Just how good was the fishing in the 60s?
Well for a start, where I lived, there was very little carp fishing. Foxon Dam in Sheffield did produce a 26lb mirror to local legend John Neville and just a few of us managed to catch carp to low doubles in a lake called Chapel Wheel Dam near Eckington.
Until I left the UK in 1967, my best carp weighed 9lbs 15 oz. Tag Barnes wouldn't give me the extra ounce - he weighed it.
Barbel fishing was better by comparison. We in the NSG caught hundreds of barbel in the Yorkshire Rivers in the 60s. Double figure fish however were virtually non-existant. The biggest taken by our group was 8lbs 1oz to Ray Webb. Tag Barnes had taken bigger fish but this was before the group was formed. My own biggest Yorks Barbel went 7lbs 1oz, which in the year it was taken was the biggest in Yorkshire.
Bream fishing was a laugh compared to now. 4 pounders were whoppers. It was Graham Marsden who set the angling world alight with his catches of big bream from the Cheshire Meres. My biggest bream was 71/2 lbs, but that was taken in Ireland.
Tench, again you wouldn't believe how hard it was to catch a 5 pounder, let alone a 6.
Frank Guttfield fished for years to get his first six pounder. And he was fishing probably the best two waters in England at the time.
5 pound tench were so hard in my area that we set off for Ireland to catch them.
One thing I will say is that we had plenty of quality roach fishing in those days. Not two pounders, but lots of fish in the 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 lb bracket. And some whopping great dace in a local river. 1 pounders were caught on a regular basis.
Pike fishing was much better. We caught lots of doubles and a fair few 20s from all sorts of waters.
Big perch were extremely rare. A 2 pounder was almost the fish of a lifetime. I was lucky in being able to catch several good fish up to 3lbs 6oz, but most of them were caught livebaiting for pike.
And it was the same with chub. To catch big chub we had to travel to the Upper Ouse or the Hants Avon. In all my years of fishing the Yorkshire rivers I remember only one 5 pound chub, caught by Tag Barnes.
So overall, is the fishing better today than in the 60s?
Of course it is.