DougP

Another vote for ginger biscuits, and ginger beer for humans. Really seems to settle their stomachs.

Used one when I was a kid on a school trip, didn't really believe it and all we got was jibberish. Next day, one of the lads in our class dropped down dead in front of us, heart just stopped. Still not quite sure what to make of it.

You just need a mate who works for Orvis The real biggies were in some of the trout farms, but nobody in their right mind would let you dangle a line in their stew ponds. I remember being at TVT farm on the Itchen and just watching these massive eels swimming around the bottom of some of the pools and knowing we could never fish for them. Fat on a ready diet of pellet and dead trout.

If you fish an overstocked day-ticket then carp fishing can be a lazy sport. Soon as you start fishing 60 acre pits with only one carp per acre, it gets a bit more challenging. I try and do a bit of everything; sea, coarse and fly, but carp fishing is my main focus. Carp fishing has, for me, become more time-consuming. I don't just turn up and start fishing- I spend days walking the banks, I drive down after work to pre-bait regularly, I keep in touch with what has been caught. I think all the different types of fishing require different skills- I bet a carp angler would strugg

I fish just downstream (and occasionally around Reading itself) but have never had one from the Thames- were you targeting them, or what were you fishing for? Best results I've had were in old estate lakes that are stream fed, but not fished any for a few years now. Anguillicola looks set to do some serious damage, the number of eels around has already plummeted due to elver harvesting so there's not much of a population to fight back.

Not round our way, got pulled by a regular panda car doing 60 in a 30 and were simply told we were lucky they didn't have a camera as they weren't a traffic car and to drive more slowly in future.

I remember hearing a tale a few years back... think it was in one of the airgun mags... that a guy stopped at the petrol station to fill his tank up on the way to his permission, wearing realtree. Someone in the queue started chatting to him "hunting or fishing mate?" and he told him he was going rabbiting, at which point all the checkout staff refused to serve him because they objected... wasn't until he asked to speak to the manager and pointed out that if nobody would serve him then he couldn't pay for the petrol he'd already put in his tank that he actually got anywhere.

That collar looks familiar.... And believe me, there is no way it'll come off. Don't know what's stronger, the thick brass plate or the way it's attached!

I was worried I might have it so rung up NHS direct, but all I got was crackling

£2000 for a website? I'd expect it to walk and train the dogs for that, not just sell them- what features have you put on it? PM me and I'll have a look but I know facebook-esque sites packed with features being developed for under £500. Also you can't use pictures because they're "public domain", that's why there are stock photo companies supplying photos along with rights to use them. Public domain is a different concept to "published". Make sure you get an email from anyone supplying photos stating that they own the rights to the pics and give you permission to use them. Not having a

Think arable land's gone up quite a chunk over the past year or two, around 30% if I remember correctly, due to the rising cost of wheat and other crops.

Rack and Manger is somewhere you'd soon become acquainted with so may as well take a trip there now; turn left out of the lane onto the main road, about a mile down on your left it's there on the corner of a turning. Never checked out the Gunsmiths in the town centre, it's near the cinema, down the road opposite O'Neills. Good pubs in the town centre...... Royal Oak springs to mind, but generally the pubs are pretty decent. Orvis shop down the road in Stockbridge is worth a visit if you're feeling flush, but if you don't mind travelling a bit further and want to see a real Aladdin'