Sentimental journeys...

[binka]

I frequently walk the dog by the tiny River Maun that runs into a town centre dam and on through Mansfield and beyond…



I fondly recall those evenings after school some thirty five years ago where we’d sit quivertipping a single maggot to give us a fair chance of a few gudgeon from what was, back then, the novelty of running water but nowadays there are signs to inform that local byelaws prohibit fishing in the river.

That doesn’t really help when I occasionally stand for a while and see the tiny silver glints close to the riverbed on the very same bend where we would sit for hours throughout those light summer evenings until darkness drove us away.

I think I’m quite fortunate in that other waters from my early angling years are still, on the whole, very much accessible but I would dearly like to sit and have a go on that bend in the river once more.

Does anyone ever make a point of, or have the urge to, revisit the waters of their early angling days?

Are they still accessible to you?

Or is there somewhere like my river where you’d dearly like to but, for some reason, can’t?

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

There are a couple of ponds , one was in a farmers field that has long gone , the other a small private pond my father was lucky enough to have access to that I fished is now a "feature" of a development and no fishing is allowed

 

[sam vimes]

To a large extent, the waters I fished as a kid are still accessible to me. When it comes to running water, the club I was in as a kid has almost exactly the same waters. When it comes stillwaters, the odd one is drastically changed due to pollution or predation. Only one of those I used to fish do I consider significantly worse than it was, though others would disagree.

There's a club stillwater locally that I'd have killed to fish as a kid. At the time the club concerned was massively oversubscribed and a nightmare to get into. It would be easy to get into now but the water is a pale shadow of its former tench and crucian glory.

The vast bulk of my river fishing could easily be considered a nostalgia trip. Most of the time I'm fishing in the exact same locations as I did as a kid. I'm not entirely convinced that the fishing is quite what it was, but that could be rose tinted glasses. The bonus is that I'm a significantly better angler now.

Through a school friend, He and I used to have almost exclusive access to a large beck that was stuffed with good grayling. Sadly, the poor sod died a few years after leaving school. I believe that the fishing is not what it was, the water levels certainly aren't, but I'd love to give it a go all the same.

 

[nicepix]

I kept in touch with my old haunts when I was still in the UK.

However, one place I planned to fish and never got round to it was the River Eden at Appleby. I have enjoyed 'Rod & Line' by Arthur Ransome and wanted to experience how he used to fish. That would have entailed an early train journey from Leeds to Appleby over the Ribbleshead Viaduct, ideally on a steam train. Breakfast in Appleby then a walk down to the river to fish for a couple of hours. Back up to the town for lunch and then a leisurely afternoon fishing for trout under Castle Rock before catching the last train back to Leeds.

I ever managed it, but there is still time.

 

[S-Kippy]

Nostalgia certainly ain't what it used to be! I am a sentimental old sod but a lot of the waters I fished as kid (and as an adult) simply do not exist now or have changed beyond all recognition ....either in terms of looks,access or quality of fishing. Almost invariably for the worse I might add. Such are the joys of living down here where the carp is largely king....be that the ravenous hordes of the commercials or the lumps of the Colne Valley inland seas.

My equivalent of Steve's spot would be a stretch of the Middx Colne that is nothing like what it was. I could still fish it but I have absolutely no desire to.....like so many of the places I frequented as a kid it looks tired,run down and fishless. The magic has gone and I,ve no desire to ruin some great memories which is why there are certain places I simply will not visit anymore because I just know to do so will kill them for me for ever......and I don't want that.

 

[chub_on_the_block]

I occasionally get back to my SW London haunts visiting relatives there, and walked by several of the ponds and "rivers" that were special to me in the late 70s or early 80s. Fishing is now banned in several of my favourite ponds from that time, one being a SSSI on National Trust land where fishing was let to a club who sold day tickets - that pond is now totally overgrown and may not even contain Tench (i suspect that the Roach and Pike it also held are long gone). Other ponds in the Royal Parks that were once noted for Tench or Bream are now over-run with carp (so I understand).

I would like to get back on the Thames at Romney Island (alas now syndicated and no longer day ticket) to relive many an autumn dawn in the mist casting a feeder across to the overhanging trees. Ideally I would fish a special barbel swim that existed there - known by me and a small group of fishing mates as "the Barbel tree" although truth be told the feature that "made" the swim was removed by the mid 1980s. It is fair to say that we didnt catch that many barbel from it either, maybe five or six in total between us, but as a teenager any barbel from the Thames was an achievement. We caught more bream and chub from it if anything!

