Fishing as a lad!

[Codger]

When I was a lad...a longish time ago...I had one, 7ft fibre glass rod and a plastic intrepid reel...I used it for spinning, float fishing and ledgering....

On this rod I caught trout, grayling, chub, perch, roach, gudgeon and the odd pike or two!

 

Now it seems, we have to have a different rod for every occasions (almost every species!!!!!!) Perhaps I was a better angler then, I can't remember failing to land that many fish...and I'm afraid I didn't own a landing net!!!!

 

I had no idea that hook sizes were smaller than about 8 !!!!

 

Never heard of groundbait...and my bait was invariably worm, (or cheese for chub!) Now and again a brave soul would dig into a wasp nest for the grubs... and they were lethal!!!!!

 

I owned 2 Mepps spinners and if I lost one I would go into the river after it !!!!!

 

Bank sticks were cut from the hedge row and if I hadn't got a ledger weight , I would tie an old brass nut onto the line!!!!!

 

Hell we had some fun!!!!!!!!!

 

:D :D

[Elton]

That's nothing. Chesters1 fished at the same time and is still using the same hook!

 

[Peter Waller]

But was Chester's rod whale bone or lance wood?

[Guest tigger]

When I was a lad...a longish time ago...I had one, 7ft fibre glass rod and a plastic intrepid reel...I used it for spinning, float fishing and ledgering....

On this rod I caught trout, grayling, chub, perch, roach, gudgeon and the odd pike or two!

 

Now it seems, we have to have a different rod for every occasions (almost every species!!!!!!) Perhaps I was a better angler then, I can't remember failing to land that many fish...and I'm afraid I didn't own a landing net!!!!

 

I had no idea that hook sizes were smaller than about 8 !!!!

 

Never heard of groundbait...and my bait was invariably worm, (or cheese for chub!) Now and again a brave soul would dig into a wasp nest for the grubs... and they were lethal!!!!!

 

I owned 2 Mepps spinners and if I lost one I would go into the river after it !!!!!

 

Bank sticks were cut from the hedge row and if I hadn't got a ledger weight , I would tie an old brass nut onto the line!!!!!

 

Hell we had some fun!!!!!!!!! :D :D

 

 

 

Yeah those were the good old days when all that mattered was catching fish.

 

Nowadays if you've not got flash "old tackle" or flash "new tackle" worth many pennies your frowned upon.

I think Chesters is doing theright thing keeping his tackle from his teens in the 40's

[cha]

yes codger thoes were the days when i was yong my father would take us me and my brother to one of the local rivers two bambo rods size 6 or 8 hooks 10 pound line two corks as floats and there weed stay happy for the day now it takes me two trips with all the gere to fish the same place

[starlight]

we used to buy these bamboo rods from kiddies city, they used to come with a plastic centrepin and im sure that all they had was one ring, the top eye we used to bin the reels and just tie the line straight on the top ring, a bit like a lot of the french anglers fish around here!

[JV44]

Had a Winfield white fibreglass rod about six feet long a black prince reel loaded with 6lb line straight through and i thought a size 14 hook was very small,Using this very flash [for a lad then] tackle we had fishing comps in a small pond in the woods near my village which was stuffed full of stunted roach and crucians and we would try to empty the pond but my mates keepnet mesh was so large most escaped straight away so it was down to counting the number of fish that you said you had caught[well led to some punch ups with my mates then].

There was a local village pub just across the field from the pond and my dad would bring down a small bottle of cider [woodpecker] each for me and my mates whilst he put the world to rights proping up the bar[this made me very popular with my mates ].

Still live in the village and often walk by the pond while walking the dog,Its very shallow now due to silting up but it still makes me smile everytime i walk by.

As has already been said happy days!

[Dick Dastardly]

Made me think a bit this one! Even though as a teenager I owned an ABU mk5 All England and Mitchell 300 I had to work and save very hard to get these.Prior to this though I had a 9' splitcane fly rod with an Anon Shaw Olympic fixed spool reel.On that rod I caught everything! minnows to pike,carp to mackeral! everything near enough.In reflection it gave me a real good comparison of how different sea and freshwater fish fought.Wish I still had that outfit.

[cha]

we used to buy these bamboo rods from kiddies city, they used to come with a plastic centrepin and im sure that all they had was one ring, the top eye we used to bin the reels and just tie the line straight on the top ring, a bit like a lot of the french anglers fish around here!

im afraid we had no kiddies city around here starlight up to the wood near home where there was an old retory some bombo used to grow along side a pond that was our shop happy days

[Tony U]

When I was a lad...a longish time ago...I had one, 7ft fibre glass rod and a plastic intrepid reel...I used it for spinning, float fishing and ledgering....

On this rod I caught trout, grayling, chub, perch, roach, gudgeon and the odd pike or two!

 

Now it seems, we have to have a different rod for every occasions (almost every species!!!!!!) Perhaps I was a better angler then, I can't remember failing to land that many fish...and I'm afraid I didn't own a landing net!!!!

 

I had no idea that hook sizes were smaller than about 8 !!!!

 

Never heard of groundbait...and my bait was invariably worm, (or cheese for chub!) Now and again a brave soul would dig into a wasp nest for the grubs... and they were lethal!!!!!

 

I owned 2 Mepps spinners and if I lost one I would go into the river after it !!!!!

 

Bank sticks were cut from the hedge row and if I hadn't got a ledger weight , I would tie an old brass nut onto the line!!!!!

 

Hell we had some fun!!!!!!!!!

 

:D :D

 

Yep, I had the same sort of gear and used to catch b****r all, except for a few stunted Perch and Gudgeon. It was only when I started to get proper gear that I caught anything worthwhile thus igniting my lifelong love of angling. I was however always short of floats hooks spinners line bait etc.

 

Tony

Edited December 20, 2007 by Tony U