Do you ever wonder

@Clive

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Don't let the lure anglers off the hook. Here's what you get for around a hundred and fifty quid. It is a foot long and weighs about 5 ounces.....


I
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silvers

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I concede my example wasn't the best. I really wanted a pic of a full commie set-up with keepnets festooning a tool bar and side trays, back trays, double-deck trays, the full English of accessories, luggage to rival an airport baggage collection belt ...... I couldn't find one when I looked.

I fish rivers mostly myself but haven't fished a match since 2008, when I added half a dozen stents (the bloke who did the angiogram actually laughed when he saw the screen, and said, I can see why you've been having chest pain, Kevin) to the rheumatoid arthritis that hadn't helped since it set in in 1987.

I use a trolley myself, not surprisingly, but with either a compact Octbox or an old Boss box. Of course, I don't need the kitchen sink, as I know, pretty well, before I go what peg or kind of pegs/methods I'll use. I did try a motorised trolley, Powa walker, I think it was, but it was made out of scaffold pole or similar and the battery alone would give you a hernia to get in and out of the boot.

I'm aware that good match anglers, as all good anglers, have good fish handling, but I have to see I've seen some rough handling on videos of the famous winter hotspots. And, even though I often take a quick pic of my keepnet to stick on a HDYGO post, I really don't care for the business of cramming them into - worse, lining them up so they all point the same way - a landing net head, which is often seen. We know how much fish sometimes have to be messed about to get them to line up for the camera. For me, in shots that are meant to enhance a brand or angler's profile, those pics do the opposite.

So - no offence intended to you and your river match friends.
no offence taken … and I agree on the landing net shots, not that I’ve ever seen someone so that on a match.

this kind of thing?
Picture 1 of 9

There’s three clickers by his left hand!

I’ve had two heart valve replacements now … but still carry my AS1 on canals, usually barrow it when there’s a walk on the river 😉

i honestly think more damage happens to fish when you’re trying to race them past lurking pike, especially on finer wire hooks 🙁
 
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nottskev

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no offence taken … and I agree on the landing net shots, not that I’ve ever seen someone so that on a match.

Yes - that bloke is modelling the keepnets like a pro. And the excitement of fishing a seven keepnet venue is written on his face.

I fact-checked my own post just to see if I was imagining the fish-in-net-head business. One thing I noticed, or maybe realised, since we've all been seeing the pics for years: Angling Times (I googled its cover pics) promotes the all-lined-up-in-the-net-head aesthetic. It looks daft, the fish look as if they're on a slab, and I assume they'd been flapping about spoiling pics til they didn't have the energy.

Two valve replacements? I've had a lot of artery stuff done, but the heart, I was told, save for a slightly leaky valve, didn't give cause for concern. But that was a fair while ago. It's always good to hear about anglers who've needed repairs doing plenty of fishing.
 

steve2

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no offence taken … and I agree on the landing net shots, not that I’ve ever seen someone so that on a match.

this kind of thing?
Picture 1 of 9

There’s three clickers by his left hand!

I’ve had two heart valve replacements now … but still carry my AS1 on canals, usually barrow it when there’s a walk on the river 😉

i honestly think more damage happens to fish when you’re trying to race them past lurking pike, especially on finer wire hooks 🙁
He is a bit short on clickers he should have 7. God knows what the stocking level if you need 7 keepnets for a 5 hour match.
 

Steve Arnold

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When I sea fished I won a few club competitions with 80 - 100 lb bags (the "good" old days!). A day like that became hard work, speed fishing is certainly not sporting!

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I am 72 now and learnt from those mistakes of youth! That was not even a match catch, just me showing an English visitor some good Scottish sea fishing.

Those bags were mainly of cod, but all good eating fish. It did not happen very often fortunately, I hated the filleting and bagging for the freezer.

How anyone can catch so many fish to fill all those nets? All that hard work and not a meal to be seen for that!

Going back to the gizmo theme, I admit I do own a Deeper Start castable sonar! After years of boat fishing I do realise the practical uses for such kit. Perhaps not as a "fishfinder" but for confirming features and obstructions, I use it a few times a year.

