Frederick Cowburn

In the same vein as my other thread regarding rare books , i have also found in my fathers collection Coarse Fishing, by Frederick Cowburn, printed 1963. This is class!
There are photos of the author on the bank getting ready to strike, In A Suit!! Polished shoes , collar and tie , the works. His Daughter "Jennifer" i assume is also photographed in a spendid pose at her "First Attempt" at fishing , on the bank at Tatton Mere, Cheshire, which he describes as a "Splendid water for big fish".
One of the best photos in the book is one of "Half Term Youngsters" fishing one of the ponds on Hamstead Heath. Aged between 10 and 15 , some of these rapscallions have got to be members of "Fishing Magic" or surely fathers of our elite web site members. Any of you ever fished Hamstead Heath ponds?

Yes, but I don't think I was photographed. There are two chains of ponds, Hampstead and Highgate, formed by damming the headwaters of the former Fleet River, plus the isolated and rather spooky "Red Arches" pond, upstream of the Hampstead ponds, and the "Vale of Health" pond - the origin of which I don't know. I haven't been over there for years - does anyone know what the fishing situation is there now? (I believe you need to get a (free) permit, but am not sure.)

I have fished Tatton Mere in years gone by.
The roach fishing was excelent. Fishing is mainly from one bank, with the rest being closed off as a nature reserve. There were also some good tench and the odd few good carp in there. Night fishing was stopped a long time ago due to the deer herds being poached.
It is now a day ticket only, with the best fishing being close to the Nature reserve, which according to the rangers is where the two pound roach are to be found.
It is also plagued by cormorants and is usually affected each year by blue green algea. although it is by no means a shallow water.
The fish stocks must still be pretty good as they hold pike fishing matches on there each year. On the whole I think it is fairly neglected nowadays, but that doesn't mean to say the fishing isn't up to much.

Incidentally, this is where I last used the slider float, but I was haveing problems getting through the smaller roach before my bait was taken, I switched to the feeder hopeing that would get me through to the bottom and hopefully the larger specimens, it was only about one out of every three casts that I was able to get through the smaller shoals, these smaller roach were all around the half pound mark. That should give you some idea on what the fishing can be like.

Frederick also mentions Basingstoke Canal, which he highly recommends for Bream and Tench. Is this still true today?

Shaun, the Basingstoke canal is very good for Tench to about 5lb with Bream of a variety of sizes up to about 7lb; there are bigger specimens of both I am told but I,ve caught fish of that size in there so I know they exist.

The Carp are worth a look as well as they can go to 30lb as a mate caught one that size and I witnessed it for him. My best from there is 21lb.

The best areas generally tend to be the wides, old turning areas for the barges, but stalking is good fun if not too busy with walkers and cyclists.

I fished the canal today, this morning, and caught a double figure Pike on a Jerk bait from under a moored boat. I knew it was there as I had seen it a couple of days before destroying a feeder on the end of my rod; that taught it a lesson.