Do you remember your first of a particular species?

[Keith M]

Do you have any fond memories of catching the first of your favourite species?

I'll always remember catching my very first Barbel (from Newbury on the river Kennet back in 1975) as if it were yesterday, I had a larger Barbel a couple of hours later but I can't remember much about the second one.

I was using a B.James & Son Richard Walker MKIV Carp rod and a Mitchell 300 reel loaded with 8lb Silcast line straight through to a size 4 specialist hook baited with Plumrose Luncheon meat.
It was a warm evening with approx 4 8ths of Stratocumulus (I was a meteorologist in the RN then LOL).

I can clearly remember casting, then through my fingers on the line feeling my small link leger (5 SSG) dragging and bouncing along the gravel bed and feeling the streamer weed moving against my line and the magic plucks followed by the take away and my mate Budgie saying 'don't panic Keith its only a small one' (it was 5lb 8oz and it looked huge to me) and from that moment I was hooked on Barbel.

I don't remember my first Carp or my first of any other species as crystal clear as that first Barbel, but I do remember my first 20lb Carp and my first 5lb Tench and 5lb Chub and my first 2lb Roach and 20lb Pike, and also my one and only Wels Catfish but none of them are remembered as clearly as that very first Barbel.

Keith

 

[law]

I'll never forget my first pike.
I'd been feeder fishing this lake with a friend for silvers and kept getting bitten off by pike.
So we decide on the next visit, to chuck a beach rod out to the side of the swim with a dead bait on.
After half hour of feeder fishing, my pike float started to move. Not being sure, I asked my mate when to strike- having never fished for pike before, neither of us really knew, so left it a second or 2 and hit it.
Boom- 25lb12oz. 1oz short of the lake record.

And that was it. I was addicted to pike fishing.
In the 20 years since, I've not had a fish that big from that lake, although I lost one bigger at the net a few years later, the hunt continues!

 

[Terry D]

First trout and roach at Charlton Ponds in Billingham, approx 1968.
First tench at Carlton Minniot Lake near Thirsk railway station 1969.
First gudgeon from River Tees at Yarm 1969.
First eel from the Moat at HMS Sultan in 1975.
First barbel from River Wey at Godalming approx 1980.
First sturgeon from Harrison River near Chilliwack BC.
Can't really remember the rest.

 

[Richard Jamieson 2]

The first fish I ever caught was a grey mullet in the river at Cala Galdana in Menorca. It weighed 2kg. It was caught in the late 90s on a holiday-special telescopic 6ft rod and fixed spool reel which I seem to remember was around 1500 Pesetas all-in from the beach shop. The bait was a lump of bread suspended under a crude white and red float. I still have all the gear including the hook (which I cringe at looking at it now) although all the rod rings are rusty now and the reel is incapable of turning properly since I dropped it!

Incidentally, the grey mullet is a very underrated food fish and tastes very nice when steaked and fried in flour and salt. They're also very easy to catch in the Mediterranean as my later visits there with a fly rod and white blob proved. Not so much in UK waters where I've yet to hook one at all.

 

[Bob Hornegold]

I can't remember what I caught last week, let alone my first notable fish of any species.

Whereas, I can remember a few very big fish, but these were usually caught by other anglers

Bob

 

[Keith M]

First eel from the Moat at HMS Sultan in 1975.

It's a small world LOL..I caught my first Eel from the Moat at HMS Sultan too at about the same year (1975) when I was serving in the RN; but I don't remember it anywhere near as clearly as that very first Barbel.

Keith

 

[no-one in particular]

My first ever fish, sitting with my dad when I was about 8. He went to the toilet and asked me to hold the rod, under no circumstances was I allowed to reel it in, just hold it, I could barely do so, rods were like telegraph poles back then. . As soon has he disappeared the float went under and kept bobbing up and down. The bloke in the next swim shouted at me to reel it in and I told him I couldn't, Dads word was law in those days. He came over and did the honors.
A 3 inch roach, my first fish. Loved roach ever since and I still look at a 5 inch roach with stun and awe. Badgered the old chap for a rod, took him a year or two to cave in but, eventually he bought me one. All 6 ft of wooden handle and solid glass, 5 shillings from Woolworths probably (he was a bank manager, probably hanging on to his bonus like his life depended on it) Remember well my first half lb bream on it as it bent over at right angles from the wooden handle, frightened the life out of me.
My first Sea Trout was notable, only 3lb, accidentally caught but, what a fight. Similarly my first Mullet-5lb, again the fight was truly stunning and both fish were memorable to me.

