In reply to Post #359
Its the west midland game fair once again time really does fly i hope to go as i have a small mobility scooter and with a bit of luck i shall be able to get around i know one or two from the forum are going and, i am hoping to meet up with them its the last of the big shows this year, i have always enjoyed going there's so much to see and do there's plenty of fishing stalls and demonstrations then we have the falconry i really enjoy watching these birds fly you can spend a small fortune but i have all i need so it will be myself and graham and his grandson tom i particularly like looking at gun row i think we are going Saturday as long as we have no rain it will be a great day out where i can meet many friends from the past and present.

Graham and i went out to look at a couple of lakes we have not fished i must say they they are in some beautiful wood land we can drive right up to the one lake we did see a few fish taking some bread from the top others were just cruising around i was told by one individual that some of the fish are quite large i did see some that were lower twenty's we will have to see that's if i can get my mate to come, at the moment he does not seem interested i am not really surprised with all his gone through but time will heal at least he is coming on Saturday i have lived in Shropshire all my life i thought i knew most of the lakes but i certainly did not know these two it looks if they are man made maybe for the estate for shooting but they are now owned by one individual who really looks after the place .

Most of the lakes around my area i have fished mostly poached when i was younger i have had a great time fishing these lakes and in those days we never really thought about carp, we would catch roach Rudd pike tench and bream as long as we caught we were happy i have seen anglers using a big nut and bolt for a ledger when i was young there was not the money around to buy such things so most made do using what they could get there hands on most of the rods were cane in those days, i was lucky i had tank aerials made into rods i did most of my fishing using them as i have said before line was not that good and when i first started i used a silk line but we caught , bait was either worm bread maggots if you could get hold of them i collected mine from a local abattoir i would go home stinking but they certainly worked on one lake we we used par boiled potatoes but that was for the carp and we caught them not big but they looked huge to us youngsters the largest was only about three pounds but it was wonderfull fishing. well a bit more latter

In reply to Post #360
well once again the game fair is over it was certainly a good day out we bumped into rob d who is on our forum it was very nice to see him we arranged to meet him latter in the day but it was not to be the phones went down we could not get a signal so i never really had a chance for a natter i don't know if it was the beef Burger i ate but i have had a bad stomach since but it was a very nice day for all concerned i took my little scooter and was quite pleased it lasted approx five hours before the battery finally gave up but we managed to get back to the car graham and Rodger went back to the show for a couple of hours and i stayed in the car there was no way i could walk that far, i did manage to watch a bit of fly casting plus they had old nudy there he was spectacular with the pole and managed to catch a few fish but i was not sorry to get back home.

Talking to my mate he said his son in law fished the Severn Saturday and managed to catch a few dace and chub nice to see the dace showing up again when i was young you could catch good bags but of late they seem to have vanished with the roach we have put it down to to many predators especially the merganser they fish in packs and have really decimated some parts of the river most of these birds migrate from further north but most breeding birds are resident it is a member of group known as the saw bills the damage they do is eminence i have watched a group, of these bird stretched across the river diving all together nothing gets past them and any small fish they catch are eaten i can remember not to long ago the youngsters would be down the river in there school holidays with net and jam jar catching the minnows there was large shoals of these little fish but they are now vanishing at a alarming rate and are now hard to find.

But it is not just the mergansers, but we have the otter, and cormorants, they to are doing lots of damage to our fisheries i was down at our local lake and counted approx thirty five cormorants, perched up on an old tree height above the water they must be having a great time as the lake is full of roach all sizes and have been caught to three pounds in weight, i my self with graham have caught eight in an evening all over two pound but that was way back in the seventies but they are still in the water and it is a shame to see these beautiful fish decimated by cormorant's. well that's it for now not feeling to good so a little bit more latter.

In reply to Post #361
well the Badger cull has started or about to i love these lovely animals and i am against any form of cull they have the vaccine to use on badgers caught and are using it in different parts of the country side why could they not develop it for cattle funny really you never see sheep with this disease and a lot of badgers in hill country mix quite freely with the sheep even the government advisors have said a cull is not the answer surly members of the forum from Devon and somerset can remember the gassing that was used a few years ago for the same reason it made no difference the cattle, still have the disease i am the first to admit there are far to many of these animals when i was young you only saw the occasional badger but today they have really thrived there is not many counties without old Brock.

