This and that

 Bill and Sonny Warren

---

I've had a letter from Bob Buteux asking me to put the following in the Barbel Society members magazine.
I spoke to him today and said it wasn't my job anymore and that the next issue is not until March next year, so I asked him if I could have his permission to put the detail on the internet.
This he gave and the following is his request:

I am writing with the hope of contacting any old acquaintances of the Warren brothers who maybe fished with or stayed with them at their boarding house in Southbourne.
I have many photographs and some ephemera about them, and my plan is to put a book together to tell of their exploits and fish they caught. What I need is additional written information to add to that of my own, from others who knew them, any stories of interest, snippets, in fact anything whatsoever about the lives of these two remarkable anglers. 


Please message me if you have any thing for Bob and I'll give you his contact details.

Health

Had my 3 month check over for diabetes on Tuesday with the specialist nurse, still OK, so I continue to control the problem with diet,not drugs.

There was a show of a typically related protein in  a urine sample given a few days before, so I now have one 5 mg tablet a day to take to ensure my kidneys are being looked after.

Next check up in 6 months

Holiday

We've booked our 40th wedding anniversary trip this week. 

We shall be off to Helsinki for 3 nights, followed by a 12 night river cruise from St Petersburg to Moscow and all stops in between.

Looking forward to that already, a trip to these cities is something The Boss has wanted to do for some time.

Floods

I didn't make my usual trip down to Sutton on Trent this week because as reported on the Environment Agency site, levels were above the most recent highest level of January 2008. As it turned out they weren't that far off the highest level recorded.Photographs from the fishery head baliff.

The river is about 400 yards from the end of this entrance road

This is to the left of the entrance gate at the last floodbank, the content of the old river course is the green stuff!

Looks like a trip down to the ponds in the valley, or maybe a fish rescue?

In my mail today

Historic Legal Victory

Fish Legal has won one of the biggest cases in its 64 year history by securing an injunction to stop a hydropower development on the River Trent at Sawley Weir. We hope that this case will send a clear signal to hydropower developers that they cannot plan or build hydropower turbines without getting permission from anglers first.
The ruling by the Judge shows that the Environment Agency failed to give proper consideration to angling when it granted the developer an impoundment licence which is now subject to a court injunction. We hope that in future the regulator will pay greater attention to the rights of anglers before giving licences to companies seeking to profit from taxpayer subsidies.

What's more, the Canal and River Trust (previously British Waterways) - the new waterways charity established to promote recreational use of our nation's waterways - was an investor in this development, and tried to defend the damaging scheme at court.

Fish Legal was acting for its member club the Pride of Derby & Derbyshire Angling Association, which was involved in the first ever major case taken by Fish Legal (then known as the Anglers' Co-operative Association) against British Celanese Ltd in 1952. The club would never have been able to defend itself in court without the expertise and financial backing of Fish Legal, which has covered all the costs and risks of this very complex and expensive case. This in turn is only possible because of the subscriptions and donations of the generous members of Fish Legal and the Angling Trust. Many thanks for your support, which enables us to fight to protect fish, and fishing. Read more about this story HERE.

Politicians speak out in The Angle
Your membership magazine, The Angle, will be landing on your doormat in the next week. Keep an eye out for exclusive political interviews in the magazine with the new Secretary State for the Environment Owen Paterson as well as the Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon and his opposition counterpart Tom Harris. They express their clear and forthright views about hydropower and also about cormorants, universal canoe access and bass minimum landing sizes, among other issues. Read quotes from their interviews HERE.

IMPORTANT: If you aren't a member of the Angling Trust and Fish Legal, please join today. It only takes a few minutes to join online at www.anglingtrust.net or over the phone and costs less than 50p a week - please call 01568 620447 during office hours.

If you are a member and know someone who hasn't joined the Angling Trust and Fish Legal yet, please forward them this e-mail by clicking here and urge them to join today.

Just another day.

