In reply to Post #13
It looks as if the countryside waking up to spring has given you a lift Pete, hopefully the specialist will give you some good news on your next visit. Good to see the pictures on your posts now, keep it up mate but don't overdo things.
Take care
Pete

In reply to Post #14
hi pete seen the specialist to day had a vascular scan the bulge in the aorta is only 4.5 so i have got top go back every three months for another scan to see if it has grown he will not operate unless its five and over so perhaps ill get some sleep ,tonight the specialist told Me not to worry over it so i will try thanks for your kind words pete

In reply to Post #15
Plenty of life left in you yet Pete, get a good nights sleep and start planning your spring offensive with your rods mate

In reply to Post #13
I have been quite busy the last couple of days what with hospital appointments and such so i did not put a story on yesterday. My mate graham has gone barbel fishing today with his son in law i hope he catches one or two but i would not take a bet on it as i write this the wind is blowing very cold and in between it is raining not really the weather graham likes at his age he is now 75 years old and can not stand the cold like he did when he was younger i would of joined them but other pressing things to attend to.
Barbel fishing
A few years ago would have seen both of us out in freezing weather trotting a float or ledgering on the river the frost made no difference then i have said before the line would freeze to the rod but we would be out all weathers when the hoar frost has been on the grass beside the river and the clear water that had not frozen, you would find us sitting on our old wicker baskets trotting a cork bodied float down the the stream or river between the patches of ice we had fantastic sport catching roach dace and chub we mainly fished with maggot or casters in those days but we also did well on home made bread paste mixed with danish blue we absolutely caught loads of big chub on the paste with a few roach thrown in but usually they were the bigger roach that we caught using paste, one method we always did well on was wasp grub you could only get them in season and could be a bit dangerous as we both found out a few times i remember one quite well we went to the nest and applied a good sprinkling of the white stuff ,we had always had no problems they were usually dead in the nest by morning so up we went in the morning spade in hand graham dug one sod out and bloody hell all was let loose they came out of that nest in a swarm did we run the spade was left where it was we were stung all over what the people at the nearby houses thought i don't know perhaps they thought we were completely mad jumping up and down kicking our legs out i forget how many times we had been stung but they had even stung us thought our trousers we had calamine lotion rubbed all over us i said to graham bugger the wasps but they were an excellent bait and if you could get the nest you used the grubs on the hook and the nest you would break up for ground bait we had some awesome catches of chub ledgering wasp grub.
A nice photo of chub and roach
Inside a wasps nest
we poached a number of small lakes in those days some estate lakes that had never seen a rod and line we were always on edge in case any one came and caught us but we had a lot of good sport fishing these no go areas, some of the lakes contained some very big tench and it was nothing for us both to have over a hundred pounds of fish we were meticulous on how we left the lake and would always clean up before we departed just in case the keeper or owner realized some one had been fishing his lake we never did get caught some of the locals could not believe we had fished some of the lakes and unless you showed them proof . i would say to graham take no notice most were jealous they had they same opportunity as us but were to frightened to have a go but most lakes then were strictly private. most were big shooting estates and they used the lakes for there duck shooting so fishing did not come ,into the equation they would not let any one onto the estates so you had no option but to poach. well a bit more latter

