|
Post by crofton blade on Sept 7, 2014 13:56:16 GMT
Who can remember the Olden (golden?) Days of Fishing?
I was thinking today of what it was like back in the late sixties and early seventies for us older anglers.
Commercials just didn't exist. Carp were only found in certain lakes and then thought to be virtually uncatchable unless you were a real expert. Rumours of using par- boiled potatoes to catch them were spread.
Poles were something that the sneaky French, Belgians and Italians used to catch masses of tiny silvers, mainly bleak. We used a float rod almost exclusively and had a heavier ledger rod as a back-up. Swimfeeders didn’t really reach the North until later in the seventies- we used Arlesey bombs and threw out the groundbait by hand, often three quarters the way across the Welland or Witham. Loosefeeding was by hand unless you had a (home-made) catapult. Fixed spool reels were just about available to all with the Mitchell Match or 301 being the favourite, or a closed face Abu 506 if you could afford one.
Our match fishing was done on Club matches with 40 blokes catching a coach from South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire Working Men’s Clubs every other Sunday down to the Middle Level, Welland, Nene, Great Ouse Witham or Lincolnshire drain or the closer run to the tidal Trent, dodging the tides and the big barges. I guess 40 anglers would be a great turnout for a match these days. Many were the times that we had to park the bus then walk a couple of miles past a few other matches before we reached our pegs. No parking the car behind your pegs in those days. Open matches could be massive affairs with up to 900 anglers fishing.
Main target fish were bream (my personal favourites) and roach on the drains and the Lincs/ Cambs rivers and roach and gudgeon on the Trent, which in those days contained little else except for bleak, eels and the occasional chub shoal (no barbel in those days). A bucket full of groundbait was a must for our bream fishing in those days. Most of the rivers and canals around Sheffield and Chesterfield were just about devoid of fish back then, hence the long distance travel.
Match boxes weren't yet invented- we sat on wicker baskets.
Our heroes back then? You were either in the specimen hunter camp with Dick Walker or in the match camp with good old Ivan Marks, both regular columnists in the Angling Times.
Ah the Good Old Days! Thinking back, they weren't really that good! In fact it was a struggle for most people. It was more of a social affair with your mates on the four hour drive to Wisbech and four hours back home. As a mate of mine often reminds me- “It were 40 blokes all belching and fart1ng all the way down to the Trent!”.
Believe me, it’s so much better these days.
|
|
|
Post by beachball on Sept 7, 2014 15:08:25 GMT
Oh yes sigh the good old days, with empty wine bottles with a hole where the dimple in the bottom was with bread inside on a loop of string put in the margin to catch minnows for dad to use as live bait. Glass fibre rods, walking along river banks with metal handled bait buckets and your dad getting you to touch the handle to the cow fence for a giggle (he also got me to put my tongue on a 9volt battery) nice man my dad. Getting my rod and Cornish minnow spinner and catching small trout in Wales to take back for my mums breakfast. such fun regards Malc.
P.s or going down to Shoreham Docks and trying to catch Grey Mullet on float with bread and cheese paste next to the cargo ships
|
|
|
Post by suggsy on Sept 7, 2014 15:23:11 GMT
Yeah the good old days ..I remember them ...when men was men and Leeds had a proper football team
|
|
|
Post by zathras on Sept 7, 2014 15:28:23 GMT
You brought a tear to my eye. It's just as I have remembered in my moments of nostalgic daydreams. It was a better time from the point that everyone had virtually the same tackle with watercraft and practice (and a modicum of luck)were paramount. There were only a handful of sponsored and professional anglers so everyone had a chance - most were miners, steelworkers and manual workers, especially in the North. I can remember the long walks (treks) along the Welland and Trent as well, definitely not a plus point. Always good craic on the coaches and train that ran down the Witham until Dr Beeching used his hatchet! Happy days
|
|
|
Post by spdysnr on Sept 7, 2014 19:59:30 GMT
one of our clubs favourite venues back then was the Alice hawthorn pub stretch at Nun Monkton/Poppleton getting a warm pie an a pint or cuppa at 7-00am on a Sunday morning we travelled from the Huddersfield/Bradford area over to east York's no motorways then, then a hike to the river carting a plywood box covered in leatherette (a kind od plastic sheet for you young'uns) an a canvas holdall with a couple of hollow glass rods an a few home made bank sticks you could get maggots in a brown paper bags no such thing as a maggot box in the late 50s early 60s if you fished out of county you had to buy another licence but the matches were always good fun bought an Abu 406 when they first came out seem to remember paying about £40-00 (£2-00 a week for 20 weeks from mothers catalogue)
|
|
|
Post by crofton blade on Sept 7, 2014 20:22:05 GMT
We used to have two options for a greasy spoon brekky- Wharf cafe at Newark or the Cheerio cafe btween Newark and Sleaford. The latter was marginally cleaner, especially as we used to spot cockroaches scuttling across the floor at Newark. Anyone forgetting their maggots could buy them at Newark car park by the side of the dyke, bloke used to sell them out of big tin baths. I bought an Abu 506 in the early seventies which was quickly modified to remove the washer that enabled it to be back wound. I'm still using the same reel now on the rivers. I'd forgotten that all rods used to be made of fibre glass, unless you had an old tank ariel. We used to pack the rod butts with lead so that the balance point was on the reel fittings. Made them weigh a ton, but if you got it right then it made trotting and striking much easier. My first box was just that- a wooden box with a lid and a rope as a handle. My first pole was a 6 metre telescopic Lec, bought for just £1 from a mate. No elastic in those days either and it weighed a ton! Remember we had to buy a separate licence for each area too- none of this National Rod Licence stuff. Used to cost me a small fortune buying a Yorkshire, Trent, Lincolnshire, Nene and Welland and Great Ouse licenses each year.