 

[Derek Gibson]

Yes, I remember a fish I caught in 1952, it was taken on a Colarado spoon, and not surprisingly it was a pike of around four pounds. As a young 'un I was in awe of that fish, but my joy was quickly dashed when my Dad took control and swiftly dispatched the fish with a few quick belts over the head, which left an indelible mark in my mind.

Since that far off day a few thousand pike have come my way, including more than a few biggies. but none are remembered more than my first jack, but for different reasons.

 

[Alan Tyler]

My first fish, a roach of about five inches, from the Thames at Henley, 1959.
First chub, about 2 3/4 lb, Royalty, 1965.
First 1 lb roach, Thames at Richmond, 1965, using ledgered cheese, as learned on the Avon the previous month...
I can remember my first few carp, but I can't put them in order; I think the first was a four-pounder from a Poyle pit in the late sixties, wheat, float-fished.
Barbel -3 3/4 lb, sausage meat, Kennet & Avon, Sulhamstead, late sixties;
Tench - one of several one to two-and-a-half pounders fishing Chelmsford park lake with Greenie, if I recall aright. If I had one earlier, it would have been from Gunnersbury. and trivially small.
Crucian - 10 oz, Gunnersbury Park, '69-ish. Still my only proper cru, as far as I know.
Salmon - 9 lbs, Tay, Kynoch Killer, Colin Leslie at the oars and supplying all the know-how.
Perch, gudgeon, bleak, ruffe, trout and skimmers all lost in the mists of time.
Ah - eel, cheese, Royalty, probably '65, but possibly the following year.
"Netter" bream, 3 lb 2 oz, Petersham, bread, 1969 (?)
3/4 lb Dace - Windrush, 1966. Legered worm. Had about three trips there,and also had my first bullhead there - again, lobworm. Whole. On a #6 hook!
Stone Loach, one and only, Teddington, legered maggot.
"Netter" Rudd - Cherwell, Oxon, in a club match; a club record (and still my sorry little PB) at 10 oz. Early '70s.

It seems that the first of a species of which one caught several tiddlers before meeting a decent one are far less memorable than those for whose first sample the net was needed.

Oh, just remembered: Trout, English river, Dry fly: Yorkshire Colne, Slaithwaite stretch, ca. 1998.
Olive "Raider". About four ounces.
Trout, English river, wet fly: ditto, same fly two casts later, but it had sunk. Those remain my only two fly-caught English river trout.
Edit] P.S.How could I forget - pike, about 7", grabbed cheese on the retrieve!

 

[barbelboi]

I remember my first tench taken in September 1952 from what was then the Kodak pit at Harefield (just across the canal from Savay which was two pits at the time with very little in it) – an easy date to remember as some other angler caught a carp that month/year that became slightly more famous..................

 

[binka]

I remember my first perch (my first fish of all, like many I'm sure) along with my first roach, gudgeon, pike, barbel and zander.

The most memorable was without doubt the pike, I had gone to a local lake when I was aged about nine years old one January day after the schools had been closed due to heavy snow and I used a small Mepps spinner for the first time along the edge of a bank that remained unfrozen.

On only the second or third cast I was amazed to see a tiny jack of around six ounces follow the spinner in only for me to run out of room literally under my feet and the look of bewilderment as the small jack looked around wondering where it had disappeared to when I lifted it out was priceless.

I dropped it back in at my feet and the pike turned to it before I ran out of room again and I then just dibbed it on his nose and he took it.

He might have only been about six inches long but back then as a small kid I thought those teeth would be capable of taking my arm off

 

[Peter Jacobs]

I certianly remember my very fist "proper" fish other than sticklebacks caught in a net.

It was actually a rather stunted Roach from the local common pond, on a visit to my grandparents, but to me it was the most gorgeous fish I ahd ever seen!

