Chinese Military Shovel WJQ-308 - Gotta Get One!

Stash this in the back of the car and you need never go without a tool that can level a bank, lop off branches, snip barbed wire, hack back rushes, serve as an oar, double as a saw, a hammer, a cleaver, grappling hook, pry, bottle opener, can opener, you name it and it does it. Would make a serviceable weed and snag rake too, no doubt. Only weighs two pounds but made of hardened steel. Has to be the best multi-purpose tool I have ever seen for those 101 unforeseen problems that crop up in a day's fishing but can't be solved, and for the long stay angler, indispensable.

Great video here, and set to the Silverado theme tune too!

Not cheap at around £50, but looks good to me!

Here's a review and spec

A Record Canal Zander? Or What...

Breaking news of a massive Ashby Canal zander had me wetting myself this morning. Checking my inbox Russel Hilton of Tales from the Towpath had alerted me to a Total Coarse Fishing news item so off I went to read it and sure enough there it was with two anglers holding it up at arms length in what looks like a pub and grinning their heads off. It was great story and very entertaining but the fish met a sad demise because it was killed and filleted, soaked in milk and eaten by our intrepid duo.

Wayward Chestnuts, Rioting Foxhounds and a Plucking Pheasant — The Spills and Spoils of a Day in the Country

What had started out as a mission to catch a few redfins, and big ones hopefully, soon transformed into an Ealing-style-comedy-turned-real-life-entertainment featuring a motley cast of clowns and crazed creatures all vying for centre stage whilst a guffawing audience of anglers looked on in bewildered amusement.

Flood!

'Flood' is an emotive word. A headache for those responsible for making sure they don't happen (but can't and know it) a potential disaster about to happen whenever the weather turns nasty for those who choose to live and work where they occur, but only ever a pain for anglers, a 'flood' is when the river rises over its banks, and it's as simple and as straightforward as that. If it doesn't burst its banks, then it's not a 'flood.'

Itchen Grayling & Roach — Upstairs Downstairs

It rained rather heavily in the South Friday night. I think the whole party of seven were really looking forward to a nice clean Saturday on the Dorset Stour then a day's easy trotting on the Itchen Sunday, but it looked like we might very well get neither because by early Saturday morning river levels for both were skyrocketing fast. Half the party had set off for the Stour for dawn, were experiencing difficulties there by the time Keith and I set off from Coventry at 11am and by the time we were half way down the M40, they'd thrown in the towel and retreated to the free stretch of the Itchen below Gaters Mills for easier conditions and hopefully a half chance of some decent fishing.