Standing out

[no-one in particular]

All things being equal, two guys fishing a 5 hour match, one baits up and waits for two hours and then fishes for 3 hours, the other one baits up and gets on with it and fishes for 5 hours, who would win? Would the winner be the better angler?

 

[silvers]

Latterly the res' became the home water for the Barnsley Blacks who had established their reputation on the big Trent matches though Tommy Pickering and Dennis White could catch fish anywhere. I don't think the Blacks ever lost a home match. There was one occasion when they were in a competition much like the FA Cup in that each team was drawn against another and fished the match at whichever venue the first team out of the hat chose. Home and away sort of thing. The Blacks drew away to some team near Selby who chose a venue with no fish in it

That would have been the NFA knockout ..... also known as the captain Morgan, Tuborg and Skanderborg at different times.
Mike Winney's hilarious "up for T'Cup" in David Hall's Match Fishing was loosely based on this competition and also the great Trentmen team of the late 70s/early 80s.

 

[flightliner]

Just out of interest Tommy pickering was nicknamed "The Bionic Bleaker" at one time, anyone here know of or can recall his biggest weight of Bleak??.

 

[nicepix]

Just out of interest Tommy pickering was nicknamed "The Bionic Bleaker" at one time, anyone here know of or can recall his biggest weight of Bleak??.

He got the nickname after a match on the Trent where he weighed in over 14lb of bleak - 642 of them!

https://www.prestoninnovations.com/assets/articles/Tommy-IYCF-March-11.pdf

 

[flightliner]

Remind me again old boy who bite on the "old school chum" line I fed you

He got the nickname after a match on the Trent where he weighed in over 14lb of bleak - 642 of them!

https://www.prestoninnovations.com/assets/articles/Tommy-IYCF-March-11.pdf

Thanks NP, amazing bag of bits.If i,m catching run of the mill roach with float gear on the trent I always work on forty for eight pound approx.
Just suppose those Bleak in Tommys catch were roughly equel in weight the catch would maybe have made one hundred and twenty eight pounds !!

 

[silvers]

you can only catch what's in front of you, but Tommy's figures wouldn't be in the same league as Hadrian Whittle on the Wye (up to 51 pounds in matches and more in practice sessions).
There's a Sensas groundbait called Record 515 that's been around since the early 70s at least that commemorates in name the then world record catch of 515 fish ....... in an HOUR. In those days there were points per fish as well as per gramme on the continent, so numbers mattered.

 

[ravey]

Hi Flight,

Looking back at his book on pole fishing, Tommy had a match catch of 22lb at Shelford (on a day where he struggled to get them to 'settle'), and followed that up with a five hour practice session at Collingham when he recorded 35lb.

It was the late Colin Dyson who gave him the 'Bionic Bleaker' moniker, and the press ran with it.

I may be wrong, but I seem to recall Alan Scotthorne weighing in 42lb of bleak in a Burton Joyce match some years later (can't remember which year).

Nicepix,

Good for you for showing Barnsley how to fish! Bit cheeky of Cleggy to call it 'kids fishing'! It wasn't kids fishing, it was fishing to win! I remember Billy Lane saying that he welcomed 'fishing lessons' from unexpected sources...what great humility and a willingness/humbleness to learn the great man showed. I still remember that article you wrote about that match you and Billy fished on the Witham in Angling Star, Flightliner!

 

[silvers]

I remember Billy Lane saying that he welcomed 'fishing lessons' from unexpected sources...what great humility and a willingness/humbleness to learn the great man showed.

same with all the REALLY top anglers that I've known over the years .... always willing to learn and also to share, from Ian Heaps through to Michael Buchwalder.
I was never lucky enough to meet Billy - but heard many tales from Coventry anglers about him ..... you could tell from the reverence in their voices that he was more than a bit special.

 

[nicepix]

Hi Flight,

Looking back at his book on pole fishing, Tommy had a match catch of 22lb at Shelford (on a day where he struggled to get them to 'settle'), and followed that up with a five hour practice session at Collingham when he recorded 35lb.

It was the late Colin Dyson who gave him the 'Bionic Bleaker' moniker, and the press ran with it.

I may be wrong, but I seem to recall Alan Scotthorne weighing in 42lb of bleak in a Burton Joyce match some years later (can't remember which year).

Nicepix,

Good for you for showing Barnsley how to fish! Bit cheeky of Cleggy to call it 'kids fishing'! It wasn't kids fishing, it was fishing to win! I remember Billy Lane saying that he welcomed 'fishing lessons' from unexpected sources...what great humility and a willingness/humbleness to learn the great man showed. I still remember that article you wrote about that match you and Billy fished on the Witham in Angling Star, Flightliner!

Cleggy wasn't known for his humility :wh As I said; it was a fluke. A combination of circumstances that went in my favour.

