Severn-Trent Water’s decision to prohibit fishing at Draycote next year while the visitors’ centre is worked on, has caused much consternation among anglers who – with some justification – are reading between the lines.

I’m in contact with certain parties on this issue and as I wish to stress to them, among other things, fishing’s value in keeping young people on the straight and narrow, I’ve referred them to this link to a Trout Fisherman article of a year ago – Fishing With Tom.

If you’re in a position to bend a certain water company Chief Executive’s ear, please read it.

If you’re loaded and have money to spare on a really good cause, please read it.

If you just like being inspired by people who get off their butts and do something great, read it anyway.

[And if you have experience of successfully campaigning against utililty bodies with a captive customer base - I'm all ears...]

Believed to be one of the world’s smallest hotels, the Hotel Utter Inn strikes me as ideal if your fishing vacation requirements are as minimal as your fly patterns…

“Created by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, the Utter Inn is half art installation, half hotel. Essentially, it’s a watertight box – just big enough to house two single beds – suspended beneath a small floating platform on Lake Malaren, off of Västerås, near Stockholm. Atop the platform is what looks like a garden shed housing a cooker, curtained off toilet and the hatch through which you enter the bedroom” – Been There

More details and shot of the building in action here.

[pic by Jonas Wallinder]

Remember this, all you fawning western businessmen falling over yourselves to embrace China’s star, currently soaring in the east.

They keep fish in urinals over there.

“The restaurant in Changchun city has around 20 fancy carp in the four-metre long trough in the gents’ bathroom.

The Eastern Asian Economic and Trade Daily says experts have condemned the move as harmful to the fish and “disrespectful to China’s fish culture”.

The owner added that the fish were intended as an attraction for diners and were not used in dishes.

Guests seemed surprised to find fish swimming in the trough which has sign saying “Please urinate here” above it.

“If they didn’t have the sign here I would have thought it was a new fish tank,” said one diner, Mr Wang.

“It’s really interesting,” added another, Mr Sun, who said he was planning to use the bathroom again, just to repeat the experience.

“I’m just off to get my rod,” shouted an animated Mr Tung. “Looks like they’re taking off the top .”

All right, so I made one of those quotes up.

“Already since the early 60s, the intrepid outdoorsmen of Sweden are aware of the indestructibility and versatility of the Greenland winter jacket with Hasse Hellström, globally acknowledged and history influential adventurer, on the fore front. He made a Fjällräven fabric an indispensable equipment for hikers and climbers, as he entirely equipped his Greenland expedition in 1966, with the waxed G-1000 fabric. Today, G-1000 is still the foundation of the Greenland jacket, but evolved to a more comfortable material with the same durability and outstanding breathability. Four pockets on the front are reminiscent of those days there were stored pitons and carabiner, and a vast inner pocket keeps your modern essentials warm and secure”

In the end (and thanks to Bish on Fish for the tip-off) fate gave Eric King-Turner just under two years’ grace Down Under, after his decision to seek fishing pastures new and emigrate from the UK while he was still young enough to do so. At 102.

Now he’s dead, the licence he bought for the 09-10 season just days before passing, never to be used.

Worth the trip? I suspect so.

Rest in peace, Eric and many thanks from hacks everywhere for a great story.

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Never mind policemen looking younger: cameras getting thinner – that’s the real sign you’re growing old. Any improvement on 0.78 inches…?

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The ultimate gift for John Gierach fans, to be sure. Trouble is, chances are only you will get the joke…

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I suspect this Drake forum thread will be as rude as it’s funny but as an all-star gathering of stand-up, it looks hard to beat. Run along now, children…

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And finally, pay no heed to the weekend’s extreme weather warnings, my fellow UK anglers. Fishing is all about attitude.

Our nightmare is their vision.

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The Talking Point sidebar has been removed. From now on, any useful tips I glean from the various fishing forums at which I lurk, will be posted on my Twitter account (see also Twitter Taunts, right)

Master of good taste and subtlety that he is, I am in no way surprised that Quentin Tarantino has finally found his way into angling, care of these Reservoir Dogs fishing lures…

“Walk the dog gangster-style with bullet-ridden lures from the American crime classic…Available in character alias colours (Mr Orange, Mr Pink, Mr White and Mr Blonde) these 4.5 inch long lures deliver an intense walking action that is sure to deliver explosive top water strikes. ‘Four Perfect Killers. Assembled to pull off the perfect crime’.”

Can’t beat old Quent for that all-important “intense walking action”.

Click on the image to see the product in all its squalo glory and stay tuned for the Inglourious Basterds Nymph Collection. Each fly under my command owes me 100 trout. And I want my trout…

It’s an eye-catching photo as it is. Man as old as time, basking by water, using saplings for fishing rods (click on the image to enlarge it).

Are there still guys like him around, you may even ask yourself.

Then you notice the date. 1910.

Now, I’m no photographer: the ways of computer imagery are largely opaque to me. As a cynic, however, I’m a little more accomplished.

Maybe it’s a fake. Maybe it isn’t. Feel free to say so if you think I’m about to be had.

Until then, I shall give old Ivan and his photographer the benefit of the doubt and marvel at the possibility of an ancient fragment of time so vividly brought to life. Sunny, tranquil Russia, 1910. What could possibly go wrong…?

[pic courtesy of Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky]

One of the less heralded fly-fishing blogs, Fishing for History nevertheless continues to come up with some of the best stories.

Pride of place this week must go to its tip-off for The Van Buren Boys’ Blog. It may sound like a PR vehicle for a bluegrass band but it’s actually the work of “…five dedicated craftsmen working together to create a fishing exhibit for the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site in Kinderhook, New York. Martin Van Buren was the 8th President of the United States…”

Not to mention an angler whose prowess the VBBs feel has been lamentably underestimated by history.

And the men who make up this eclectic quintet?

“Dr. Todd Larsen…will be writing the history of Van Buren and Fishing.

Dr. John Elder …will be charged with constructing an 1850s-period Porter General rod and a period tackle box.

Philip Allen…will be in charge of constructing period 1850s metal spinners and flights, which Van Buren used for muscky fishing on the St. Lawrence.

Royce Stearns…will be tying period 1850s flies.

Dr. Michael Hackney…will be reproducing a period 1850s fishing reel in brass and constructing a horsehair line.”

Something tells me I’d be better off socialising with these guys individually rather than collectively. In the spirit of historical research, though, I’m happy to plug what appears to be the solitary gap in their reconstructive endeavours.

I have sourced the period 1850s Martin Van Buren hairpiece.

Three great ways for the hunter-gatherer to cover unsightly patches on the wall and only 2,300 points needed to relieve Miller Brewing Co of all three, 18 x 24in, ‘Hang ‘Em High (Life)’ posters.

That equates to eight 30-can packs of Miller High Life or Miller High Life Light, incidentally.

And anyone who thinks a woman sitting on the moon has nothing whatsoever to do with field sports clearly has no idea of the things you’re seeing by the time you reach can number 240…