Memoirs of an Angler

Loved it mate. My dad made his on seat box when I was a kid and we went tench fishing - made me go all misty-eyed.

Brilliant again Davy!

I don't know what you do for a living, but you've missed your vocation.

A wonderful piece of writing and some truly inspired observations.

Can't wait for the next installment!

Regards Chris

Thanks lads I'm glad you enjoyed it.

There a few things more evocative than early morning tench fishing.

In fact it was a small paragraph in the Childhood Dreams chapter in the "Passion for Angling" book about memories of tench fishing that kick pressed my nostalgia button, and inspired me to write these thing in the first place.

Reminds me of when I was about 12 and caught my first tench, it weighed 1lb 12oz

Magic memories indeed.

I am now semi retired,just two days ago in late afternoon I popped down to one of my local club waters which was all weeded up and neglected.It is a quiet and beaufiful place set in a small woods.I spend four hours cleaning up my favourite swim and returned at 5am the following morning.I caught three tench to 3.5lb had a wonderful
session.During the morning I saw an otter ,kingfishers,grebes ,buzzards,jays and a whole host of other wild life .This weekend I shall visit the small lake again only this time I shall be taking my sister's lad along who I have taught the joys of fishing over the years.Your article was excellent and is evocative of what true angling is all about. Well Done.

Although many people will violently disagree with me, it's time we had more creative writing like the piece by Davy.

Lets face of I am sure that many of us are getting fed up of: "I took my four ultimate 4 lb whisker carbo-beasts with Technie Flow giant pit reels and chucked a 5 oz Crappo lead together with multi-double "D" rigs, semi pop-up hyper-duo injected albu-vitagen geneticaly modo-enhanced flavour puce boilies, glugged with Super-dynoflavour enhanced gunge-dip, to the horizon.

I then retired to the comfort of my ?550 Super Hyper Erecto Bivvy complete with tungsten pointed solid titanium bivvy pegs. After one night on the Special Brews and extreme vindaloo curries, I was awoken from the comfort of my Supreme Relaxo-Anglemode bedchair and - 80 deg c triple thermo sleeping bag by the screaming of my ulti-sonic multi-mode, Qadruple Hyper-Blaster Carp Alarms as what proved to be a heavily larded mirror by the name of "Fat Bitch" at 38 lbs kited into my neighbours treble back leaded lines."

UUUURRRRGHHH!!

Just finished reading one of books BB’s, books, more a story than how to do it, gets into the character of the angler and the fish. Davy, your in the same class as far as I’m concerned, I really look forward to reading your articles, brightens my day up at work no end.

Davy,
Who says that nostalgia ain't what it used to be?

Your article really made me think back to my own early days fishing the Longwater at Hampton Court where I caught my first Tench.

In fact so much so, that I am now thinking of applying for a season ticket for the Royal Parks so that on one of my next trips I can (hopefully?) re-live those wonderful less stressful days.

Many thanks for a great series of articles.

Took me back too, to that farmers pond in the woods,with 'monster' gudgeon and rudd where a worm lasted for many a fish.
Great article Dave,as usual.

I'm starting to blush now. I'll try to keep it up.

Ron, look's like you could get an openning in one of those trendy carp mags (of which there are many).

Davy, being inquisitive, I went and bought one the other day. After reading two articles, I threw it in the wheelie bin in disgust.

Why do they take it all so seriously?

Coarse Fisherman is a jolly good read with quite a bit of humour in it.

The Monk caught a nice twenty pounder some time ago whilst he was dressed in his habit. He had a picture taken of himself with with the fish, carefully laid on his unhooking mat.

He had a knife and fork in his hands as though he was preparing to eat the carp. The photo was sent to one of these silly carp magazines but not published. It was returned with some scathing comments. The thick editor could not see the funny side to it.

I find this typical of many carp people - no sense of humour.