BigMac

Paul, Ive kept koi for over 20 years and they are a very satisfying fish to keep. I am presently collapsing my pond as I feel that they deserve more time than I have been able to give them over the last couple of years. I've got a formal (above ground)pond of 2500 gallons including the filters. I have kept mainly Japanese koi that I used to import with a friend but now only have 6 left after selling the other 25 or so that I used to have. One of them, a matsuba was 26lbs in weight when I sold it last summer. As a result of collapsing my pond, when I have managed to find a home for the remaining 6 fish, I will have some equipment at very reasonable rates that may be of some use to you, filters, pumps, UV's etc. Personally, I would recommend that you cast a concrete base and then block build up out of the ground and above ground level add an outside "skin" of brickwork. This can then be rendered and then painted with a fibreglass type paint. The gravity filter can either be fed by a bottom drain or by a 4" pipe extending to the bottom, if you have a slight slope on the bottom of the pond this would serve your purpose without the hassle of a bottom drain. My pond built in this way just required hoovering fornightly (through the warmer months) to keep the water crystal clear. If you do need any advice at all feel free to give me a ring and I'll help in any way I can. Al As a post script, I have 6 koi for sale all between 12 and 18 inches, a sanke, a kohaku, an ochiba, a goshiki, a doitsu goshiki and one non descript fish that I have had for 20 years. that all need a good home! Not looking for a fortune, about 50 quid each or so.

Done. Sitting pretty at the moment Tom

Martin, you are now officially my new hero All sorted and now able toaccess all areas!! Cheers Al

Its been over a year now that I've been unable to access the members sections of the forum Any ideas??? Al

Adam F - Bass - 9lb 12oz 2) Alun J 3) Paul Jennings - nothing wieghed, tope circa 35lb 4) Charlie Chapman 5) Dan Chapman 6) Colin Francis - Bream - 2lb 2oz 7) Bobi Francis - Garfish - 1lb 8) Terry Bartell 9) Dean 10) Martin 11) Paul F 12) Paul D - Conger Eel - 34lb 13) Dave Evans - Ling - 22lb 14) Peter Senior - Bream - 3lb 8oz 15) Duncan Mackie - Bass 5lb (gutted) 16) Neal Sturt - Spotted Ray 4lb 17)Craig/Gas 18) andy garrett - bass- 7llb8oz 19)Will Summerell Bream 2lb 20)Stuart Summerell Thornback Ray 14 lb 21)Helen D ( Webmistress )- Bream - 1lb 13oz 22) Allan Mac Bass 8lb 4oz 23)Rupe Morrall Bass 7lb 12oz 24)Carl Hurren Bream 3lb11oz 25)Aaron Murray Lsd 2lb5oz 26) Tom Bettle - Conger Eel - 67lb

Adam F 2) Alun J 3) Paul Jennings 4) Charlie Chapman 5) Dan Chapman 6) Jon Parker (Soleman) 7) Colin Francis 8) Bobi Francis 9) Gordon Holt 10) Terry Bartell 11) Dean 12) Martin 13) Paul F 14) Paul D 15) Dave Evans 16) Peter Senior 17) Duncan Mackie 18) Neal Sturt 19)Craig/Gas 20) andy garrett 21)Will Summerell 22)Stuart Summerell 23)Helen D ( Webmistress ) 24) Allan Mac 25)Rupe Morrall Al P.S. Who and where do I have to hand in the entrance fee to Adam?