Raining again it has really poured down all night in my seventy years i have never seen such a wet year they will be putting up flood warnings once again mind you it has got a rain a bit to flood us as we live on a hill i have fished many times when young in weather like we are having, i would certainly fish the river onny and trundle a worm down the side of the river if it was a dirty colour from the water running off the fields the fish would go mad i would catch one a cast i knew the bailiffs would not be around walking the banks especially in this sort of weather so i would take my time i have even caught when the river was bank hight it was stocked with grayling as well but i must admit a did better with maggot the fish was known as the lady of the river i really did not like taking them home and would return most but not all they are a relation to the salmon family a very pretty fish.

I would catch fish to order some one would say can you get me a trout or two i would be away it would not take long to catch a few after the war years most people were not to well off so the trout were really appreciated by most of the residents in the railway terraces it was not just fishing i acquired a ferret and before myxomatosis was around i would be up the fields ferreting the hedge rows i had a few nets i had been given and i would pop the ferret in and wait in silence you could hear the rumbling as the rabbit tried to escape under ground he would fly into the awaiting net it was nothing to catch half a dozen but you were always on edge looking to make sure the keeper was not around i could get sixpence a rabbit if i took them to the butchers shop i spent most of my time up the fields or in the woods or poaching the river. well an bit more latter.

In reply to Post #362
I loved the woods and spent a lot of my younger life walking them in those days they where looked after by the owners and gamekeepers there were signs all over the woods trespassers will be prosecuted or shot on sight there are still a few of the signs kicking around to day a bit worse for ware and weather beaten they were there for a purpose and would frighten most of the locals to death they would not stray from the public foot path they were fiercely guarded by the keepers, and under keepers, it certainly did not frighten me i walked where i wanted and took his pheasants it was a necessary when i was young to help feed the family and friends as in the early fifties no one earned much money and could not afford meat and such we even had a few of farmer prices chickens but i was not to keen they were tough told boilers not for me but our mum made soup from what was left over it was delicious.

I also loved to fish the old estate lakes but they were all private some of the waters had never seen a rod and line they had never been fished and most lakes were used for shooting the mallard duck there was huge rafts of these ducks on most lakes i used to hide and watch the gents and ladies shoot them it was a different world then and not long after the war. In the war years a lot of estates went to wreck and ruin most of the keepers got called up to do there bit for the country those that did return came back to find the woods and fields full of vermin and it took years of hard work to return it to its former glory god some of these gentlemen and ladies were very posh and as i have said before talked just like they had a plum in there mouths i watched so many times i would hide in the under growth and watch from afar if any ducks crashed down where i was hidden i would have them away before the keepers and dogs came to pick them up they were always welcome at home .


I had an old Diana air rifle old SAM the keeper altered the spring in the gun it made it more powerful he used it for rook shooting when the rooks had youngsters he would bring a bag full back his wife would make him rook pie covered with lovely golden pastry he offered me some many times but it nearly made me sick yer don't know what yer missing lad he would say in broad shropshire dialect but i did i could not stand the black buggers, and never partook in his offer i had that airgun for many years and shot many pheasants with it at night with a torch strapped to the rifle they were easy to shoot the trees would be full of them i always waited until the keeper retired to the local pub you knew he would be there until closing time i have watched old Gerry ride his motor cycle back home from the pub he fell off a few times he was that drunk but he was a good keeper and knew his job one thing i could not stand was the poisoned eggs i found on the rides in the woods, i would take them away and bury them he injected cyanide into the egg then left them any birds carrion and such even foxes died instantly and if other predators eat there carcass then they died also, thank god that does not go on today the last time i came across it was about twenty years ago but since then, nothing it was a cruel way to get rid of the vermin but all that matterd in those days were the pheasants and duck reared for the gentry. well a bit more latter sorry i have not written my stories as regular as i did but i have been helping my mate graham get over his sad loss thanks pete

