Anybody got any fishing recommendations?

[The Local Ned]

(18 April 2012, 20:51)The Local Ned Wrote: Ok , I will give you some tips on how to catch BAIT to catch game fish with , all you need is a wine bottle , some line , and a few bits of bread - less than one slice will fill 2 or 3 traps.

1. Find a small stream or river with MINNOWS in it.

2. Get a wine bottle - it MUST be of the type with the inverted cone at the bottom.

3. Very carefully smash the 'cone' open , do not break it all , you only need to make a large enough hole about an inch and a half across in dia.

4. Put a handful of bread inside the bottle ( using the open neck of course ) either screw lid back on or fix cork back into it to seal it.

5. Tie a line to the minnow trap , fix around the neck.

6. Observe the water to see where the minnows are 'shoaling' ( usually medium to fast running) , enter the water and sink the bottle here ,with the neck end pointing upstream , if neccessary weigh down with some small rocks.

7. Wait and observe the bottle - once you see the bread floating at the top of it starting to move around ,you know there are minnows inside , wait half an hour or so and pull it back in using the line.

8. Empty bottle and throw soggy mashed up bread into the water , and minnows into some form of container , refill as req'd with bread - unless you keep the water in the container cold and aeriated they wont live too long , but the water you catch them from probably has trout too so you wont need to travel far to fish using them.

+ corks can be used as small floats for fishing too.
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Alternatively
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Get a couple of large plastic coke bottles , say 2L , cut a good part of the neck off one and the bottom off another , put the neck inside the bottle with the cut bottom and fix it securely to the bottle with no bottom ( the cut neck should be facing into the cut bottom part ), metal paper clips twisted through the plastic are good for securing this.

Baiting and trapping methods are exactly the same as the wine bottle one , with a line fixed onto the trap to bring it back in without getting wet again.

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Using the minnow as bait.

Is quite gruesome , but needs must.

1. Buy a 'baiting needle' for fishing , buy some lead 'barrel weights' too.These are hollow lead weights.

2. Put you lead weight on your fishing line by threading it through the hollow part ,tie a small loop at the end once its through it. 'flare' out the bottom facing opening slightly if req'd. (The eye of the hook might need to fit inside it depending on which hooks you have.)
We always used 'tied hooks' but as the method is illegal here now not many shops have them.

3. Grab a minnow , give it a squeeze it , its mouth pops open , stick your baiting needle in through the open mouth , down through the wee minnow till its just poking out through the minnows bumhole. Fix your loop of line to the baiting needle and pull needle completely through the minnow and out the bum , hopefully with the line still attached.

4. Slide the barrel weight into the mouth of the minnow and it should fit nicely inside the body of the minnow giving it added weight for casting and sinking. Tie your fishing hook at the other end just thread the loop through the eye of the hook and pass hook through that again so it tightens on itself. Carefully push hook back up through minnows bumhole till its nearly hidden.

Fish - cast upriver at a 45o angle and let the minnow swing round in the flow till the line starts swinging back in towards you , retrieve , move a few feet and try again.

This method emptied waters around me up here when I was younger and was henceforth forever banned. Highly illegal to use now.

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Incidentally a long / slim sharpened darning needle will work better than the newer baiting needles that are out now.