To those of you who may be on the river or waters that adhere to the 'old' closed season ....
Tight lines and good luck if you're getting out tonight ....
Tight lines and good luck if you're getting out tonight ....
I've been part of 12 weeks of work parties on my local river and in Cornwall this week, so will mis wetting a line this evening/tomorrow
Hopefully all our members will enjoy our hard work though
Hopefully all our members will enjoy our hard work though
In reply to Post #1
Out on the lower Severn as I type.Just bream so far....
Out on the lower Severn as I type.Just bream so far....
I’m off to a lake tonight till Friday then next Monday to Friday or Saturday morning as they have a close season on the pools in brum
Which lake you off to mate .. the park lakes have a closed season .. well some do .
Are you going over the shard
Are you going over the shard
In reply to Post #5
No mate I’m off to Sutton park the close season has ended today so I’m doing a few nights in there,had a 23 out and a tench and a bream out last season in a session,I’m hoping there’s more to come would love a big mirror haven’t had one for over 4 years all been commons
No mate I’m off to Sutton park the close season has ended today so I’m doing a few nights in there,had a 23 out and a tench and a bream out last season in a session,I’m hoping there’s more to come would love a big mirror haven’t had one for over 4 years all been commons
In reply to Post #6
Enjoy it pal .. I've not fished it yet .
Enjoy it pal .. I've not fished it yet .
In reply to Post #7
Thanks mate I do like the 16th I remember as kids we struggled to get a swim on some lakes it was rammed with pleasure anglers doing the night,so many good memories,I’ve got rods out now footie on start proper baiting tomorrow morning hopefully I’ll have a fish.
Thanks mate I do like the 16th I remember as kids we struggled to get a swim on some lakes it was rammed with pleasure anglers doing the night,so many good memories,I’ve got rods out now footie on start proper baiting tomorrow morning hopefully I’ll have a fish.
In reply to Post #1
On the tidal in a few days for a morning fishing on the ebb then a couple of hours after low
Most of my angling is four hours here and there, so the tidal suits me down to the ground.
On the tidal in a few days for a morning fishing on the ebb then a couple of hours after low
Most of my angling is four hours here and there, so the tidal suits me down to the ground.
Due to circumstances for a while now, I cannot get out fishing these days as I have to look after our lass as she is ill and I hate the thought of leaving her and when the sad day "Eventually Happens" I would regret having not being with her to the end than not going fishing, fishing is not everything in life, as we think it is, one day something else will come along that is more important in life, but, many years ago I used "Value" June 16th, it was a magical day, probably a "Second Xmas Day" for anglers, and sitting on the bank on the evening of the 15th watching the minutes tick down to midnight to cast out was magical.
Sadly doing away with the close season on still waters ruined that moment which if even you still stick to the old tradition it is not the same, on the rivers it should be.
This year, whilst sat at home on the 16th, I got back to thinking of the 60's, I had a book, "Mr Crabtrees Book of Fishing for Boys" and in the days preceding the "Glorious 16th", I would open the book and leave it open on a certain chapter in my bedroom after I had read it a few times: - "A Carp to Begin With" by John Nixon, fishing opening day along with Dick Kefford and Mike Pritchard with Mk IV rods and floating crust and basically just to catch a carp of any size on opening day.
I still have it and pulled if from my bookshelf and opened it on that chapter to read it again, the first thing I noticed, was that whilst all the pages in the book are white, this particular one page chapter, the page is faded an amber colour, that will be with the book being left open for the days preceding the "16th" in the sunlight for a good many seasons. The book in itself is magical, many different subjects in it and authors and readable from cover to cover whether you do that type of fishing or not.
As I started to read it, the memories flooded back, my computer was annoying me, the hum of the fan was ruining the silence and solitude, it did not blend in with the story of the bankside of how I can remember it, , only your friend a bit further down the bank and not another carp angler or anyone else in sight, the Tench anglers etc would arrive just before dawn, so I turned the computer off, perfect silence and I started the story again. Everything about those days flooded back
The date of the book also confirmed the year roughly I started carp fishing, 1966 -1967, the book was printed in 1968 and my Mother had bought me it for Xmas, the year following my family split up and she went out of my life, the year after was also the year, my school form teacher went mad about me as my whole World revolved around fishing, every evening on a night after school Spring to Autumn and then every weekend,, my schoolwork was suffering and he tried to tell me that my exams are coming up and I will get bad results unless I work harder and once my exams are out of the way, I can go fishing as much as I want, it turned out he was right, I did not do very well.
But, as I sit here thinking of those days, I can still hear the sound of a piece of crust landing on the water, and eventually and hopefully that sound of it being sucked in by a Carp or the smell of a ball of paste made with "KiteKat" and that warbled strangled scream of a "Heron" bite alarm going off along with its red light, lighting everything up and seeing that lump of tinfoil dancing in the butt ring and your rod wobbling from side to side as you could only push your rod rests into the bank a couple of inches into the extremely hard compacted gravel of a gravel pit.
Enjoy your fishing, have those "Special Days" and make the most of them, because basically, one day, we all run out of "June the 16ths" for some reason and, we do not really have that many of them in our lifetimes.
Postscript, I have recalled just now, that for my English exams, because of my "Carp Fishing Madness", the whole World revolved around it, I was a bit short of imagination to write essays and for one of my "Fiction" essays I had to write, I copied one out of "Mr Crabtrees's" book, just changed the words and shortened it. I could not beleive it when I got the results back, the examiner did not mark it, it was marked down, they wrote it was not my work and that I had copied it. Maybe the Examiner was an angler himself and read the book?
Sadly doing away with the close season on still waters ruined that moment which if even you still stick to the old tradition it is not the same, on the rivers it should be.
