What was the turning point for you

Lord Paul of Sheffield · Aug 30, 2016

In angling terms

For me a 10 year old happy to catch finger size roach from a small pond was the day I saw an angler catch a bream of about 3lb

It seemed the fish of a life time and made me want to improve my fishing and catch such a fish

Peter Jacobs · Aug 31, 2016

As an 9 year old I used to fish the pond on the local common and would usually get some small roach and the occasional perch.

But, the turning point for me was probably seeing an adult catching a Tench of about 3 pounds one Saturday early morning.

From then onward the Tench became my most wished for fish which came when I was probably 11 or 12 years of age when fishing the Longwater at Hampton Court with my brother.

Never really looked back after that to be honest . . . . .

no-one in particular · Aug 31, 2016

First up was fishing with the old man and he wanted to go for a wee. He told me to hold the rod but not pull it in. The float started bobbing up and and down and the bloke next to me shouted and told me to pull it in, I said "I cant, dad told me not to" so he came over and pulled it in for me, a little roach, my first fish!
So I badgered the old man and he bought me a toy rod and I caught a bream in the canal and the rod bent at right angles to the wooden handle. Time to get serious so I became a pain in the arse and I started demanding a proper rod and my own gear. Took about a year to get that but I carried on being a pain in the arse anyway.

mikench · Aug 31, 2016

Having only resumed course fishing last october after 40 years or so it has to be not the first few carp i caught at a commercial but the day, after several blanks ,when I caught dozens of tiddlers.

I had gone to find a water on my card which is in the grounds of a stately home. I found it, the sun was shining( it was february time), there was nobody there, i had my tackle so I set up. Caught first cast and it never stopped. Childish I know but i felt like a child that afternoon and was happy just setting up, casting into a small but picturesque pond with the winter sun in my face and catching small roach and perch.

Maybe it brought back memories of the local cut as a kid but it brought out the kid in me which we never really lose. I decided i liked this course fishing lark

Derek Gibson · Aug 31, 2016

The turning point for me was as a ten year old lad watching an old gentleman catch a Perch of massive size on the Worsborough canal near Barnsley.

Up to that point I was more than happy catching finger size Perch aplenty, but then things changed and I resolved that one day I would catch such a fish. Unfortunately the old fella dispatched the fish with a couple of wacks. Sad as that may seem today it was common practice back then particularly with Pike.

That was my turning point, and more than likely set me on the path to becoming a specimen hunter.

barbelboi · Aug 31, 2016

Lord Paul of Sheffield said:
In angling terms

For me a 10 year old happy to catch finger size roach from a small pond was the day I saw an angler catch a bream of about 3lb

It seemed the fish of a life time and made me want to improve my fishing and catch such a fish

That would have put me off fishing for life..................

My father was a fisherman, his parents had a house at Broxbourne that backed onto the Lee. I don't remember life without fishing.

bracket · Aug 31, 2016

I have fished since I can ever remember so I cannot recall the first occasion. I do recall a defining moment when my resolve was firmly consolidated. I was 13 years old and on my way to school. I intended to fish the Wollaton Canal after school so stopped at the tackle shop to get some bits and bobs. This made me late for school. When I made the classroom the teacher made an issue of it and demanded to know why I was late. I told him I had stopped off at the tackle shop and that made me late. He said something to the effect I should stop wasting my time fishing and concentrate on my maths. That was the moment I grew up. I turned on my heels got my push bike from the bike shed and went fishing. That's been me ever since. Got a right belt off my Old Man, worth it though. Pete.

john step · Aug 31, 2016

I was about 4yrs and was fascinated watching the big boys ( at least 8yrs ) catching sticklebacks in home made nets in the local park stream in Ilford of all places. I bet there are no sticklebacks in it now and I bet the stream has been tubed.
Luckily the family moved to a road adjacent to the Chase at Dagenham. With no mentor and bits of scrounged and home made tackle it was a struggle.
Still struggling at times!

robtherake · Aug 31, 2016

The budding young anglers from our village fished the local perch pond, where the fish averaged 6oz or so, with the occasional 10oz "monster."

The best angler amongst us was experimenting with new techniques while the rest were still grubbing a few worms from the hedgeback before fishing. I'd popped over the pond for a walk and he was swingtipping a maggot feeder with a pound hooklength. The tip flew out straight and he HAD TO GIVE LINE!!! to this unseen beastie, which was a humpty-backed creature the likes of which none of us had ever seen before.

I ran all the way home and back for my 4lb Salter spring balance while he held the fish in the landing net and it went a creditable 2lb 4oz - not a bad fish at all in the 70s.

The next day saw me in the library, borrowing venerable works by Walker, Taylor and others, and my fishing changed radically from there on. I never did beat that two and a quarter pounder from there, but had several twos from the deeper water through that autumn, including one of 2lb 3oz on feedered maggot with lobworm hookbait. What was a bigger surprise was the appearance of the occasional tench to 4lb and eels to 3lb - fish which we were entirely unaware of, having fished for the perch with baits suspended at mid-depth.

Sadly, this flooded valley had no outlet and the build-up of nitrogenous fertiliser residues from adjoining arable land caused a massive algal bloom with associated deoxygenation and the inevitable slow death of the whole stock.

binka · Aug 31, 2016

It has to be my first ever fish on rod and line, a tiny perch at that.

I would be about nine and reeled in on an after school session as it was getting dark and found this fish on my line and after months of trying my knees nearly gave way!

I remember emptying my cantilever tackle box all over the floor in a mad panic and filling the large bottom compartment with water just so I could retain it and admire it for a couple of minutes before slipping it back.

