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Newbie returning to fishing


Dan the man

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Hi All,

 

After a fairly long absence from fishing I am determined to start getting back into the swing of things. This is my brief history and experience of Angling.

 

I began fishing in the earlier 90's when my granddad passed me down all his old and very dated fishing tackle - still have his old centre pin which I vow to keep in memory of him. If I remember rightly my first ever fishing trip was with him to the Grand Union Canal near Aston Clinton in Bucks - he hadn’t been fishing at the time for about 25 years and thinking back it was quite an experience since we both seemed to be learning from scratch again :)

 

Anyway at the time my parents had moved us up to Lincolnshire to a very small, quiet village called North Kyme where nothing ever happened and there was rarely anything to keep me occupied. I managed to get my parents to buy me my 1st proper fishing rod - my granddad had given me a very old fibre glass rod and my dad gave me an old wooden rod purchased from Woolworth’s in the 60's before I got my great new tool.

 

In the early days I fished the River Kyme Eau (Slea) at South Kyme, River Skirth at Billinghay and my favourite the River Witham from the Old Tattershall Bridge down to Chapel Hill. I never used to catch much on the two smaller rivers but I have great memories of the fish I fluked from the Witham due to my novice experience. It was the Witham that produced my 1st "Big" fish - a huge bream around the 8lb mark and a very large eel which I used to think were nuisance fish until I pulled a 6lb specimen from the Witham fishing about ten pegs down from Tattershall bridge on the Chapel Hill side - as a 14 yr old I remember that being a daunting scary process when trying to unhook the wriggly weasel. I have never caught an eel since then and moved back down to Buckinghamshire later that year.

 

I began fishing the Grand Union canal and the Watermead lakes in Aylesbury. I then met new friends that began to call me a "noddy basher" so I jumped on the Carp band wagon. I spent all the money I earned from my two paper rounds and part-time job buying up all the best tackle money could buy - delkim, century, solar, nash, you get the picture, a tackle tart :lol: I caught my 1st carp on Watermead little lake (10lb common) but blanked many a time due to inexperience. I then started walking miles along the Grand Union canal to the half way point between Aston Clinton and Aylesbury. It was here that I began to perfect my techniques and began catching a lot more often off the bottom as well as on floating crust. The largest around 15lb and taking over 50+ carp between 1994 and 1995.

 

I then purchased a season ticket and fished the infamous Marsworth and Startops Reservoirs for one season spending many a night there and meeting a fair few characters. This was completely new territory and I blanked many a time on Marsworth only taking 3 small carp over the summer and a fair number of "nuisance" Tench which in hindsight provided some great sport apart from being woken at 4am many a time thinking it was a Carp. From then on life became busy with drinking, parties, exams, work and women and I lost interest – perhaps more so since I didn’t drive and felt that I couldn’t fish anywhere decent without relying on family to give me lifts.

 

All my tackle went into the loft and eventually I decided to sell it all off in the free ads papers which to this day I deeply regret. So here I am aged 30 with a better insight of what’s important in life and that’s certainly not work, work, work. It’s going to take a while to build up all my tackle again but I need something to do to escape this awfully mundane busy life. Fishing was my relaxation, my escapism, my time to reflect on things, and my time for piece and quiet.

 

It wasn’t until I hired a few Matt Hayes & Mick Brown DVD’s that I somehow caught that bug again. So should you guys ever read this you have a big thank you from me and well done for making fishing fun to watch on TV. In January I went up to Windermere and the surrounding areas and was hoping to have a pop at the Pike – unfortunately weather didn’t permit that and also the need for a boat on those lakes prevented me from having a good bash. However I vow to get back up there before next winter.

 

This time rather than concentrate on Carp I have decided to try everything. Another reason for this is getting back into pure carp fishing will simply cost a fortune so I am concentrating on the cheaper methods of fishing – at the moment that’s spinning and lure fishing for all relevant species.

 

The all round hit list for this year is Barbel, Tench, Pike, Trout and Chub – apart from 1 Pike and the odd Tench to 6lb I haven’t caught any of these species in specimen form to date. I can drive now so venues will remain unlimited. Any info regarding Pike fishing on the Tring Reservoirs, Barbel fishing on the Wye or surrounding areas would be greatly received.

 

 

Tight lines

 

Dan ;)

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  • 1 year later...
Hi All,

 

After a fairly long absence from fishing I am determined to start getting back into the swing of things. This is my brief history and experience of Angling.

