neil r

Saw one over my pen in Great Harwood this afternoon

Was only talking about red kites with a mate at the weekend saying we were surprised they haven’t turned up round us yet . We used to see a fair few round Harrogate when I used to go every week a few years ago but the closest I’ve seen one to home is on a roadkill pheasant on the blubberhouses . When I was the falconer on the tip I got sent a Pere/saker from a site in Oxford that had taken a dislike to red kites and done 4 in a week . The bloke I worked for said there was that many they couldn’t fly the bird there anymore because it would end up causing trouble and cost him the contract

Just had half an hour on my way home , had 1 Jack about 3lb and this wasp . Think I’ve said on here before that they just disappear over winter round here and don’t start showing again till April and this is my 3rd in 3 trips , not many but it won’t be long till they are back in numbers

Managed to upload the photo this time , no idea what was stopping it before . Had it and the jacks on my usual pinky/purple morning dawn colour nimble copy . This colour must catch 90% of the pike and perch I catch

Just had a an hour this morning had the usual few jacks and managed my first perch of the year . Tried uploading a photo but it won’t upload for some reason

You can still get the real thing , they just don’t sell it to the general public . I’ve just done an engine oil/creosote mix on this pallet wood chicken run , hopefully lasts a good few years but 40 years is some going .

Just picked this handmade one up . It’s done with pippy oak , padouk , American walnut, maple , purple heart and another that I can’t remember. Going to band it up in a minute and try it out tomorrow

Nothing wrong with that . I normally use about 3-4ft of 0.19 Preston reflo so if I need to retire a jighead on I’m not leaving things too short . I’ve never bothered tying a loop , just a blood knot to the jig . I prefer a 4 turn water knot for braid to mono because it’s a smaller knot that’s easy to tie on the bank but the Albrights a good knot aswell

I use size 4 with the 40mm and size 2 with the 65mm . I also mainly use the 40mm size unless the waters really coloured and then I’ll step up to the 65’s I just straight retrieve them as slow as needed to keep them above the rubbish and weed . I don’t bother jigging them up and down because I’d lose a lure every cast because of the rubbish in the canal round here .

Been out today just using this colour , had 9 jacks and had another 5 drop off because I’d crushed the barb . My mate was using a two tone pink version and had 6 and lost a few aswell

Sounds about right for fox , their pike gear isn’t the best despite what the marketing and sponsored anglers say . Lure factors is where I get my jig heads from . I pay £7.70 for 20 , 3gm size 4 delivered . You can even get them in all sorts of colours for a bit extra if you want . Have a look at these supercontinent lures , they’re a copy of the crazyfish nimble but every bit as good , just cheaper. They are all I take on the canal and colour k is what I catch most pike and perch on . Size 4 jig for the 40mm and 2 for the 65mm . You can get them off aliexpress , temu and I think Amazon

They sometimes do the month and year the other way so that’s September, 1980 , 1st revision

You can date it by undoing the screw you can see in the picture and taking the side plate off . There’s a 6 digit number on the side plate like this in one in the photo , 097100 - 09 being September , 71 being the year and 00 being the original version . If it had 01 or 02 at the end it would be first or second revision . If you’re planning on selling it the 507 sells for more than the others so don’t let it go too cheap

It’s the same for me , tried it but didn’t like it at all

I know , surprised myself with that especially since I was trying some heavier bands out