Anyone else remember this one? "Barbel tree" Romney island in 1980:

 

[smudger172]

I can think of three waters that i fished as a school boy. The first is the river Thame that flows to the north of Aylesbury. It was a 4 mile peddle on my bike after school and at weekends. I can remember catching some of the biggest gudgeon i have ever seen, roach, dace, perch and chublets made up most of what we could catch from a river that you could jump across. The second water that holds great memories is a small cricket pitch size, spring fed pond. this was half covered in reeds and was home to wild carp. Oh how they pulled. Never bigger than three pounds but huge to me. Sadly its totaly overgrown now. The last was a bomb hole 40 yards wide and 30 yards deep full of fish. Me and my mates would spend most of the summer holidays fishing there. The pond and surrounding area has been developed and is now a housing estate.

 

[chub_on_the_block]

Just thought of a better example of a small river i fished with a passion for gudgeon, roach to nearly 1Ib, chub to 3Ib 10oz, carp to 4Ib and tench to 3Ib - mostly using a 1.1Ib hooklength and a pole float. I would set stall about 4 yards back from the waters edge where the banks sloped down away from the river - so as not to spook the fish. This was the "River Ashmere" (as i named it) in Bushy Park (ahem, ...i was too young too understand that fishing wasnt permitted on it then).

This is what it looked like in 2013: Note the old tree stump where a large willow once stood and how it is now completely overgrown with reed sweet grass.

and this was it in about 1982 from opposite side looking in same general direction - before the tree was blown down by the gales of 1987:

 

[S-Kippy]

I occasionally get back to my SW London haunts visiting relatives there, and walked by several of the ponds and "rivers" that were special to me in the late 70s or early 80s. Fishing is now banned in several of my favourite ponds from that time, one being a SSSI on National Trust land where fishing was let to a club who sold day tickets - that pond is now totally overgrown and may not even contain Tench (i suspect that the Roach and Pike it also held are long gone). Other ponds in the Royal Parks that were once noted for Tench or Bream are now over-run with carp (so I understand).

I would like to get back on the Thames at Romney Island (alas now syndicated and no longer day ticket) to relive many an autumn dawn in the mist casting a feeder across to the overhanging trees. Ideally I would fish a special barbel swim that existed there - known by me and a small group of fishing mates as "the Barbel tree" although truth be told the feature that "made" the swim was removed by the mid 1980s. It is fair to say that we didnt catch that many barbel from it either, maybe five or six in total between us, but as a teenager any barbel from the Thames was an achievement. We caught more bream and chub from it if anything!

Anyone else remember this one? "Barbel tree" Romney island in 1980:

Good grief.......yes,I remember that swim ! Never knew it as a barbel swim but in those days we were happy knocking out dace, roach and chublets on a stick float from under our feet. Had to be there before daylight even in winter to get a decent spot. How times change.

That would be around the same time as I was fishing there. Long old way on a pushbike......that I do not miss !

 

[Tee-Cee]

The upper Thames around Tadpole Bridge among others stretches, the Little Ouse near Thetford, the Great Ouse at Holywell, St Neots and Over & Swavesy et al, The Hants Avon at Ibsley and any number of stretches above and below this one, The Dorset Stour and even the Medway ............

Never been back to any of them; not because I can't, but because the memories are like it was yesterday, and I don't want to spoil them. If I happen to be driving in the area of these spots these days I sometimes see the names on a road sign and the memories come flooding back. I don't want to change that I suppose...........(silly old fool!)

It was tough both reaching these spots and being able to afford the cost of reaching them, but I did it just because I had to..........simple as that..

Oh, The New River near Harringay, a wonderful place of my childhood...

 

[Titus]

They always look smaller now than they did then, I used to fish a little river in mid wales which seemed like a raging torrent to a 10 year old, in reality it is a shallow spate stream which you could walk across in a pair of wellies for much of it's length.

Another one I used to fish was the Rea Brook which joins the Severn at Shrewsbury, that's another one which grew in my memory and I'm always surprised when I see it now how small it is. I had my first 4lb chub from that one and juvenile barbel from the confluence.

I also caught a chub which was attacked by a pike and its stomach ripped open, I returned it alive only to catch it again an hour later and remember being amazed at the sight of live maggots I had been feeding with crawling out of its wound.

 

[mick b]

Yes Id like to go back to the mid sixties, rowing the punt around Wilstone Reservoir enjoying a days pike fishing with bucket of 'baits and a selection of spoons.

Ideally the day following Charlie Double (the Keeper) hosting one of his Coot Shoots.

Today, from all accounts, its an overfished Nature Reserve mg:
Now there is a contradiction if ever there was one :wh


Never go back, that's my motto, live for today and tomorrow, yesterday is history and we can only learn by it.

.

 

[greenie62]

......Another one I used to fish was the Rea Brook which joins the Severn at Shrewsbury, that's another one which grew in my memory and I'm always surprised when I see it now how small it is. I had my first 4lb chub from that one and juvenile barbel from the confluence...

The Rea Brook has always seemed small to me - I think it's possibly seeing the size of the Severn at the English Bridge then going on to the Rea for something more manageable - and thinking 'how can there be fish in there!' - my mam was brought up on the banks of it and used to assure me it held good fish - I never found them though!

