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UNDULATE RAY Raja undulata Bucket List status – result 84
A strikingly beautiful fish which even in the least well marked specimens will immediately grab your attention. The kind of fish which if you don't know what it is, then you will almost certainly want to find out. Only one other home waters ray species in any way even slightly resembles it, and then only superficially, that being the small eyed ray which is a species with pointed wing tips, whereas those of the undulate are rounded. But of far greater importance are its markings and colouration. A small eyed ray will be some shade of pale sandy grey with white spots and white lines which tend to run parallel to the edges of the wings. Undulates on the other hand are usually a darker shade of brown, though with the patterning they have laid over it, base colour is a secondary consideration. This comprises a series of obviously darker wavy bands edged by small creamy white spots, with other larger spots of the same colour also woven into the pattern. The underside is white with a darker edging. When I first saw a picture of an undulate ray I fell in love with its incredible colouration and markings to the point that I just had to catch one. At that time, the Channel Islands and the south west of Ireland, in particular Tralee Bay, were the two stand-out venues producing them. Elsewhere they were rare in the extreme, and remained so until they were given protection back in 2009, after which their recovery has been little short of miraculous. I've no doubt they were also being caught along the mid-section of the English Channel, and occasionally in Cornish waters too. But the angling press kept pushing Tralee and the Channel Islands into my face. Particularly Fenit. So when Brian Douglas and myself got the invite to trail my fifteen foot Seahog across to explore Tralee Bay for Bord Failte, the undulate ray was placed very firmly at the top of the must catch species list so far as I was concerned. We were given other objectives too, including monkfish, plus more general exploration. We also fished from the huge concrete commercial jetty after dark where we saw both undulates and small eyed rays caught from the seaward side. That being the case, time was set aside one day to take the boat in close to the jetty, and give it a few hours fishing monofilament flowing traces baited with quite small mackerel strips. By this stage, even at Fenit, undulate ray catches had declined numerically, so it was very much a race against time to grab that particular tick before it was too late. Thankfully, at the first attempt, both of us succeeded. Granted, they were only small fish, probably similar in size to the ones the shore lads had hauled up the night before. But try as we may, both there and elsewhere throughout Tralee Bay with suitable baits properly presented on the bottom, despite catching shed loads of other ray species, we never saw another undulate. Then, as with so many ray species throughout the 1990's on into the new century, this species too went into sharp decline. Whether it was a more severe decline than the others, taking account of its smaller and more localised population numbers, is impossible to say. But certainly a decline severe enough to see it placed on the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) red list of threatened species. 85
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THE ACTUAL BUCKET LIST 100 species
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Colin Penny: skipper of the Weymout
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page The Actual B
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Long Rough Dab 153 Turbot 154 Brill
Page 11 and 12:
Introduction to the Gobies 251 Blac
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Bitterling 322 Gudgeon 323 Bleak 32
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Spain 479 Thailand 479 Tunisia 484
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As always, with any sort of ambitio
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Working in conjunction with these i
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viviparous reproduction, and the me
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possible, use a landing net, and th
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Only when a world record claim was
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pectorals, with the second dorsal d
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The harbour itself completely dries
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Nor can weights be estimated by usi
Page 33 and 34: shark and porbeagle exploits, all o
Page 35 and 36: Mincing also makes demands on the m
Page 37 and 38: Plymouth and some of the surroundin
Page 39 and 40: That however isn't the entire story
Page 41 and 42: Mark Ward, 71 pound Norfolk Tope I
Page 43 and 44: off around Shell Wharf to the south
Page 45 and 46: Network (SSACN), and it was on thes
Page 47 and 48: COMMON SMOOTHHOUND Mustelus mustelu
Page 49 and 50: But you would be wrong. Because exp
Page 51 and 52: There are lots of good smoothhound
Page 53 and 54: But it was a long hard fought campa
Page 55 and 56: The object of the exercise was to c
Page 57 and 58: LESSER SPOTTED DOGFISH Scyliorhinus
Page 59 and 60: One of the few occasions when I can
Page 61 and 62: When they were more numerous than t
Page 63 and 64: With its recent history, can there
Page 65 and 66: Getting back to the history of thos
Page 67 and 68: Ross Johnson, skate from the shore
Page 69 and 70: From the shore, obviously, it won't
Page 71 and 72: I remember one particular fish that
Page 73 and 74: have a lot to do with numbers, dist
Page 75 and 76: That said, I have on occasion been
Page 77 and 78: I once took a bucket full of live m
Page 79 and 80: With fast tides, a profusion of ban
Page 81 and 82: igger than ten pounds, then it's a
Page 83: Spotted Rays also lack rough prickl
Page 87 and 88: An occasional specimen might even t
Page 89 and 90: Most of the time we spent fishing i
Page 91 and 92: Another of those at best rarely rep
Page 93 and 94: A much smaller fish of more souther
Page 95 and 96: As with all species, and for a rang
Page 97 and 98: Our first trips didn't exactly ligh
Page 99 and 100: etween Christmas and the last big t
Page 101 and 102: The Fylde would fish best after a b
Page 103 and 104: Muppets too began to appear in a ra
Page 105 and 106: own boat over there to fish the rou
Page 107 and 108: Colouration and lateral line are tw
Page 109 and 110: Deep diving plugs too, providing th
Page 111 and 112: pollack have a protruding lower jaw
Page 113 and 114: The upper flanks and back have been
Page 115 and 116: From my own experience, certainly f
Page 117 and 118: photograph of a whiting he'd caught
Page 119 and 120: s monofilament to help eliminate se
Page 121 and 122: fishermen, presented as a flapper,
Page 123 and 124: mouth is noticeably dark. There can
Page 125 and 126: LING Molva molva Bucket List status
Page 127 and 128: Mac McAllister, Whitby Ling Now, th
Page 129 and 130: GREATER FORKBEARD Phycis blennoides
Page 131 and 132: In common with all the rocklings, t
Page 133 and 134: SHORE ROCKLING Gaidropsarus mediter
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I used to tag along to collect dise
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As with the more familiar flounder
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fish, little realising that they we
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Though it was still very early in t
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A fish with a distribution potentia
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aits, and a tiny sliver of squid or
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e enough to push them right out wit
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Hooks obviously can be bigger where
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He also uses this description for t
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I spent some time chatting to Paul
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fin extending right around to the h
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Whatever the reason, it did actuall
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From the shore it's slightly differ
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161 And if you are not holding your
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MEGRIM Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis B
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Colouration is brown with some dark
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Dan Burrows, Fleetwood Because of m
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Where there are still a few bass le
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ecruitment in the face of imminent
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As ever, there was always the dange
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The EU is relying on existing enfor