Adam, 1.) Alun J 2.) Paul Frey 3.) Will Summerall 4.) Jonathan Summerall 5.) Stuart Summerall 6.) Pete Russell Snr 7.) Colin 8.) Bobi 9.) Charlie C 10.) Dan C 11.) Neil Stur 12.) Allan Mac 13.) Rupert M Al

She looks a beauty Well done Adam and Bob, what a great job you've both done!!! See you out there Al

Thanks for that Charlie, thats a really much neater version of the knot Al

Charlie, "my" turns work away from the hook eye, bringing the tag end back towards the eye and then back up through the three loops. It does bulk up the knot, but using a pennel or a big single hook rig I find it makes virtually no difference to bait presentation in most circumstances. Al

That knot is exactly the same as the knot I use in heavy mono. Hold the hook in one hand and wind the mono round your thumb nail three times, take the tag end and slide it up the side side of your thumb nail, through the three loops. Lubricate and pull tight. I've used it on mono up to 150lb fluro and have never had the knot let me down. I also much, much prefer it to crimps and the damage that they can do if the correct crimping pliers are not used. As it is a strangulation knot, I've not tried in lighter mono's, but am more than happy with a grinner that retains nearly 100% line strength and achieves the same thing Al

Its very unpleasant trying to tee bar off an eel or any sizable fish at the side of the boat if your crew are not using mono leaders. The braid will cut your flesh to the bone if not wearing gloves. The smaller diameters are too thin to pull with a straight line in your hand and you will end up putting a couple of wraps around your hand to get some sort of grip and this could prove dangerous. I insist my crew use mono leaders in all but the lightest of fishing situations and still retain all of my fingers!! Al

Weather window not looking so good now chaps Another day on the xbox me thinks Al

Great stuff Dan!!!! A brace of chub that any angler would be proud of Well done mate Cam and Si were saying that there was a guy in the same swim earlier in the day who had packed up early having been extremely pleased to have landed a brace of 11lb barbel !!!! Well done again Dan, Al

