Angling Apprentiseships

[Guest Chris Perch]

I first started fishing at about the age of 8 sea fishing on my grandads small boat I think my first fish was a dab / or a flounder regularly going sea fishing was great fun on the boat catching whiting dabs flounders eels etc.

I started coarse fishing at 13 and first went with a friend of the family and was hooked from then on.

I started catching roach skimmers gudgeon perch rudd then progressed to small carp at a club water (I am still a member of the same club 20yrs later)

My first double figure carp was a common caught on sweetcorn on a float rod and 3lb line it took 20- 30 mins to land and I was over the moon.

It was a couple more years before I started fishing for carp and also perch bream tench etc and I became the passionate angler I am today.

I caught my fist 20lb carp at the age of 19ish and have had many more since.

I have also caught Chub Barbel pike roach rudd dace bream and many more species to a good average size.

I have never really fished for monster fish though a 4lb perch has been an ambition for years most of my carp fishing is done on waters where the fish top at 20-25lb though I have had many fish of this size from many different waters.

My pb perch is 2lb15 and I hope to better it in the next couple of years.

My pb carp is 26lb 6oz from a local park lake and was a cracking fish which has just been recaptured at 30lb 8oz.

I dont like long sessions and find the mountain of gear a big tie Preffering to do mainly day sessions and keep mobile.

Maybe lifes too short to chase monsters for weeks on end after all its all about enjoying your time on the bank and achieving a few targets every year.

I am still enjoying the odd bit of sea fishing and a thornback of 12lb is probably my best specimen in sea fishing though I have had several around that size.

Edited April 23, 2012 by Chris Perch

[Dales]

Can't remember at what age I started fishing most likely 6 or 7. We used to go to Ireland for our summer holidays and visit family and I used to enjoy helping out on my uncles farms and as they grew most of all there veg I would help dig the spuds, very badly and so often ended up sorting through the turned soil. Good sized potatoes in one bucket to eat, small and damaged ones in another for animal feed and lob worms in a further bucket for my uncles fishing.

 

On one potato digging session, I asked my uncle what where the best worms for fishing and he said the big lads but the best way to find out was to try yourself and so he invited me to fish with him. So for years I only fished during our summer holidays for Trout, Salmon, Perch and Pike and had no interest in other fishing. Around 13 or 14 I started fishing Walthamstow reservoirs for Trout and Perch and it was not until around 16 that I got interested in real fishing "Carping". I don't do any trout fishing now and like most things in fishing, I keep meaning to do some but there is always something else that distracts me.

[John S]

I started at the age of twelve, fishing with a couple of chums and their uncle, borrowing one of the uncle's rod/reels. The first time I had a bite, I struck so hard the poor fish went flying over our heads onto the grass about 20 feet behind us, luckily none the worse for it's impromptu flight. On my next birthday I got the rod (a 9' cane) that I borrowed from the uncle, which I still have and on occasions use. We usually went to the local park pond, or one of two ponds off the A63 where roach/perch/rudd/etc were the order of the day. The thought of specialising in one species (especially carp) just did not occur to us, but then there weren't that many carpers back in the mid '70s.

 

In my opinion, specimen hunters who only ever go after the one species are missing out on a lot of the fun of fishing. Today I'm 40 years older (but probably not much wiser), and still love catching roach/perch etc, only occasionally chucking out a carp rod....