In the fishing world there is often a monster lurking around the corner. Something that is going to come along and ruin it for us all.Over the last few decades we've had the anti bloods sports brigade threatening us. We had the lead shot ban to get over and we were all going to see our fish stocks eaten by shoals of zander. According to the experts these fish were going to spread like wildfire, they would wipe out all our fisheries and if we wanted to carry on fishing we'd all have to buy some piker's tackle because there would be nothing else left to fish for.
Now we have another threat, the signal crayfish. It came from North America in the 1970s and is set to wipe out our own crayfish and anything else it can find to eat including our fish. During last summer I caught a crayfish a nice little fellow he was too. It took a single grain jolly green giant on a number 14, so it must've been hungry. Here is picture I took of him before I put him back.
I am assuming it is a signal crayfish because of the red claw and it was a big specimen. In the olden days they reckoned our native cray fish were a good bait for chub. Well no chub was going to get it gums around this little beast I can tell you.
Whether or not the crayfish does as much damage as the doom and gloom Johnnies predict is left to be seen.
I can only go back to the threat of the dreaded zander. That was thirty odd years ago and I still haven't caught one. By the way if anybody is having trouble with signal crayfish let me know. There's a company in Oxford who are looking to find supplies. They will come and net your pool and get rid of most of them for you. Apparently signal crayfish are good to eat and this company supplies a number of restaurants with them. Strange old world ain't it, some folk will put anything in their mouths.
Writing
In my last post about writing I talked about the best way to get yourself published by writing letters to newspapers. Writing letters is easy but you need to follow certain rules. There are a number of these but two of the most important I have listed below.
1 Make sure you understand the political persuasion of the paper. Your chances of getting a letter supporting labour policy in Tory biased paper are extremely thin. It is easy to work out which political party they support by reading a few articles and the editorial. Most papers don't just make it clear who they would like to see running the country they also make a point of trying to influence the rest of us to see it their way.
2 Make sure your letter is the right size. Count the number of words in the longest and the shortest letters on the page of a current copy and make sure your word count comes to a total between the two. Also count the number of words used in the sentences. Some you will find like short sentences while others like them to be longer or mixed. It is up to you to follow the same style if you want to see one of your letters in print. I am currently researching and writing a book about freelance writing and it should be available in the spring. If you are interested please let me know and I'll keep you informed of publication dates.
In my next post I'm going to give out details of where you can download one of my earlier short stories. It wasn't published, perhaps it wasn't good enough but I thought I'd share it with readers of this blog and welcome any comments. By doing so we might all learn a thing or two about improving our writing.
I'll leave you with another canal picture. This one was taken in Stone, Staffordshire and shows the back of the old Joule's brewery. When I first took to the drink, Joule's ale was 1 shilling and 8 pence a pint or about 9p in new money. I guess I'm giving my age away now, but it would be nice to hear from anybody who can remember the distinct flavour of Joules Ale.
Finally here's a reminder that a sample of my book, Fishing: Learn from the Tips & Laugh at the Tales" can be downloaded completely free of charge if you follow the link below which will take you to my writing website.
Click here
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