petesnr

Many Happy Returns! Have a great day.

Happy Birthday Tom. Just think of each one as a rung on the ladder of life. But remember as you get older not to look down! Peter

Have a great day Martin. You'll soon be as old as me!

All the ideas sound great to me but it is Mark who needs to hear them. It's no good us discussing them and agreeing what we would like to see without passing the ideas on. That is history repeating itself. The Angling Trust is a new start with different people and we can't tar them with the same brush as we did the NFSA without giving them a chance. If you don't agree with what an organisation does then you can withdraw your support but you will never change anything by not engaging in the first place and the only way to engage is by becoming a member. If Mark is the only paid employee and we are already complaining about the 'bottomless pit' we stand no hope against people with vested interests worth millions who will employ barristers and professional lobbyists to further their aims. I have a bottomless pit moored in Poole Harbour into which

The game of knocking someone who was prepared to stand up in front of strangers is business as usual for anglers. In the end it isnt a question of what one man can do for us but what we can do by being united and having a voice at the table. No amount of discourse on a forum will have any infuence over fisheries policy whereas this guy has already made representations on our behalf at European level over Article 47 and is in discourse with Defra over angling issues. I doubt there are any of us would like to be in his position and considering that the whole world revolves around money I thought he was quite restrained over the issue. His point as far as I recall was that the Angling Trust needed to show government agencies that they represented a large number of anglers and the only way for this to happen was to have more membership. To sit and wait for some miraculous heaven for anglers and then jump on board is cynical in the extreme and is likely to lead to us being left with the crumbs when it comes to getting any improvements in our sport.

Ooops! That could signal the end of my three-times welded, unbraked rust bucket.

tony and I will be going out for cod and whiting on Serenity. sunbathing by the look of it in a big swell

Thanks chaps! Don't know how old I am but when I were a lad boats were made of wood and the outboard was slung over your shoulder at the beginning and end of the day! Mind you there were still fish close to the shore. ps Watch out for the relighting candles on the birthday cake they are devilish hard to put out--the instructions say immerse in water for at least five minutes. Unfortunately it doesn't do much for the cake. Cheers Peter

Would certainly endorse the idea of eroding antifoul it stops you having to remove umpteen layers of hard stuff every few years. Suggest investing in a wetsuit to keep bottom smooth. Spent some happy hours underneath mine clearing barnacles last year--only trouble is I'm now back to epoxy and need to get the boat home to repaint. Pete

I notice it only says catch and return for anglers. This probably means the destructive netting of mullet and seatrout will continue. Peter

1.) Adam F 2.) Alun J. 3.) Zed 4.) Neal 5.) John Young 6.) Martin 7.) Dean 8] Dave Evans 9] Jim Davies 10] Mark [zippy] 11) Littlesal (Graham 12)Tony D 13) Rob Francis (on JV) 14) Charlie Annear (on JV) 15) Carl 16) Aaron 17) Rich (on Warren) 18) Jon (Jay Kay) (on Warren) 19) Pete Senior Serenity 20) Tony Deavin Serenity

Good call Colin. They've been helpful in the past.

You lot might like to play with each other but I'm a loner often to be found in my shed when the weather's bad playing with molten lead. Each to his own! pete

What's the numbers for this Hauraki Gulf? Might give it a try next time I'm out--sounds better than the 50-50 Banks. Peter

Surely you could sneak a telescopic rod on board and dangle a shad over the side. These old fishermen--no dedication! Seriously--have a great trip. Pete

Sorry I had to leave before the end of a fascinating presentation--its great when two groups of people share the same addiction! I was wondering what the specimen size is for a kayak as they look as if they'd put up a good struggle! Seriously--looks like a lot of fun and I hope that we manage to incorporate them into the rules. Pete

beware the Lidl waders--they rip very easily and you get cold wet feet! Bite the bullet and get a decent pair or a wet suit! Peter

Although none of us want any restriction on our angling activity it has to said that following on from the previous post most of us would not actually be affected by limits on landings as firstly we don't catch that much and secondly we return many that we do catch. We are still being confused with those who are not registered fishermen but who catch fish for gain. Where Charter Skippers fit into the picture is largely down to how they manage the anglers who fish with them in terms of catch brought back to land. Therein lies a problem when fishing in deep water for pollack and cod as these species often do not survive the journey to the surface when their swimbladders have blown. To bring back 800kg of pollack on one trip as has been rumoured to have happened recently does leave an uneasy feeling in the stomach but begs the question of how much would have been caught by a commercial netter if he had access to the same shoals? It seems unlikely that rod and line angling could match the destruction of miles of wreck nets. I think all of us have to read the writing on the wall and realise that in order to keep our freedoms we will have to keep our act squeaky clean. We then have grounds for legimate arguments over bag limits and quotas. Peter

Very quiet day apart from a five minute burst when both Tony and I hooked in to rays. Tony's bit through his trace but my blonde pulled the scales down to 21lb 9oz. Tony had a gurnard which I took home and which contained a fresh peeler crab including bait elastic. Thought it was interesting as neither of us were using crab and there were no boats up or downtide of us. Goes aginst the idea of fish swimming up the tide--this one must have come across the tide for at least a quarter of a mile from the nearest boat. Pete

Love it!

Tony has invited me on Serenity so we should be out there somewhere on Saturday (or was it Sunday?) Now where's my bit of seaweed gone--not blown away I hope!

in my case its a real no no to have indecision about which day the comps are on. if the arranged day is no good then I for one wont be rearranging to fish the next day. I'm pretty sure there would be less participation if it's switched from sat to sun. It also leads to loss of brownie points--only women are allowed to change their minds.

Saturday is looking ok according to the seaweed on our washing line I mean weather forecast. When is the decision?

No really cold nights yet so there still should be plaice in harbour and Swash

In Sea Angling News it said 8lb 14oz