It was the fish that had me hooked for the next 60 years . . . . . . .

One of these days I intend to return to that pond, just for old time's sake.

 

[john step]

I have been fascinated by whats under the surface from about 4 yrs old.
I tried and tried with a toy rod and what I now know was a sea hook until 11yrs old when an uncle took me to the canal behind the gas works in Chelmsford and I caught 4 tiny roach with his help.
It seemed to operate some switch or other as I then seemed to be able to catch small fish all over the place where I had not been able to catch before.

MIGHT HAVE BEEN SOMETHING TO DO WITH HOOK SIZEmg:

 

[S-Kippy]

First fish ever was a 10 oz skimmer,caught on flake from Little Britain Lake in Cowley Middx....and it was a long time before I caught anything else !

First chub and first barbel came from the Royalty on 27 October 1971 and weighed 1lb 4 oz and 12lb respectively. To date I've not had a bigger barbel and this was pre pellet/boilie days when the record was 13lb 2 oz. I had it fishing a block end and it gave what I realise now was a classic drop back bite...back then I just thought my feeder had moved.

It was hooked at 6-35 pm and landed at 7 o'clock.....not that it made much of an impression on me !mg:

First carp was 7lb 1 oz caught the same year on our then "secret" bait of cheesepaste from a local pit now filled in. We thought we were trailblazers. Little did we know the big boys were emptying the place on luncheon meat & sweetcorn !

 

[dorsetandchub]

Skip,


A blockend feeder in 1971. How long have they been around then? Obviously a bit longer than I thought....

 

[chrissh]

first fish where Roach - Dace - Rudd on the Beane & lea in Hertford
first pike was a jack caught at goldings Hertford
first barbel Dobbs Weir on the lea
first carp fish was a crucian carp caught at Tri Lakes
biggest bream was on the Shannon
The best fighting fish I have caught for was a bone fish on the flats in Florida
yet to get my first zander

 

[The bad one]

My first encounter with Blockends was around 1967 on my first club match on the Trent. The guys in the club in the know started launching these plastic buckets across the river. My reaction was what the hell are those they're using? The name for this type of fishing quickly got the name "Splodger Fishing." Oh happy days eh!
First fish ever caught was a stickleback bent pin cain the works, Roach not much bigger quickly followed on the cain, a real hook which were found on the bank, smallest porcupine quill float, costing 3d, cost of a day’s biscuit money and bread paste.

 

[S-Kippy]

Skip,


A blockend feeder in 1971. How long have they been around then? Obviously a bit longer than I thought....

Phil

This was during the heyday of the Royalty when everybody was on the blocked and maggot. I hadn't really thought about it but I suppose block ends were quite new then....pretty basic too and people often put a drilled bullet inside the feeder to help pin it down. You bought maggot from Davis tackle shop by value not so many pints....£1 would have been about 6 pints and 25 bob would get you a gallon tub full to overflowing. It wasn't uncommon to go back after lunch and get another tubful.

That was the first time I ever experienced the classic "3 foot twitch" which scared the pants off me . I was only just 16 and the biggest fish I'd had prior to this was a 3 lb bream which hardly compares to 12lb of angry Avon barbel.

I was gutted that night cos I only had the one fish whereas my mate had 2. I was amazed because barbel were olive green according to the Brooke Bond card. So many maggots were going in that either the following year or the year after that the Royalty banned maggots.

 

[Tee-Cee]

At seven years old from Finsbury Park Boating lake with fishermen (I hesitate to use the word 'anglers') lined up at touching distance, a small roach, to be followed by 'several' small roach......Any gaps quickly filled by another angler !
This was followed by countless trips to the New River close by, and then to the Regents Park canal, where my undying love for roach really began. Still as powerful today and I still marvel at the colours on those same small roach..

Royalty, Ibsley, Ringwood and the Thetford little Ouse came later..

 

[john step]

Tee Cee.... fishing that close reminds me as a kid fishing Raphaels Park Romford with a similar closeness. Even in winter on Saturdays there was hardly a space.
On June 16th at The Chase Dagenham there wouldn't be a swim available.
Unfortunately the day after there was literally a mountain of rubbish which the club collected and burnt.