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Dozey MP dozed off

J

Joe Fletcher

No Longer a Member
Story in todays Mail on Sunday . Mike Penning the Tory Transport Minister was on a MPs' angling jaunt to the river Wye .
He fell asleep on the bank and lost his £150 rod to a Barbel tug :(
So any one catching a Barbel on the Wye with a rod still attached ,
Please can you return it Mike Penning via the House of Commons .
I wonder if he will put in a claim for expense's :)
 
Don't suppose he'll be last person either Joe. I think a lot of us have come close even when wide awake and the rod in rests close to hand. Let's face it when they go they go which is why we all get so addicted to catching them.
 
He should be made subject to a three line whip , given a damn good thrashing and then forced to drink at least 2 pints of red bull before he even casts in , that will stop him dozing off :D
 
he thought he was in the chamber...lol
or on one..lol
 
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Was that the end of his days fishing or are MP's allowed to claim for a 2nd rod when fishing outside of their constituency?
 
I have never intentionally gone to sleep while I was fishing for Barbel, but I have dropped off on occasion, to ensure that I do not have the problem the MP had I follow a simple set of rules.

Assume I am ledgering downstream!

I place both my rods (I often use two) on my downstream side, I then ensure that I am fishing very close to my rods (I use the tip as an indicator, I don’t use bite alarms, it is just not British), I do this because if I were to fall asleep and I then got one of those slammer type pulls the butt of the rod would then hit me and wake me up (if I had the rods on my upstream side the butt would just keep going away from me, I am not the quickest mover while wide awake, when I am dozy I am not as quick as your average slug).

This simple rule ensures that I have never had a rod go in!

It is un-likely to happen nowadays as almost all of my Barbel fishing is on the float and I sit on a box!
If I fell asleep now I would fall off my box, I am sure many would like to see that, but I will try and ensure that it never happens!!

Far too many anglers have good camera’s these days and I simply would not give you lot the satisfaction!!:)
 
The only rider to this Keith is not to use butt rests, otherwise as happened to me , the rod takes off and the butt doesn't slam into you. In my pre-baitrunner-engaged days, six feet high Himalayan Balsam prevented me from losing one.
 
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An MP doing something useful...amazing. Personally I wish they would all go fishing a bit more and spend less time messing everything up for the rest of us.
By the way this particular guy was a Grenadier Guard and a Fireman, so best not take the **** too much in case he gets to read it....;)
 
Keith Speer said:
I have never intentionally gone to sleep while I was fishing for Barbel, but I have dropped off on occasion, to ensure that I do not have the problem the MP had I follow a simple set of rules.

Assume I am ledgering downstream!

I place both my rods (I often use two) on my downstream side, I then ensure that I am fishing very close to my rods (I use the tip as an indicator, I don’t use bite alarms, it is just not British), I do this because if I were to fall asleep and I then got one of those slammer type pulls the butt of the rod would then hit me and wake me up (if I had the rods on my upstream side the butt would just keep going away from me, I am not the quickest mover while wide awake, when I am dozy I am not as quick as your average slug).

This simple rule ensures that I have never had a rod go in!

It is un-likely to happen nowadays as almost all of my Barbel fishing is on the float and I sit on a box!
If I fell asleep now I would fall off my box, I am sure many would like to see that, but I will try and ensure that it never happens!!

Far too many anglers have good camera’s these days and I simply would not give you lot the satisfaction!!:)
Click to expand...

That last bit doesn't tie in with what some of your mates reckon Keith...they said you had been off your box several times :p:D

Cheers, Dave.
 
Dozed off, poor soul was probably tired out with all the late sittings. Whoops I forgot, that's where they do do their sleeping.

I wonder whether the MP's ever thought about buying a rod licence, and would that go down on the expenses too?
 
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