A pair of mallard duck like the ones shot on the estates

In reply to Post #17
What i love to do is to stand in the hills and look back at the rolling planes of Shropshire so much to see, looking back i can see the woods some i have poached i can see the wandering streams that in my younger days were so full of trout the streams i fished under the moon light night, i had no cares or worries in those days. The moon would strike the water throwing shadows like silver moon beams and i knew i was home a place of beauty and i was content i cared for all that went on around me, the vixen screaming or sending out a sharp warning to her cubs with a bark, the owl above gives a call or to watch the barn owl drift across the fields like a white ghost what more could one ask , to free line a worm under the sills of the falls and hear the keepers dog bark far away you knew you were safe tonight and the keeper had gone to bed so you could roam the river far and wide you had not a care within your head you would cast your rod and hold the line between your fingers as the worm trundled down you would feel the pluck as the trout as he took hold, and your rod would buck and arch you played this beauty to the side and held him in your hand what a marvelous sight to behold a block of spotted silver another for the bag,
The beautiful hare
The barn owl drifts like a ghost across the fields
You sat with you back against the old oak tree and listened to the noises of the night and watched the badger cross the field which looked like a silver lake, where is he going maybe to worm on some far off field so much to see you would drink you tea from the flask and be deep in thought it was all part of me you would jump with a start as a big old hare came through the fence next to where you sat he stopped and smelled the air i could of touched him on the head that's how close he was to me, he did not give me one look as he never knew i was there , across the fields he did go as i watched him in the moon light rays as he vanished from sight into the far off woods but i was there for trout to feed my family so once again i trundled down a worm and caught another trout it was the way i spent my younger life but it was a life i loved at one with nature and piece and quite, As Sam once said to me years before nowt, will hurt you in the woods or fields or streams, only another human and he was right and on some nights i have had to run or swim the river to get away or lie under the river bridge and listen to the keepers shout don't let him get away, but i had learned about this place many years before i knew it back to front so never once was i caught but what a merry dance did i give them all, up trees did i hide and heard them talk old Sgt landers was there as well. That old bugger knew it was me and would go and see my mother but he could not prove a thing and i always got away he knew i took the pheasants but i was always one in front he chased me night and day i have even hid up in the hay stack and have watched him far below talk to the keepers and old stan his side kick from the local police station on our village it was away of life, and a time of hard ship that we will never see again a life i loved and lived many years ago. well a bit more latter

The badger

In reply to Post #18
Well my friend graham went barbel fishing and if you remember i said i would not take a bet on them catching they did not graham said the wind was bitter not really a day to be out on the river but they both tried more than i have done but i suppose i can blame other things this wind does seem to linger on its quite cold this morning i have had a couple of rats under my shed i have put the necessary under neath and thought they had died but they are back so i have put a bit more i am sure they wont last very long before they expire i ,hate the things how some farmers put up with them i dont know the one farm i go to is absolutely over run with the little critters they even run around in the day light i have told a friend who shoots the things with his air rifle so i am waiting to here how many he has he usually goes in the dark and hides somewhere in one of the out houses or lies in the farm hay stack he has shot hundreds like this and really does a good job for the local farmers he has had as many as 250 in one night that's a lot of rats and has gone back the next night and shot as many again its a bit better than poison as you don't know what else will eat the poison, or will an owl feed on the carcass of the rat it can have a knock on effect and kill a lot of other wild life.
The lovely barbel a summer caught fish
Another hobby i have done and enjoyed is painting usually scenery but i have not done much of late as it can be very time consuming and you start to neglect other things i had so many orders at one time i could not complete them all so i called time i did not charge and did most for nothing as long as they paid for their materials but it got out of hand two many wanted paintings doing i suppose i could have gone full time but i did not think i was that good but others did i think when any hobby becomes your job some of the enjoyment must go not all but so
graham with one of many chub he has caught
I see some of the hedge rows are now in bud the daffodils are out in bloom so spring is definitely in the air but the scenery still looks dank and bear the old ash tree in my garden seems to be in a state of suspended animation although its covered in buds i am off down the woods latter to see how thing are progressing or if any one is fishing the lakes i want to have a look at an old earth to see if the vixen is in residence as she may have cubs by now she has used this earth for generations or her ancestors have, it would be quite sad if it is not in use well thats a bit more i am quite busy today so ill write a bit more latter

In reply to Post #19
some of my paintingsi have done in the past

der="0" alt="Photobucket">

In reply to Post #20
der="0" alt="Photobucket">

In reply to Post #19
It was 1960 when i got married and moved up to hill country as i have said before i lived with my in laws on the side of the hill at a place called gorsty bank it was quite a shock after living so close to town before and it was a very hard life there was not much to do in those days so you made your own fun i had already had a very keen interest in nature fishing and shooting you certainly had acres to have a go around where we lived, i soon found a little stream not far from our house and although it was not big it held some lovely brown trout they were not big usually around a pound but wonderful to eat they were true wild trout i would walk the stream and fish the pools or deeper water i would free line a worm and on light tackle they really did fight well but it was the food i was after for the family as times were still very hard. It took me sometime to be accepted by the locals as things were very different then, not like today very few townies lived in the country side in those days although i suppose i was not a Townie they really gave me some stick for the first few months i had one or two fights and gave as good as i got they were hard men, and had been brought up in the mining community and did not like strangers at one time it did start to get to me, but when i got accepted as one of them it was totally different they were some of the kindest people i have ever known but first you had to earn there respect.
Our house was the white one hight up on the hill