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The total reduction in fishing mort
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south, as it is a common enough fis
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A fish with a large mouth and power
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weaning these otherwise algae graze
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spots, and put in the time both swi
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Ollie Stenning, 8.7.4 Thin Lip reco
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Despite living nearby in Hampshire,
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Simply fold the pectoral fin forwar
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Otherwise, a family of fishes of vi
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epeated off the Yorkshire coast. Ye
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were forced to remove their fightin
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So far as I can ascertain, this is
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different scales starting at the gi
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everywhere as was once the case. Wi
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Quite an unusual visitor to our pat
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Four of us we were drift fishing a
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Physically, the almaco is a slightl
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Already we are seeing that, not onl
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the end of the trip, still with no
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I've had it happen to me on more th
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What clinched that line of thinking
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much stronger sharper hooks, and bu
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Mike Thrussell, Gilthead Bream I ha
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BOGUE Boops boops Bucket List statu
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AXILLARY BREAM Pagellus acarne Buck
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Caught out, instead of reversing th
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The biggest of the four was put at
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So there I am winding in, certain I
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CUCKOO WRASSE Labrus mixtus Bucket
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For deliberately targeting them, th
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The scientific wisdom suggests it t
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As is the trend with most of the gu
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In this particular case however, re
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Although I've never caught one myse
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So you can expect to see them in mo
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The knock on effect would also sign
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Phill Williams, Shad on fly Unusual
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THE GOBIES Potentially quite a larg
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Colouration varies between reddish
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TOMPOT BLENNY Parablennius gattorug
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BLACK FACED BLENNY Tripterygion del
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A very dark blue-grey fish over its
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If it's a conger, the eye will be l
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Yes, conger can be a handful. Dange
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to make a short flowing 10/0 hook t
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Anyway, a good hour went by without
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More recently, that trend has given
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A fish well capable of weights well
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eam covered in a mosaic of heavy sc
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Trigger fish are not overly demandi
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Distribution extends throughout all
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exaggerated long filaments stretchi
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sometimes lighter vertical bars on
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GREATER WEEVER Trachinus draco Buck
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SHORT SPINED SEA SCORPION Myoxoceph
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The anal fin follows a similar patt
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Colouration is sandy brown with a s
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By far the biggest numbers I have e
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RED BAND FISH Cepola rubescens Buck
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FIFTEEN SPINED STICKLEBACK Spinchia
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After spawning, the adults drop bac
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So not a likely repeat prospect for
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As for mirrors, commons, leathers a
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That was it. We would film a demons
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Granted, Richard Walker was from a
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Anglers however tend to have mixed
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It took us some searching to locate
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RUDD Scardinius erythrophthalmus Bu
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Match anglers love them too, as all
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ait on their heads and immediately
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BARBEL Barbus barbus Bucket List st
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In addition to that, Mike also had
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More towards the back-end however,
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Looking at recent reports of catch
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Let's start with the feel of the fi
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distances on a regular basis to fis
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I'd never been to East Anglia befor
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Phill Williams, small Zander locati
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Not exactly a fish to set the world
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Dave and Paul went straight for the
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For a whole range of reasons you co
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Let's also not lose sight of the fa
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You only have to look at the wider
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villa I stayed in. Using worms boug
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THREE SPINED STICKLEBACK Gasteroste
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Included in the adipose finned spec
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Other boats also came ashore with s
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Theoretically, a very straight forw
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particular tenkara fly fishing come
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A scale count from the adipose fin
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Living in a three dimensional world
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the hook inside a small ball of the
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Colouration is typically dark green
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In Grayling circles, I have to say
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around one hundred and forty or so
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across the lake, and would therefor
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There were certainly less fish abou
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One day, Bob Fitchie and I decided
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Inspired by Wally's catch, John and
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PART TWO BEYOND HOME WATERS THE CAT
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Cape Cod is a venue where bass in t
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The obvious problem was that Dave,
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FLORIDA - BISCAYNE CANAL When I fis