In reply to Post #363
The water sparkled as i walked the banks of this little stream it would be early sixties and had just got married, at the time i was working for a building, firm, my boss owned part of this old stream its source was up in hill country it tumbled down from the hills the brown trout loved this water with its many pools i had watched these trout many times i crept down to the bank looked through the glistening water they were there i saw at least five i watched one dart out from under the bank catching a small minnow, it was not that deep so off came shoes and socks i rolled my trousers it was up to my knees i had done this many times before in fact a local gypsy taught me years before how to tickle the trout i spent i spent some happy hours with old jack not just fishing he also taught me a lot about the country side, i slipped my hand under the tree rooted bank feeling under that bank i felt the fish i slipped my hand under neath his stomach and gently tickled his belly with my hand he rolled over on his side i closed my hand and out of the water he came landing on the bank above the fish were not big but good enough to eat i caught five in all but they would be appreciated by my inlaws who we lived with over the next few months i caught many from that stream they were all about 12 oz and lovely to eat.

God i loved this countryside with its hills and dales and small streams i would walk with my gun for many miles and never see a soul there was the odd grouse and the many pheasants put down for the owners pleasure i will say no names as he was a member of parliament he owned vast stretches of hill country and lots of wooded valleys mostly hard wood with a few conifers plantations the fields and hedge rows would be full of pheasants in season he put thousands down for his rich friends i would always have a couple with my trusted gun but it made to much noise so i brought my old rifle, back with me when i visited my parents, i would lie in the bracken and shoot any that came to near in those days there was a number of keepers working for sir the head keepers name was a Mr Jones, he was a hard man and stood no messing if he caught any poachers they would def be in big trouble he was one of the old school you would end up in court besides having a hiding, in those days you could get a good price for a brace of birds and they were worth poaching.

Just in front of the hall was a big lake i never saw any one fishing it but did see fish moving i asked one of the farm labourers if i would be able to fish the lake and would it be worth asking sir for permission he laughed saying you wont get nowt from him he would skin yer alive if he caught e he said in broad Shropshire dialect it never stopped me i float fished the lake many times and would hide in the big reed beds, i caught Rudd, they were all arround
a pound in weight, but what i did catch on small red worms was trout big old rainbows he must of stocked it for himself and his friends but i never saw any one fishing there until one day i watched from a distance as three men fished from a punt they were fly fishing god i had caught fish to over three pounds fishing with worms, i also used to spin with little Devon minnows, but it was getting a bit to dangerous to carry on the keepers also had duck on the lake and started to feed it twice a day i did not want to be caught so i, kept away for a few weeks but i did poach some of his mallard a bit latter but that's another story . more a little latter

In reply to Post #365
In the last few days i have received a copy of skeffs new book a fool and his Eel , the book is wonderful it takes me back to when i was a youth the photos and art work are something else, absolutely beautiful, in fact i have a job putting it down he covers most if not all species of fish, and his beloved carp fishing at his lake and many other waters including Redmire where he has fished on many occasions i should of met mark and rob at the west midland game fair but our phones went down and we could not meet up a shame really as i would have loved to meet him, they were going to give me the book then but it was not to be i have since received it by mail from rob and mark any one that wants a truly great book get in touch with skeff it is a wonderful read thanks again mark and rob truly a great book pete

In reply to Post #365
Thanks again for this, Pete. As ever I am looking forward to the next episode.

In reply to Post #366
hi pete im glad you enjoyed the book it really is something good.it was a shame that we couldnt give it too you face to face at the game fair but nevermind . it would be nice to see some of your writing in print as this would also be something special. keep up the good work my friend its countrymans gold.
rob

