JennyMorgan

Hi Bonzo, will this do for an avatar? http://www.studdying-with-bonzo.co.uk/Images/book.jpg

Clive, just to be clear, the yard between Robinsons & the Maltings.

Sorry, got that one wrong then. No, not Robinsons, the one immediately to the East of the Maltings.

I must be the most impatient piker that I know! Half an hour tops in any one swim, lobbing lure, no takes & off I go! I like to find the pike rather than the pike finding me. As a kid I once fished with Dennis Pye, a friend of my Dad, at that time I had no idea what a privilege that was. At the moment the bream are being very co-operative, white maggot being the bait of choice!

In the EDP Friday 21st, can't find it on the Net but give Knight Benjamin a call on 01603 624244, Work-shop & room for eight boats. My guess is that it is the old Richardsons/Collins/TopCraft yard. Be good to see it up and running again.

The problems of broadcasting success is that your location soon becomes public knowledge. A few years ago I was witnessed catching a 34 lb pike. The following weekend I counted more than fifty rod tips within a hundred yards of where I had caught her. Thank goodness it didn't make the AT, every man & his dog would have been there!

Poor little begger probably had one of those black, p.v.c., wooly lined helmets with ear flaps that we all wore in those far off days and anyway, hoods were for pixies and fairies! Peter must have returned from piking trips with knees so cold that they would have been blue! Mr Crabtree should have treated him to a padded, all in one, WD surplus tank-suit or similar. Mrs Crabtree, although we never met her, could easily have shortened the arms and legs! Us kids weren't softies back then, but there are extremes! Actually I had my first pair of long trousers when I was fourteen! And those I borrowed off an older cousin, it was for a job interview. How things have changed. How I remember the cold when we went out to sea cod fishing in the winter.

Pubs, to be honest, yes, they have been a part of my life. Constant swearing, smoking and ridiculously unaffordable beer prices finally put paid to my regular drinking days. Today it's quite possible to find a pub where swearing is thankfully rare and the smoking has been banned, apart from those laughable e-f*g dummy things, and food rather than booze has become the draw. It's now rare that my wife and I go pubbing just for a pint, a good pub group, there are a few, or food being the criterior.

Mr Crabtree, ummmm, that man who, rod in hand, took small boys dressed in shorts out fishing in snow and wind that would today bring our railways to a standstill a week before it happened!

I often wonder just how up to-date their reports are? When both Angling Times & Anglers Mail were published on a Friday, a long time ago, the previous weekend's results were published. Now, being published on a Tuesday, the reports are long out of date by the time they hit the newsdesk.

The Bell Inn at St Olaves, a scene that is little changed in over a 100 years. Cars still drive in the middle of the road!!

Which sin is that?

Errr, isn't there a lock at Oulton Broad?! I hope that tinny escaped without a broken back.

Oi, hands off the Shard! It's a stunning building by any standards. Not so sure about the 'Pineapple' though. Does architecture and development always have to relate to income? Surely there is room for vanity & aesthetics over dosh in our cities? Cramming Wroxham's riverbank with holiday homes to maximise income per square millimeter really shouldn't be the B all and end all of life, should it?

I agree that some holiday homes are abortions, witness one or two of the newer developments in the Brundall area. Holiday homes do bring cash into the area, welcome, but in doing so what folk come here to experience and enjoy is sometimes, or even often, spoilt or destroyed. As far as Wroxham is concerned there is good and bad in abundance, perhaps too much so. On balance I think that Labrador has a valid concern. There can be attractive holiday homes, but do they have to be at the cost of working boatyards?

Only tuppence?

Light Craft, blinkin' 'eck, Strow, didn't that do an AA style dive some fifty plus years ago! Strangely enough I bought the complete run of Light Craft, all in neat bindings, for 50p at a car boot a few years ago. Got to say that the reality didn't meet memory. Not much interest when I put them on e-bay. Sold them to a dealer in the end. Found the records of speedboat racing on Oulton Broad interesting.

Chris, I have bought Watercraft from Lathams, Potter Heigham in the past, top read!

For Wooden Boat see: http://www.woodenboat.com/

Strowager, amen to that. For a review to be credible it has to be genuine and honest, in the end I sincerely believe that that is the only way forward. Punters are perhaps more savvy than the redundant editor gave them credit for. By the way, Wooden Boat is great for folk who like wielding paint brushes!

Now't wrong with shooting, so long as it's sustainable and vulnerable species are left alone. Ex cricketers with vested interests, at least he makes no pretence about his shooting activities. Me, I no longer shoot, unless it's with a camera, but that's my choice. The RSPB should stick to birds, not politics.

I lost all respect for the RSPB when they started tampering with the Broads and Broads politics. http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/A%20greener%20future%20for%20the%20Broads_tcm9-171522.pdf

Monica, it doesn't always work for me either. Mentioned this a few weeks ago.

Folk who can't tie hitches, bends or mungles! http://www.animatedknots.com/cleatvert/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30105445 It could mean that free-houses loose their advantage, I suppose.