 

[no-one in particular]

In truth my fishing was not very good in my youth, The Thames at Staines, Osterley Park (could be fished on the Royal parks Permit back then if I remember rightly). The Grand Union canal at Heston, a few other places along the Thames, Richmond, Isleworth to name a couple. . None of these really had great fishing in my memory. Small roach, the odd Perch, tons of Bleak (what happened to them) etc. Therefore I do not go back and fish them, still fond memories though with my Dad. And we did occasionally get trips to the Kennet or Hampshire Avon however, our fishing skills were poor and we still did not catch much, but great days.

 

[Paul Boote]

In truth my fishing was not very good in my youth, The Thames at Staines, Osterley Park (could be fished on the Royal parks Permit back then if I remember rightly). The Grand Union canal at Heston, a few other places along the Thames, Richmond, Isleworth to name a couple. . None of these really had great fishing in my memory. Small roach, the odd Perch, tons of Bleak (what happened to them) etc. Therefore I do not go back and fish them, still fond memories though with my Dad. And we did occasionally get trips to the Kennet or Hampshire Avon however, our fishing skills were poor and we still did not catch much, but great days.

Very much so, Mark - I fished the very same waters and a few more besides. It wasn't until I got to fish the Kennet at Aldermaston (from age 9 or 10 onwards) on occasional, special weekend treats in summer and the Dorset Stour and Hants Avon during family holidays in Bournemouth that I realised what real rivers and fishing were about - they were outrageous - clear, fast, fish-filled - even if my early skills weren't up to catching the chub and barbel that sometimes swam in full view. Caught piles of small roach and dace on sight-fished freelined maggot once I had got them boiling in front of me, though.

A lot of English waters in the 1960s and '70s were in an often almost fish-less mess, routinely polluted and in a state of recovery before the next slug of effluent killed their weeds, bugs and fish. Makes me smile when I see people harking back to their Sixties / Seventies heyday - if they had one, it was much much earlier than these decades.

Rose-tinted specs and all that.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Like Sam many of my earliest fishing haunts are still there as I fished almost exclusively on the Thames, the Mole and the Royal Parks lakes.

The most upsetting for me was a trip back to The Longwater behind Hampton Court Palace a few years ago and was saddened to see all the lovely old trees were gone and replaces with new, smaller younger models.
That trip was prompted for me by someone noting on a similar thread about the loss of those trees, so I had to go and look for myself.

Some of the places i used to fish as a nipper are also now either club venues or have No Fishing signs that were never there when I fished them.

Once or twice a year my club would book a charabanc and take the trip to Ibsley on the Hampshire Avon where old Colonel Crow would scare the life out of you if you even though about breaking one of his many rules.

I fished the same stretch two season ago and while the fishing was not really very good the memories were fantastic.

I stopped off at the Bull at Downton on the way home for a beer and something to eat as the club party always used to stop there after the day fishing. Sadly the Bull is also not a patch on its former glory either having been refurbished into a characterless bar and bedroom accommodation . . . . . . . . .

S-Kippy is so right, nostalgia ain't what it used to be, especially for those of us with a sentimental disposition.

 

[Titus]

The Rea Brook has always seemed small to me - I think it's possibly seeing the size of the Severn at the English Bridge then going on to the Rea for something more manageable - and thinking 'how can there be fish in there!' - my mam was brought up on the banks of it and used to assure me it held good fish - I never found them though!

I used to spend a lot of time in it, on it and on it's banks, fishing, swimming and bottle hunting were all part of the summer holiday.
On one memorable occasion a mate (who is now my brother in law) and I stole a rotten punt from the garden of an empty house on its banks and punted all the way from Hook-a-Gate to the English bridge and then caught the bus home.

Do we have a statute of limitations in this country?

Happy days.

 

[greenie62]

.....Do we have a statute of limitations in this country?...

Just take the traditional means of evading justice in the Marches .... get back over the border pdq!
Pob Hwyl!

 

[Bob Hornegold]

Epping Forest Ponds !!

They are all there, but most are a shadow of their former selves !!

Lots of the smaller ones have No Fishing signs in them sadly.

Never go back, I reckon ?

Bob

 

[smudger172]

Yes Id like to go back to the mid sixties, rowing the punt around Wilstone Reservoir enjoying a days pike fishing with bucket of 'baits and a selection of spoons.

Ideally the day following Charlie Double (the Keeper) hosting one of his Coot Shoots.

Today, from all accounts, its an overfished Nature Reserve mg:
Now there is a contradiction if ever there was one :wh


Never go back, that's my motto, live for today and tomorrow, yesterday is history and we can only learn by it.

.

Its certainly not overfished. None of the tench and bream boys early season. A few fish for the perch in the autumn. I fished it for the pike last season most weekends and saw on average 3 other anglers..