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So why go to the trouble of fishing
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It's just a pity that the hundred o
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This is controlled by a single lock
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idea was that as the light faded, t
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You could drop a live mullet or blu
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Having fished there on a number of
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getting access to big fish too for
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and reels supplied on-board, which
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Paul Bennett hooked up a huge snapp
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As one local party boat angler put
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The entrance can get quite busy wit
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Each morning at breakfast we would
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407 What we had not expected was ei
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cameras, this went into a rucksack
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The fishing itself was straight for
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ottom. It was all bait fishing with
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Smaller asp on the other hand tend
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also run this river in their millio
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Surprisingly, for the size of these
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Eventually it appeared within reach
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On one occasion, as soon as I touch
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shark, which, along with a fish I h
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fixed spool reels. Fortunately we h
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As it would turn out, this was the
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A stretch of land separated from th
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The food was very nice. Fresh lobst
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What you needed to do was cast as f
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He in turn blamed the local lads on
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against the concrete above us and h
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The one remaining option was to go
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More important still, so too were t
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Our problem was catching the necess
Page 447 and 448:
Unfortunately, everything seemed to
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was emptied, carried to us by scant
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me there from Calangute where I was
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In less than half an hour it was mi
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said, as I'm not one for aimlessly
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This happened a couple more times b
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inside edge of the reef. As the sto
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limited time, we were satisfied, an
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Phill Williams, Puerto Vallarta Jac
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Some days he would even walk into t
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Were it not for the many bite-offs,
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Gurnards very similar to our tub gu
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Cod though were always the number o
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up into the jungle. So late in fact
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As was often the case, the chat wen
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things turned out, it was nothing o
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SPAIN I've only ever been to mainla
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These eventually turned out to be f
Page 483 and 484:
In terms of approach, we used a ver
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PART THREE INDIVIDUAL TARGETS THE C
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Dove-tailing very nicely into this
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I suggested in my representations,
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Fortunately, most of the recorded s
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not mentioned in this section of th
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Opportunities to realistically and
Page 497 and 498:
Hamish Currie is the only home wate
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through holes in bushes, around sub
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to adjust the working depth, depend
Page 503 and 504:
One of the recorded audio interview
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Wels Catfish - now excluded from th
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Okay, so you can access much of it
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With this mind we motored off down
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As a sort of prediction as well as
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Phill Williams & Johan Burger with
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Let's look at the pro's and con's o
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It may surprise some people here wh
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kayaks tied up to some of the buoys
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Because of the geography involved,
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I even tried bottom fishing with sm
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PART FOUR OTHER STUFF PERIFERAL & H
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magnetometer behind the boat as the
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Luckily, Pete had installed a bilge
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But endless pages of print unfortun
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And now here we are with the bucket
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with no relevant qualifications, I
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Deformed surviving Tope Most other
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you dip the sampling can in at the
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acteria feeding on it, or other inp
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separate bucket for reintroduction
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RESIDS 0.18 0.16 0.14 0.12 0.10 2 3
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An asteroid impact 66 million years
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As a point of balance, I should als
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a vested financial interest in mopp
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Podcast Interview 8: Graeme Pullen,
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Podcast Interview 33: Zyg Gregorek,
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Podcast Interview 55: Dave Beecham,
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Podcast Interview 74: Justin Anwyl
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Podcast Interview 95: Sven Hille, B
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shore, and a 1000 pound fish from a
Page 565 and 566:
Podcast Interview 134: Mike Heylin,
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Podcast Interview 155: Ally Gowans,
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Podcast Interview 176: Terry Mosele
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his job had to fish with many of th
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Smoothhound at surface: Photo Phill
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Dave Devine Haddock trio: Photo Phi
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Gibraltar harbour: Photo Phill Will
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Anchovy: Photo Phill Williams. Phil
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Grass Carp: Photo Bill Rushmer. Vir
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Char in breeding livery: Photo Phil
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Danny Cove 200 pound Stingray: Phot
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My angling hero & mentor, Davy Agne
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The Lesser Spotted curse: Photo Phi
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THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

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