13lb bone

Have just returned from 14 nights in Cayo Coco, Cuba. Originally booked because of the bonefish flats just a mile up the beach from the hotel, reports of a complete ban on DIY fishing in the Cocos had put a bit of a downer on it for me before we left As we arrived at the hotel there were 2 anglers from near Preston, Andy and Mark, that were sat having a beer with a guy that had Dunitesky, fishing guide on the front of his shirt They had just returned from a day on the flats and had caught 7 "bones" to 8lb. I mentioned the DIY fishing ban that I had read so much about and they said that they had been fishing everyday since they got there and had not had any bother whatsoever. Spoke to the guide and booked a trip for the following wednesday Me and the FPO walked up the beach the following day, I knew you had to walk east and then round a mangrove headland and the flats were just beyond it. It seemed much further than a mile in the 37 degree heat!!! My missus didn't want to go any further and we turned back towards the hotel with thoughts of a go in the morning hatching in my mind. Walking the beach again in the morning at 5.30, the sky just starting to lighten in the east would have been a magical experience if it hadn't been for the mosquitos and sand flies There were millions of em! The 50% deet I was wearing kept them off me but they made me nervous anyway. As I got closer to the mangroves the sun was almost starting to poke its head over the horizon, the flies retreated and tails started poking out of the water not 10ft from the shore. Big tails too. put them down as snapper in the weak light conditions so cast some shallow running Yozuri minnows at them. An hour later and I had spooked maybe 20 fish and with the sun above the horizon I made my way onto the flats proper. I kept on thinking to myself, surely you dont catch fish in this depth of water? Then I saw my first fish, it was a barracuda in the 20 to 30lb range ambling along in 18 inches of gin clear, lukewarm water!! Put a plug 2 feet from its nose and it hurtled off the sand at a hundred miles an hour Another hour of scaring barracuda and I decided to call it a day as I was starting to melt. I dont think I saw a bonefish but didn't really know what I was looking for anyway Tuesday before my guided trip, Andy and Mark had been out with Dunitesky again and had had another cracking day having landed 6 bones including one of just over 10lb, they had also lost 4 Tarpon with one over 150lb showing itself 3 times before throwing the hook. Plans were made and Dunitesky would pick me up from the hotel lobby at 7.30 in the morning. Loading the ice into the coolbox the following morning I introduced myself to fellow angler for the day, Nigel from Cumbria, and apologised in advance for my fly casting as it was something that I do quite infrequently. No problem he said, I'm crap to... The 45 minute drive to the marina? inside the national park were interesting to say the least it was almost like a desert safari but probably much faster!! The boat was a skiff of 18ft or so with an old but very serviceable 60hp yamaha 2 stroke on the back. She fired up first pull of the chord and we were off. The first stop was within 400 metres of where we had just left. A deepish hole of 12-15ft deep, about the size of 3 football pitches and surrounded on all sides by 3ft of water. Tarpon were rolling everywhere!! The surface poppers were cast out amidst the boils and retrieved as noisily as possible. I had a 3lb jack of some sort first cast, Nigel hooked a 20lb barracuda 2nd cast and the guide hooked a Tarpon of 30-40lb minutes later which came adrift as he was handing the bucking rod to Nigel.We spent an hour here and caught 4 barracuda to just under 30lb a cople of decent mutton snappers and had jumped and lost 4 tarpon. There were lots of tarpon there but having fished for them in similar situations in Florida I thnk live or deadbaits on circle hooks would be the way to go to actually get one to the boat. We were on the move to the flats a couple of miles away, the spinning rods were stowed and the 9# fly rods brought to the fore. The anchor was dropped so that the stern of the boat sat in 24" of water, we stepped off the back into hundreds of square kilometers of tepid, crystal clear, less than knee deep ocean We walked quietly across the sand untill Dunitesky pointed in front of him about 30ft away, 5 bonefish travelling together and heading straight for him. Nigel has first shot and puts a tangled heap right on their nose They depart in the blink of an eye so we continue our walk, I m starting to get my eye in and can see most of the fish as the guide points them out but most of them seem to be on Nigels side, so i'm still waiting for my first cast when Nigels into his first fish.after 5 tries. Well... I've seen them caught on the tv and they seem quite quick but that fish went like a speeding bullet......I moved 20 or 30 yards away to give him some room and there was a shadow from another one not 2 rod lengths away, I rolled my "clouser minnow" in front of his nose and he took it immediately The speed of them really does take you by suprise but quickly teaches you why you need a decent disc drag on your reel. 150 yards on its first run!!! In seconds!!! I then found myself running backwards to try to keep a tight line, they come back towards you just as fast!! 10 minutes later I have in my hands my first ever bonefish and a beauty too..about 7lb the guide reckons. I'm over the moon, absolutely chuffed to bits but eager for another We saw lots of fish and messed up quite a few, Nigel had had one of 9lb to add to his initial fish of 6lb. We both pointed to the group of fish at the same time and they were on my side maybe 20 yards in front of us. My fly landed 3 or 4 metres short and Dunitesky whispered leave it............leave it......strip!! 2 short pulls and I'm in "Its a monster" he shouts and reaches into my pocket for my camera and starts to take photos. By this time I can almost see the spool of my reel that just had 300m of 30lb backing on it not 5 seconds ago!!!!!! I dont remember too much about the fight but it was 20 minutes of the most fun I've had with a fishing rod for a long time. This one measured 29 inches from the fork of the tail to the tip of the snout and according to very accurate length to weight ratio tables scaled somewhere between 13 and 13.5lb What a spectacular fish!!! We tried for the tarpon on the way back but just caught more barracuda, the following day we went trolling on a Hobie cat, more barracuda to 18lb but did lose 2 much bigger fish that we think were wahoo. Friday we were out on the flats again with the guide or so we thought, he had some allergy and was going to leave us in the hands of the non english speaking skipper of the boat We had another 5 bonefish during the windy day but the biggest only went about 3lb and I had a nice mutton snapper of about 12lb on a light spinning outfit. All in all a great holiday.....but that big bonefish will stay with me for a long long time ......... Al

