Golden Memories

Now that another year is coming to its end; and I have entered my ‘Old Moaning Codger’ years; I was reminiscing about my formative years fishing when I was just a small lad.

Like most kids I started out with a cane, cotton and bent pin after the huge mnnows in the local brook.

But my earliest memories after real fish were when my dad and his mate used to take me fishing on the canal at Croxley Green when I was about 10 (or less). I used to use a heavy Tonkin cane rod which was huge both in length and width together with a tiny wooden reel. I was shown how to tackle up with a large porqupine quill float and a 16 hook to 'Cat Gut'. Hooks were ‘GoldStrikes’ and were litterally like gold as my dad usually only had one packet of ten and I would get the customary moan "and don’t lose this one as it's your last!!". I used to catch gudgeon and the occasional stunted roach using ‘Gentles’ (maggots) as bait (in tin bait boxes).

When I got into my early teens I got bought a solid fibreglass Abu spinning rod and an ‘Intrepid Extra’ reel and some cork bodied Thames floats; and used to float fish with my father and his mate on the Thames & Great Ouse. My father used a Mitchell reel with a ‘half bail arm’ that swung outwards for casting and a spit cane rod with a swing tip, and his mate used a ‘hollow Steel Match rod’.

I will always remember the early mornings on the Thames when the mist was on the water and the church bells rang out and the woodpidgeon cooed, and you couldn,t hear any traffic.

Nowerdays we are lucky with the tackle that’s available today and a lot of anglers start out with a Carp rod n reel, bite alarm, chair and a landing net. And a book on Carp fishing. But I look back to my earlier years with great fondness. As I now enter my ‘Old Moaning Codger’ years.What memories do you have of when you were first introduced to the wonderful world of the Angler???.

My first angling trip was on the Chichester canal with my stepbrother, I must have been nine or ten.

using a 10ft fibreglass rod and a mitchell 324, I watched a motionless flouro yellow tip all day, with not even a nibble, but it didn't matter, what swam beneath those depths mystified me and I have fished ever since.

My first fish was obviously a tiny perch at the old lake at Willinghurst Surrey. Back then this was the only lake at the complex, and sometimes my stepbrother and I would be the only anglers on this complex for £5 a day. It's changed a lot there now!

Some of us did a short piece on this very subject in the recent past.

So,let's have some more!

"We get to know each other on the forum to a great extent, and sometimes we meet at fish-ins, but how much do we really know about each other?

We have members from across the world, ranging from manual workers, office workers, solicitors, policemen, writers, editors, photographers, soldiers, actors, film producers, angling guides, technicians, medical people - you name it and we've got 'em in our 'family'. Yet most often we don't really know who it is we're debating with or having a laugh with on the forum.

So now's your chance to put that right. This is where FM members can tell the FishingMagic community all about themselves. Tell us who you are, what you do, what your fishing is all about and what it means to you, tell us what makes you tick, warts and all.

Stories can be anything from 1000 to 5000 words long, preferably, but not necessarily, with a selection of pictures. Email the words and pictures to me at graham@fishingmagic.com and I'll do the rest. "

'Like most kids I started out with a cane, cotton and bent pin after the huge mnnows in the local brook.'

Not me Keith, I was hi-tec from the word go! /forum/smilies/wink_smiley.gif

Although (admittedly) it looks suspiciously like bamboo, the rodI'm using here on the Ouse at Willington near Bedford (circa 1982) was definitely (if memory serves me) a top-flite Hardys or Greys...

Note the experimental rod pod (or bag, as we used to call it) in the foreground.

Wish I'd known at the time that Iwas in monster barbel and chub territory!!!

One thing I do enjoy now is buying all the classic rods on ebay that I couldn't afford as a kid, Sigma wands, Simpsons of Turnford Carp rods, Tricast Feeder rods, Dave harrell stick rods, etc.

My dad had a barbers shop and took as payment for a haircut the worst fishing rod the world has ever seen, 2 bits of garden cane and a solid top.

out of pocket money got a bakelite pin reel for about ninepence.

My mate had a really flashy tank ariel,boy was I jealous. Until the day he was trying a huge cast and the top 2 joints ended up on the bottom of the Lee.

I thought I had arrived whenone christmas I got a taperflash and an intrepid monarch. The reel is long gone but I still have the rod.

1st.fish was tiny perch which I wanted to have set up cos I thought it was probably a record

Standing watching somebody fishing the River Gade in Cassiobury Park, Watford. Unfortunately he had waded in so I thought it was perfectly OK to to the same - depth perception isn't always a strong point of a six year old!!

Mind you its not much better these days

getting on a bus for first time without my mum and going to saltaire to fish the river aire with my mate both aged ten.on the way back i left my rod at the bus stop but thats not what i remember the most from that day no the mighty gudgeon that i caught. now more than 30 years later i still remember it as clear as day

when i was a lad

I remeber my first fishing rod.It came from Woolworths.It was made of metal,had plastic eyes,spigot and reel seat,the line was cotton and it had a plastic float and a big hook.I used to sit for hours on the canal catching nothing and loved every minute.Then I got a little Ryobi fishing kit and still remember my first Carp.I was only used to catching the obliging Perch and Minnow,then one day I had my fist epic battle with a Carp,it was only about 2lb but I was a shaking mess and smiled for days.That was about 28 years ago and that fish was responsible for my life long obsession.