|
|
|
Post by spdysnr on Sept 7, 2014 20:39:38 GMT
went on Norfolk broads 67-68 bought a split cane rod from i believe it was lathems in potter hiegham only a small shop then the main tackle shop in those days was Bennett's of Sheffield, and did mail order. it used to have a half page ad an the anglers mail or times the only fishing paper in those days,
|
|
|
Post by darran77 on Sept 7, 2014 22:06:13 GMT
Wow you guys have me thinking of what it was like when i was a lad, ok maybe not the 50's- 60's but definatly the late 70's early 80's. i remember been taked on a match on the Trent with my uncle and 46 other anglers on a coach, and when we arived we had to walk past over 600 other anglers to get to our section. I had my Mark Downes match rod with my mitchel match reel and a wicker basket and some iron V necked bank sticks, i tried just about everything i knew at the time to catch a fish , but still blanked, still it was not that bad as my uncle had also blanked . I was bloody knackered when i got home, but realy enjoyed it. daz
|
|
|
Post by Phil Rogers on Sept 8, 2014 7:55:56 GMT
Catching chub and barbel on the Swale/Ure/Nidd/Wharfe on luncheon meat or cheese paste or lobworms
Catching carp and tench on local ponds on sweetcorn
Looking at maps and searching out and discovering new places to fish
Being chased off for poaching by the landowners
Reading Walker and Stone's articles in the fishing mags
Dismantling Mitchell 300s, putting them back together and actually making them work
Building my own glass rods from blanks or kits from Terry Eustace
Visiting my local tackle shop for a few bits and spending an hour chatting to the proprietor
No bite alarms disturbing the peace
Trying to stay dry under a 36" brolly in the pouring rain!
Just a few thoughts spring to mind
Halcyon days indeed
|
|
|
Post by suggsy on Sept 8, 2014 8:12:17 GMT
My first venture into fishing was catching a bus from Leeds to bostan spa with my old man .he'd have me stand watch over tackle while he went into the pub for the day tickets ...he.d usually keep nipping back out with crisps and pop with the I won't be long tale ...think in about twenty visits we made it to the river bank twice ...
|
|
|
Post by spruce on Sept 8, 2014 10:27:26 GMT
Surprised nobody has mentioned swing tipping.
|
|
|
Post by zathras on Sept 8, 2014 11:23:48 GMT
Yes I remember it well, Saint Freddie Foster, I've still got an old Jack Clayton tip rod somewhere, and even though my casting was always hit and miss I still think it was the most sensitive bite detector. Does anybody remember Morleys Café on the A1 at Markham Moor - two blackboards full of menu plus they would make up any combination you asked for! One of the guys on our works coach trip always had Meat & Potato Pie for breakfast!!! - it was after all a truckers stop and always open. One outstanding memory is drinking pints of beer at 10 o'clock in the morning outside the Golden Lion at Spalding waiting for the draw and the team manager dealing out the pegs. Then spending five minutes every hour getting rid out said liquid during the match!! - good job we went on the coach and not by car.
