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In reply to Post #548
sorry you not well mate.enjoyed your thread again looking forward to the next one take care. 
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In reply to Post #551
Good to see you're feeling better Pete 
When are you going to write a book 
Regards
Mike
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In reply to Post #546
the day off the barbel
although i have not been able to fish for the barbel for the last three years now i have had my two knees joints done i hope to start again latter this year so this is the story of the last session i had at the sydney avenue stretch in shrewsbury.
it was approx three years ago and turned out to be one of the best sessions that i ever had after these hard fighting fish it had rained for a number of days with big falls in the upper reaches bringing plenty of colour the river rose dramatically and was very fast i decided i would fish just below shrewsbury weir, i must admit i did not fancy my chances very much but decided i would fish two rods with 10 line and three oz gripper leads. i was using a bait which was called chops in fact it was pieces of bolie and had found them very good and had been trying to keep it very quite as i had some very big hits using it.
i had soaked them over night in salmon oil and only intended to use two at a time on the hair i also made some paste up tp wrap around the boile which with a bit of luck would draw any barbel present up into my swim well from the very first cast i had the rod ripped right out of the one rest i ended making a dive for the rod and ended up on my back and with my arthritis i could not move or get to my feet a friend came running down and got me upright i was bloody shacking all over but still had the fish on the fish came in after some fight and weighted in at 12 pounds and three quarters a good first fish and my personal best a good fish for the severn but it never ended there it was fish after fish i think at the time the smallest was about six pounds plus. i hooked one fish and could do nothing it just swam upstream against the current i tryed all ways to get it under control but the line parted company this was crazy fishing and they just kept coming i ended the day and that was five hours latter with 32 fish catching three doubles i think with out looking back 12 and three quarter pounds 11 and a quarter pounds and 10 pounds plus what a day i was absolutly knakard and ready for home more to follow
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In reply to Post #548
Sorry to read you are poorly again Pete.
Get well soon and I look forward to the stories continuing.
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In reply to Post #548
Get well soon my mate,thinking of you..
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In reply to Post #546
thanks mike ive been poorly the last five days with the sickness bug so my stories will have to wait for now but will put some more on soon
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In reply to Post #546
Have not read anything so interesting and entertaining for a long time Pete. looking forward to your next installment mate.
Best regards
Mike
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In reply to Post #545
it took some time but eventually i got permission for myself and graham to fish bomere. we were the only ones fishing the place the locals could not believe that we had permission i have mentioned this in an earlier thread we would fish for the pike in the winter usually on a sunday morning it was i think the late sixties. we would use mackerel sprats or herrings the problem was casting out as the rods were only around ten ft so if we had a bit of wind i would sail the baits out on a polystyrene tile i would fix a balloon to it with a length of thick line so we could pull it back just put the mackerel onto the tile when it got to where we wanted it we just pulled it off it worked a treat as long as we had a wind. put the rod in the rests with the bail arm open we would clip a piece of polystyrene on the line so it floated on the water just below the tip ring this was our indicator when we got a run we would watch the indicator slowly move away and disappear under the water it worked and we would on occasions catch as many as ten good pike in a morning all on dead baits they weighted anything from twelve to eighteen pounds but it was real good fishing and the best thing was we had it all to our selves. old sam davies the owner would come down and watch us to make sure we got up to no good ha ha we did not. he used to say if you catch anyone fishing or in the woods cutting bean sticks go see the keeper or myself ill have them in court and he really did mean it. but some how we struck up this friendship i suppose we were not taking his pheasants and he knew where we were. well he thought he did we would still have a bird or two to make a bob that's how we lived. we tried catching the roach in the winter to use as live baits but it was impossible its like the lake turned off you could not catch anything but the pike. there were also some big perch present in those days and we caught them on small roach in the summer up to two and half pounds but there was some a lot bigger i had one come off i got it to the net and he let go of the small roach it was well over four pounds but then the lake had the big perch kill and it knocked them all on the head they were floating dead everywhere you looked and it took years to recover We would catch some very good roach in the summer float fishing with a good many going to over two pounds all on bread flake more to come latter
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In reply to Post #541
In reply to Post #539
Lovely tale, Pete. Wish I'd been there
you would have been a young chap then ken chasing them all over the lake
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In reply to Post #539