With no rod holdall, just loose rod and reel with a bankstick and aluminium landing net pole and large mesh (in case I got really lucky!) I was so excited that I got home in the dark and all the line had gone off my reel, courtesy of someone's overhanging bush on the way!

robtherake · Aug 31, 2016

binka said:
It has to be my first ever fish on rod and line, a tiny perch at that.

I would be about nine and reeled in on an after school session as it was getting dark and found this fish on my line and after months of trying my knees nearly gave way!

I remember emptying my cantilever tackle box all over the floor in a mad panic and filling the large bottom compartment with water just so I could retain it and admire it for a couple of minutes before slipping it back.

With no rod holdall, just loose rod and reel with a bankstick and aluminium landing net pole and large mesh (in case I got really lucky!) I was so excited that I got home in the dark and all the line had gone off my reel, courtesy of someone's overhanging bush on the way!

Love it, Steve. You've painted a vivid picture of a brilliant moment.

terry m · Aug 31, 2016

For me it was catching a perch also. I remember the exact weight, 1lb 10oz and compared to everything caught previously it was huge.

I still remember the exact swim ~45 years later.

dorsetandchub · Sep 1, 2016

My first fish was a Miller's Thumb that I reeled in without knowing it was there.

Then, after a few more sessions, two gudgeon on the canal. The second bite caused me, like Binks, to fall off my basket - fortunately without getting wet.

Not long after that, I fished the canal in a tremendous rain storm, so float fished close in at the back of a boat in the next swim. I had about 3lbs of perch, skimmers, roach, gudgeon, stone loach and a ruffe.

When I got home, over a big mug of tea, I slowly, luxuriously ticked those species off in my Observer's book. The next session, on a farm pond, I added the Rudd.

That summer holiday, it felt like a star was born but, more like, in the words of Peter Lorre, I created a monster.....

Happy memories, thanks a million.

iain t · Sep 1, 2016

What started me off was around 48 years ago fishing with my Dad using Woolworth starter kits on a tiny stream in Dorset. I caught a stickleback the size of a small peanut. From then in the summer holidays, it was down to the Thames at Putney. Never caught much but Eels as then the Thames was full of pollutant and rubbish. Used to have my Weetabix and then on the 85 bus with my packed lunch each day. I was as happy as a sand boy. Those days parents didn't worry if you were gone all day as long as you were home for Dinner. Then i got into Pike so off to woolies again for a stronger fiberglass rod. Mostly fished near Barnes and Chersey for them as the water was cleaner. Now at 52 i still get a kick hooking a fish just like the tiddler that started me off. Still, prefer the rivers and streams to commercial waters.

flossy · Sep 2, 2016

First ever days fishing was at Broxbourne on the river lea ,age 5 got hooked that day been hooked ever since,

51 this year.

Keith M · Sep 2, 2016

I can't recall exactly when I first got hooked on angling with a rod but I remember in my childhood fishing with my mate on my local stream for minnows and stickleback using a length of garden cane with around 4 or 5ft of line tied to the end of it, and a couple of size 16 gold strike hooks to gut that I had pinched from my dads tackle tin and a few matchsticks for floats.

I remember my joy after catching my first rod caught (cane caught) minnow and millers thumb and my first stone loach on 'Gentles' (maggots).

My earliest recollection of fishing with a proper rod and reel was at Croxley Green just south of Watford when I fished with my father using a heavy Tonkin Cane rod together with a tiny 3 inch wooden cotton reel type reel and catching my first Perch, Roach and Gudgeon.

I loved fishing then; and apart for a few years later when I discovered the opposite sex and was distracted for a while; my love for the sport has not waned a bit. Lol.

Keith

sam vimes · Sep 2, 2016

No particular turning point that I recall. I went fishing and enjoyed it, regardless of whether I caught anything of particular significance. That pretty much remains the case nearly forty years later.

terry m · Sep 2, 2016

Thinking back to those days of yore, does anyone else remember looking at the Winfield angling offerings in the local Woolworths?

The stock never seemed to change, always plenty of Toby lures and multifunctional rods that converted from a boat rod to a spinning rod to a pier rod or a float rod.

Most of the stuff was junk or at least poor quality, but I was still captivated and would wander around the fishing display too regularly!.

theartist · Sep 2, 2016

I remember a chap turning up on our local river fishing a stick with hemp and maggots going in banging one out after the other other. He seemed like a genius so I spent a while watching him quietly. Up till then dad and I used to leger somewhat badly not catching much so it was eye opening.

Next time turned up with and old butchers apron that mum had stitched two pouches on as I didn't know you could buy bait aprons. I must have looked a right sight especially as the wet hemp would soak through leaving me looking like i'd wet myself.

Did I care? not a jot as I was now banging fish out left right and centre and the river suddenly seemed full of fish.

robtherake · Sep 2, 2016

terry m said:
Thinking back to those days of yore, does anyone else remember looking at the Winfield angling offerings in the local Woolworths?

The stock never seemed to change, always plenty of Toby lures and multifunctional rods that converted from a boat rod to a spinning rod to a pier rod or a float rod.

Most of the stuff was junk or at least poor quality, but I was still captivated and would wander around the fishing display too regularly!.

For a while - in the late 70s/early 80s - they did a series of hollow glass rods that were uncannily close to the offerings of Binka's favourite brand. Versions of "The Swingtip" and "The Fred Taylor Trotter," plus others tantalised this particular 13yr old boy during our weekly shopping trip. Never did buy one - once the paper round money had built up it was an ABU Mk 6 and Legerlite 101 or nothing, although I think my money would've been better spent on the Shakespeare Alpha range - something that I rectified at a later date. The Mk 6 was a good rod, but it weighed a ton compared to the Alpha.

What was the turning point for you

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