Fred Bonney's story

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Peter Bishop

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Fred, enjoyed your missive. Amazing how similar our early days were, though I will admit that being a little more indulged than yourself I aquired the rod and reel a little earlier than you!
Having read my story in ABT no doubt you found much to mirror your own experiences on ponds and streams.
That said that grounding amongst the wonders of nature made us the people we are today. We learned how to enjoy and to actually catch a fish that was a 'goer' was a bonus. I went everywhere with an Observers book of birds and plants and knew all there was to know about frog spawn and newts by the time I was 12.
Sadly, the current generation of budding anglers have far less freedom than we enjoyed. Responsible parents these days rarely let childen out of the sight and in consequence they never get closer to nature than the images of plants and wild animals they find on their computer screens. Those that do take up the sport tend to specialise right from the off. I have seen 13 year olds with more carp gear than would fit in my car.
Yes, I think we enjoyed the halcyon days-but I suppose every generation thinks that.
Isn't nostalgia wonderful. Its the best part of being Fifty plus!
 
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Fred Bonney

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Thanks Peter,I must admit I'd forgotten the term "goer" though
One of those words that had two meanings, for a growing lad :eek:)
I'm sure many of us fifty pluses had similar experiences of growing up, in what was a poor time, but great fun,missed by todays younger generations.

I've had one complaint about this story of mine, from THE BOSS,she tells me, that I haven't known her for 40 odd years, only 30 odd...Only??? It feels like a lot more, to me.
 
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Peter Bishop

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Fred, you are right about the two meanings. A 'goer' was any fish over a certain size-orginally designed for taking trout-and as most of the fish we caught were spratts compared to what we routinely catch today, a roach of 6 ozs was a goer!
Of course when we got to 15/16 that was any girl that were willing to go behind the school bike sheds.
 
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BAZ (Angel of the North) aka Fester

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A brilliant story Fred. and you almost look like a proffssional in the photo's. I really did enjoy that mate.
 
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Steve Spiller

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Well done Fred, I really enjoyed reading your story.
Your early days were so similar to mine it is spooky!

Thanks Fred, lovely read, see you on the Trent one day.
 
Neil Maidment

Neil Maidment

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Excellent story and well written.

Why did we all wear waders back then??

(I did because Ivan Marks did!)

Brought back memories of match fishing the Thames (only a few occassions for me) and having to measure every fish on the ruler. Caught very few "goers"!
 
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john ledger

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Well done Fred my mate,just read it and believe me this man is a gent of the highest order
 
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Les Clark

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A great look into your past Fred ,loved the waders and cloths ,didn`t we wear some crap fishing in those days ,but nobody could call us tackle tarts .
 
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Warren 'Hatrick' (Wol) Gaunt

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Great read Fred. Have you still got them waders?????
 
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Warren 'Hatrick' (Wol) Gaunt

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I like the Anglers Handbook pic, looks like Jack Nicholson from The Shining.
 
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Fred Bonney

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Thanks guy's,you should all have a go at it,it was fun remembering.
As you can tell,from my style, it only takes a little while to write/type it.
Put it down in Word as your memories go along , move it about,edit it, then spell check.

Wol,I've not got the waders now,you know how you fold them over permanantly? Well, the bottoms fell off,or was it the tops, after a few years.:O)
I just tried the Jack Nicholson bit, and dribbled all over the keyboard, can't seem to find the keys to show the noise!!
 
GrahamM

GrahamM

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Listen to Fred, come on, have a go, there must be plenty of you with a good life story to tell.
 
K

Kevin Perkins * CLXXX *

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Fred

Great to read your story (well written too) And to echo what others have said, a number of parallels with my own early days.

Not so sure if my life (so far!)story wouldn't be too fractured to be of any real interest
 
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john ledger

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Graham
I have another one when i was in that brothel for a week in Calcutta,it will only take about 30pages
 
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Fred Bonney

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No wonder you look so old John ;o)

Thanks for the compliment Kevin,but,don't fractured lives make good reading?
 
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Kevin Perkins * CLXXX *

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Fred

Perhaps fractured was the wrong word, disjointed might be better, and in my case it would probably read like a series of unconnected chapters, having moved over twenty times and I've probably had nearly as many jobs!

Curiously I have just spoken to my mother regarding one of the family's 'we don't talk about that' little mysteries, and I didn't get the impression that particular episode is top of the list of things up for an investigation just yet

Mind you, my mother doesn't visit this site very often.........!!
 
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The Monk

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a nice piece Fred, very enjoyable. I did think of writing my own history, but with this being a family orientated site, I thought I`d better not
 
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