 

I began fishing in the earlier 90's when my granddad passed me down all his old and very dated fishing tackle - still have his old centre pin which I vow to keep in memory of him. If I remember rightly my first ever fishing trip was with him to the Grand Union Canal near Aston Clinton in Bucks - he hadn’t been fishing at the time for about 25 years and thinking back it was quite an experience since we both seemed to be learning from scratch again :)

 

Anyway at the time my parents had moved us up to Lincolnshire to a very small, quiet village called North Kyme where nothing ever happened and there was rarely anything to keep me occupied. I managed to get my parents to buy me my 1st proper fishing rod - my granddad had given me a very old fibre glass rod and my dad gave me an old wooden rod purchased from Woolworth’s in the 60's before I got my great new tool.

 

In the early days I fished the River Kyme Eau (Slea) at South Kyme, River Skirth at Billinghay and my favourite the River Witham from the Old Tattershall Bridge down to Chapel Hill. I never used to catch much on the two smaller rivers but I have great memories of the fish I fluked from the Witham due to my novice experience. It was the Witham that produced my 1st "Big" fish - a huge bream around the 8lb mark and a very large eel which I used to think were nuisance fish until I pulled a 6lb specimen from the Witham fishing about ten pegs down from Tattershall bridge on the Chapel Hill side - as a 14 yr old I remember that being a daunting scary process when trying to unhook the wriggly weasel. I have never caught an eel since then and moved back down to Buckinghamshire later that year.

 

I began fishing the Grand Union canal and the Watermead lakes in Aylesbury. I then met new friends that began to call me a "noddy basher" so I jumped on the Carp band wagon. I spent all the money I earned from my two paper rounds and part-time job buying up all the best tackle money could buy - delkim, century, solar, nash, you get the picture, a tackle tart :lol: I caught my 1st carp on Watermead little lake (10lb common) but blanked many a time due to inexperience. I then started walking miles along the Grand Union canal to the half way point between Aston Clinton and Aylesbury. It was here that I began to perfect my techniques and began catching a lot more often off the bottom as well as on floating crust. The largest around 15lb and taking over 50+ carp between 1994 and 1995.

 

I then purchased a season ticket and fished the infamous Marsworth and Startops Reservoirs for one season spending many a night there and meeting a fair few characters. This was completely new territory and I blanked many a time on Marsworth only taking 3 small carp over the summer and a fair number of "nuisance" Tench which in hindsight provided some great sport apart from being woken at 4am many a time thinking it was a Carp. From then on life became busy with drinking, parties, exams, work and women and I lost interest – perhaps more so since I didn’t drive and felt that I couldn’t fish anywhere decent without relying on family to give me lifts.

 

All my tackle went into the loft and eventually I decided to sell it all off in the free ads papers which to this day I deeply regret. So here I am aged 30 with a better insight of what’s important in life and that’s certainly not work, work, work. It’s going to take a while to build up all my tackle again but I need something to do to escape this awfully mundane busy life. Fishing was my relaxation, my escapism, my time to reflect on things, and my time for piece and quiet.

 

It wasn’t until I hired a few Matt Hayes & Mick Brown DVD’s that I somehow caught that bug again. So should you guys ever read this you have a big thank you from me and well done for making fishing fun to watch on TV. In January I went up to Windermere and the surrounding areas and was hoping to have a pop at the Pike – unfortunately weather didn’t permit that and also the need for a boat on those lakes prevented me from having a good bash. However I vow to get back up there before next winter.

 

This time rather than concentrate on Carp I have decided to try everything. Another reason for this is getting back into pure carp fishing will simply cost a fortune so I am concentrating on the cheaper methods of fishing – at the moment that’s spinning and lure fishing for all relevant species.

 

The all round hit list for this year is Barbel, Tench, Pike, Trout and Chub – apart from 1 Pike and the odd Tench to 6lb I haven’t caught any of these species in specimen form to date. I can drive now so venues will remain unlimited. Any info regarding Pike fishing on the Tring Reservoirs, Barbel fishing on the Wye or surrounding areas would be greatly received.

 

 

Tight lines

 

Dan ;)

 

Hi Dan

 

Its Mr C. just seen this post after searching for fishing rights on Watermead (small lake). I'd give my right arm to get back on there, had some good memories from years ago. I haven't fished for a long time and too sold all my Carp gear (gutted). I have built a small collection of general coarse gear, Carp, Match, Feeder etc. Do you happen to know about the rights for Watermead (small lake)? I'd love to fish it again for nostalgia value :D

 

Hope to here from you soon,

 

Your old mate

 

Dan (Oneeye)

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