Hill country where we lived real ruff in winter
But that little stream certainly kept me sane i got my rods from home although work did come first we needed the money my father in law would snare a few rabbits and the occasional hare he also liked a bit of shooting but could not walk that far as he had silicone disease caused through his job as miner by the time i married my wife he had retired on a pittance of a pension and did other things to supplement it, he was the local man who they called to kill the pigs also the police would call him out to any unstable dynamite that was discovered at some of the old mine workings he sold holly at christmas and whimberries when in season anything thing to get them by i would walk the hedgerows with my father inlaw him one side me the other we would shoot the rabbits as the ran for cover it was lovely country i would walk the hills to try and get a shot at a grouse or two but it was some time before i was rewarded with one it was strictly private and owned by the lord of the manor a Mr jasper moor who was also a member of parliament but it did not stop me poaching his coverts and having a few pheasants away i mostly caught them with a fish hook and line with a big old sultana on the hook it did not make a noise like shooting does i soon got to know the lay of the land and as i have said before had a few of his ducks as well it was a necessity then all was eaten and it supplemented our diet. but the winters were absolutely terrible as we regularly had big falls of snow stopping us getting out of our house we would have to dig our way out i will put a photo up of our house in those days there were only three houses, it was a hard life you would carry the coal for the fires for quite some distance and keeping warm was your priority cutting logs and sticks i did this after a long days work i have walked through snow up to my waist just to fetch the coal and put in the coal house higher up by the house the coal men would drop a ton of coal down the hill and we would fetch it in bags on your shoulders really hard work but i was young and strong and the world was my oyster. more a bit latter

In reply to Post #22
sorry no stories yesterday or today to many hospital appointments will resume a bit latter pete

In reply to Post #23
This is my beloved river Rea looking up stream from the bridge it is the place where i hooked and landed a salmon i actually hooked and landed it the other side how that fish got up so far is a mystery as there were two big water falls for it to traverse. But in the years i fished it as a youth i caught two in all i think if i am right this one was weighted eight pounds i always remember staring in sheer awe at this beautiful block of silver which had certainly given me a fair fight i remember well putting it under my coat and heading for home full of sheer joy and excitement, i can remember my dad weighting the fish on an old pair of spring scales tied to a beam in the shed , mum steamed and stuffed the fish with herbs and such it was wonderful i know there is a photo of me and that fish but god knows where i will ask my sister as she is sorting through hundreds that we took from my parents house when they died it was a lovely river to fish and you really did not know what you may catch it was private but the farmers never really gave a young lad like me a second look i have caught some fair trout from the river i would probably be only about 15 years old so we are talking about fifty three years a go.
The other side the bridge looking down stream throught a tangle of branches
Just up the field from the bridge the gypsies lived in thier caravans they had been there for years they were a local Shropshire family and were real Romany's i can remember them coming to our house with thier horse and cart and shouting to my mother a missis do you wont any lace or pegs they even sold carpets on the cart and if you bought something the old lady would give my mum a posy of lavender for good luck wether it worked i don't know but over the years i became great friends with this family most now live in houses a far cry from the open air but when i was fishing or poaching a few rabbits down the fields, i would always call to see if they were all right i have sat in their shed which was the kitchen on many a cold night with a big old fashioned stove burning away it was a great way of life and the old man would tell stories of long ago it was he that taught me to tickle the trout i can well remember him giving me a pork sandwich that turned out to be hedgehog it was absolutely nice to eat but i felt rather bad when he told me after what i had eaten, funny really his sons have turned out really good lads and are very keen anglers and the one is a very good carp angler, but when i first knew thier parents they were young babies, the old man has now passed on i will not say his name as i do not want to embarrass his family, but his wife is still alive and she only lives a few doors from me i once asked her would she go back on the road her answer was no it was a hard life and very hard to make a living its a shame those days have gone you could learn so much from these people they were like a book so full of information and lived as one with nature.. a bit more latter

In reply to Post #24
i can well remember him giving me a pork sandwich that turned out to be hedgehog

yummy

Such a character.

