Just a short one!

Two hour session

It's been one of those days when I promised so much, but spent the morning checking out my investments in AiM as the Stock Exchange runs down for the short Christmas break. A sort of shall I do a bit more, have a juggle or consolidate my interests.
As it turned out I didn't do a great deal, although was sorely tempted to go all in on my oily (Lenigas) holdings which have seen this year turn a fledgeling company with a market capital of £18m to a company with a market capital probably close to £120m!!
Big news due any day now on the latest soon to be completed wells.....it's gushing! It won't make me a millionaire but I shall do alright out of it.
I waited for any update news, but decided at about one o'clock that things should be left as they are.
As it turned out, no news and no change to the share price.

I thought I'll go down into the valley for perhaps the last time this year and see if I can get a big perch.
And so I did, arriving at around two. It really is wet down there, so wet that the farmer is pumping out the pond into the adjacent stream, and the pump is blocking the access way to the second lake.
By the looks of it, his overflow system just isn't coping with the excess spring water running in.
On arrival as I parked, I put up a buzzard and a heron from the pond side, they both flew out of sight around the bottom end of the pond, the buzzard giving it's mewing call from over my shoulder  time to time in the small wood behind throughout my two hour session.
As it turned out the big perch were elusive, fishing worm only, the rudd and the smaller perch were interested and one carp that sort of gave a half hearted fight, quite unlike the summer madhouse run around they usually give. It was easily subdued and netted.

Maybe I will go down again before I start concentrating on the chub in the Upper Witham in the New Year, being an hour away down the A1, it'll depend on winter road conditions, I think.

Tomorrow we're off to Louth to pick up our goose, for the second year it's just the two of us for Christmas day.
This year, for the first time since coming up here though, we will probably go to the local for a pint or two before dinner. It may depend if we get too stuck into the fizzy stuff  and orange juice for breakfast with our smoked salmon though. We've got ourselves some English sparkling this year, half a dozen bottles from Ridgeview,  Ditchling, East Sussex.

So, thanks to all who have put up with my writings this year.
I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a great Christmas and a happy, healthy 2015.

 and




And finally
Rest in peace Joe Cocker

I remembered!

Fishing

It was getting on for 1:30 this afternoon when I set off to the valley, this time fully equipped with my worms and a few cockles from the batch I have lined up for a paella tonight.
My aim to try and get the mummy or daddy perch that resides in the lake or, as the carp are not as active, and as it turned out, nor the the thousands of tiny rudd that decimate any bait before it hits the deck, maybe see if there are any big roach or rudd.
I fished today with the 440a again, and and this time my built cane with a split cane top Milbro Maestro.
First cast with a worm and straight away, a bite and nice roach. This continued for the 2 hours I was fishing interspersed with rudd, two carp and finally a perch.
None of the fish were of any size,  the carp were probably in the five or six pound bracket, all on worm.
All good fun and a nice way to enjoy a late afternoon autumn session which was warmer than yesterday, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction.

I've decided that I don't like the action of the two cane rods used over the two sessions, so they will probably go on ebay maybe with the 440a,when people have their Christmas presents to spend.

So home and cooking at about 4:30, and if I say so myself, a very good paella washed down with half a bottle of Ozzie Pinot Grigio..... each.

So much going on!

Fishing

I haven't been since my last trip down to Ware and the River Rib.

Today,after fiddling about getting some bits and pieces sorted, and buying the last bottles of Christmas wine,I decided it was time to get out and fish.
No preparation,worms in the garage on top of the freezer.
Grabbed everything, thinking on the foot,as it were, picked up   some feeder pellets and just in case, a can of sweetcorn. 
Drove down to the valley with some lures, a handful of rods, well four, and 3 reels.
Slipped and slid all the way down the farm track, it's certainly damp down there, and arrived at the pond which was half covered, downwind, with thin ice.Water very clear.
I decided to try out lure fishing to see if I could interest the big perch resident there. No interest.
So I picked out one of my cane rods, the Aspindales Aero and matched it with my Mitchell 440a filled with Maxima, straight through to a porcupine quill,laying on to a size10.



