Mud Island Friday 22 May 2009

[charleville]

I'd always wondered if a one legged duck swam in circles Bruce, if you can ponder over the answer and give me a probability to within a 20% margin, I'd really appreciate it. That is of course unless you have actually already seen one, then the evidence would confirm it.

I know that you ain't a gonna believe this but I used to own a one legged duck.

It came about because I had some pet ducks and to cut a long, long story short one drake ("Muffy") mated with its mother ("Plumpy") and one of the offspring was deformed with just one normal leg. He was named "Hoppy" by the family.

Mercifully, he did not live to a ripe old age but was pitied by my wife who looked after him extremely well during his life. I would have hit him on the head at birth but my wife is a kinder person than me. She must be 'cos she married me. I would not have done that!

Hoppy was always grumpy, though. I suppose that is understandable, given his challenges in life. Like, as if his bung leg was not enough to contend with, I imagine that having to explain to his friends that his mother was really his grand-mother would not be easy.


Did he swim in circles"? Well that is hard to say. As it turns out, he did drag himself into our little pond every day for a swim and he swam very well too, but the pond was hardly a lap pool and indeed about all any duck could do in it was to swim in circles.




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[charleville]

so did ya get a gifkins?

I have a Leigh jig for dovetails and thinks its the ducks nuts

Yup! I have looked at the Leigh jigs and was scared off by their complexity for a mug beginner like me. I understand that there is hardly any start-up time to be able to do dovetails with a Gifkins, notwithstanding that they are a much more limited tool, eg cannot do half blind dovetails. I also sat through 3 1/2 presentations by Roger Gifkins today and he did make it look pretty easy.


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[f.t.r.]

this post has me s@#t scared of getting older

lovely catch by the way.

matty

[Scalem]

"I know that you ain't a gonna believe this but I used to own a one legged duck"

PML

[Poodroo]

Great report. Nice feed indeed. Being a plastics fisherman I have to say I tend to use more conventional methods to catch a sand crab using those pot thingies they sell in the bait and tackle stores.

Poodroo

[BaitThrower]

Yup! I have looked at the Leigh jigs and was scared off by their complexity for a mug beginner like me. I understand that there is hardly any start-up time to be able to do dovetails with a Gifkins, notwithstanding that they are a much more limited tool, eg cannot do half blind dovetails. I also sat through 3 1/2 presentations by Roger Gifkins today and he did make it look pretty easy.


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I wouldnt be scared off the Leigh. I made pretty much perfect dovetails the first time I used it. Might take a couple goes to get your head around the jig and how it works, but once you know, its really very easy, and very flexible too.

[charleville]

I wouldnt be scared off the Leigh. I made pretty much perfect dovetails the first time I used it. Might take a couple goes to get your head around the jig and how it works, but once you know, its really very easy, and very flexible too.

Thanks BaitThrower. I bought the basic Gifkins jig and that will get me started on making better quality dovetails than by hand. (My hand cut dovetails were actually not too bad but not to the same quality as a properly adjusted machine cut dovetail. However, it takes forever to do them by hand.... but you knew that! )

If I want to get a bit more adventurous down the track beyond regular spaced dovetails etc, I might look at a Leigh then.



Best wishes ....


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