This year, whilst sat at home on the 16th, I got back to thinking of the 60's, I had a book, "Mr Crabtrees Book of Fishing for Boys" and in the days preceding the "Glorious 16th", I would open the book and leave it open on a certain chapter in my bedroom after I had read it a few times: - "A Carp to Begin With" by John Nixon, fishing opening day along with Dick Kefford and Mike Pritchard with Mk IV rods and floating crust and basically just to catch a carp of any size on opening day.
I still have it and pulled if from my bookshelf and opened it on that chapter to read it again, the first thing I noticed, was that whilst all the pages in the book are white, this particular one page chapter, the page is faded an amber colour, that will be with the book being left open for the days preceding the "16th" in the sunlight for a good many seasons. The book in itself is magical, many different subjects in it and authors and readable from cover to cover whether you do that type of fishing or not.
As I started to read it, the memories flooded back, my computer was annoying me, the hum of the fan was ruining the silence and solitude, it did not blend in with the story of the bankside of how I can remember it, , only your friend a bit further down the bank and not another carp angler or anyone else in sight, the Tench anglers etc would arrive just before dawn, so I turned the computer off, perfect silence and I started the story again. Everything about those days flooded back
The date of the book also confirmed the year roughly I started carp fishing, 1966 -1967, the book was printed in 1968 and my Mother had bought me it for Xmas, the year following my family split up and she went out of my life, the year after was also the year, my school form teacher went mad about me as my whole World revolved around fishing, every evening on a night after school Spring to Autumn and then every weekend,, my schoolwork was suffering and he tried to tell me that my exams are coming up and I will get bad results unless I work harder and once my exams are out of the way, I can go fishing as much as I want, it turned out he was right, I did not do very well.
But, as I sit here thinking of those days, I can still hear the sound of a piece of crust landing on the water, and eventually and hopefully that sound of it being sucked in by a Carp or the smell of a ball of paste made with "KiteKat" and that warbled strangled scream of a "Heron" bite alarm going off along with its red light, lighting everything up and seeing that lump of tinfoil dancing in the butt ring and your rod wobbling from side to side as you could only push your rod rests into the bank a couple of inches into the extremely hard compacted gravel of a gravel pit.
Enjoy your fishing, have those "Special Days" and make the most of them, because basically, one day, we all run out of "June the 16ths" for some reason and, we do not really have that many of them in our lifetimes.
Postscript, I have recalled just now, that for my English exams, because of my "Carp Fishing Madness", the whole World revolved around it, I was a bit short of imagination to write essays and for one of my "Fiction" essays I had to write, I copied one out of "Mr Crabtrees's" book, just changed the words and shortened it. I could not beleive it when I got the results back, the examiner did not mark it, it was marked down, they wrote it was not my work and that I had copied it. Maybe the Examiner was an angler himself and read the book?
In reply to Post #12
Wonderful words buddy really thought provoking.
Us old uns would love to go back in time to happier times when life was easier.
I wish you and your good lady all the best.
Wonderful words buddy really thought provoking.
Us old uns would love to go back in time to happier times when life was easier.
I wish you and your good lady all the best.
In reply to Post #13
I’m 55 and remember the close season growing up,my dad didn’t fish it was my uncle who took my older brothers(all 4 of us fish I’m the only carp fisherman)and remember the lake in town being packed every 16th June and then going to Salford park (spaghetti junction)and it was shoulder to shoulder stuff.
I also remember being at school and I actually bought the remote pool book from Bennett’s of Sheffield with my pocket money and took it to school every day,I also failed school exams ,I was and still am fishing mad it’s my chill out time,and enjoy being out all weathers,I actually booked Wednesday to Friday off this week to fish not realising I should have booked the week off for opening night.
I’m 55 and remember the close season growing up,my dad didn’t fish it was my uncle who took my older brothers(all 4 of us fish I’m the only carp fisherman)and remember the lake in town being packed every 16th June and then going to Salford park (spaghetti junction)and it was shoulder to shoulder stuff.
I also remember being at school and I actually bought the remote pool book from Bennett’s of Sheffield with my pocket money and took it to school every day,I also failed school exams ,I was and still am fishing mad it’s my chill out time,and enjoy being out all weathers,I actually booked Wednesday to Friday off this week to fish not realising I should have booked the week off for opening night.
In reply to Post #12
Magical post. I too remember the 16th, cycling from school to Cassiobury Park in Watford to fish with my pals. Had the Crabtree books too.
Magical post. I too remember the 16th, cycling from school to Cassiobury Park in Watford to fish with my pals. Had the Crabtree books too.
In reply to Post #11
Well, I managed to get out on low tide this morning. Still find it surreal that despite miles of river and zero prebaiting, I can slip back a mid double within two hours, then moments later mullet enter the margins, and the remains of cuttlefish wash up under my rod tips.
The tidal seems (to me) to be a much better chance of catching a river carp, as the tides seem to kettle the carp into likely areas within a specific time window.
Well, I managed to get out on low tide this morning. Still find it surreal that despite miles of river and zero prebaiting, I can slip back a mid double within two hours, then moments later mullet enter the margins, and the remains of cuttlefish wash up under my rod tips.
The tidal seems (to me) to be a much better chance of catching a river carp, as the tides seem to kettle the carp into likely areas within a specific time window.
In reply to Post #16
Cracking result mate
Cracking result mate
In reply to Post #16
Which river? I once caught a 4lb mullet in a match on the river Rother. It went off like a torpedo on 2.5lb line and a match rod. Happy days. 😊
Which river? I once caught a 4lb mullet in a match on the river Rother. It went off like a torpedo on 2.5lb line and a match rod. Happy days. 😊
In reply to Post #18
One very close to the Rother in BN
One very close to the Rother in BN
Reading ALL pages