Andy135

Ooh! They're one of the good ones. Ouch.

Great that you got out there and caught some fish, and a good write up too. 👍 Interesting to see your tally of SPJ species. Wonder what it is about the jig that attracts the difference species vs shads? The action of the jigs is very different to the shads, maybe it triggers a different instinct, or is less easy to inspect, and therefore reject, before making a lunge.

Bit of a dad joke, but it made me chuckle 👍

Hi Linear, welcome to the forum. How much cheaper are we talking? Seems like a lot of effort to save some money. I briefly looked at trailering a boat back from Jersey but the ferry company (Condor) wasn't terribly helpful - expensive and had limitations on which crossings I could use rather than just turning up and rolling on. I'd have also had to factor in the cost of renting or buying a trailer that may or may not have been suitable for the hull. In the end I paid a skipper circa £1k to bring her over by sea. Depending on where in France the boat is located this could be an option for you to explore. One other thing to consider is whether VAT will be payable when you bring it over. This may also eat into any potential savings. Have you definitely excluded a UK boat? There will likely be the right boat for you somewhere over here but you may have to wait or travel to find it. Good luck in your search whatever you decide.

Here's a tip for when you try to give out spelling help next time. Always make sure you follow your own advice 🤦‍♂️

Yep, I dig them out and melt them into fishing weights 🤣

Popped out again this evening for an hour. Had birds into the decoys from the start. Three stone dead and one that made it over to the next copse, so I sent the dog in after it - she earned her keep by finding it deep in a bed of nettles. Good girl!

Basically yes.

Don't know, but I'm keen to find out!

You could also try dropping them straight down the side of the rocks off the Bill and jigging for wrasse. Simple up & down motion of the rod.

Cast out, take in the slack line and let them fall for a count of 10 (or whatever depth is appropriate for your marks), then sweep the rod up and reel in a few turns then let it sink down again. Rinse & repeat. The takes will be on the drop.

I reckon it's @JonC dropping them off his scaffolds and losing them.

Yeah but it's got a swanky handle so it's worth it, right? 🙄

Dog pics can never = spam! Post away!

Thanks, I'll give that a try with bacon. If you haven't tried it already, diced pigeon breast instead of beef makes a mean cornish pasty. 😋

They're in there buried under everything else. And the dinosaurs are the best 🤣

Ok, enough of the showing off and more of answering the question yeah?

Here's how Thomas's dinner turned out. Pigeon Korma with rice and cashews. Followed a couple of hours later with mine. Salt crusted pan fried pigeon breasts with red wine sauteed mushrooms, spinach & ricotta pasta parcels and pea shoot salad.

It's definitely easy to get carried away with all the pigeon paraphernalia, and yes, it's frustrating when you set up the hide and nothing wants to visit.

Thanks. I only had an hour to spare so just threw a few shell decoys in a rucksack. They have springy mounting rods though so they were nodding enticingly in the breeze.

I seem to remember you posting on the old forum about murdering rats with an air rifle...

You should have seen her - she was fizzing with anticipation and could barely sit still in the hide. Tennis balls are good, but don't come anywhere close to things with feathers as far as she's concerned.

If you are insinuating that I can't shoot straight you'd be right. But on this occasion only these ones came into the decoy pattern in the hour I had available. Like with fishing, you can't catch/shoot what's not there.

The estate that the dog and I work on during the shooting season has planted crops of summer wheat over much of our shooting land and this summer we're seeing an unusually high influx of wood pigeon which are feeding heavily on the growing wheat. The gamekeeper asked if we could discourage the pigeons and of course the dog and I accepted. Not long after work we set up a handful of shell decoys on the edge of one of the pheasant pens on a flight line between two woods. The plan was to draw the birds in as they flew from one wood to the other. The prevailing wind was from right to left in the photo, so the decoys were arranged facing into the wind - pigeons like to keep the wind in their faces when feeding so it's important to set up your decoys facing the same way or the birds will smell a rat. I could see plenty of pigeons moving around in the distance so I felt reasonably confident we'd see some action. However, getting the dog to sit still for long enough to not spook the birds was a challenge. Such is life with a spaniel 🤣 After 20 mins or so we had our first customer, a bird who dropped into the decoy pattern at the last minute - I thought he would fly over the wood we were sitting in but he banked low and became an addition to the pattern. Pigeons two and three followed at similar intervals, both dropping in directly in front of the hide. The dog couldn't believe her luck - three retrieves in sixty minutes, and in the off-season too! Dad is actually shooting straight! Oh to be a spaniel... and covered in burrs no less! Before we knew it, it was time to head home to prep the pigeons and sink a well earned beer. Not exactly a catch report, but still good to be out bagging a meal. Pigeon korma will be on the menu this weekend I feel.