In reply to Post #38
I suppose i have been very lucky in my life i have made a lot of friends, mostly due to fishing and shooting the shooting field especially in Shropshire is a very close knit community i have shot all over Shropshire and even into Cheshire fishing is another hobby i have made many friends over the years, some are very close and i have fished with them most of my life we are all in the same age bracket, Bern graham and i have also fished quite a few lakes into wales, he always came with graham and myself he also fished on bomere with me in fact Bern and i caught the first carp out of bomere it was in the early eighties and weighted 27 pounds at the time know one knew the were in the lake but i had spotted them when walking around there was maybe fifty fish in all in a twenty five acre lake so we started to bait up and the first session produced the 27 pound fish, we went on from there and the both of us caught some very impressive fish but like any other water word got around and the place got quite a bit of pressure from visiting anglers some quite well known, i was the bailiff on the lake and had a good relation ship with the owners it was not long before a syndicate had the one side of the lake led by a very young man who is now quite well know Ellis brazier and his mate Alex perrin in fact they were only youngsters . They both cut there teeth on bomere and over the years caught some reasonable fish , i can still remember Ellis catching his first thirty i did the honers with the camera it was a nice fish but a bit latter it was killed, in fact cut in half by a speed boat but there were bigger fish in the place one was named white spot it was a huge fish and had been seen by many but never caught in fact all the years i was bailiff no one caught it.

A nice fish from lordys i was a bit younger then

A big tench from bomere

Lordy offered me a syndicate on his lake but no night fishing so i took him up on the offer i offered Ellis and his mate a place in the syndicate Bern was also a member we caught some very good fish from the place there was also some huge chub present and graham caught them to seven pounds and yours truly had them to six pounds plus there were a few thirties caught, but it was kept very quite we never even told lordy, there were a lot of doubles in the lake and lordy, would net the lake and sell the smaller fish on making a bit of money for the estate, but when one individual stole a few fish and he was caught, he closed the water down and graham and i and Bern were the only ones allowed on the property, he was livid and i was not to happy as it was some one i really trusted but you always get one we would also fish for the chub and barbel on the river and caught some impressive specimens. well a bit more latter

Another from lordys

In reply to Post #1000
Great thread

In reply to Post #39
Going back many years ago the carp society to used to fish at llandrindod up in wales Bern myself and graham would go maybe twice a year it was quite a big water and believe it or not was in the middle of the town it was quite handy really as you could get fish and chips for your tea the shop stood at the end of the lake you had all that you wanted toilets as well it was heaven and the fishing was not bad either there was some big fish in the place but we never caught them over 15 pounds it was great fishing but it could get quite over powering i suppose i am going back into the late sixties middle seventies if you could get the fish on the feed they would commit suicide we were only allowed to fish with two rods in those days and when i first fished the place we had no bite alarms so all we used was doe bobbins no bolies then, so it was bread worm or maggots it was real hard as you stayed awake all night and slept in the day but we did manage to catch a few.
Ayoung graham with a fish from landod
Lets step forward a few years with the coming of the bite alarm, it made things a lot easier then the invention of the hair we absolutely slaughtered the fish at the lake on quite a few occasions we have literally had to pack one rod in and fish with one rod it was terrific sport the locals would come around asking us how we caught such a lot of fish we would try and keep things quite as we were using peanuts they were absolutely deadly you would put two or three on the hair cast out and it would be away before you could activate your alarm it was barmy it was nothing for us to land over one hundred carp in a two day session with fish going to fifteen pounds we would be absolutely tired out before we left for home and then i had to drive quite a few miles home but it was great fishing but i have heard that all the carp were lost From some disease in the last few years whether they have restocked i don't know as i have not visited the place for years.
Bern with a fish from landod
Not far from my home there is another lake very much the same a friend asked me if i would like to do a session on there for forty eight hours i cant say i have never fished such a prolific lake, the fish were beautiful little mirrors from six to fifteen plus very stocky fish but with beautiful markings on there body, i set up opposite an island i was using three rods all fished with boilies as bait with a big feeder full of maggots bread crumbs and crushed boilies it was a fish a cast some times having two on at once by three in the morning i had caught 74 carp of varying size it was far to much for me and i wound the rods in and got my head down the following night the same thing happened if i remember right graham was doing the business as well looking back in our records i think graham and i caught over two hundred and fifty fish between us it was real silly you could not even get the rods back on the alarms before it ripped off i have not been back to that lake for a number of years it would be nice to have a look to see if it is still the same, there were far to many fish in the lake over stocked i did mention it to the owner who i knew quite well and he said he was going to sort it out but i really doubt he has i was told the other day the lake gets full at the weekend and anglers are visiting from as far away as Liverpool i must go and have a look as it is only about six miles from my home . a bit more latter