F***, where are the worms? Must be in the car,f***, how the f*** did I forget them?
They were still in the garage on the freezer!

Quick think, ah plastics? Nope, not in the bag!
I'll have to be sweetcorn, not going home now I'm down here.
So sweetcorn it was, and I sat for about two and a half hours until dusk, had a couple of knocks, probably carp as I could see them moving about,the only thing giving me hope as they passed by the line, giving the float that teasing movement of a "bite".
Oh well, I'll have a couple of hours tomorrow afternoon for the perch and be very careful when loading the motor up that the big white bucket, goes in!
A couple of fishing invitations to take up around the Nene and Ouse, and the Upper Witham chub are calling. 
Which reminds me, keep an eye out for the unsold, "out of date" half stilton slabs on the clearance shelf in Tesco.

Little Bruv

Pete's home as I think I said, he been back to the hospital for further checks and been given the Ok. He's signed off,no drugs but, he's back to work on the 23rd!!!
His daughter Lauren, has nagged him into getting a kitten.She's got him twisted around her little finger.

Freezer Stocked

We've got our lamb, bred, born and fattened up in the field next door, a bit over 13 kilo's of prime English lamb slaughtered and butchered by the local craftsmen.
We've had our first tasters, and I have to say, not a hint of mint, so, poking our crop through the fence didn't make the slightest difference. (No, we didn't really).
The farmer has been let down on her orders of this years 16 lambs by 3 or 4 people, so we bought another one, and now have 30 kilo in the garage freezer. Should last us a little while.

Doesn't time fly?

This Christmas will be our 3rd since my Mum died 11th December 2011, and our 9th since Dad died in January 2004. 

I've been thinking about them a lot recently,what with Pete's problems, his partner Dawn and my Auntie Maggie passing all too recently, it sort of puts life into perspective a bit!

Still, we go on,and live each day as if it could be our last.
Both our thoughts, are that we do what we can,while we can.
So time to book more long haul holidays!
Canada in September,so a big gap to fill in between now and then.

Another holiday!!

4am Monday 25th November

First frost of the autumn up here.
At 4:30 we are on our way, after scraping a solid ice windscreen for the 6:20am flight to Schiphol and our onward journey to Boston Massachusetts.
Our initial problem should have been, given some forethought by us, unnecessary, we were put on standby!
So a fretful hour of wondering why I "didn't book our seats, after all it was Monday morning and the flights are effectively commuter journeys for those working in Holland".
Ah, the joys of hindsight!
We got on, and even sat together for the 40 minute flight.
13 hours later were were in our top floor room(1579) at the Boston Park Plaza.
Very nice too!

Sunset from 1579 through the glass, snow on the way overnight!

After gathering ourselves and unpacking we decided for a walk around just to get our bearings and find somewhere to have our evening meals.
We found a good few restaurants with easy walking from the hotel, but after some discussion decided we were better off, after this long day, to eat in the hotel.
As it turned out, for me the best clam and pasta meal I had over the few days, for Pauline much to my surprise, a burger, which she didn't enjoy...I knew she wouldn't!
The next two evenings were spent in restaurants just around the corner.
The first a fish restaurant, called Legal Sea Foods, which was alright, and as can be expected form a chain restaurant.
The next evening a very good Italian called Maggiono's, a big restaurant, with food so good we tried to book the next evening (Thanksgiving), but they had been taking bookings since October last year and were fully booked with 900 covers!
In the meantime we took the obligatory site seeing tour on the Trolley, an hour long trip with a good guide driver, but it was peeing down all day, so we didn't get off at the "highlight" spots, still very good, and I learned something new. The tea tipped in the harbour was 4 years old...no wonder they rebelled.
We had a wander around the markets, Quincy, Faneuil etc. None of which were traditional markets as we know them, but commercial shops and mall restaurants.
Our Thanksgiving dinner was to be at the Hard Rock Cafe, following a recommendation from a fellow guest at the Park Plaza.
As it turned out, they were making a half hearted effort with a turkey mash and cranberry sauce dinner, squeezed in with the standard menu. I really wanted an authentic turkey dinner
We abandoned our seats and crossed the road to a small hotel restaurant North 26. Which although "fully booked" found us a table for two.
Excellent staff and excellent food, I was even given a "secret" recipe for a very good bloody Mary by the cocktail mixer, after Pauline asked jokingly for the recipe. Unusual ingredients but one to experiment with.
I must admit if I'm having turkey, I would much rather have roast spuds and brussel sprouts. Mash and pumpkin didn't quite do it for me!
We liked Boston, a small city with plenty going on, our 4 nights were well worth the time taken to get there and back.

