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Of course parts of the guide are now out of date because that is the nature of things.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.

Bob’s Latest Book – The Mighty Trent

Available now from Little Egret Press

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Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts1 Day ago

Who remembers the good old days before digital photography? When the serious angler used slide film. It wasn’t cheap, was it? You eked film out till you had 36 shots to develop. Then you posted it off to the lab and prayed it didn’t get lost in the post.

Well, I learned there was another pitfall. This slide film was developed in the wrong chemicals, intended for print film, not slide.

I could have cried. In the space of a few weeks I had landed perhaps 15 of my best 10 roach of all time up to that moment. OMG. I can’t explain the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach that left.

Oh well, you brush yourself down and press on. Catch some more. Anyone else have any horror stories to tell?

Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts6 days ago

Just uploaded an article about the opening of a new fish pass on the Trent at Colwick. Sounds like good news for migratory species in particular and it has the potential to revitalise coarse fishing on the upper river and its tributaries.

Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts6 days ago

Now the dust has settled following Wednesday evening’s NPS show at Newark Showground – this is just part of the audience – it is time to reflect.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who dropped by for a chat or to purchase a copy of my new book, The Mighty Trent. It was a huge privilege to meet you all and my only regret being I wish I’d had more time to spend with each of you.

Based on book sales and various other discussions I reckon I spoke with over two hundred attendees during the course of the night which equates to just one minute each, but, wen we take out the time allocated to the talks so it boils down to barely 30 seconds each which is far too short.

Should you bump into me when I’m out and about please feel free to stop me and say hello. I at least owe you that. And if the timing is inconvenient I’ll explain and we can do it later.

I know from someone who had pre-ordered a copy that he received an email yesterday telling him his book had been dispatched and from what I can gather, all pre-orders will now be winging their way towards expectant purchasers so listen out for a knock on the door anytime soon.

Thank you everyone. I’m feeling suitably humbled and now looking forward to hearing some constructive feedback either online or privately.

Tight lines all.

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2 responses to “Welcome Back”

  1. Webmaster avatar
    Webmaster

    Took quite a bit of work but we got there in the end…

    So glad the site is back up and running. Can’t thank Dave (maggotdrowning.com), and of course Bob enough.

    Was a team effort, glad to have helped and enjoyed playing my part in it.

    Looking forward to watching it grow and what’s to come…

    1. Bob avatar

      Could not have done it without you Noel. It has been an education and a pleasure. Thank you. As for myself, now the hard work begins!

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