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Monmouth, just down the road! I'm in a village 2 miles outside of Ross.

They basically filled the lake with carp and then added water. But a shoddy effort by me I must say. But I did at least manage 1 silver fish, a pretty Rudd that might have tipped the scales at 4oz. First Rudd I've caught in over 10 years I reckon. Getting to the big roach is going to be quite a...

Hi Martin, most things I write tend to be highly irreverent and often irrelevant and this is mainly to disguise the fact that I haven't actually caught a fish. That's a lot of time on the bank chewing my rod-rests through a combination of boredom and frustration. What I am very good at though is...

This is the line I use on my pins Terry. I think it's exceptional line and it's never let me down.

Same here- more use of the split cane rod. And on the Wye too when conditions etc permit!

Hatter, I think it was you that suggested diary extracts/blogs very early in this thread and I would totally agree with you. Something authentic that follows the ups, downs and antics of an angler(s) could be quite a draw. I think it can be difficult to maintain high quality content because...

Thankfully, everyone is different- looking for different things, different priorities and making choices about how to spend their money. I didn't renew last season because I just wasn't fishing it enough. If I lived 5 mins away as the OP does then I would see it as good value.

Hi Ben, my last season on that ticket was 14/15 and I generally found it tough, rather like most of the Kennet. It does have some great features, not least the big weir which I really enjoyed fishing. A maggot feeder would throw up a lot of silver fish which was a pleasant change. It will be...

Jon, you are right, you did say river stocks but that makes it worse as you are now making a statement about the impact of otters on, presumably, all fish species and doing so without any hard evidence. So the point remains-you can't state that people who claim otters are impacting on barbel...

Jon Bedford, you wrote: The point I'm making is that without , good solid evidence that otters are depleting river stocks massively, which they are for the main not, we haven't got a leg to stand on, and a few throat ripped out barbel ain't going to change that. A somewhat perverse...

Or is just out of necessity-becoming more urbanised simply to find food? Or a combination of factors.

It's enormously saddening to see what should be a measured debate about the results of a study, descend into bitter and personal attacks. The absolute truth is that this serves no meaningful purpose except for those involved to feel some moment of triumph by landing a digital punch. It's...

It's the blog that's caused the controversy Bobby and not least in its title-the inconvenient truth presumably being that as no evidence of barbel was found in the spraint samples then otters don't eat them. The inconvieince being to those anglers that are continuing to blame otters for...

Bobby- I don't think you will find many disagreeing with the sentiment in your post as without doubt, we will struggle to build a meaningful voice unless anglers unite. The reality is that there have been too few studies performed that would allow for safe conclusions to be drawn. The issue with...

Joe-I certainly agree with this statement. The title of the blog (an inconvenient truth) gave the game away rather in terms of how the science was being presented and quite frankly, it's what has hacked a lot of people off. It could have just presented it as interesting insight and used the...

I can only imagine we will see more of this and when we do, it may will increase the focus on river health. And perversely where the otter can help us. Images such as this plus more examples of birds being attacked by otters will make people realise that our rivers are broadly incapable of...

The issue for me here is not the study undertaken and the reporting of its findings- it's the fact that it is being presented as some sort of absolute, universal truth-just look at the title of the blog. It provides insight but has natural limitations because its one river and arguably over a...

I posted the following on Facebook directly in response to a post Martin had made. His response was that he totally agreed with my statement at the end. That statement starts by saying that otters do eat barbel. The most favourable interpretation of his blog is that it was very poorly written...

True Mike. But then perhaps it needs tackling from a different perspective. If you are an otter lover (someone that loves otters I mean, not someone who's better in bed than most others) then presumably you would care about the health of our rivers and surrounding habitat. I think most people...

A big community of potential buyers of your new publication Martin on this forum so being somewhat dismissive and a bit rude is probably not the greatest business move. If you are so convinced of the merits of the magazine's title (despite it sounding like something aimed at those with evil...