Little brother Pete

We kept in touch.
As of yesterday, he is still in Queens Romford and champing at the bit to get out.
Thankfully he seems to be recovering well, he tells me he has no after affects, so it's looking good.
I shall be seeing him on Friday, on my way back from another session with the International Drinking Society in the big smoke.

No, I've not been fishing

More pressing things to deal with unfortunately.

Brother Pete, the youngest of us at 55, was visiting Southend hospital early last week, after being directed by his doctor to attend following a few days of continuous headaches and high blood pressure.

Fortunately brother Bill's wife, Denise was with him and noticed he was dribbling and he didn't know he was, so she called for the young female doctor. 

in the pink!

She asked a few questions, and very soon had him straight in for an emergency scan, they found a brain aneurysm.Effectively a brain bleed!
He was operated on within 24 hours after being taken to the specialist unit at Romford Queens.

The treatment was what is called

Endovascular coiling

Endovascular coiling is also usually carried out using general anaesthetic. The procedure involves inserting a thin tube called a catheter into an artery in your leg or groin. The tube is guided through the network of blood vessels into your head and finally into the aneurysm.

Tiny platinum coils are then passed through the tube into the aneurysm. Once the aneurysm is full of coils, blood cannot enter it. This means the aneurysm is sealed off from the main artery, which prevents it from growing or rupturing.

He apparently had 5 of these introduced via his groin and 'phoned me within an hour of coming to!!
Right place right time, the NHS at it's best!

He sounded ok but drowsy.

They have still got him under observation, after he was shown to be dragging a leg and his blood pressure needs to come down.

We've spoken a couple of times and I'm happy,as he gets lots of visitors, to save my visit for a week or so.Not a great deal I can do at present and I'm happy with the care he's getting.

My regular readers will recall, Pete's wife Dawn died a few months ago. I know he hasn't recovered from that, and has immersed  himself into work. 

He's not taken any bereavement therapy. So who knows what pressure he was putting on himself?

We're off to Boston (Mass) tomorrow for a few days,so on our return we'll try and persuade him to let us bring him up here for some rehab.... and quiet chats, maybe by the farmers pond.... if allowed!

It's been a little while.

The last of the line...
of Metcalfe ladies, my aunt Maggie passed away on the 21st October at her nursing home in Bognor Regis at the ripe old age of 94.
Leaving just Jim of the 14 children born to John and Clara Metcalfe, my mum's parents from the Edgware Road West London.
Always the fun at a family party, I can still picture her dancing at her 90th birthday celebrations.

She will also be remembered by me as the "rich"Aunty.Her occasional surprise food and sweets parcels from the shop/post office she and her husband Harry owned in Epsom, were always welcome in our house when the five of us were growing up in the 50's & 60's.

Rest in Peace  Margaret Maud Lowman.  30th September 1920 - 21st October 2014

Chichester
As we were attending the service for Maggie, we decided to have a couple of nights in Chichester, just down the road from the crematorium. So Sussex got another visit from us, neither of us having visited the town before.
So we stayed at The Vestry in the town centre, very good rooms and breakfast, but I slipped up in my usual search for a pub with rooms with good beer. The beer was the usual fizzie stuff, mostly lag ..ergh, so we only had one drink in there, and moved around the town for some better beer service and our evening meals.
We had one meal in Carluccios, which was just about ok, but seriously let down by the way they overcooked Pauline's squid....rubber bands would have been easier to eat, but in fairness they took them back and just about improved them with the next batch, which we got knocked off the bill.