Fishing

I've been waiting in all morning watching it raining heavily and it still is, so I thought and have just decided to venture out to the car. I still had all my soaking wet gear in the car from yesterday's session at Sutton on Trent.
It wasn't a very nice day generally with strong downstream winds, gusting at times and as darkness approached the fine drizzle, that had been about on the wind on and off all day, became something more.
Rob and I sat it out into darkness for a couple of hours before the dash to put everything in our respective vehicles before we got even wetter.
The Barbel Society stretch at Sutton, for those who don't know, is situated beside a marsh and vehicle access over that marsh in  very wet conditions can lead to vehicles trapped, at times up to their axles. Poor driving being the main problem!!
I tend not to venture on there on those occasions and fish a more accessible part of the fishery, or just walk the bank.
So, on arrival after unlocking the gate, I could see that Rob had parked on the marsh side of the flood bank.
 I 'phoned him and asked for his verdict on the marsh's suitability to drive over. "It's ok, just be a bit careful", so I drove over, slipped and slid a little bit as I manoeuvred away from the obvious swampy looking bits and arrived ok. About half way along the mile and a half of bank that forms the fishery.
Anyway back to the fishing, I decided not to go for the zander, this location on the fishery needs a bit of a chuck, to get into the boat channel and after a couple of attempts with my limited zander gear and a few free gifts of sprat to the river gods, I decided to stick to a two rod approach to what may be feeding.

The only boat all day

The result one chub a bit over two pounds on lobworm.
Rob faired better a few yards downstream of me,  four or five chub, a bream and a barbel of about 8lb, mostly on his home made boilies, and a few of the earlier fish on maggot.

Still bright 23 hours later!

I gave him a bit of a start on my last cast of the day, when one of the clip on starlights came off and floated off downstream, bobbing "on and off" in the waves, he thought it was an eye he saw,  not of  the otter though!
After packing up we were both very wary of the trip back across the marsh in the pitch black, dodging the dips in the dark is not as easy, anyway we got off ok with Rob having just a little loss of traction and a re-manoeuvre to get over the rise onto the track.
We decided to go in the Lord Nelson, not that we needed an excuse, but traffic isn't light on the A1 at 6pm. So we had a couple of pints each of Grafter's fine ale, wished each other safe journeys, and headed off in different directions.

The Car

On the way home, I noticed a rubbing noise coming from the drivers side particularly as I took the roundabouts, so needing a pee, I found a quiet country lane and headed down there.
On my three point turn to get out of the lane there was a crunch on my bumper and something fell into  the dark road I hoped it wasn't the bumper, it wasn't but it had come away, just a little bit!
To my untrained eye,laying on the road was the sump protector, the same one that didn't protect my sump over a year ago when I holed it crossing an unseen rocky ridge on a Scunthorpe Pisces water and which was cobbled together to attach it to the frame. I must have hit one of those dips on the marsh on the way back a bit hard.
Methinks a new one is needed.

More fishing related stuff

Having already three centrepin reels in my ownership, a Ray Walton Rolling Pin, a Purist II and a Heritage, I succumbed for some unknown reason to this a Rapidex. 
Ah well, I wonder what I should do with it!!

Talking of ebay

I have offered to sell for an old friend all of his fishing tackle, he is unable to continue fishing because of severe arthritis in his hands.
The gear covers all aspects of angling, some good rods I'm told, including a cane fly rod and some Hardy's, At the moment I've started with a few of his reels as a tester for him, keep an eye out if interested.
Here's just one, you can find the rest easily enough     Item number       181027187162

Disease, farming, food and fishing

George

You will recall I mentioned the farmer who owns the ponds I fish had contracted Weils Disease.
The latest news is that after being moved from Louth and Grimsby hospitals where they were unable to give him the required care, he was taken to Leeds, he is now in recovery.
In fact he was given 24 hours to live at one stage and his family had said their goodbyes. There was a potential need for a liver transplant, but he has pulled through and is on life support systems.
So be careful out there fishing with your cuts and grazes and when eating, it's rare and it caught George unaware, but they are reporting more rats around us.


Next years lamb chops!

They are in production, the Tup is currently in the field next door doing his job!
Having tried half a shoulder, a couple of cutlets and the kidneys from this years lamb,I have to say the flavour brings back memories of our annual buy from Noggin the milkman/smallholder in Castlethorpe. It's taste far out does the supermarket stuff.
We used to get half a pig, some good beef and ducks from him too. We've found a good butcher for beef and the poulterer in Louth has some good ducks, pork has been variable, so we've not been tempted to top up the freezer...yet.


Tomorrow

I shall be going down to the ponds tomorrow for some more "deadbait" as I shall be on the Trent most of Tuesday doing a bit of everything.