we fished betton quite a lot in the late sixties. we were really interested in then big eels that were supposed to be in there. you would see myself and gray out on a rainy night collecting the lobs from the lawn and from the grass out side peoples houses on the village we would be out all hours collecting these worms and has i have said in an earlier thread we have nearly been arrested on a few occasions by policemen patrolling in thier mini vans. i have even had them helping when they realized what you were doing, you could not get much better than that could you showing the bobbies how to snatch worms but its all very true they did and we would have a couple of hundred in a good night i used to put them in moss to harden up mixed with damp newspaper. we would fish on a friday night and a sat and would put big bunches off lobs on the hook. we used to fish two rods a piece on the shallows. we used ping pong balls as indicators i put a small bulb in them at a latter date with a very light twin cable to a six vault motorcycle battery they really worked well you would leave you bail arm open and the ping pong balls used to float on the surface under you butt ring, that's if you were sitting on your chair in the water they just looked like two small electric lights i would glue a hair grip into to top of the ball and would use this to clip onto the line they worked excellent up they would fly if you had a run as soon as they reached the butt ring they would fall off we had some big old eels using this set up the place in those days produced some real biggies as i said earlier on to six pounds plus we would also get broken on a few occasions and this certainly was not eels it was when for the first time i realized it held carp not many but a few but real biggies that really put a bend in your rod. you would mostly hook them when fishing for other species and you had no chance of landing them on light tackle. i was even broken using 10 pounds line when fishing for the eels but i think it was due to the weed and getting snagged in it. more to come latter
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In reply to Post #539
we fished betton quite a lot in the late sixties. we were really interested in then big eels that were supposed to be in there. you would see myself and gray out on a rainy night collecting the lobs from the lawn and from the grass out side peoples houses on the village we would be out all hours collecting these worms and has i have said in an earlier thread we have nearly been arrested on a few occasions by policemen patrolling in thier mini vans. i have even had them helping when they realized what you were doing, you could not get much better than that could you showing the bobbies how to snatch worms but its all very true they did and we would have a couple of hundred in a good night i used to put them in moss to harden up mixed with damp newspaper. we would fish on a friday night and a sat and would put big bunches off lobs on the hook. we used to fish two rods a piece on the shallows. we used ping pong balls as indicators i put a small bulb in them at a latter date with a very light twin cable to a six vault motorcycle battery they really worked well you would leave you bail arm open and the ping pong balls used to float on the surface under you butt ring, that's if you were sitting on your chair in the water they just looked like two small electric lights i would glue a hair grip into to top of the ball and would use this to clip onto the line they worked excellent up they would fly if you had a run as soon as they reached the butt ring they would fall off we had some big old eels using this set up the place in those days produced some real biggies as i said earlier on to six pounds plus we would also get broken on a few occasions and this certainly was not eels it was when for the first time i realized it held carp not many but a few but real biggies that really put a bend in your rod. you would mostly hook them when fishing for other species and you had no chance of landing them on light tackle. i was even broken using 10 pounds line when fishing for the eels but i think it was due to the weed and getting snagged in it. more to come latter
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In reply to Post #540
great story that pete...you must have had a little peak now and again
we kept away they were really a bit weired they worshiped the ground water and fire. i was telling ken a few years latter they opened a shop in shrewsbury selling health foods spices ect this was done as a joint venture for the commun i think they did very well from the revenue they made and i think it is still open. they also grew there own veg and sold that at the market.
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In reply to Post #539
Lovely tale, Pete. Wish I'd been there 
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In reply to Post #539
great story that pete...you must have had a little peak now and again  
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In reply to Post #538
here's another you might like it certainly caused me some embarrassment at the time i dont think i mentioned it in an earlier thread it was in the early seventies and graham and myself had been fishing berrington there was an old oak tree as you walked down to the pool then a style which you got over to fish the one side of the pool. on this one occasion why i don't know i happened to look up in the tree and screwed to the trunk was a cross it was well made but it was up side down. i said to gray why a cross upside down the first thing that came to mind was the dark arts a witches coven a bit off putting when you are night fishing. by the way this is true every word i am saying to you. i would go down three times a week to bait up putting a little bit in often at the time we were after the big bream and the roach bream hybrids we had already caught the latter to four pounds and we had had bream to nine pounds plus. i had climbed the tree and got the cross with i said was very well made and had been stained a very professional job and threw it into the nettles and undergrowth. two days latter a friday night we went down to fish our chosen swim and as we got over the style we noticed the cross was back and screwed upside down once again we were rather cob smacked how on earth did they find it in the undergrowth it was really a bit spooky and we were looking over our shoulders all night but nothing happened. we left the cross up there. we really never gave it much thought after till one afternoon i went to bait up i got over the style and heard this noise like singing i went to my swim and what a sight greeted me there was about twenty women all in the nude singing and chanting it was a bloody coven i was away as quick as my feet would carry me. before i got to the style i heard a voice say are you embarrassed i turned around to see this women stark naked yes i am i said come with me i will explain well she took me back with her to meet her friends my face was burning i did not know what to say they all stood around me and told me they were witches and lived at berrington hall at a hippie commune they explained the cross was theirs and they were good witches i was bloody shaking some were absolutely gorgeous and they never batted an eye lid i could not get away fast enought some blokes would have been in there element not me i was away and could not wait to tell graham. well nothing more happened for a few weeks untill we went to bait up one evening i said to graham they are here go and have a look he did but we were away quick not wanting to disturb there chanting we saw them on a number of ocassions after that but we always gave them a wide birth more to come
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Stickies