Fishing
I've started my river season with three trips to the middle Trent and one yesterday to the tiny Hertfordshire river Rib.
My first session already reported on, ended with the one chub at last knockings, the other two trips to the Trent didn't even get the knocks!
Yesterdays outing was for a guided day with Rob Lancaster, a day I bid for in a charity auction organised by Baz Fisher for the Soldiers Charity back in April.
It had taken a bit of time to organise mainly because we both wanted to chub fish later in the autumn...and it hasn't arrived yet!
So, I decided to make an afternoon of it,setting out at 9am to get to Ware by Noon and fish until dusk.
The morning traffic news nearly put pay to my outing, I heard just before 8 o'clock that there had been a five vehicle pile up at Newark and the southbound carriageway of the A1 had been closed. It wasn't clear if it was above or below the the Newark junction!
My options were to go via Sleaford on the A15 dropping down to Peterborough, or stick to the A1.
I chose the A1, the other road is so slow.
All the way down to Newark I was  listening to the traffic news, which was indicating that the northbound had also been closed to allow for an air ambulance to land.
The A46 was clear all the way down, even up to Newark where the A1 slip was closed for access.
I drove onto the next roundabout and around the western outskirts of the town, hoping that the next junction down was open.
It was!
Northbound was shut and backing down south, the traffic coming south was stopped just before the Newark junction.So I had a clear road quite a way down and arrived in Ware at around time,and Rob was waitng in the car park.
I learned later that the road was close for some hours for an investigation, this I read as somebody died in the crash. In fact even later I learned it was a women with two others critically injured.
So off we go to Rob's private stretch of the river Rib, a tiny river with plenty of bankside tree growth and the occasional opening and with many shallows leading to deeper pools.
One problem was my landing net, Rob wasn't fishing,so he had no gear with him. I had fitted a Prologic quick release fitment to the pole and the net, but the pole end had become jammed, despite some attempted diy, it just wouldn't shift. This gave a fairly unstable grip to the net, which first of all dumped all the stale bread in the river when Rob tried  dampening it down.
Anyway, this was overcome and the first two fish, weren't heavy enough to pull the net from the pole the third however was, but I'll come to that.
My first fish was a brown trout of a couple of pound, it took the ledgered flake straight down.
Now, I could hear Pauline saying, "why didn't you bring it home" as I snapped the line at the lips and let the trout go with my size 6, deep down inside.

The swim was somewhat disturbed by this marauder, so we moved down stream testing out other open swims, without more than a twitch before I got my second fish, a nice chub approaching, I would guestimate, at about 3lb..

As the afternoon drew on,a surprise fish turned up.Rob had never caught one, or seen one, in this little river.
It felt a very good fish at first, we were thinking a very nice chub on the end, but it turned out to be a tad over 9lb mirror carp.
Landing the fish proved difficult, as already hinted at..the net head fell off once the weight of the fish was in it. This took a bit of maneuvering by me for a while, then I handed the rod to Rob who held the rod with the fish, already under control in the bankside weed, with and me, using just the net head to land the fish from a somewhat precarious angle

That was about it, I'd caught some fish, it was getting dark,especially with Polaroid's on, my others were in the car, so we decided to take the long walk back, and off back to Ware for a pint.
I'd had my exercise for the day anyway!
The journey home took an age, with an accident at Stevenage junction seven on the A1, my re-entry point.

Oh yes, I did get the question on arriving home, and "that would have made a nice dinner"
Ah well maybe next time.

All in all a great trip to meet an ol'boy I have known for some time from the Fishing Magic days, but we had never met.
I may well be journeying down again soon to renew my acquaintance with the River Lea, but will include an overnight stay, if I can find a pub with decent beer and with rooms!

Books

I've not had enough time to put the books mentioned in my earlier blog on ebay. I've sold about 20 mostly from the Coarse Fishing top list.
Post a message if interested in any and I'll get back to you.

Catch up

Where to start!

Home: Next door

Result...  a much better view! I know they are from Cambridgeshire but the travellers camp has moved on!