When I was around 14 years old I was fishing alone on the Fleets Dam, then owned by the Star Paper Mill. While I was fishing a young man of around 17 arrived on a scooter. He wasn't fishing, but stopped to chat and asked to look at what passed as my rig. He taught me how to plumb the depth, where to put the shot and even took a hook link out of his own wallet and tied it on to my line. I caught more fish that day than I had in the previous year. The stranger was Dennis White. He and his mate Tommy Pickering are two of the nicest people I've ever met.

---------- Post added at 18:35 ---------- Previous post was at 18:26 ----------

you can only catch what's in front of you, but Tommy's figures wouldn't be in the same league as Hadrian Whittle on the Wye (up to 51 pounds in matches and more in practice sessions).
There's a Sensas groundbait called Record 515 that's been around since the early 70s at least that commemorates in name the then world record catch of 515 fish ....... in an HOUR. In those days there were points per fish as well as per gramme on the continent, so numbers mattered.

I think though that in the UK Tommy pioneered and publicised the methods that were used. He had a matchstick or sometimes just a piece of crinkled line as his float at first then developed the countdown method where he just struck after a given period of time whether he saw a bite or not.

The best catch I had using a similar method albeit before the Bionic Bleaker era was on the Ouse near York in a blisteringly hot day. We were scratching for bites and three ruffe would have won it, but I noticed a small shoal of dace nicking my maggots as I fed the nearside line. For the last forty minutes or so I wiff-waffed a freelined maggot on my 13' float rod and ended up with 29 dace for 3lb after missing the first twenty or so bites. The stress of watching for the fish to approach the bait and striking almost before I saw them take it was unbearable. I was knackered!

 

[flightliner]

i can only imagine that 42lb of Bleak must be like seeing a net full of small herring coming over the side of a trawlers gunnels!.
Ravey, that match was nearly fifty years ago-- still havent got over it!!!.
i,ve had Colin Dysons big landing net for years now-- a few tears in it nipped up with mini cable ties.
Sad loss to angling journalism.
Hope your fishings going well my friend.

 

[silvers]

the countdown method where he just struck after a given period of time whether he saw a bite or not.

and very effective it is too, especially for dace. I've also heard it called the rythm method, and use it a lot on the waggler - you can get 2 or three goes in a run down if you spread the loose feed wide enough. When the dace come up in the water and are racing around after the bait, watching the float is fairly pointless.

An old team mate of mine, Ray Mumford, was a pretty handy bleaker in his day too.

 

[nicepix]

From my own limited experience of dace fishing when the float disappears it is often too late to strike, especially with smaller ones

 

[flightliner]

From my own limited experience of dace fishing when the float disappears it is often too late to strike, especially with smaller ones

How ironic, this thread has now developed into pretty much what the original poster seemed to have wanted- good anglers using good techniques and baiting regimes. !

 

[nicepix]

How ironic, this thread has now developed into pretty much what the original poster seemed to have wanted- good anglers using good techniques and baiting regimes. !

And it took me beating three England Internationals to get us here :w mg:

 

[dorsetandchub]

Bet they were handcuffed and in the cells....and the CCTV had just gone on the blink...

 

[flightliner]

And it took me beating three England Internationals to get us here :w mg:

Don't forget that Billy lane had to beat me !!

 

[nicepix]

Bet they were handcuffed and in the cells....and the CCTV had just gone on the blink...

SHUSH!! :wh

 

[dorsetandchub]

Is that the South Yorks version of "You do not have to say anything......." ??

 

[flightliner]

Is that the South Yorks version of "You do not have to say anything......." ??

Only if you've forgotten your warrent card on the way out of the station---:w

 

[wes79]

What quality do you think makes you 'stand out' from the crowd?

My quality original 1990 shell suit (blue with pastel green and pink shoulder laterals) purely for those Bob Nudd summer carp fishing double takes...(is that....) makes me feel comfy but not sweaty, pair of Ray Bans and a massive grin on my face! Four pack of Carling and a pint of red maggot on the floor by my feet, walkman on, not giving a **** about how many anglers there are but how rad I look with my shell suit on and my pristine mullet glowing in the sun, pulling in 5lb "bag appeal" Carp every 15minute cast.

sillyness aside....I do agree with you on the feeding, looking back over the year (especially in summer) all my sessions that included breadcrumb or groundbaits being flung out there have actually resulted in more catches, so for me personally and given my limited knowledge of the how and why I cannot really argue with my own experiences having told me feeding correctly does actually work wonders, I did a repeat of one of the same venues, same swim, same early morning time frame (within a fortnight), same kit & bait/rig etc one session I forgot my groundbait mixing bowl so never used it, came back home with it still dry in its bag, was a poor days fishing, time before I had my largest Chub ever and three almost as big (I was admittedly only targeting Chub), I could only pin it down to a handful of variables I had not considered at the time and the use of ground baiting was one of them (it is a feed after all) and on one occassion not having loose fed the swim, but both times I took the same amount of time to get settled, comfy and be still (which was about an hour after the first ball went in). I still could be wrong and will have to accept that I am if something glaringly obvious was indeed missed, but so far I cannot see what else that might be after a lack of smell or attraction needed perhaps when catches were low.