Anyone seen my marbles

iannate · Jun 6, 2013

I went to do some pre-baiting and fish spotting on a strecth of river I haven't been to for a while; to say it looked slightly altered is an understatement

For a start there was a railway through the middle of it, and there were several power lines that I simply don't remember being there last time I went.

I did remember it was a long walk, and it still is; where you park your car looks more like a car park for those that live on boats so that they can move around alot and enjoy the countryside

(the canal runs nearby.)

I was uterly confused as I couldn't find the weir I fished near last time I was there, I have looked on gmaps and found the weir now, so I wasn't far off.

Has anyone else gone somewhere that totally made them think they were somewhere else?

PS if you do see my marbles, can I have them back please.

chub_on_the_block · Jun 6, 2013

I fished the thames below Romney Island (Potts Field) for the first time in 30 years last autumn. Great willows now adorn the near bank which i had no recollection of whatsoever. Maybe they can grow that big in 30 years. My swim that was 9ft deep a rod length out in the early 80s was now 4ft.

Derek Gibson · Jun 6, 2013

I no longer revisit the scenes of past angling triumph's after a gap of many years, having realised many years ago the folly of assuming that things ''will remain the same''.

And wasn't it none other than **** Walker himself many years ago wrote, ''I think it is a mistake to return to the scene of an angling success, after a lapse of many years''. Prophetic words indeed

Peter Jacobs · Jun 6, 2013

Derek Gibson said:
I no longer revisit the scenes of past angling triumph's after a gap of many years, having realised many years ago the folly of assuming that things ''will remain the same''.

And wasn't it none other than **** Walker himself many years ago wrote, ''I think it is a mistake to return to the scene of an angling success, after a lapse of many years''. Prophetic words indeed

I think I would agree with Derek and **** Walker both.

As a nipper I used to fish the Royal Parks a lot on a permit you obtained by just writing and asking together with a stamp-addressed-envelope.

A couple of years ago I though it would be a good idea to go back to the Longwater at Hampton Court where I caught my very first Tench.

The venue is a dead straight "lake" rather resembling a canal and it was lined with some huge Oak Trees that gave shade in the summer and you could sit under those and eat your sandwiches while watching the sheep that roamed around the park.

Sadly those lovely trees are long gone and replaced by very little specimens that I'll never see grow to full size.

Altogether it was a not very happy nostalgic trip. Not at all.

jacksharp · Jun 6, 2013

Peter Jacobs said:
I think I would agree with Derek and **** Walker both.

As a nipper I used to fish the Royal Parks a lot on a permit you obtained by just writing and asking together with a stamp-addressed-envelope.

A couple of years ago I though it would be a good idea to go back to the Longwater at Hampton Court where I caught my very first Tench.

The venue is a dead straight "lake" rather resembling a canal and it was lined with some huge Oak Trees that gave shade in the summer and you could sit under those and eat your sandwiches while watching the sheep that roamed around the park.

Sadly those lovely trees are long gone and replaced by very little specimens that I'll never see grow to full size.

Altogether it was a not very happy nostalgic trip. Not at all.

When I were a lad, my mates and I used to fish a pond in the fields that had loads of crucians in it. I took my dad there once and, with his old cane rod and sticky centrepin, he pulled out a 5lb tench!

I was on a nostalgia kick recently and went back for a look at it and was horrified to discover that where I used to fish every day for weeks on end looked not much bigger than some garden ponds I have seen and there was no evidence of any angling activity on the banks whatsoever.

Titus · Jun 6, 2013

You can say the same of old girlfriends as well. A few years ago I bumped into a girl who as a teenager I almost married; that was a very very lucky escape.

jacksharp · Jun 6, 2013

Titus said:
You can say the same of old girlfriends as well. A few years ago I bumped into a girl who as a teenager I almost married; that was a very very lucky escape.

Ex-girlfriends all look like my grandma now!

elliottwaters · Jun 6, 2013

By and large you are right. As the phrase goes nostalgia isn’t what it used to be and going back to the enues of one’s youth or boyhood is always a let down. Just one exception though, I grew up on the Southeast London/North Kent borders and my local “river” (well, stream really) was the River Cray, a Thames tributary that runs into the main river just above Dartford.

Back in the late 1960’s the river was semi polluted fishing was very poor with only gudgeoned and the odd small roach and we only fished it as apart from a park lake, tit was all we had.in the immediate area .

A couple of years ago I heard the fishing had considerably improved, and I’ve had a number of successful sessions fishing at Crayford and Bexley with roach to nearly a pound, chub to three pounds and the odd small carp.

No idea whether this improvement can be attributed to the EA, or the de-industrialisation of the 1970’s and 80’s which resulted in the closure of the local factories that used to line its banks, but it is an example of a boyhood venue that’s got better with age

john step · Jun 6, 2013

I agree with Perchy. Some things can improve.I grew up next to the Chase at Dagenham which was Essex before they changed its location to London!!
Every spare moment was spent fishing,swimming and genrally mucking about there from the age of 8. You could walk the entire perimeter ofe water on litter strewn banks avoiding the municipal rubbish dump adjacent.
Almost 60 years later I visited for nostalgia's sake to find a picturesque country park where fishing is encouraged, lots of trees and a second lake where a cabbage field used to be.Oh... a change of name to Bardag!

