To DVSG members

Hi,

Just wondering what the motivation was behind starting the group, and how you went about it?

Cheers all

Darren, in one way it's just the same as group of mates who fish together. You get to share lifts, ideas and fishing in twos or threes is safer than fishing on your own.

However it's more than that. It's more structured.

Some of the lads I knew more than others, so I've made new friends.

I'll be fishing for species I wouldn't have otherwise had a go for.

I've learned loads from the others including tactical and venue information.

I helped them catch too and that's satifying.

We seem to encourage each other and that makes my angling more enjoyable.

I guess it was my idea but the seed may have been planted in my head during phone conversations between Ron Clay and myself.

It might have grown out of the Fishing Magic trip to the Idle.

It was certainly bursting forth when Matt, Tim and I fished for tench a couple of months back.

Or it might have been that I received some excellent feedback from a few guys when pulling together my Barbel Society talks last year.

Thing is, I knew most everyone as a result of this site, or I'd fished with them in the past. We all lived more or less in the same area and we tended to fish some of the same waters. They were also the kind of guys you could spend an evening down the pub with and talk fishing to your hearts content.

It wasn't a case of show us your PB list or who the hell are you, it was a case of this bunch of keen anglers with widely varying backgrounds, experiences and ages who I thought might get on. So I emailed them, explained what I intended to create and invited them along to a local pub.

There are no fees, no bages of office (though we felt it would be nice to make Ron our president and Swordsey the cook!), no desire to steal waters from other anglers for our exclusive use, no membership tickets, no political agendas, no desire to grow. I just hoped I could merge the enthusiasm and ideas of a great bunch of guys who then became good friends.

We've taken one step on a long journey so far and it seems to be working fine. We generally keep each other informed through emails and Matt has just launched our own web site forum (restricted access) so we can leave messages for each other.

It's not rocket science, in fact it is dead easy to creat your own group. You should try it.

'Starting a Local Specimen Group. Sound advice from The Monk.

I accepepted the position of "executive chef" with the DVSG because it was a good way of interacting with other successful local anglers.

I always say..

"When you stop learning or think you know it all, pack it in and take up golf"

Lee Swords
executive chef for the DVSG &
Ethical cleansing and propaganda General for the SBS

Thank god it wasnt a tail measuring contest of my p/b is bigger than your p/b other wise I would have never made it!

it was a desperate attempt by bob "abramovich" roberts to pull toghetther all the best specimen hunters in his local area so he could pick their brains and help him catch a fish.

Why pick me then?


Ah!...........Breakfast!!

In fairness, let's leave the 'Bob insults' until he returns from holiday.

And let's leave the Bob, DVSG and Hazelford snipes out of the Caption Competition. I put the competition up to get away from all that crap and get a some light relief. I reckon most of us have had enough of the handbags at dawn stuff.

Oh, thats half my captions gone then :O(

Ah, thanks men!

I joined so i could fish and learn with like minded anglers from the same area.
The main reasons are that i will be

Making new friends

Fishing new venues

Fishing for new species

Sharing succsesses

i wasn't insulting him i was winding him up, he could at least have had the decency to not be off enjoying himself while i do it.

micheal with respect pull the other one, all the people that i know/ know of in that group could catch fish in a bath. so i've no doubt you are in there on ability in some field or other, apart from swordsey anyway who it's already been pointed out is in for his culinary abilities and the free whiskey.

I'd fished with Mike before DVSG and had mentioned him to Bob, Tim and Adam. I'm sure they'd heard about him before, but we're all in there for a combination of reasons.

It does work that we're all ok at certain aspects of the sport but because we all have weakspots we have a wide range of knowledge from which we can all draw.

If one or two of us was especially useless then they'd be needing all the help all the time and it wouldn't work.

I salute you, you lads certainly seem to have a good thing going for you.

I dont think Ive got the experience to start a similar group, but Ill certainly think about it in the future, thanks for the input, all.

Darren, if you can set up a group it will move you forward as an angler. Everyone in the group will know something the other can learn from.

One thing I can tell you Jason is that Bob Roberts ability as an angler is such that he puts in an enormous amount of experience to the pooling of knowledge.

It's people like me who are gaining the benefit, not people like Bob.

Since the 60s, I spent 27 years fishing in other countries using styles that in many ways were alien to UK fishing. Since 1994 I have had to catch up all over again.

My paltry list of personal bests since 1994 proves this. In just over 10 years I have only managed the following.

Bream - 8 1/2 lbs
Tench - 8 3/4 lbs
Barbel - 11 1/2 lbs
Roach - 2 lbs 7 oz
Pike - 23 lbs
Rudd - 2 lbs 12 oz
Chub - 6lbs 3 oz
perch - 2 lbs 12 oz
rainbow trout - 17 lbs
brown trout - 5 1/4 lbs
zander - 10 1/4 lbs
dace - 10 oz
eel - 3 1/2 lbs
carp - 22 lbs

Such a list pales into insignificance compared with what people like Andy Nellist, Bob and Graham have achieved in the same space of time.

I still have lots to learn.

Can I have that Roach, Rudd and Chub please Ron?