Other than that I try to minimise my kit to a shoulder bag, rod holdall with 2 rods and banksticks, lightweight chair. If feeder fishing I add my bucket in a bucket, one for groundbait mix and the inside bucket for feeders, spare hookbait etc. Oh, almost forgot the landing net - not for the first time! :(

If I cannot walk half a mile with my tackle I start looking at ways of reducing the load. Like most my age I have plenty of health problems, fortunately my heart and legs keep going.

No longer interested in catching LOTS of fish, don't really think I ever was, just the occasional good specimen keeps me happy. But I guess each of us have different needs and ambitions, mine has always been to find that perfect specimen fish!

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Photo by the late Ian Gillespie
 

@Clive

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When I sea fished I won a few club competitions with 80 - 100 lb bags (the "good" old days!). A day like that became hard work, speed fishing is certainly not sporting!

View attachment 32674

I am 72 now and learnt from those mistakes of youth! That was not even a match catch, just me showing an English visitor some good Scottish sea fishing.

Those bags were mainly of cod, but all good eating fish. It did not happen very often fortunately, I hated the filleting and bagging for the freezer.

How anyone can catch so many fish to fill all those nets? All that hard work and not a meal to be seen for that!

Going back to the gizmo theme, I admit I do own a Deeper Start castable sonar! After years of boat fishing I do realise the practical uses for such kit. Perhaps not as a "fishfinder" but for confirming features and obstructions, I use it a few times a year.

Other than that I try to minimise my kit to a shoulder bag, rod holdall with 2 rods and banksticks, lightweight chair. If feeder fishing I add my bucket in a bucket, one for groundbait mix and the inside bucket for feeders, spare hookbait etc. Oh, almost forgot the landing net - not for the first time! :(

If I cannot walk half a mile with my tackle I start looking at ways of reducing the load. Like most my age I have plenty of health problems, fortunately my heart and legs keep going.

No longer interested in catching LOTS of fish, don't really think I ever was, just the occasional good specimen keeps me happy. But I guess each of us have different needs and ambitions, mine has always been to find that perfect specimen fish!

View attachment 32675

Photo by the late Ian Gillespie

We were watching an old Out of Town episode that featured the Southern TV sea angling championship held off Cork. Local regulations meant that fish had to be returned after weighing. Given that most of them had been gaffed I thought that was a strange ruling.
 

Ray Roberts

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Likewise with sea fishing, I won a few beach and boat championships when I was younger and when I look at match results for Dungeness, Hythe and other well known venues and the weights that I won with would have been more than the total reported weights of the combined anglers in most cases in more recent years.

Even back then the trawlers were in some cases so close to shore that you could have cast into them. We never seem to learn the lesson.
 

Steve Arnold

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Likewise with sea fishing, I won a few beach and boat championships when I was younger and when I look at match results for Dungeness, Hythe and other well known venues and the weights that I won with would have been more than the total reported weights of the combined anglers in most cases in more recent years.

Even back then the trawlers were in some cases so close to shore that you could have cast into them. We never seem to learn the lesson.
Sea fishing, beach especially, seems more about the tackle and casting distance than the fish caught nowadays!

I was lucky to start sea fishing when Ian Gillespie was promoting the move to beach rods lighter than 16 ozs, most beach rods of that era were at least twice that weight. Some of my best catches were on a light bass rod and I won my section in the big Felixstowe open using a 1-3 ozs 10' carp blank rod. If I remember right I was 10th overall in a field of hundreds. I was quite proud of that as I was complimented on narrowly out-fishing the local expert pegged next to me. My catch was 5 codling and a whiting, he could only catch whiting. Think I was 17 at that time, the rod caught me a nice bass of 12 lb 7 ozs at Southwold around that time as well. My fishing ego was growing! I still want to catch big fish but now my old bones tell me not to be so silly!🤨

The real GIZMO developments happened during that era for sea fishing, I think there were many changes to freshwater techniques around then as well. The Breakaway company with Ian Gillespie, Nigel Forrest and Norman Bickers developed many ideas into practical angling equipment. Certainly I could not have fished the beaches without a Breakaway lead when I used my light beachcaster rods!

Happy days, I feel privileged to have lived and fished through this era.

Now I am based inland and have settled for the rivers of France. I know they have been used for bait for decades, but I consider boilies as a "new" gizmo! I had never used them before moving here, now I use little else!

But there is a lot of plastic junk tackle available, the beginners might be suckers for that. I do not get caught too often myself, by the time I decide to get the plastic (card) out those gizmos have gone out of fashion and production!
 
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