Tim Kelly

Try turning the handle slowly and note where the resistance or click occurs. If it's the same position of the handle each time, it's going to be handle related, so look for the star drag or handle touching something, if it occurs at more random points it is more likely to be the spool or gears making the noise.

A gruesome end!

Slightly damper day today out chasing the pheasants around. Little dog enjoyed it despite the weather.

A 6" senko is a fair weight and would cast pretty far. Throwing a topwater would cover huge areas quickly and might at least show you where fish are even if you don't hook up.

X2 My first thoughts as well. A weightless fluke would be another, but similar option.

Looks promising. Is the Guinness for the chef or the chilli?

Another beautiful day chasing pheasants around in the sunshine.

Do they have a baseline for natural fish mortality over the winter period? Seems like it would be an incredibly difficult thing to prove to any satisfaction that fish moved a few miles would die because they expended so much energy getting back to where they were caught. Might be true, but very hard to prove I would have thought.

Very nice, hope the winter passes quickly for you.

A DNA test might reveal it was one of those good for nothing Tohatsus. ?

What do they call the Takoma that's an SUV rather than a pick up? That is about the closest thing I've seen, Though a lot smaller and less capable than a full sized pick up/SUV. I like those Outbacks, they go surprisingly well in the mud, a bit low down though.

Do they even make an SUV that isn't full of electric folding plush leather seats in the back? If I were in the market I'd prefer an SUV over a truck and topper as you can poke long things through the entire cab if you need to, like fishing rods, can sleep in the back if needs be and it would be more versatile. Paying for deluxe rug rat transportation devices, which are going to be folded flat all it's life seems like a bad idea.

? Might be easier to move to America!

How does the VPN allow you to watch the programming? Other than it not blocking you from websites because of your region? Does it have some function of accessing programming directly?

Thanks, but it doesn't allow me to view it. Looks like the VPN idea would overcome it, but I'm not sure how much I want to spend just to watch the one episode.

OK, thank you.

OK, and can you turn it on and off? Sounds like it would be unhelpful for the sort of things google does to help you navigate through life.

Thank you. I had no idea what you were talking about, but have done some googling. Still a little opaque on what a VPN is and what it does for me, but will try to find a simplistic answer, probably ask my little brother, he seems to know most things like that. LOL

Moving bait rods don't need the sensitivity of bottom contact and finesse rods. Personally I spend more on spinning gear to fish finesse and much less on casting gear.

CAn't see the US version of nat geo wild's website as it detects my region and goes to the fluffy bunny UK site. Particularly keen to see the London edition as I'm almost certain the stretch of the Thames he fished is one I regularly fish. Don't know about Hulu. It doesn't seem to like viewers from outside the US either.

I'm in England and would love to watch FMC, particularly the London episode. Nat Geo Wild here doesn't show the program and is mostly fluffy animal shows. Does anyone know anywhere I could watch the episode, I'd be quite happy to pay to view. I subscribe to myourdoortv, but unfortunately they don't have the show.

I've had a couple of accidental pike recently while drop shotting with the fuego 3000 LT. Both fish weighed 16lb, the first a short fat fish and the second a long wide but thin fish, which fought like an absolute demon and took many minutes to boat. The drag performed amazingly, can't imagine a drag that could be any better for light line fishing. The idea is to protect the line and give line where needed, not to just peel line off the whole time. I expect we all get used to the gear we use and subconsciously adapt to get the best of what we're using. The truth is that pretty much any Daiwa or Shimano spinning reel will give fantastic service. Other brands are still quite variable, but the big two have a range of outstanding products to suit pretty much any pocket.

Not tried a Tatula but have a fuego LT and ballistic LT, they're great reels. They're light and precise enough for me. I can't tell much difference between the two in use either. My only knock on them is that the drag adjustment at the front is much larger than on previous Daiwa reels and as it's so light to adjust it's more than possible to brush past it when casting and you hear a couple of clicks as the thing moves. I would prefer the older stiffer, smaller adjustment system on the older reels, but it's a very minor issue, just a slight irritation. If you get a Stradic you can have all the fun bending the bail wire every few trips to get it to snap over cleanly again. I hate the thin bail wire on shimanos. ?

A good finish to a sporting weekend, a nice wander down the canal for perch with friends and the dogs.

First day of the season at our pheasant shoot in Surrey, UK. Great weather, the pheasants flew fairly well, for the first time through and the dogs had a whale of a time.