In reply to Post #366
I went to have a look at my small shoot last week god was the ground wet nothing has come off the trees as yet the leaves are turning but still on the trees i sat in the car and watched the distant fields i spotted a fox moving up the one hedge row i pulled the binoculars out it was a small vixen she looked in good nick i wandered if she was the dominant female was she looking for a mate it wont be long before she mates the cubs should be born in march but i have seen young cubs in february now that is very early looking back towards the hills you could see the woods of acton burnell they are only five miles away then to the left bells wood that certainly brought back memories god old bell was a good keeper although i poached his woods i had respect for the man it did not seem so long ago that i fished the stream in those days it was really looked after the owner of the estate stocked the stream for his rich friends to fly fish it was a lovely little stream that meandered its way through the fields and woods it had a number of water falls that was the place to cast a worm it would not be in the water long you would see the tip of the rod fly around they were nice fish the biggest was around a pound but good for eating i loved this small stream i loved to be there in the dark while the keeper was in his bed i fished it for miles the one farmers name was Mr cartwright he would stand no messing and part of bells shoot joined his land.

the woods on bells shoot

our small shoot the feed ride in my beloved woods where i have spent so much time

i would also fish a stretch that belonged to the blind school in those days it was controlled by old bell he chased me one night and i tried to cross the falls but i slipped and fell in it was about three ft deep i made it to the far bank i headed towards condover hall there was some big old box trees they used to cut them in different shapes of animals the one tree you could crawl under it was so thick and warm under this tree i would stay there until things went quite, then i would make my way home i was wet through but i had still caught a few trout before being discovered old bell knew i poached his land and reported me to the police on a few occasions i would have a visit from the local police man and Sgt Mr landers wanting to know where i was the night before it was like a game i loved it i was very lucky and never once got caught over the years i had a few of his pheasants if i fished the stream i always left my calling card i would hang a couple of trout on old bells gate it was my way of saying thank you for the fish i would have really liked to see his face i bet it was a picture the shoot must of been one of the biggest in Shropshire it was well known for it partridge shooting i would watch from a far as the ladies and gentlemen arrived they would really be dressed up in there brown brogue boots and tweed jackets. the ladies would also be dressed up in there finery god they certainly were posh and talked just like they had a plum in there mouth. well thats it for now more latter

The blind school where i hid in the box trees

In reply to Post #369
My mate graham Bern and myself have fished and shot together for years we met Bern about 1969 we met him when we were two struggling anglers trying to catch the bream on a local water he always fished in the company of his father Aubrey and his brother charlie they were fishing the the water to catch the EELS, and were very successful i know for a fact Bern caught them to six pounds, we were fishing nights for the bream and roach we would bait up with maggots and bread crumbs which i got from the local bakery we usually baited a little bit often stepping it up on the night we fished usually a Friday or Saturday night we would fish two rods each indicators was a piece of doe pinched on the line between but ring and reel we used little night lights in a jam jar hung on a rod rest it gave us ample light to see the bobbins we caught hundreds of bream using this method in the late sixties, we also caught some very good roach from the same water graham and myself got quite a reputation in the sixties and seventies catching big fish.

Another water not to far from a shrewsbury held some truly lovely bream and Rudd it was called heart break pool we both were determined to catch those bream but the locals told us we had no chance we managed to get permission from the estate owners, we tried different swims but the lake was so deep going down to twenty feet fishing from the bank we managed to catch some really good perch they would get the bends if we were not careful playing them. We also caught some tremendous Rudd to three pounds but the bream always eluded us i managed to acquire some sausage rusk white and pink i managed to get some maize from my brother in law who was manager of a local mill we would boil it up and mix it with rusk and bread crumbs we would let it stand for a few days in the bucket until it really stunk we started to bait up three times a week the first night we fished we really hammered the big bream we had them to nearly nine pounds we were truly over the moon if we told anyone they would not believe us at the same time we had started to fish the big meres at ellesmere in the company of Dennis Kelly from stoke he was well known for his big bream exploits he was also chairman for stoke anglers it was around the same time that we met dick walker who really encouraged us to fish he wanted me to write a few articles for angling times but i had to refuse i just had not got the time i had a young family and i needed to work i remained a friend of dicks untill his untimely death from cancer after his death i felt quite lost as i used to go and see him regular at his factory or i would ring him most weeks it was really sad but we carried on catching the big bream i won one or two holidays with the news of the world and angling times for catching big fish. well a bit more latter