Garden

We've still not picked the fruit and it's holding on getting sweeter, must get some trays to keep the Conference and the Howgate Wonder in storage..
We've (I've) decided the grapes will be left to the blackbirds.

The pond though, does need a good clear, I can hardly see the fish!

We've got the back hedge trimmed by the local farmer.At this time of year he deals with all the roadside hedges around his land.
I just happened to catch him in time as he was trimming the next door field. £50 in his pocket sorted a job which cost me over a ton last year.
The gardener who did it has gone lorry driving.
So a tractor with a cruncher(technical term) on the front, made quick work of it.
I just had to go around to the road with a broom, to make sure the hawthorns that bounced off the cruncher didn't affect some of the "locals" who seem to think a bit of hay in the gutter is out of order.
The immediate affect of the hedge trim is that the sparras have less protection from the local sparrow hawk. A a pile of feathers shows me only too well, he has had some success. It is, at the moment a male, I've disturbed his after dinner nap a couple of times.

Shares 

What a difference a couple of weeks makes, the oil price has fallen and the doom and gloom merchants are plentful.
My Oily's 780% growth is now down to 440% and reducing quickly, I think the Russian's have more to worry about than I have though.Having said that the Footsie has taken a real bashing too.
More doom and gloom for pension funds!

I can't wait to see what comes out of the new well being drilled at Gatwick, hopefully close to finding large quantities of home grown oil and gas  very soon.

Holidays

Our long weekend in east Sussex worked out very well, mixed weather, but the pub we stayed in looked after us very well for our 3 night stay.
The Bell at Iden, just outside Rye, had Harvey's best bitter,an Old Dairy Red Top and Doom Bar(which I won't give house room)
The Harvey's was very well kept, the Old Dairy must have something in it, because the session I had on that gave me extended sneezes. So my main drink, and The Bell was open all day everyday, was the Harvey's.
The menu was relatively short, always a good sign, and the food excellent.
If you are in that part of the world at anytime, highly recommended by us.

Next trip, Boston Mass. for Thanksgiving.

Booze
Our trip to the Santander Brewery in Bradford worked out very well for the 16 of us.
A drink as much as you can, combined with the wander around the brewery, pint in hand.
Pork pie and a fine chili with three separate brews was enjoyed  by all in an all too brief 3 hours!
Next trip being hunted out.

The International Drinking Society outing took us to the Marquis of Cornwallis in Bloomsbury, and we were knocking at the door at Noon to start.
A good few hours celebrating Dave's 74th birthday, drinking good real ale and plenty of chat.
The food wasn't bad either, and was a step up from pub grub.
In fact, we've decided our Christmas get together will be in the same location.

A result of these London visits is that I tell Mick our landlord what beers I've tasted, and my opinion of them, but, I daren't tell him the price of a pint, I just to say it costs more than his £2.70!

Fishing

For sometime I've been discussing a barbel trip with fellow blogger Flyfisherman Richard,we eventually got around to it yesterday afternoon at 2pm and met on a stretch of the middle Trent that both of us hadn't fished.
I passed on an idea or two to Richard who is a "learner", not that I thought I could help a great deal.
But, he did follow some of my advice and ended up with four barbel to up around the 8lb mark.
Me ? Not a touch, until time to get off the water at dusk.
Richard had packed up at around 6:30 just as I started to get some interest in my quarter tin of garlic spam left to fish itself down the inside,on top of a pile of hemp/caster/maggots and corn from the freezer.
My mind was thinking a barbel, but it was fiddling about quite a bit, with the occasional couple of quick snatches, taking a little bit of line off my Purist ll, enough to make the ratchet tick.
We said our goodbyes and I started my clear up, keeping a watchful eye on the rod tip(MKlV fibreglass).
By now it was getting too dark to spot anything other than a good 3 foot twitch, and it had started to rain quite hard.
I gently lifted to rod so as not to disturb the line and felt for  movement and was soon rewarded, after a couple of twitches with the sensation of line running through my fingers towards the center of the river.
I placed my thumb on the reel and struck, put the ratchet on and was met with some good resistance at first, but the fish was soon overcome by the tackle and netted.
Not a barbel, but a nice chub, I quickly photographed to send to Richard, to show more than anything that I hadn't blanked.
I then hastily chucked everything in the boot and headed home, fairly happy with my first river trip of the season, but very happy for Richard.