Me and Rupe were bait gathering by 5.30 and our hard fished for 15 mackerel were being deploted by 6.30. We headed over to the island to catch the kast of the flood tide and in 3 hours caught 6 bass to about 5lb odd. We headed east to the first of our marks for the day and set the anchor to fish down the back of the bank. It was snaggy and we lost a few sets of tackle but we soon had bites and a succession of small tope kept the interest keen. Rupe had the biggest at 22lb and when the bites slowed up we moved further south to a rocky bank that had served us well in the past on the ebb for a few decent bull huss. A few small tope and 2 bass of 3 or 4lb had us looking for some sand and the chance of a blonde. Heading back west we arrived at the bank and though lessening our chances of a blonde a bit we anchored to fish down the back of the bank again to increase the odds of different species. The bites came quickly and a succession of small tope were brought to the side of the boat before Rupe announced the first ray of the day, a lovely small eyed of 9lb 8 oz. I was in next with a small blonde of 8 or 9lb followed 20 minutes later by another of 15lb. We caught loads of bass and tope, nothing of any great size, but a great days fishing none the less Al

Rupe and me will be out and about on sunday, so we're in! Al

Can anyone tell me why the site pages no longer fit on the screen as a whole page? Al

Ruperts 6-8

oops

My 6-12

We met at the boat for 4.30 am, Myself, Rupe, Cam and Si, for the first try of the year to see if the bass had arrived in any numbers yet. Back of the ledge as the sky starts to lighten, out with the feathers and within an hour we've got 25-30 livelies in the tank. By 6 I'm setting the boat in place for the first proper fishing of the bassing season I got it a bit wrong on the first drift, so set us 50 yards west for the second. Nothing on that one either Doubts start to creep in already but the third drift soon dispells those. Rupe and me both hit into fish at the same time in exactly the place I'd been striving to get the boat over in the strenghtening nor/easterly . Its good to feel the kick of a good bass after so long and we both take our time enjoying every minute, grinning our heads off. Si does the honours with the net on mine, a cracking looking fish of 6lb 12oz Si nets Rupe's fish, another lovely conditioned fish of about 4 1/2lb What a result!! Next drift Rupes in again!! Within a few metres of the last two takes. He has to do a bit of a dance over the engine box as the fish takes him under the hull and out the other side (Hilarious when you realise that Ruperts about 6 3 or 4 and 20 stone plus ) He gets it to the boat and its gills flare as Si sweeps the net under it. Another beauty of 6lb 8oz!! By this time the Lymington fleet are stirring and we have 3 cats within half an hour motor straight through where we've been picking up bass 4 or 5 drifts without a take, we move further west and try again. Rupe hooks a proper 'un, his rod bucks violently as he tries to retreive line and lift its head off the bottom, but the fish is too strong and 90 seconds after hooking it, it dumps Rupes hook in the bottom I wouldn't of minded seeing that one!! Next drift Cams away with a 5lber, soon brought to the side of the boat despite using, what Rupe described as a homemade reel, a Cardinal 55 The flood tide is almost gone when Cam lifts in to an obviously better fish It stays deep until only 20 yards from the boat and then rises quickly in the water. Its tail breaks the surface and I can see its a good one from my vantage point on top of the engine box. A couple of anxious minutes of head shaking 10ft below the hull follow before Rupe deftly scoopes it into the net Cams face is a picture as he gazes at one of his most sought after fish in his angling life A double figure bass!!! 12lb 8oz to be exact!! Blow me if he doesn't do it again on the very next drift, this time a cracker of 8lb odd. Si finally decides to join in but his float seems to tangle with Cams as he.s playing it in, Cam reels in the slack as Si's fish gives a good account of itself, theres another bass right behind Simons fish and as I net a plump 3lber it become obvious that the other fish is hooked as well! A 6lber joins the 3lber in the net. Not sure who caught which fish but its not really important is it? We tried a couple of marks and Si managed to winkle a small fish, of 2 1/2lb, out on our last mark. We were all knackered by now, so at 12 o'clock we headed for home more than happy with our mornings work A great trip in great company with 9 fish between us in total (I think ) What more could you ask for?? Congratulations Cam, a fish you've been after since childhood, well done!! Al