a young me i had just won a holiday

me on front page of angling times with another big Bream

In reply to Post #370
Horrible weather and its forecast very cold on Friday a couple of the members from this forum have been on Redmire this week skeff and Rob d from somerset i wonder how they are fairing i do hope they catch. The times i have sat with dick in his office and he has told me the story word for word how he caught Clarissa i would sit there fascinated i have been to redmire years ago but have never fished it sitting it out in this weather would not suit me one bit i have packed night fishing up my poor old bones will not stand it i really used to enjoy being out at night it was piece and quite my friend graham and myself have caught some truly big fish night fishing but in those days i mean the late sixties it was very hard we had trouble staying awake after watching a doe bobbin a few hours your eyes would start to close and it was not that comfortable lying on a garden sun lounger i have fell through a few times they weren't that strong but we managed and really enjoyed our fishing.

My fishing altered a bit when dick gave me the Heron bite indicator i did manage to get some sleep i caught some very big Bream using them god how time flies that was over forty two years ago not many had the herons then i used them at Acton Burnell and caught some beautiful tench we were really lucky the owner issued us with tickets and told us we could fish it when we wanted you never saw any one on the water we had it all to our selves the Keepers would check us out and have a chat when they came down to feed the birds i never once poached those woods but years before i knew graham, i did poach the two lakes the top pool and the bottom pool and caught some very nice roach in the company of a friend Robert willocks but we were always on edge in case we got caught, when it became syndicate we would still fish the lakes it did not go down to well with the syndicate they would come down and ask us to go i always said go up to see Mr smyth he would over rule them he was a nice old boy and would come down for a chat.

Bern with a carp twenty seven pounds


ME WITH ANOTHER



It was in the late seventies early eighties that we started to catch the Carp my friend Bernard was in the syndicate and he really caught some big fish there were fish over thirty pounds then, the biggest Bern had was thirty three pounds but she was rather spawn bound but there was bigger in there we had seen two commons that looked well over thirty pounds but we never connected with them other than carp there was some truly nice tench in the water it was nothing to catch them to seven pounds they were a deep golden colour i loved to catch them i don't think i had one smaller than five pounds it also held some beautiful roach and some of the syndicate would float fish for them at night and catch them to around two pounds but i was more interested in the carp my poor old mate graham never managed one but he caught some very big tench night fishing. well a bit more latter


Rods out at burnell 1982

In reply to Post #371
The frost clung to the ground making it sparkle like a frozen lake as we looked behind you could see where we had left our prints we were making for the big lake to try our luck at the pike that inhabited the depths of this old water. The film gone to earth was partly made on this water they called it the sarn we were dreading it had frozen over but we need not of worried we had no permission to fish this lake we poached it as we had done since our childhood we were only fifteen and the both of us knew this water and the woods that surrounded it we kept our eye on the keepers cottage that stood like a fortress at the end off the lake there was no sign of life we cast our rods the spinner hit the water with a splash the rod was nearly ripped from my hand as the pike grabbed the old kidney spoon he stayed deep but we soon had him in the net he only weighted in at twelve pounds my old friend Gerald want take him home but i would not kill such a beautiful fish my grandad would love him to eat said gerald but it was to late i had returned it to his home and i watched as it swam away into the depths of the lake.


another nice pike

The pike lay in the net

We caught another three before we were discovered as i looked over the big water i noticed a landrover stop on the track that went to the keepers cottage it was the sgt from the local police station he was a freind of the keeper it must be a shoot day we both ran into the thick cover of the wood getting over the fence into the feild as i looked back i could see the lanrover in the distance we crossed the railway line and made our way to a wood called the berries we climed up the steep incline and looked back at the woods and fields below we could see the landrover parked beside the railway line three keepers and the sgt stood looking our way it looked if they had given up the chase we watched as they made back towards the woods and lake it would not be long before we heard the sound of gun shots it was indeed a shoot day they were shooting the partridge we stayed and watched as the guns were lined out behind the thick hawthorn hedge it was a good hour before we saw the beaters in the distance we watched as covey after covey flew over the guns i wondered how many they had shot, as we watched we could see the dogs and keepers picking up there must have been at least sixteen guns we watched as a tractor with bales came and picked the guns up to take them to the next stand we had had enought for today and made our way home there would be other days to fish the old lake . a bit more latter