In reply to Post #24
When i was a young lad we would get a good many gentlemen of the road calling, i suppose then we called them tramps i can remember one individual if he was in the area he would always call at our house hello misses he would say can you fill my billy can up with tea i suppose over the years we got to know him quite well i think his name was Henry well that's what i can remember he would come and visit my grand father who was a shoe repairer he would ask him to repair his boots they would be nearly falling to pieces but grandad would patch them up and he would not be charged, they would talk for hours about the war years that would be the first world war if i remember right he had been some sort of war hero and had completely opted out of society to live this sort of life at times he would sleep in the old shed down the garden my grand mother would give me his billy can to take to him, he would sit out side the shed on an old log and smoke on his clay pipe he was quite well known around our way and i think people took pity on him, he would also chew the tobacco i think it was twist and it would run all down his chin i think i was a little bit scared of him but he always made a big fuss of me i suppose the year must have been around 1946 so i would only be about four years old.

One morning my grandfather told my gran they had found poor old Henry dead in the barn at the farm down the road they looked quite upset i suppose he had become a friend over the years no one knew his age to me he always looked old, they gave him a paupers funeral a lot of the village residents attended his funeral so he was not alone he had visited the village for years and the people paid their respects, its not like that today every one helped one another in those days it was around then i would go fishing with grandad he sowed the seed i would stand for hours with a cane with cobblers cotton for line and a bent pin for a hook i would watch my float a piece of cork with a match pushed through it, what i did not know it was devoid of fish but it was the beginning of an obsession that has stayed with me all my life i suppose i cut my teeth on my beloved river Rea but it was when mother married again that my fishing really took off as i have stated before my stepfather really encouraged me to fish shoot and bought me rods reels even an air gun i soon learned the ways of the country side the different animals and birds that inhabited the place the world was my oyster i would walk the woods and fields without a care in the world clime the trees to the crows nests i learned to pinch the rabbits out of the snares set by the keepers and then reset them it was about this time when i met old Sam that you already know about he was also a big influence on my future life i learned so much from him that has helped me through my life .
MY BELOVED SHOOT AT BOMERE IN THE 1980
I loved any thing to do with the country side besides fishing shooting became part of my life we reared pheasants for our own shoot and at one time were putting down over two thousand birds it was a very tiring job as you would have to check and feed the birds before you went to work then again when you got home, but we shared it out between four of us which made it a lot easier they were exiting times i would fish and shoot my time away its a good job i had an understanding wife as i would not be around home that much but she always encouraged me i loved the country side and i would sit in the woods and just listen to the sounds that the animals and birds made most of the woods i knew well from my poaching days and still shoot in the same woods and fish the same lakes i poached as a young man but they have now changed some of the wild life has now gone mostly caused by changing habitats but i suppose its the price of progress i do wander some times if we are destroying our wild life as it is our hertige, and needs to be protected for future generations. well a bit more latter
Yours truly having a pipe full after being down the woods

My shoot

In reply to Post #26
The river season has ended once again but there has been rich pickings if fishing in the right place one such angler is my friend Rodger who is bailiff for the Shropshire federation he is always willing to share information and help other anglers in my opinion the federation are very lucky to have such a man on the bank but he is also an incredible angler and catches fish where others fail no long sessions for Rodger just afternoon short two to three hour sessions but does he catch one thing he does that gives him the edge he takes water temperature and i must admit most of the time it pays off he has had some incredible catches since february he has landed 78 barbel with a scattering of chub with the odd bream thrown in now this is good angling considering the weather we have had he has caught numerous doubles i think the biggest 11- 15 oz a good fish by any ones standards they have mostly been caught on maggot feeder i wish i could have been down there with him and graham but i had other pressing things IE health but that's the way it goes maybe it will be my year next season i don't know if Rodger will read this but i must congratulate him on his excellent angling good on you Rodger
My freind rodger whith a double figure barbel
Another double
Me with a big barbel i must copy some more from my albums