Weeks of excited anticipation were at last at an end and Rupert and I headed towards Portsmouth for an eagerly awaited day out with Terry, aboard his boat, for a crack at a plaice or two. We rendezvoused, (rendevoused? rende............) MET, good friends Eddy and Paul en route (multi lingual me!)And it was 6.30 sharp as we trundled up the berth to be greeted onboard by Terry and son, Carl. We loaded tackle bait and food and were soon underway heading out of harbour. Bait for the day was 450 prime, hand dug ragworm and 2 5lb boxes of sqid for "tipping off" Just passing Clarence Pier, 2 minutes after opening the throttle, the engine began to overheat and Terry quickly hit the stop button. Lifting the engine box revealed a totally shot fan belt Superstar Terry was carrying a spare ;D and it was no more than 20 minutes before the 6 of us were heading for Terrys mark of choice. All manner of rigs were clipped to mainlines with beads of all colours and hues, spoons, some small some big and rotating blades from tiny to far too big much in evidence. Plaice fishing does seem to bring out the creative side of people and today was no exception!! By the time we arrived at the mark (8.15am) the sun was blazing and the sea oily smooth. Terry set the boat for the first drift and worm baits tipped with squid were chucked out and fishing began in ernest. The last of the ebb was pushing us eastwards at less than a knot and 2 oz of lead controlled the end rig perfectly. Terry remarked that it might be a bit slow until we find the fish and his rod tip began to rattle : A slow lift of the rod saw it hoop over and a couple of minutes later the first spotty of the day was in the net 5 minutes later and young Carls rod registers an enquiry and another beauty of 3lb odd is netted. Terry has another a hundred yards on, almost a twin of the first and as we come to the end of the first drift, I manage to snag a 3lber of my own. 4 fish on the first drift!! What a start ;D The action continues in the same vein on the next drift, and the next one and the one after that and by 10 o'clock we've boated over a dozen good fish,only 2 under a pound and a half and up to a best of 3lb 8oz to Rupe As the tide slackens and then stands still, so do we. The fish keep coming every 15 or 20 minutes with flurries of double hook ups and even at one time a treble hook up! Stangely, a lot of the fish caught during slack water were only very lightly hooked which resulted in a 2 hour period where we definitely lost more than we boated As the tide starts to move , Carl has 2 lovely fish of 4lb 2oz and 4lb 1 oz in quick succession, the former having some of the biggest, brightest spots on a plaice we had ever seen. What a stonking fish!! As the tide pulls more strongly they feed with more confidence and the stream of spotties continues. Nearly all between 2 1/2lb and 3 1/2lb with a 4lber thrown in every so often. At 3 o'clock my rod hoops over as an obviously better 'un takes the bait. A tremendous scarap has my barbel rod bent to the butt as the fish dives for the bottom half a dozen times but a few minutes later its scooped up in the net by Terry and proves to be the biggest fish of the day at 4lb 9oz, in prime condition and a new pb for me by 1lb 1oz ;D ;D ;D Ther was virtually no let up in the action which made it tough to stop for something to eat, something to drink or even for a pee. Dehydration had not caused the p*ss taking to dry up though and the stick was relentess all day with no one safe from persecution Aint laughed so much for a long time Very few other fish interrupted our hunt for flatties with maybe a dozen dogfish, the same number of pout, 20 or so small bream, half a dozen wrasse and a single thornback of about 6lb being the only invaders........... curiously, during the hottest part of the day, there not 5 yards off the bow was a good size thornback swimming right on the surface, wingtips breaking the surface in the calm. By 5 o'clock the tide had started to push at over a knot and a half and Terry thew the hook over for an hour or so and only one more plaice came to the boat, at 6 we decided to call it a day and what a day it had been!!!!!!! Between the 6 of us we had boated a total of 70 plaice We had 10 under 1 1/2 lb, 42 between 2lb and 3lb, 12 between 3lb and 4lb and no less than 6 over 4lb to 4lb 8oz!! Without doubt in my top 10 days fishing ever resulting in more plaice than I've ever caught in one day (14) and 5 fish over my previous pb ;D ;D Awesome, totally awesome!!!! Thanks fellas, Terry, Carl, Eddy, Paul and Rupe... it was a privilege ... ;D ;D Al

