Women leading the way!

Photo 01 - Poor conditions yesterday!

Women leading the way!

All of our longstanding readers will remember our expose on fishing guides and the shambolic and shameful situation that we encountered! It’s taken an inordinate length of time but we have now found a fishing guide that we would recommend. The lady in the link Susan McNiven has an absolutely pristine website that sets out clearly what she is about. In clear and concise terms everything that a visiting angler would be seeking is laid out here. She did not wake up one morning and decide to be a fishing guide; she planned, invested and studied before advertising her skills the way it should be done!

We set out our criteria a good while ago now and the standards we would expect are a certificate of fly fishing competence (APGAI or preferably AAPGAI), a certificate in emergency first aid, and a vetting certificate to validate good character preferably full disclose by Disclosure Scotland just as she has underwent. We see holding these qualifications as being integral to presenting a polished and verifiable presence and stating to potential “clients” that she has invested heavily in her pursuit to give the client the best possible service!

I have placed the word client in inverted commas because client is usually associated with professional dealings and I do not think fishing guides fit into this bracket given their current state. It is however applicable to this lady as clearly she has undergone extensive training and studied in depth topics that just fly over the heads of the charlatan types we previously encountered!

At last we have someone who not only is qualified to a high degree but even more can prove her advanced skills! The range of topics she has studied covers all aspects of fishing and even the wider world of fishing. Our site “Choosing a fishing guide 2” is clearly the bible for anglers looking to hire such people given the huge traffic that visits and we think it is only fair to promote excellence when we find it!

Please click the link below and visit the lady’s website and compare it to some of our local ones, I would be astonished if you were not taken aback at the difference which in broad terms is professional vs. amateur! No lofty words, or empty promises, unequivocally she has demonstrated how fishing guides should portray themselves! 

The situation with fishing guides in this country is appalling when compared to other more advanced countries. I never thought the day would come when we would heartily recommend a fishing guide but when we found the lady’s website that day had come!

I will spend some time this week removing all reference to Fish Pal as a source for finding a fishing guide as they are promoting at least one “guide” who falls well short of the qualifications we expect! The site will be redone midweek so you can check it out next time!

http://www.damselflyfishing.co.uk/index.htm

Club memberships!

Members and potential members are reminded that now is the time to apply for that membership. For £55.00 or £35.00 new and renewing members will have access to the lochs 365 days per year and access to a boat free of charge to broaden your angling outlook. All applicants must supply a photo by e mail, phone transfer to be printed on to your card. All cheques must be payable to St Mary’s Angling Club and not an individual. Applications should be sent to our membership secretary Keith click the link on the sidebar for full details.

Photo 02 - Scenic beauty!

The wider world in my view!

Fasten your seatbelts!

As we pointed out last week this year could indeed be a rocky one! It was no surprise to hear Minister without a clue Gideon Osborne spout forth warning that the “recovery” the longest one ever recorded and built on straw foundations could crash. Yes at last we can now see the true picture although Gideon would himself take no blame it would be down to extraneous factors! As per usual everyone is to blame except the Tory government striving to do the right thing for hardworking families!

Consumer debt has now hit a record level and manufacturing continues to decline at a frightening rate due to the inept policies of the Tories! Yes the recovery initiated by the Con-Dems was constructed to present a facade to fool many in England that there was actually a recovery and at the same time brag about the numbers of people placed in jobs. Couple that with their “crackdown” on benefit scroungers and you have a recipe to fool the gullible!

It’s interesting to note that the many people pushed into jobs invariably still require benefits to allow them to live so poor the quality of the jobs! Similarly with their welfare reforms they are spending money like water to accomplish nothing. Yes Diddy Ian Duncan-Smith failed PM has commissioned an American company to replace the disgraceful ATOS for benefit assessments and now finds they are even worse! Couple that with a 3 year bill for over £4 billion and you can see what a farce the whole situation has become!

Yes Gideon has laid excuses all over the shop which he can retrieve bit by bit as the economy crashes! It might fool the gullible in Middle England but we Scots can see through his words coming via a forked tongue! Give them their due the Tories can certainly talk a good job the reality however is extremely disappointing with bungling the norm! The Con-Dems increased the National Debt more in 5 years than Labour did in thirteen years! The national debt stood at £492 billion when the Con-Dems came to power its is now a massive £1,490 billion! If anyone was not really sure why Scotland is going for independence the above should make it crystal clear!

Prize prat!

Watching First Ministers Questions this week I allowed myself a good chuckle when Borg Queen Ruth Davidson in her inimitable style looking suitably severe and on the side of hardworking families asked the First Minister why the £5millon allocated by Westminster had not yet been given to flood victims! Of course as the dope was tabling the question people in the Grampians were in the process of being flooded!

The fool did not seem to realise that the pot of money is limited even though her masters in Westminster are the architects of unnecessary and damaging austerity! Only when the severe flooding looks like it’s over can the money be fairly allocated. In fact the Scottish Government announced yesterday that a further £12 million is to be allocated to flood victims shaming the bungling Westminster government in the process! Now you know why she is just a minion on the opposition benches!