Well, I hope it was everything I haven't checked yet!

BOOKS

For sale

I'm helping out a downsizing friend to dispose of all of his fishing related books.

So here they are, about 150.

If you are interested please comment below with your email address, and I will get back to you asap with details of each specific book.

	Coarse Fishing and Miscellaneous
Barbel Catchers (SOLD)	Barbel rivers and captures
Baverstock Leslie (SOLD)	TheAngling Times Book of the Wye
Beedell Suzanne	The Complete Angler's wife
Braddock Archie	Fantastic feeder fishing
Brennan Des (SOLD	The Osprey Anglers: Bass
Cadman A	The Shooting Times Library: Goose shooting
Church Bob (Editor) (SOLD)	Big Tench
Claypoole HGC (SOLD)	How to catch them: Grayling
Collins Peter	Fishing the Norfolk Broads
Gammon Clive	Fishing: A pictorial guide
Gammon Clive	The Osprey Anglers: Sea Trout
Gibbinson Jim	The Osprey Anglers: Carp
Gibbinson Jim (SOLD)	The Osprey Anglers: Chub
Gibbinson Jim (SOLD)	The Osprey Anglers: Pike
Hall Winston(SOLD)	How to catch them: Cod
Harper Stephen	Angling afloat: A complete guide for coarse fisherman
Harris Brian	The Osprey Anglers: Stillwater Trout
Hartley JR	Fly Fishing
Holiday FW (SOLD)	How to catch them: Sea Trout
Howcroft Ian (SOLD)	The Osprey Anglers: Barbel
Howes WJ (SOLD)	How to catch them: Fly-Fishing For Coarse Fish:Theory & Technique
Lane Billy and Colin Graham	Freshwater fish-and how to catch them
Methuen Eyre	Thelwell's Compleat Tangler
Miles Tony (SOLD)	Search for big chub (Signed)
Parsons John	A Fisherman's Year
Plumber David Brian	The Jack Russell Terrier
Plummer DB	Modern ferreting
Pownall David & Gareth (Editors)	The Fisherman's bedside book
Ransome Arthur	Rod and Line
Richards Coombe (SOLD)	How to catch them : Salmon
Sargeaunt WT (SOLD)	How to catch them: Reservoir and Gravel Pit Trout
Seangler (SOLD)	How to catch them: Flat fish
Shepley Michael	The Osprey Anglers: Salmon
Sidley John (SOLD)	Eels
Smith Ken (SOLD)	How to catch them: Match Fishing Theory & Practice
Stanford JK	The Shooting Times Library: Grouse shooting
Stone Peter (SOLD)	The Osprey Anglers: Bream
Taylor Des	Fish the Midlands
Tombleson Peter	How to catch them:Bream
Turnbull Chris (SOLD)	A Time for tench
Vines Sidney	Frank Sawyer :Man of the river
Wade Charles (Editor)	Fishing with experts
Walker Richard	Walker's Pitch
Ward AL (SOLD)	How to catch them: Pike
West Trefor	Barbel a lifetime's addiction (Signed)
Wilson John	Where to fish in Norfolk & Suffolk
Boote Paul & Jeremy Wade (SOLD)	Somewhere down the crazy river: Journey in search of giant fish
	Sea fishing
Arnold Stu	Wreck fishing
Currie William B	The Guinness guide to game fishing
Darling John	Bass Fishing on shore and sa
Gillespie Ian	Sea fishing: The Wash to Thames Estuary
Gledhill Bob	Cod Fishing
Gledhill Bob	Match shore fishing
Harris Brian	The Guinness guide to saltwater Angling
Housby Trevor	The rubby-dubby trail:Shark Fishing in British waters
Housby Trevor	Big game fishing
Housby Trevor	The Complete book of sea fishing
Lewis Dave	Cod fishing the complete guide
Lewis Dave	Dinghy fishing
Matson Bradford	Deep sea fishing: the lure of big game fish
Merritt Ernest	Sea fishing; The Humber to the Tweed
Millman Mike Richard Stapley& John Holden	Boat fishing
Pullen Graeme	Go fishing for cod
Pullen Graeme	Big- game fishing
Pullen Graeme	Guide to Sea Fishing baits
Rawle John	Cod Fishing
Russ Mel	Sea angling Kent to Cornwall
Stoker Hugh	The modern sea angler
The Sea Angler's	Step by step guide to bait and rigs