|
|
|
Post by BOF on Sept 8, 2014 14:00:09 GMT
Ahhh! Those were the days. Not always golden true, but my god they were fun! I was a "Pleasure angler" at first, but always leant towards fishing for big Roach on Roundhay Park's two lakes, rather than the match angling side, (much to my Uncles Walters relief I suspect, as it meant he could go on the club coach with the other lads with a clear conscience). Initially rods were made from whole cane with a short built cane part to the tip section, and were just for float fishing. Reels were centrepins, or very occasionally a very bad fixed spool reel, (Mitchells were very expensive foreign things that weren't a patch on a proper reel). Richard Walker was an engineer for the family mower company who wrote a great column for the Angling Times, and a whole bunch of books. Peter Stone was a lovely, (if shy) postal worker who lived near Oxford, and also wrote articles and books about a new side to angling called legering. Mark Downes dad hadn't met his mum, and the real king of match fishing in the Midlands was a Coventry tackle dealer called Billy Lane. Up in't North Kenny Kendal took some beating, but a bloke from over the tops called Benny Ashurst (Kevins dad) could do him over regularly. BOF
|
|
|
Post by crofton blade on Sept 8, 2014 16:21:35 GMT
I bought an Ernie Stamford swing/ quiver combination tip rod in Nottingham from the late Trentman John Rolfe. Had the rod for years before I gave it away- but I still have its predecessor, a glass rod I made myself, with plastic tape as a handle. Used to love hunching over the swing tip on the Witham and Welland- really accurate till there was a tow on the river. We then wrapped lead round the tip to weight it down. Any big match on the Welland we used to queue up to ask Ivan Marks what our peg was like. It was either "dont bother" or "theres bream in that one". Think I was a bit in love with Ivan!
|
|
|
Post by suggsy on Sept 8, 2014 16:58:29 GMT
Was never lucky enough to see Ivan marks fish but the best angler I ever saw run a float down a river was Dave Thomas ..sat behind him and his mate Pete hardcastle on the river ure at boroughbridge...absolute master class ...unfortunately it was Pete that lost his leg at stavely ponds a few years later in a terrible accident with the power lines
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2014 17:12:25 GMT
remember fishing rounday park with gazmc, used to get 2 buses, one from wortley into town the out to the clock as oakwood, then walk with all your gear down to the lake side, out came the bubble float, the trout used to mental.
the place used to be heaving, could never get around to the oaks , it was always too busy.
we even watched a world angling cup held there, sat behind Kim Milson (i think), he was fishing on the road bank, we could see straight down the feeder rod he was using, we never saw it twitch, he was landing fish after fish.
|
|
|
Post by gazmc on Sept 8, 2014 18:03:36 GMT
remember fishing rounday park with gazmc, used to get 2 buses, one from wortley into town the out to the clock as oakwood, then walk with all your gear down to the lake side, out came the bubble float, the trout used to mental. the place used to be heaving, could never get around to the oaks , it was always too busy. we even watched a world angling cup held there, sat behind Kim Milson (i think), he was fishing on the road bank, we could see straight down the feeder rod he was using, we never saw it twitch, he was landing fish after fish. Yes that bus trip i remember it well good times though and as alan said roundhay used to be packed with anglers. Gaz
|
|
|
Post by spdysnr on Sept 8, 2014 18:54:57 GMT
to make a swing tip 60s style 1 quill float wire ring removed 1. 5 ba screw 2 ins long (electrical/model shop-meccano 3in length of cycle valve rubber tubing 2 or 3 small eyed rings (tackle shop)
cut off the head of the screw insert into tubing about an inch and whip on whip eyed rings onto float start at wire ring end use 2/3 rings evenly spaced leave an inch or so of the tapered top of the quill free insert other end of tubing into float and glue & whip on if you didn't have a swing tip rod you whipped to the top of your rod with fuse wire and covered with insulation tape
|
|
|
Post by satman on Sept 8, 2014 19:51:07 GMT
Going to Boston spar or Weatherby rivers on a back loader bus with a rod bag and a maggot bag.
|
|
|
Post by crofton blade on Sept 8, 2014 20:13:32 GMT
Always seemed to be someone who forgot their keepnet on the club match and had to empty their wicker basket, stick it in the water and use it to keep their fish in it. Remember me doing just that on the Trent and as fast as I put bleak (remember them?) in the basket they were jumping back out again.
|
|
|
Post by BOF on Sept 8, 2014 20:17:31 GMT
Clearly you were on the Witham or one of the Fenland drains Spdysnr, if you were a real swingtipper up on t'Ouse you used bicycle spokes instead of a lightweight float, and then you might wrap the thing with Lead wire! BOF
|
|
|
Post by naf on Sept 8, 2014 21:00:12 GMT
Remember starting with my dad fishing on leeds Liverpool canal.. We used to go 'fishing'.... Catching was a bonus lol.. When you can endure so many blanks as I did as a kid and STILL want to go fishing, you know your hooked for life....