I remember one christmas my dad bought me a mitchell match reel.I was down the rez after christmas dinner trying it out./forum/smilies/big_smile_smiley.gif

I can remember my first fishing session. Mum and Dad had bought me a 5'6" spinning rod and an Intrepid Boyo reel from Woolies (Winfield) and the old fella took me to a farm pit he regularly fished at. One of his mates was there although I cant remember who! Anywa, he set me up and got me to cast out, then produced a pen and some paper so I could draw to stop me getting bored. It was a hot day so he stuck a brolly over my chair and cracked open the bottle of homemade lemonade. 5 mins or so later he said I'd got a bite, then realised he hadn't told me what to do! Consequently I missed the first bite but was now interested in what was happening. The next time the porcupine quill slipped under I struck, albeit too hard, resulting in the poor roach on the end flying out of the pool! After sternly being told to be more careful I eventually got the hang of it, though on occaision still getting the flying roach syndrome. Roach came out pretty much every chuck, then the perch moved in and after being spiked once or twice I managed to cartefully land them with no more damage to either the fish or myself. Being only 4 and a half I was quite excited and made a fair bit of noise which prompted the old fella to give me a lesson in being quiet by telling me the farmer had good hearing, you know, the usual scare stories to get you to behave! As I remember right we had a netful of fish by the end of the day, roach, rudd, perch plus a couple of tench and small carp that the old chap had caught. I couldn't wait to go again, yep well and truly hooked!

The old fella used to give me lessons in casting accuracy by setting my rod up at home and placing a bucket at various locations around the back garden and getting me to cast into the bucket. Something I've been thankful for ever since. Whilst fishing various other pits and the local cut he spent plenty of time showing me different plants and the local wildlife we encountered and most of all how to be patient, quiet and respecrful to our surroundings.

Cheers Dad./forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

fishing on the cherwell aged 5 with my uncle and cousins with a cheap kids rod set

I remember walking into a tackle shop for the first time and buying a float and a packet of hooks, I was about 7 or8.

"What size hooks" asked the bloke. "Big ones" I said and he showed me a packet of 18's. " no bigger" Isaid and walked out with a pack of 14's and one of those old perch bobs.

I remember thinking at the time how strange it was that the size of hooks must go up as the number got smaller, It took ages for my young mind to come to terms with that.

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Mine is going on the early morning train to Stratford on Avon and walking from the station through the the town then through the old churchyard to get to the Seven Meadows stretch which was my Dad's favourite place. I used to love that walk through the churchyard and being astounded at how old the inscribed memorial slate slabs that forms the path were, people from the mists of time it seemed to me, a mere youngster.

Usual stuff of perfect peace andquiet apart from the birds singing, moorhens squabbling in the reeds and lying flat on my back to watch the skylarks soaring ever upwards. Whyis it that it always seemed to be warm and sunny in my memory yet in reality it probably wasn't, and an old cane rod with the line attached to the top end only served to grab my attention for short spells the rest of the time I wandered about like an explorer and witnessed wondrous things on the riverbank that I now take for granted. Nesting birds, ducks and moorhens that frustrated my every effort to get near enough to see inside the nest, learning to somersault in the safety of a haystack, walking on my hands and learning to whistle loudly using my fingers I did all of those things while my Dad fished away peacefully.

Happy days and happy memories especially of my father who sadly died in 1986 who instilled the love of the riverbank in me, a gift I have been grateful for ever since and I can still see him sat there on his creel with open topped collarless shirt and braces to hold up his trousers, content with his lot even though it was wartime and the world was a very dangerous place especially in Birmingham where we lived. I am now more thantwice the age that he was then but I still have my wonderfulmemories and always will have.

I remember it so well, I was 5.

Me dad got me up early and we went to the bakery for a loaf. The lake was only down the road, 3 acres of still water.

"Tench" he told me and i was so excited.

I've fished ever since, i can't remember if we caught or not, i was just so pleased that me dad had finally taken me out with him.

I was 21 and had gone to Cornwall for a summerholiday, with nothing to do I soon got bored to death and went into a local shopgetting a short pier rod, cheep reel and a fewextras. I fished off the peir wall and caught very little, but it got me thinking.

When I came home my gran arranged a trip to Worcester to visit an uncle who fished, 'he would show me how to do it'. Under his advise I brought a better rod, about 12ft heavy match style, and set off for two days tuition.

I remember we fished the Talbot waters on the Temethe first day. Using a bullet lead I rolled bread about all over the shallows taking a chub of about 1lb,I thought was a real monster. Next day he took me onto theTeme a lot further downstream and by and large left me to my own devises. His advice was 'The more difficult to fish the swim, the likely that there are chub about', advise that holds true today.

My chosen swim had a bush comming out from each bank, almost meeting in the middle, holding the rod at full stretchI swung the bait out into the gap between the bushes and sat back to wait. The rod slamed round, I struck and just held on as the fish powered off downstream. I got pointed as therod leveled out towards the fish and then the line broke with a load crack that gave me quite a shock. My tutor had menioned neither clutch or anti reverse, so these were of course tightened right up and in the on position respectively.

Not detered, I tackled up again and out went the bait. This time whenI got the bite I opened the bail arm, he would not break me a second time. Off he went yet again and once well downstream I closed the bail arm and began to bring him back up towards me. Writing this account I am amazed I got away with this action but luck favours the brave, or in this case the foolish, and following the fish getting stuck in the bush opposite and then coming out under pressure, I land a big chub.

I had a set of Little Samson scales that went to 4lb and the fish bottomed them out. I shall never know how big the fish was, but because of him I have spent 40 odd years as a Specimen Hunter and had many enjoyable moments, none more memorable than that fish.

7 years old , my dad worked at the local warf and used to take my brother and i fishing while he worked on a sunday morning.Still picture it now me and big brother sat on the end of a barge fishing.

My first fish were perch from Hollingworth Lake at Littleborough near Rochdale. I can remember that like it was yesterday, but the thing that springs to mind is my Grandad showing me how to whip home made rings onto a tank ariel bought from the army and navy stores.