Your first fishing trip

[Guest davidP]

Where and when was your first ever fishing trip, and what did you catch?

 

Mine was in 1982 aged 19 when my mate Steve and I had both dropped out of Uni (or were we pushed) and were both unemployed for the whole summer. We discovered that we'd both always wanted to try fishing so we got a couple of books out of the library, managed to scrape together some very basic tackle, strapped it onto our bikes and went to the Llangollen Canal just outside Whitchurch in Shropshire.

 

I remember it really clearly. It was a hot sunny day and we set up the deck chairs on the concrete base of one of the lift bridges and fished out into a bay where the boats turned round. The Llangollen Canal flows out of the Dee and is faster than some rivers so we had a big eddy just off the main flow to fish into. We had 4lb line with a size 16 eyed hook tied directly on with our version of a blood knot. Float was a wire stemmed 2BB self-cocker with the line passed twice through the eye and then locked in place with a rubber sleeve (I still have it in the float box somewhere I think). Bait was about 1/4 pint of mixed maggots which we eventually worked out should be hooked in the blunt end and not in the middle as we had started. Shot was 2 BBs halfway down the line having worked out the depth by dipping the rod in the water until it hit the bottom ("it's all the same depth ain't it - it's a canal not a river!"

 

Unsurprisingly we didn't catch a lot but my first fish was a gudgeon of about an ounce followed by a 2 oz perch. We caught a few more gudgeon & tiny perch, then a small ruffe and finally probably the smallest roach ever to squeeze a size sixteen into its mouth! Steve did manage to hook and lose a roach of about 4 ounces, but we had such a great time that we did it again the next day, and the next and the next etc etc. We discovered such joys as maggot racing, closing the bridge to annoy the boaters, opening the bridge to annoy the farmer & getting slightly **** in the open air!

 

After a few more trips we plucked up the courage to ask questions in the local tackle shop and they told us that we were fishing a cess pit and we should get down to Grindley Brook and fish below the locks there. This we duly did and our catch rate increased. We started to dabble with wierd stuff like groundbait and even wasted a few maggots by throwing them in around the float.

 

On our fourth trip to Grindley Brook I caught my still PB perch at around 2lb 4oz and Steve caught a 2lb eel that frightened the life out of us. The weights were a bit approximate however because the spring balance we had cost 10p from the local junk shop and was of indeterminate age. I remember though weighing a bag of sugar when I got home to see if they were accurate and they weren't that far out

 

Later in the summer we moved on to a lake called Brown Moss which contained these mythical creatures called carp. We figured it must be good because we had to pay to fish it! We eventually caught a couple of monsters that must have weighed at least 3lb!

 

Eventually jobs appeared and our trips together started to decrease. After 2 more seasons roaming the waters of North Shropshire Steve decided to become a fluff chucker and then eventually packed it in. I however carried on, getting more and more deeply hooked, and I still am

 

 

[This message has been edited by davidP (edited 12 January 2001).]

 

[This message has been edited by davidP (edited 12 January 2001).]

[Guest Buckeye Bob]

1958, age 5 and caught a small bluegill (panfish)...the fish was released but, I've been hooked ever since. No rod and reel...just a pole with line attached..bait was a worm.

 

Have a Great Day and Better Tomorrow

[Guest Newt]

Mine was in 1947 and since I was 2 years old at the time, I haven't the faintest memory of it. Do have some old pictures of me. In one, I'm naked in the back yard splashing after the minnows dad kept in a large tub between trips. Another has me holding a nice bream (US style - a sunfish which maxes at about a pound or so) and still another with a black bass (largemouth) which must have weighed all of 2 pounds and was huge for a little fella (maybe 4-5 yrs). I was holding a bamboo pole so must have caught him on that - bobber made from cork from a whisky bottle, split shot, small hook, and probably a worm. I was standing beside an old wooden jon boat - probably 10-12 ft). Nice memories of the pictures (haven't seen em in years). Thanks for the topic.

[Guest thecarpangler]

Went with a friend, I was 4 (1971) and we fished the local river.

We stood on this fallen tree across the river and float fished a worm, the float bobbed and then dived under, my mate shouted "strike" (he previously explained what i should do) and in my excitement i heaved the rod two handed behind my head and toppled backwards into the water.

 

I still landed the fish, a wild brownie of about 4oz.

[Guest dave k]

Used to cycle from Haverhill to clare for my first fishing trips about 10 miles.

Couldn't do it know it was 1968 and i was 11.

 

My first fish was the dependable Perch

 

Other than that we used to take a bus to glemsford before the LAA bought all the waters around there

 

I havn't been back there for years.

 

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dave kennedy

[Guest paul mc]

My first days fishing if you could call it fishing was about 18 years ago. I used to bunk off school go to my local lake wich i still fish regulary today, we would have a stick about 3ft long with a piece off line tied to the end of it and use a match for a float with no weights and a hook, we would use single maggot or bread for bait. We used to catch very small roach, perch and (i think they were called) bitterling, though i have not seen any of them for years.

tight lines paul mc

[Guest Chris Shaw]

Late 50's early 60's, Tooting Bec common, I caught a roach of about 3/4 of a pound. The rod was a three piece, bottom sections were a bamboo of some description with a solid glass tip section, and I had a center pin reel.

 

 

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Chris Shaw

 

[This message has been edited by Chris Shaw (edited 12 January 2001).]

[Guest ALAN FAWCETT]

Hi Dave

My 1st trip was in 1977 i was 5 my dad took us to Bridgewater(somerrrrrrset) he was visiting an old friend who he was stationed with in the RAF.He took us to an old farm pool he used to fish when we got there he gave me a green glass rod that he used on the pool when he used to fish it.I never caught anything but i've still got the rod & the disease called FISHING(i hope they never find a cure)

 

Tara for now

 

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ALAN (the trogg) F

[Guest The Cat]

1960's - catching minnows in the river with a stick, length of line and a bent pin. Tis true. The best pins were the ones with a large head - they could be bent to shape easily. This was followed by a perch of, probably, 3oz. The rest is history.

[Guest John S]

My first fishing trip was with an absolutely awful 5 foot rod bought from a local newsagents, complete with a reel that could only be removed with a large hammer. However, it somehow succeeded in firing my enthusiasm for angling.

 

Then in 1973/4 when I was 13/14 years old the uncle of a couple of friends of mine presented me with one of his cane rods for my birthday and I was off and running (or at least walking very fast....). My piggy bank provided me with an Intrepid Black Prince reel and the other essentials, and all four of us spent many happy hours on the bank.

 

My first "real" fishing trip was with my friends and their uncle at Bakers Pond in Newport, Yorkshire, where said uncle (Tom) taught me the basics of fishing. The only bait we ever used in those days was maggots, and I was over the moon when I caught my first fish with that rod, a roach so small it wouldn't have registered on a scale (it was so small I don't think it even had a scale!). And when we fished the local park pond, we'd tie our rods to the crossbars of our bikes and cycle there with all our other gear stuffed into a plastic bag hooked over our handlebars. I think I was the first to get a proper fishing basket (a wicker thing from the local Blind Institute which I still have), and I felt like a real pro (sad, innit ).

 

I've said this before, but on the odd occasion I leave the carbon and kevlar rods at home and take "Auld Caney" and an Intrepid Prince Regent out for a bashing at that same pond, often to the amusement of other anglers. They don't laugh when I catch more than them though

 

Aaaah, they don't make memories like that anymore. We had real memories in those days, not like the wishy-washy memories you get nowadays....

 

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John Suffill

 

john@go-fishing.co.uk

 

[This message has been edited by John S (edited 13 January 2001).]