Peter Jacobs · Jun 6, 2013

iannate said:
PS if you do see my marbles, can I have them back please

I saw the cat playing with something . . . . . . . . .

laguna · Jun 6, 2013

I lost my brand new bowie knife in 1972 :wh it was bought for the special occasion of camping/fishing the L&L canal in the adjacent woods in the summer hols... as we approached our camping spot I had the sudden urge to withdraw the knife from its leather sheath and throw it at a big oak tree to show my mate my (none existent) skills. I missed of course and I spent the best part of a week looking for it but at least my mate enjoyed his fishing

I'm sure theirs a moral there somewhere...

mg:

chub_on_the_block · Jun 6, 2013

Peter Jacobs said:
I think I would agree with Derek and **** Walker both.

As a nipper I used to fish the Royal Parks a lot on a permit you obtained by just writing and asking together with a stamp-addressed-envelope.

A couple of years ago I though it would be a good idea to go back to the Longwater at Hampton Court where I caught my very first Tench.

The venue is a dead straight "lake" rather resembling a canal and it was lined with some huge Oak Trees that gave shade in the summer and you could sit under those and eat your sandwiches while watching the sheep that roamed around the park.

Sadly those lovely trees are long gone and replaced by very little specimens that I'll never see grow to full size.

Altogether it was a not very happy nostalgic trip. Not at all.

I used to fish the parks in the eighties and also remember the Long Water before the 1987 hurricane for its avenues of large oaks..but having google-earthed it in recent years it looks pathetic now. What a naff decision to remove all the surviving veteran oaks just so they could plant new avenues of young trees that will be the same size.

I found a photo on the internet of the Long Water from the early 70s, at which time it had irregular grassy banks (with beds of lilies beyond) rather than the canal towpath style stuff when i fished it. I was amazed, because i had a vague childhood memory from the time i learnt just how important ponds, lakes and fish were, probably aged 8 in about 1974, that it was like that.

Most of my memories are fishing the other lakes in that park, where fishing was banned in about 1982.

itsfishingnotcatching · Jun 7, 2013

laguna said:
I had the sudden urge to withdraw the knife from its leather sheath and throw it at a big oak tree to show my mate my (none existent) skills

Those were the days, anyone else on here use to play "Stretch"?

jacksharp · Jun 7, 2013

itsfishingnotcatching said:
Those were the days, anyone else on here use to play "Stretch"?

We used to call that "Split The Kipper"

Ray Roberts · Jun 7, 2013

jacksharp said:
We used to call that "Split The Kipper"

We used to play "Chicken" we threw the knife between the other persons feet and they had to move one foot to touch the Knife, the first one to bottle it lost. I managed to hit a school mate's leg and the knife went straight through his calf, not as much blood as I would have thought would leak out, but a wonder he didn't die of Tetanus.

I picked up a woman yesterday in my cab that I used to go to primary school with, worryingly she seemed to take a bit of a shine to me, I say worryingly as it you could cross breed species I think she would have qualified as a Mooseappotimus, page three material in National Geographic I fear.

dorsetandchub · Jun 7, 2013

She probably only chatted you up to win a bet :wh

laguna · Jun 7, 2013

Yes chicken was the game but i'm quite sure some of my mates purposefully aimed badly!!!

When I was 13 or 14 yo, I and most other lads lusted after a certain girl of similar age, she was clearly the best looking in the whole school absolutely stunning she were. I think the nearest anyone got was a quick snog behind the bike shed though she was very particular who, and unfortunately it was never me

Some years later we had a chance meeting, she recognised me first and she admitted she always enjoyed teasing me and the other boys at school (seemingly I did have it after all but she just wouldnt give it). Her reputation intact, I'm just so glad I never married the girl - she turned out to be a right minger

mg:

jacksharp · Jun 7, 2013

I remember my first sheath-knife, one of those where the handle was made from a stack of different coloured discs of leather and varnished. Wouldn't cut butter, but boy, was I proud of it. We used to walk around wearing them openly on our belts - imagine doing that now!

mg:

Whenever we had a craze for bows and arrows or catapults or it was approaching Bonfire Night, I used to get the Gurkha kukri, that my dad brought home from Burma after WW2 and take it out the woods with us. It didn't half make short work of saplings and branches up to 3" thick. It had the original wooden, leather covered scabbard/case with 2 little skinning knives in slots at the top.

Happy days!

flightliner · Jun 9, 2013

jacksharp said:
I used to get the Gurkha kukri, that my dad brought home from Burma after WW2 and take it out the woods with us. It didn't half make short work of saplings and branches up to 3" thick. It had the original wooden, leather covered scabbard/case with 2 little skinning knives in slots at the top.

Still got my uncles Jack, mint nick too. no blood anywhere!.

itsfishingnotcatching · Jun 10, 2013

flightliner said:
no blood anywhere

My Granddad was given his in the Kyber Pass in the nineteen twenties, he would never unsheath it without drawing blood

Anyone seen my marbles

The fish made me do it!

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