Welcome back to www.bobrobertsonline.co.uk
As you can see my website has changed a fair bit but rest assured my Trent Guide has survived the transition intact. Quite honestly I was taken by surprise by the demand for the guide when the original site was lost. Suddenly it seemed every man and his dog was pestering me about it.
Of course parts of the guide are now out of date because that is the nature of things. New fisheries open up, others change hands. Nothing stands still and this is where you, dear reader, can help out enormously.
I am working on the guide as and when I can but you Trent regulars have a huge role to play. You are my eyes and ears in effect. Please, if you find an error, don’t be smug about it, don’t broadcast it, be useful, just get in touch and tell me. I cannot be everywhere. With your help I can update the guide and you can have your name in the credits. It’s not a one man show, it’s a community guide. It is for everyone. Will you play your part? It is currently good. In the future it can be even better, but only if others are prepared to contribute the latest information.
I really need to thank a few people for making the re-launch possible as I am the original analogue guy trying to find his way in a digital world.
Firstly, Noel Wright, my go-to web designer, geek, genius, friend, inspiration, tutor, you name it. HE saved the site and made this possible, not me.
Then there’s Dave Webster of maggotdrowning.com for his help with hosting issues. Cheers Dave.
Not forgetting Alan Henshaw who is the boss at Calverton Fish Farm. He instigated a chain of events via Dan Ellis that resulted in the Environment Agency providing a grant to cover the design, creation and hosting of the site you are reading. If you are wondering why, it is not just you that finds it useful. The Trent Guide has been a bible for their East Midlands fisheries team and I understand it is also used by the police.
The sum invested is not massive but is a justifiable and useful investment as it not only benefits them, it benefits anglers, fishery owners, clubs and societies, tackle shops and the angling trade. It could be argued it also benefits tourism and the associated spin-offs.
Obviously I am indebted to them for their support.
Meanwhile, do try and take on board what the EA Fisheries’ role is. Social Media is brimming with misdirected criticism. They are not the Government, they are not the Chief Execs of the privatised water companies, nor are they the Canal and Rivers Trust. They are regular guys trying to do a very important job with limited staffing and resources.
The guy who checks your license is not responsible for sewerage spillages. It reminds me of David Bowie’s Life on Mars, “Look at those cavemen, beating up the wrong guy.”
I will be sharing snippets to help explain the “Fisheries’” role in due course, the work they do and what your license money is spent on. If you wish to ask sensible questions I will direct them to the right person and try to get you an answer. Remember though, the emphasis is on SENSIBLE. Don’t expect an answer from Fisheries about the dumping of raw sewage in your local river. That’s a question for Government. Or maybe your own pension company who will more than likely have invested your savings in the Water Company responsible for the mess you are angry about.
Oh, and I do apologise for the cookies question that may pop up on the new site. They drive me nuts, too. Trouble is they are an EU directive that is mirrored in UK Law under GDPR regulations so please, don’t shoot the messenger. I assure you I am not tracking anyone, nor will I ever.
Please understand I am doing everything I can within my power to protect you and to protect me. Noel has implemented some pretty sophisticated software to prevent this new site (and you) from malicious attacks.
WordPress itself is reasonably secure, especially with security plugins. However there are some attacks outside of WordPress which it can’t really protect itself from. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) for example, basically hundreds or thousands of bots continually trying to access the login form, using/trying millions of different combinations to get in.
What a world we live in, eh? Hopefully you will be equally safe, or safer here than most other fishing web sites and we will continue to be vigilant.
For now, that’s it. Welcome back. I don’t propose writing those 5,000 word blogs of yore. In the future I will keep such posts short, snappy and more frequent. Look out for them here in my Ramblings section.
Another thing to watch out for in the coming months is a series of fishing clips taken from my earlier filming. Lots of, but not exclusive to barbel.
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