|
|
|
Post by beachball on Sept 8, 2014 21:00:36 GMT
As you "Lad's" are probably aware I did most of my fishing Darn sarf or down south as you would say, yes i'm a soft southerner and I did most of my early fishing on the Ouse at a place called barcombe mills near Lewes in sussex mostly because it was next to a great Pub called the Anchor. Anyway I remember sitting on the sand bags next to the bridge down there with a nine foot glass fibre rod a single maggot with a tiny hook catching gudgeon and minnows until one day I hooked into what I thought was a massive fish well at 7 or 8 anything bigger than a gudgeon was massive my Uncle Frank saw that I was all excited and came over to help me land my first "proper fish" a chublet of oooowww atleast 10oz lol. On another trip out to a place called isfield my father had given me a thick ear for casting into a tree and losing the float so I went off to sulk and found a nice big cow to fuss and tell my woes to I fed it some grass and stroked it and had a good old moan about my life, well evidentially my father got a tad worried about me and came looking for me but for some reason he wouldn't come into the field to get me and say hello to my nice new friend it was a lovely creature with a big broad head with curly hair on it, and nice horns , it was also beautifully coloured a deep rusty red and white yep i'd been cuddling up to a fully grown Herefordshire Bull, and according to my father it had chased four anglers across the field the week before and trashed all the gear that they dropped on their dash for safety ,but to me it was just a big cuddly warm friend lol best regards Malc.
|
|
|
Post by perchypaul on Sept 8, 2014 22:55:19 GMT
my dad got his mate to make me a centre pin reel in the tool shop at british rail ,york carriage shops. it was the best reel i ever had and spun like a dream. would probably cost a couple of hundred quid today. i abandoned it after a year or so when the fixed spool reels became affordable. happy days on the ouse and foss in york.
|
|
|
Post by drunkenmaster76 on Sept 9, 2014 6:09:26 GMT
Malc - that gave me a right chuckle. I was prone to going off for the odd sulk myself - usually after rightfully getting a good rollicking for imbedding a spinner in my dad.
Great thread
|
|
|
Post by zathras on Sept 9, 2014 8:15:33 GMT
with ref. to Perchypaul's post - now we know why British Rail was never on time!!!!! Did anyone fish the Fen drains - we often had a trip to Tydd Gote for a day's tiddlerbashing and often had a few big bream on our whips (bought and improvised), and quite a few jacks as well - then into the pub for a sandwich and pint before journey home.
|
|
|
Post by crofton blade on Sept 9, 2014 12:04:33 GMT
Never made it to Tydd Gote. We used to fish the Sheffield and District waters- Middle Level, Sixteen Foot, Pophams Eau then nearer home were the South Forty Foot, Sibsey Trader and West Fen. I once won a 40 peg match at Wyberton on the S Forty Foot with a small roach and a tiny eel about four inches long. I weighed in 2 1/2 ounces. Most blanked of course! We also once abandoned a match on the West Fen when no one could catvk owt- it was crystal clear and full of cabbages. We gave it two hours of fishing in the edge with squatt on a 26 hook then cleared off home. One tiny roach about an inch big won the match. Ah, them were the days!
|
|
|
Post by stiglet on Sept 9, 2014 18:07:32 GMT
Fishing Aldwark Bridge on the Yorkshire ouse on a Saturday afternoon,with a 12ft Split cane rod a centerpin reel and a porkypine quill float ,catching perch,roach ,gudgeon and yes TOMMY RUffe (what are those the younger amongst us say ) the older guys will know. Then getting rollked by your uncle jack for only catching 5lb of fish. Those were the days eh, Cycling down to roundhay park lake in the school holidays,with the split cane rod strapped to the c-bar of the bike all to catch a few small perch and roach-- that was true dedication or boredom -- Depends how a 12yr old,s mind worked .
Happy Times .
|
|
|
Post by crofton blade on Sept 9, 2014 18:11:11 GMT
Whatever happened to bleak, tommy ruffe, bullhead? Even gudgeon and eels are getting scarcer.
|
|
|
Post by suggsy on Sept 9, 2014 18:19:27 GMT
Plenty of eels in ure at boroughbridge .Bradford city stretch ..used to pick plenty of money up on city matches fishing for eels ..there still there just no one fishes it ..apart from me that is
|
|