I guess the first thing I should do is wish all the visitors to PikeOnline is a Happy New Year as we enter 2012. Lets hope the fishing is going to be better than it was in 2011!

Put your sound on to enjoy the New Year firework display!

I am currently testing and setting up a new section for the website, one intended to provide a bit of interactivity between not just you and me, but between the whole community of anglers who visit and use Pike Online for a source of information and entertainment. The statistics show where many of you like to visit and how many new and returning visitors Pike Online has and who are likely looking for more than perhaps it is able to offer.

One of the key features that has probably been missing is the ability to interact with those of you who do visit frequently and to allow some way you can work together to help to make PikeOnline a more useful resource for all anglers who have an interest in improving their pike fishing and those looking to get started.

Pike Online Gallery

Just a note to let those of you who follow the News on the PikeOnline website, that the Gallery is now open to the submission of you pike pics and trophy shots. Please take a look at eth Gallery page for guidance and the submission email link. Look forward to receiving your images in the near future.

Don't forget that there is a link to a quality online image editor on the Gallery page and homepage LH column.

Page Colour Poll

This has been running now for a good while and the general opinion is more or less evenly split, and has continued as you have made you votes. Firstly thanks to those of you who have taken part and voted, it still leaves me with a dilema so I'll take a long hard look at this and make a final decision on whether I make it black or white, I gues I risk disappointing half of you, so I'll give it every consideration.

Otherwise its still busy, but with Christmas on the horizon, hopefully a bit more work can be done to move Pike Online forward some more.

I guess its not too early to wish all the visitors a Merry Christmas and a Pike New Year!

David

Again an update on the progress and background to where Pike Online is going. Whilst the main day to day employment prevents any full time work on Pike Online, there are opportunities to continue to work on projects that link into it between the regular wage making work.

One of the features on the site was to evaluate you, the visitor's preferences for the style of presentation for the Rig pages, and a poll was set up on the frot page to see what you thought. It looked very much like there was a preference from those who voted, for a black background with white texts, however in the last week or two that has been turned around and there is as much of a dilemmma, black or white. The option I have is to give the poll till the end of November to see if I can tempt a few more of you to vote for your preference in background and then I will adopt the preferred choice in December. So vote if you have want one or the other.

On to one more part of the sites development and this is another exclusive for the PikeOnline visitor, at least in the short term, I have set up a new and secondhand bookstore to allow me a means of selling a selection of the angling books that have been displaced from my own collection to any one who is looking for top quality, mainly unread or opened 1st editions from many authors that have been writing since the late 70's, early 80's. There are also some much older books that I have picked up during the many hours given to browsing in small back street bookshops around the country.

I have to admit that many were bought for the sake of building the collection and often 2 or 3 copies of a single book have been purchased. I make no bones about it, they are all an investment and I shall be sitting on many for a lot longer, but space demands action and it would seem selfish to hold onto books some new and enthusiastic collector might like to own.

The initial books are from a collection of books I personally wrote back in the late 80's for Crowood Press and are from a stock I purchased in 1995 and which have remained in the box they came from the wholesaler till just recently. So if you are looking for an 'as new' unread copy of Introduction to Pike Fishing or Introduction to Carp Fishing, as a gift,  for a collection ir just to read, then take a look at the Bookstore here.

As I work through valuations and costs for delivery etc, the books I have for sale will be loaded into the shop, whilst the current two books are available in reasonable numbers, the next books will be single copies and if you are looking for one of them do make sure you get on it first, either by buying it or reserving it to prevent losing out. Any way take a look.

Find the new PikeOnlne New and Secondhand Bookstore here

Enjoy

David

As work still goes on today and the site now has a formal Contact page that will provide the initial means of contacting the Pike Online administrator, me David should you have the need to do so. Further Contact pages for specific purposes will be added when the time to accept cotributions or updates for fishereis, boat yards and slipways etc is ready.

Also added today is the Pike Online merchandise store, where a few items have been added and branded under Pike Hunter, these include tee shirts, hoodies, baseball caps and hats to get the project rolling. New designs are in the pipeline and will be added to a range of products in the near future. A 'design your own' store is planned where you can use the Pike Online artwork to create an 'exclusive' design for your own use.

All of the items in this store are exclusively for you via the Pike Online website and not available in the wider service offered by the store partner Spreadshirt. When making any purchase from the Pike Online Merchandise store you will be buying the services of Spreadshirt, a mrechandising company who will create the item you wish to buy and supply this to you, their terms and conditions apply to the sale, so do read these, which you will find at the bottom of the browser window before making any purchases. If you need any assistance when browsing the store there is a 'help' tab on the menu system.

Hopefully there will be something you might like to buy, maybe suggest the idea to family and friends for surprise gifts, the designer store will allow you to create such items for your family as there will be access to ladies and childrens items too.

Take a look at what's on offer in the Pike Onlne Merchandise store.

You will be supporting the future development of Pike Online when making any purchases.