The weather is certainly picking up some of the lakes we fish are ssi so they have a close season some of the other have lost most of the fish due to the cold weather so graham and i are going to be hard pushed to find any lake to fish until June the 16th we have one or two options so we will have to wait and see most of my angling is done in the day gone are the long sessions, my health will not let me any more so i can only dream about how it was and graham is now in his seventies and does not fancy it any more lugging tackle around the lake to your appointed swim you are tired before you even start old age who wants it so this year it will be a mixture of lake and river fishing we go when we want and pack up when we want i suppose its a lazy way to fish but we did catch a few nice specimen last year with some very big chub and a few big barbel, when i think back to how it was all those years ago and how we would guest on waters strictly private well i called it poaching we were young and fit we could look after our selves we could run if called upon but that was a very rare occasion, it was a great way of life and we always got a shot of adrenaline when poaching on others property, why people can not forget i dont know i still have some of the real oldies saying things like you were a rum un i now say well its a good job i was as you had your share of pheasents from me the usualy walk away with a big smile on there faces i can quite honestly say its been a great life and if given the chance i would do it all again. i was looking at the thread about guesting as long as its not a club water why not, if i had not done that in my younger days we would not have been fishing as most of the big estates in shropshire, were private and everything revolved around shooting there was no chance you would be allowed to fish the lakes so the only option open to us was to poach. well a bit more latter

In reply to Post #27
When i was young i would go up to Mr Davies farm on his land was a lake called the fish pool not many realized but it held some very good fish i was only around 6 years old and would go and watch a couple of old chaps fishing there the roach they caught looked very big , i still think back to those years the swan would always nest on the old island i saw one or two of the local youths try to reach her nest to sneak an egg or two but she and the cob would always chase them away but that was years ago 1948 it was sad really the farmer did some trenching and accidentally drained the pool it killed most of the fish I can remember the locals filling buckets with water and putting the fish they saved in the bucket and releasing them into the river Rea but it really was a disaster and a lot were lost the farmer always said it was an accident ,but i am not to sure but you could get away with most things in those days.

they were great days and i would go up to the farm when its was harvest time and ride on the back of the cart they sent for the sheaves of corn, it was a lovely time in my life i would watch the old men with there pikels stacking the sheaves on the old cart and i would ride back on top the farmers wife would bring big jugs of cider and plates of bread and cheese for the workers and if you were lucky you maybe offered some the cider looked green to me but did not seem to effect the workers or make them drunk i think it was all home made by the farmers wife, Mr Davies would send me and his sons to look for the hens nests now they really were free range and would lay anywhere in the barn even in nettles we would be kept busy for hours but we always returned with a few eggs our reward was a packet of crisps and if lucky a bottle of pop how things have changed as life always seemed to be so lay back in those days the farmer would let us go with him up the fields to shoot a rabbit or two he would shoot about four then hang them in the pantry back at the farm i think most people lived on rabbits in those days some times i was lucky and he would give me one for my mother which we always had on a Sunday for our dinner.

it was around this time when i would go down to Bomere farm a Mr lock owned it at the time the lake was a most beautiful place and untouched by human hand there were great flocks of geese and huge rafts of ducks the locals were to scared to go into the woods or around the lake as it was strictly private and heavely keepered i was lucky as the lake backed onto mr locks garden at the back of his house i would go down there with a land girl who lodged with us she loved horses especially the big shires i was allowed to ride on there backs the farmer had a daughter called rosemarie she would take me for rides on her horse the fields were alive with rabbits and you would see the old rabbit catcher with the rabbits he had caught he would hang them on the fence there would be loads well that's what i can remember, i watched him ride home with rabbits every where on his old bike hanging from the handle bars . mr lock told me stories about the big pike that inhabited Bomere huge things that would swallow a goose whole, he would frighten us younguns to death with his tales but they were all imaginary all mith handed down from generation to generation i think invented to keep people away from the place but as i got older the braver i got and poached the place on and off for many years fishing, and shooting, a few pheasents. well a little more latter

BOMERE AS IT IS TODAY

The old woods surrounding bomere