With you fellas setting out at the weekend, thought I better write a report of this weekend just gone Got back on Monday evening after a 4 day trip to the island crewing aboard Shogun. The crew, 4 lads from wales and 5 guys from midlands were on board by 8.30, a short stop for some fuel and 15 bags of ice to keep their 90 packs!! of ammo blast mackerel frozen for the duration saw us underway by 9. We knew that bait was scarce so the crew had come prepared for any shortage! We stopped 3 times over marking bait but only managed 7 or 8 fresh mackerel and we pushed on to our afternoon mark north of the island to fish for some tope as the tide eased. It was 5 minutes, maybe 10 before the first fish was on and not long before a fish of 25lb was tailed aboard for a quick photo The bites came thick and fast until the tide died but no more fish were landed due to hook pulls, tangles and just about ever other reason for a lost fish you can think of Slack water went dead but as it started to pull again the bite frequency increased we lande a few more fish and then 2lb of lead wouldn't hold bottom and we set sail for Brae harbour. Steve Porter and True Blue joined us in the harbour in the early evening and reported that the flat fishing had been slow and he only had half a dozen fish to show for his 2 days fishing We were on the banks first thing saturday morning with plans to turbot fish till we could get back to the north to try and land some more of those tope. First drift produced 2 turbot of 4lb apiece! Result! 2nd drift produced another this time about 5lb........................It then took a long time to get another. Half an hour before we were due to leave to head towards the tope mark, Ian shouts "Fish on!" Couple of minutes later and a lovely fish of 9lb 8oz is in the net True Blue hasn't had any flats at all and the tope are calling. I set up most of the crew with 8/0 circles on 100lb mono and its not long before a steady stream of tope are being "t" barred off at the side or lifted in for a quick snap. We had lots of double hook ups and at least 2 treble hook ups and as we pulled the pick at 4.30 we all agrred that we had just had a great bit of sport About 20 tope landed between 20lb and the biggest of the afternoon to "Haggis" at 43lb.The tide forced us to leave and we headed back to harbour. True Blue stayed out a little later for a quick go on the banks and landed 5 flatties. Sunday was to be a flatties only day and it was with thick heads that most of us started the day. We started on a different bank today and it was 3 hours before the first turbot of the day was on board, about 6lb. A couple more through the day but the fishing was slow, the crew were having more fun catching launce and the occaisional mackerel on the bait rod!! A move to another bank saw one more fish fall to Peter and what a really nice one 12lb 8oz and beautifully marked An hour and a half in the "washing machine" with only 2 small pollack and no bass showing on the sounder we headed back to harbour at 5.30 Sunday started with a few problems and us only being able to leave harbour (1 welsh crewman short) at 1.00pm. We stopped at a wreck for an hour fishing half way back and the lads boated 30 or so pollack to a biggest of 16lb I would just say....... Dont rely on catching fresh mackerel, not plentiful mid channel at all. We caught more mackerel on the banks while we were flattie fishing than we did mid channel. Seemed to be plenty of launce however Nobody seems to be catching turbot with any regularity, just a couple here and a couple there. I dont think True Blue had any more than us and Mark from Alderney Angling just had 1 bass of 4 or 5lb on friday while flattie fishing. We had a great laugh and I met some really nice people....... the fishing could have been better though!!! Al