried slimming my gear down but it just creeps back up again! I've got a large rucksack I keep most of my gear in and the barrow just makes it easier to cart around the rod bag and bait - I do like a lot of spod late summer and into the autumn. If possible I try not to put up the brolly up as that is the biggest hindrance to moving but if the sun is beating down or it's raining, it's difficult not to succumb to the comfort.

For overnighters you can't really do it without a barrow unless the car park is right behind the swim. I used to fish a local days only water and tried to do it without a barrow (about 400 yards from the car park) but the next day my back would be in agony. My mate has bought 2 extra wheels to go on the back supports and a supermarket trolly style push bar instead of the handles and that works well but I haven't succumbed yet.

You're not the first to forget to unclip but like you say, bye , bye rod if you don't. The steps you mention are pretty sound but I admit that I bypass step 3 and always rewrap. It may be more long winded but it's just a confidence /OCD thing!

Hopefully when football stadiums reopen (I know it's the last day of season today!) and foreign travel opens up again, things will return to a more normal level. I've tried to book venues near me and Fridays and weekends are fully booked for months in advance.

Watch out for the postage. He is quoting £30 which is probably realistic. I got stung a few years ago selling some rods on ebay for a mate and the Post Office charged more than some of the rods sold for!