Thrussell Mike	First run Shark. The complete guide to porbeagle fishing
Wheat Peter (Editor)	Popular Sea Fishing
Woolner Frank	Modern saltwater sport fishing
Yates Alan and Ted Entwistle	The complete book of sea fishing tackle&techniques
	Carp Fishing
Batten David	An introduction to carp fishing
FOX	Guide to modern carp fishing
Jackson Lee	Carp clinic: The ultimate guide to catching carp
Little Andy	Guide to big carp fishing
Maddocks Kevin	Carp fever
Mohan Peter	Basic carp fishing
Paisley Tim	Carp Fishing
Paisley Tim and friends	Big carp
Wayte Neil	River carping
	Pike & lure fishing
Barder RCR	Spinning for pike
Batten David	An introduction to pike fishing
Bettell Charlie	The art of lure fishing
Bucknall Geoffrey	Big pike
Buller Fred	Pike
Butcher Joe & Otis "Toad" Smith	Hunting Trophy Muskies& Northerns: North American Fishing Club
Camman Peter F	UltraLight spin-fishing:A practical guide to freshwater& saltwater anglers
Fickling Neville	Pike fishing
Gay Martin & Barrie Rickards	Pike
Hansen Jens Ploug & Goran Cederberg	The complete book of spinning & baitcasting
Harris Chris & Sue	Encyclopaedia of lures
Ladle Mike & Harry Casey	Lure fishing: A new approach to spinning
Lumb David	Pike fishing with lures a modern approach
Phillips Dave	Pike
Rickards Barrie	Success with pike
Rickards Barrie & Ray Webb	Fishing for big pike
Rickards Barrie &Ken Whitehead	Plugs and plug fishing
Rickards Barrie& Malcolm Bannister	The ten greatest pike anglers
Ripley Bob (Compiler)	Pike an In-Fisherman handbook of strategies
Sternberg Dick (Editor)	The freshwater angler fishing with artificial lures: The Hunting&Fishing library
Sternberg Dick (Editor)	Northern pike and muskie: The Hunting& Fishing library
Whitehead Ken	Pike fishing
	Salmon,trout,game, fly fishing
Ashley-Cooper John	A salmon fishers odyssey
Ashley-Cooper John	The great salmon rivers of Scotland
Barr David (Editor)	The Haig guide to salmon fishing in Scotland
Barr David (Editor)	The Haig guide to trout fishing in Britain
Bateman HM	The evening rise
Bucknall Geoffrey	Fly-fishing tactics on rivers
Calcott Ian	The art of salmon fishing
Church Bob	Reservoir trout fishing
Church Bob & Charles Jardine	Stillwater trout tactics
Clarke Brian	The pursuit of stillwater trout
Clarke Brian & John goddard	The trout and the fly. A new approach
Currie William b	A gamefisher's year
Currie William B	The art of trout fishing
Falkus Hugh	Salmon fishing: A prectical guide
Fogg Roger	Stillwater dry fly fishing
Geoffrey Bucknall	Book of fly-fishing
Gilmour James A	Fly fishing
Goddard John	Stillwater flies how and when to fish them
Greer Ron	Ferox trout and artic char: A predator its pursuit its prey
Hill Norman	The gamefishers days and ways
Hills JW	A summer on the Test
Humphrey William	The spawning run
Joyce HS	A trout anglers notebook
Lapsley Peter	Trout from stillwaters
Mackenzie Gregor	Memoirs of a ghillie
Mansfield Kenneth (Editor)	Trout and how to catch them
Orman Tony	Trout with nymph
Overfield T Donald	G.E.M Skues:The way of a man with a trout
Pearson Alan	Catching big trout
Righyni RV	Advanced salmon fishing
Ritz Charles	A fly fishers life: The art and mechanics of fly fishing
Roberts John	The grayling angler
Saville Tom	Reservoir trout fishing
Scrope William	Salmon fishing in the Tweed
Sutherland Douglas	The salmon book
Taverner Eric & Jock Scott	Salmon Fishing
Walker CF (Editor)	The complete fly-fisher
Whieldon Tony	Stillwater trout fishing
Williamson Henry	Salar the salmon
Wilson Dermot	Fishing the dry fly