In reply to Post #372
I have been really lucky in life i would love to have another bite of the cherry but that's not an option, and i am really thankful for what i have had . I have made lots of friends over the years mainly through fishing and shooting there are not many lakes and rivers in Shropshire that i have not fished, when i was a young we only had our bikes but they got us fishing i have cycled miles to fish a lake or river and not all legally as in my younger days most estate lakes and rivers were private so we poached them our tackle was not that good the first good rod i had was made by Hardy it was a combination rod i had it for Christmas also a Mitchell 300 god knows where the money came from as i was only around ten years old and my mother and father did not have that much money, as things were very hard in those days. That rod was used for catching trout and carp Rudd as i said it was an all rounder and the Mitchell loaded with palatal line was a dream to use after using silk on a wooden star back i came from a very loving family and i can remember waking up one christmas morning and beside my bed was a Diana air rifle now that really altered my life i got quite accurate using it and i would go up the fields and lie waiting for some poor unsuspecting pheasant to pop his head out of the wood, i would shoot a couple then i would be away they were well received at home the old lady would worry that i may get caught i told her not to worry but i did get caught by a most wonderful man who remained my friend through my young life his name of course was SAM who i have already told you about in part one of my stories i learned so much from him i will always be grateful that i met old SAM and his wife they both treated me like a son SAM took me every where even poaching a few trout he taught me to cast a fly i was not that good and the tackle was a bit crude but we got by.

I lived by the river onny it was full of trout and grayling it was looked after by bailiffs all our neighbors said i would get caught it did happen once it was not really my fault but that another story i was chased on a few occasions but i always managed to get away i was young and fit and could run a bit faster than the bailiff, there was one island on the river it was covered in wild garlic i would get onto the island by climbing over a fallen tree i would fish from this island no one ever suspected that some one would poach the river from there i would stink of garlic and when i got home i was made to wash myself and then change my cloths it really did stink. Just below the island was Halford falls i caught all sorts from those falls chub trout and some beautiful perch i never weighted them as i had no scales but most were around a pound and a half they were a beautiful coloured fish it was the only place i ever caught them they were mostly all caught spinning with small minnow mounted on a flight if i had of taken them home they would have been eaten perch were a baked or fried people would eat most fish in those days, but the fish i took home were trout and would be shared with our neighbors who were always grateful . A bit more latter

In reply to Post #373
Not far from my home was another lake that was full of carp us young lads would cycle the six miles to fish the lake. The owner was a nice old chap and never charged us a penny to fish his water i can still remember the first time i fished a night i was in the company of another friend whose name was Raymond we had no idea how to fish the place at night i can remember us both sitting on a old sack watching our indicator which was a piece of silver paper folded across the line in those days i fished with two rods both had been made from tank aerials by some freind of my fathers the reels were star backs the old wooden ones line was silk a bit crude but that was all we had at our disposal i know that platal came on the market around the same time but we never had any for the first couple of years it was not until i got my hardy rod and Mitchell reel loaded with nylon line that thing really started to improve.

I think it was around 1952 that i had a copy of Mr crabtree goes fishing which really helped us there is a story in this old book about peter going carp fishing using a method that dick walker used fishing a crust as bait the reel was a multiplier, i can honestly say that method caught us carp above any other method we tried, we were only ten years old at the time we had watched the carp moving in the weed bed at the far end of the lake we chucked out a few pieces of crust and watched as they slowly disappear below the surface with a loud slurp we managed to acquire some big hooks as the size eight we were using were to small we would push the large hook through the big piece of crust dunk it in the water coil the line behind us then give it the big chuck most time it flew out other times we lost the crust but we managed and caught fish it was an exiting way to fish we had no landing net and played them to the side of the lake which was only inches deep then scoop them onto the bank i can remember catching the first one we had a smile on our faces the old farmer fetched a pair of scales from the house thinking back they were a bit antiquated and rusty we watched as he weighed the fish four pounds that will do i said ill have him for my tea said the farmer he smiled i am only kidding we returned it to its home in the weed bed and watched as it swam away we were both exited and over the next few months caught many more from this old lake using floating crust. a bit more latter