Publishing a Fishing Book - Word Imperfect (Pt3)

I can't move on to the topics I promised end of last post. My brain fried. There's too many contradictory signals out there in etherland telling me one thing and the other and I'm afraid that without the truths that come only from, err, what's that damn ism...?

Never can remember it when I need to...

... empiricism! - one can never know what to expect.

Roving Zeds 50th Birthday Bash

I'm now a nifty-fifty.... To celebrate I invited a load of the bloggers taking part in this years challenge over to the local canals to take part in a roving zander match. The turn out was magnificent with at least ten turning out for the bash and with Phil Smith, Merv Wilkinson and his grandson coming along for a chat too.

Publishing a Fishing Book - Punk Publishing (Pt2)

Having examined the traditional publishing route and been struck by the massive inequities apparent within it, you just have to look into the alternatives. Ten years ago there was probably only one other alternative apart from becoming a publisher yourself, and that was to publish through a 'vanity publisher', an operation who would create your book for you and sell you all the services that the publisher would ordinarily farm out.

Publishing a Fishing Book - 90% (Pt1)

You may have considered writing an angling book, even got some way towards writing one or perhaps wrote a few chapters but put the project to bed meaning to pick it up again at a later date and finish the damn thing. You may even have written the whole damn thing, looked at it later and thought better of it with the benefit of critical distance.

Sometimes, Fish Don't Bite

Now, when I say that 'sometimes, fish don't bite', I don't mean that you're fishing in the wrong place or that you've no fish out front or you're no good at what you're doing or perhaps the baits you're fishing aren't what they want or the way you're presenting it is askew or any of the million and one other excuses that can be made up to justify all the wasted time and money spent on trying to get bites in the first place...

Canal Carp - Twenty Four Hours

The sixth four hour session after the canal carp and it would be the last whether I caught or not. I should have tried in summer when the fish would have been very active, as now winter approaches, warm weather or not the fish are in transition, assuming their winter habits and lying up in their cold weather habitats.

Guess the Weight of the Stinky Eel Competition - Results

Yesterday's Guess-the-Weight-of-the-Stinky-Eel-Competition has run for 24 hours, a winner has emerged, so it's now closed. My thanks to everyone who took part.

It was an amazingly close-run thing with most of the entrants guessing within half a pound, which is remarkable as I would not have had a clue from a picture and would have taken a stab at it in the dark. As one or two remarked, eels don't weigh half as much as you think they do and though this fish was the kind of fish that the towpath grapevine would have as 'six pounder', it was wasn't quite that ...

Gurn wins a pair of brand spanking new Jeff Hatt signature widget float with new improved 'unbreakable' carbon stem and free, unused, starlight! The lucky, lucky man... 

Product shown approx life size. Batteries not included

Canal Carp - Gutted

Another crack at those canal carp seemed a good idea yesterday evening. Warm and pleasant for the time of year and with a little light rain forecast just after dark, not windy, overcast and the moon on my moon-phase widget a neat half-pie, I really thought that tonight would be the night. I had hemp to tempt the fish to get their heads down and stop giving me endless liners and a pocket full of Quality Street trick or treat left-overs from Halloween to make myself queasy on. Molly was up for it, I was up for it, and hopefully the carp were up for it too.