Shall I.....or shan't I ?

Oh, Ok!

I just didn't think it was worth writing about it it, but as I've just got back from a week away in Dalyan, Turkey I thought, why not!
This was a sort of last minute holiday, not our usual choice of location, we've never been to Turkey though.
Dalyan is set on a river in an environmental protection area. A great place for riverside walking, and for a river trip. Very touristy.
Not certain there a great deal of culture, although there were some interesting tombs, and in excess of 130 restaurants to choose from.


I say,to choose from in respect of restaurants, because there's not a lot really, all menus are about the same, you just need to find one offering a better standard of cooking and freshness.
We tried different restaurants every day for lunch snacks and evening dinners and a couple that were a touch above the rest.
If you want our best finds, should you be visiting, they were the Heybe and Aubergine.
Bloody hot at about 30c in the shade from 9am.
Take an up to date Skin so Soft though, as there are many biting insects, who seemed to like me more than Pauline.
My bottle had a date of 4-10 on the base and was totally ineffective!

Our hotel is known as Club Alla Turka  http://www.cluballaturca.com/Eng/hakkimizda.asp?id=h1

It's  quite a good hotel,not a bad location and within easy walking distance of the river and the town centre. Food only average though, but I'm a bit snobbish when it comes to food.

Home
Next door
Jim's house is now sold and we have new neighbours from Ely Cambridgeshire, a couple of about our age.
They have been spoken to about this, and are complying with our wishes!

The current view from our front window!

So, we  still have to deal with Jim's Trust Fund, but we now know the exact financial position.
We've lined up a local financial adviser to deal with that, a meeting sometime next month.
Garden
 Firstly, I think we've seen the last of the swallow's for this year, none about since Wednesday.
The swifts , now long gone had a very productive year locally, the house martins were scarce.
Hoards of sparra, they have done well this year, probably three broods, they have taken over our rear hawthorn hedge for an overnight roost and are constantly walking and bathing on the ponds water lilies leaves.
Both the hedge and the pond will need some work though, hopefully they will not be disturbed too much by that.We're starting now on the tidying up of the other shrubs.








Our fruit trees have been bounteous this year, the eaters are in storage, the plums eaten, or made culinary use of. Our cookers and conference pears aren't falling off yet, but we'll need to do something with them soon.

The grapes are ripening well, what to do with them?
The Car
I did think about getting a new car, and probably would have done, but after 167500 miles,an MOT and a full service all for a tad over £200, it didn't take much thinking about. The Octavia stays, after all it's only a tool!
Shares

My Oil and Gas company took off this week and is likely to continue in that vein for the foreseeable future.
Some of my holdings are now showing a 780% growth, overall as I keep topping up, an average growth of 166% as of yesterday. More holidays!
The other shares, mainly in the cancer research field, are ticking over nicely , with some showing a paper loss.News expected very shortly, with luck.
Holidays
We're off to Rye for a long weekend to celebrate our 41st wedding anniversary.
Not certain if I've mentioned it, but we're of to Boston for Thanksgiving and Pauline has booked us a trip across Canada for this time next year.
Booze
Off to a brewery visit on Monday with the boys from the pub.Bradford here we come!
On Thursday The International Drinking Society has another meeting in London a pub in Russell Square will be our starting point.
Fishing
I've been a touch busy for any fishing, but will probably have a session or two down in the valley.
Very tempted to visit the rivers but they are low at present, never dodged a challenge though, so we'll see what October brings.