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Chopping big trees down and dropping them in the lake. £200 a time to get them dragged out. Chopping down most of the quality trees on the site (and many on neighbouring properties) including newly planted ones. Undermining banks With tunnels. Undermining the road adjacent to the lake with a...

That doesn’t square with my experience. I contacted NE when beavers started trashing my site (which is a SSSI). They weren’t interested and told me about the ‘soft release’ programme. They referred me to my local ‘wildlife crime’ officers who were worse than useless. It took them about 2 months...

The answer is loads. They were introduced (illegally) in the Cotswold water park about a decade ago and significant numbers have been released and/or escaped (depends who you ask!) from their enclosure. Natural England want beavers back nationwide. To avoid the publicity of a National...

Given that fish seem even more aware (of environmental changes) than Alan P (above) suggests; they seems to be able to recognise weather/pressure changes etc almost before they happen. Viz - feeding just before a cold snap etc etc. I spoke to my fishing mate 2 days ago and he is convinced that...

You need to check out the Tenchfishers stuff on the current state of Sywell. My understanding is that it’s nowhere near the water it has been at various times in the past. I wrote about fishing there in the 80’s and that was its second coming. Hopefully it is now on the way up for the third time……

There is a 2023 thread on here ‘Midlands tench water’ that might be useful ?

If you like ‘Matt’ shots; check out ‘Matt Harris fly fishing’. Some of the best angling photography out there.

Nash do a similar ‘ball maker’. I’ve heard good reports of them for groundbait.

To my fairly un-educated eye that looks similar to a mark 2 Swallow or the later ‘Ringwood reels’ version ?? They were available in different colours - so a small run in purple isn’t much of a stretch……

I’ve barbel fished for 30 years and I’ve used a Torrix for most of the last 6 months. It was retired for the Winter a month or so ago. The other 29.5 years I’ve used various other rods mostly Chimera 2 or 3‘s. Prior to that, Paul Boote built Century blanks. In that 30 years I’ve fished with...

I agree about Torrix carp rods but absolutely disagree about the 11ft 1.75 barbel blank. Mine certainly doesn’t have an ‘almost rigid butt section’ - it bends to the cork (if you actually pull that is).

I’m in the same camp as Richard I. I bought a used 11ft 1.75 Torrix this year and love it. I’m not as keen on the 12ft version - I have played with one several times and don’t like the action. Chimera 2’s are great too and double as excellent tench rods; unless you need to fish at really long...

If we are doing book reviews then I will plug ‘The fish of a lifetime’ by my fishing mate Matt Harris. 650 pages of fabulous pictures (plus some words) by one of the World’s best angling photographers. Highly recommended; but so it should be at £99 a copy.

Excellent line. Ive used it for heavy line applications in (from memory) .35 and .40 and like it. It is well under rated for breaking strain. Ive just started using some Synchro XT in a lighter strain (.32 or .33) and am not convinced by it yet.....

Stick float wizardry and the rising antenna (waggler fishing). Both by Jim Baxter. Both up to date compendiums of how to do it by the best in the business. Highly recommended.

Nice scales; and the fish isn’t bad either.

Essential reading; for decades ! Thank you ‘Tacklebox’.

That is a bit of a generalisation….. Berkeley have made some great lines (XL, XT, Trimax, Big game etc etc) but they have also sold some rubbish ones too (Vanish and Transition to name but two). In the 90’s I imported bulk spools of certain B lines - because it was better than what we could...

If it was as simple as using a leader (my friend was) maybe a few more of us would use braid more often….

The issue with braid is abrasion resistance, or rather the lack of it. My fishing mate tried 30lb ish braid (on the Thames) and lasted a couple of months before he gave up after a bad experience with a big fish. He subsequently re caught the fish (14+) and managed to retrieve his tackle. His...