...pick up all the pieces and

make an island.

That's what I did today............. made an island, .......not by chopping a mountain down with the edge of my hand like Hendrix but out of wood, netting, coir, drainage tubing and empty drink bottles.

Up early and off to the local Country park for a course run by the Environment Agency on island building. Part of my Angling course.

6 2m lengths of wood screwed together to make a frame, covered in a double layer of netting, filled with coir, sealed with tie grips to hold everyuthing in place. A length of drainage tubing around the edge, filled with empty drinks bottles and sealed with expanding foam. Flip it over, 4 groups of three plastic milk bottles tied together, one at each corner for extra flotation.Flip it back over, cut some slits in the netting, jam some water lilies, reeds etc into the coir.

Bingo.....one floating island! Take it out into the pond, anchor it to the bottom and there you have it.... a refuge for water life, a place for fish to breed and a feature to fish to! Good for about 10 years.


Now all I need to do to complete my qualification is, next January, give a lesson on fish anatomy and then sit the exam! Bish, bash, bosh, qualified Angling Coach, able to hire myself out at about £45 per hour. That's not why I'm doing it though, I'm going to give my time free to my club and any others that want me so as to encourage more youngsters into the sport.

The photo shows the canal in the Country Park together with the old chimney etc. It's an old industrial site that now has a camp site, a canoe slalom course, an adventure play ground and several lakes and a stretch of river to fish, as well as paths to walk, a centre with a cafe and a pub. As you can see it's been raining a lot round here, in fact I was stood in about 3 inches of water on the path where the canal had overflowed it's banks.

Pleasure fishing tomorrow, no match, just 5 or 6 of us at Cherry Tree for a couple of hours..........or as we have a match there next week I suppose some people would call it sneaky practice!

Das vidanya.