my set up from all those years ago

In reply to Post #41
I live in spectacular county but like all others take it for granted i have only got to drive eight miles and i am in the Shropshire hill country a most beautiful part of Shropshire and one i never tire there is always so much to see especially wild life the fox is common in hill country and they always seem a bigger animal than those that live in the low lands as far as bird life you have the buzzard the red kite which has now spread to Shropshire we also see the sparrow hawk the peregrine falcon which is now a most common sight and the kestrel and i have come across the goshawk most beautiful bird which stoops like a peregrine but not quite as fast i have watched from cover as it makes a rapid chase over a short distance grasping its quarry in its talons it feeds on woodland birds such as jays pigeon and thrushes rabbits and pheasants a few years ago it was hated by the old game keepers and would be shot on sight thank god that does not happen today or at times they were caught in a pole trap a vicious and barbaric way to catch such a beautiful bird for those that don't know the goshawk became extinct in Britain in the 1800 the current population is from escaped birds that have been in captivity.
PACOS IN SHROPSHIRE HILL COUNTRY

Below the hills in the valleys you have the streams and rivers that babble and wind there way across the valley floor you Will see the old brown trout i have caught a great many from these streams some legal some not, you will see the kingfisher with his vibrant colours and of course the dipper you have also got the otter and the mink the latter is a merciless killer taking any bird life in the vicinity it has now spread to all parts of the British isles myself and graham have trapped a few over the years mainly when asked by farmers whose live stock chickens ducks and such have been killed, the people that let the mink go do not understand nature one bit and do not realize the damage they have done over the years they may look like lovely furry creatures to some but they are not but I'm am afraid they are here to stay they are quite a common sight these days far to many to deal with.

caught from the same swim i saw the mink
Another barbel

When i fish on the river i see the mink quite regular and they can be quite tame i had one bring her family right to the bank where i was fishing and run around in the undergrowth below where i sat cheeky little things i have fished for the barbel at monkmoor shrewsbury and watched a pair swimming up and down the river they knew i was there but were not frightened one bit i, have even caught barbel in the same swim the otter is another that is now getting out of hand i watched a pair hunting the river not far from where i was fishing and i saw them catch what looked like chub they have a holt on the island at monkmoor and have been there for years and i must admit they did not seem to effect the fishing that much but on bomere they certainly did i found at least four fish on the bank one was still alive and they were all big fish but that was a few years ago since then i have not seen any sign of them it may have been a dog otter passing through looking for a mate but they can as you all know do severe damage to carp fisherys. well a bit more latter

In reply to Post #42
I have loved my fishing its been like a drug to me the more you do the more you want to, do its really been my life i have enjoyed catching most fish, i also liked a bit of sea fishing and when i was working for the home office and based at shrewsbury nick i ran the west Mercia sea fishing club we would go at least twice a month from April until November we had some great times catching some good fish including shark, Over the years i got to know a skipper from aberystwyth who ran three boats his name was Vic Haig and ran the endeavour group he certainly knew his stuff and we would motor out about twenty miles, we did a lot of our fishing in what was known as the targets the air force used this stretch for target practice i have told you all once about the near miss we had fishing at this spot a big missile missed our boat by only a few feet if it had hit us it would of put a fair hole through the boat i am afraid there was a bit of shouting on the radio after the incident the RAF ordering us from the area but Vic would have none of it saying they should of let him know there was a practice taking place apparently they always let him know two days in advance but some one had made a cock up this time but as i said to vic a miss is as good as a mile i believe this missile was out of control and crashed into some ones garden at aberdaron further down the coast there was quite quite a fuss made about the incident in the press i suppose this would be in the middle late seventies.
Me with a tope
Me with another big tope
I love to fish for the porbeagle shark on our boat we caught them to 150 pounds we would fish from the back of the boat and used a balloon on the line above the bait when you had a take the balloon would literally skip across the surface and vanish from sight god could they fight i think the biggest vic caught was huge over 400 pounds i cant remember what type it was, i also caught my share of Tope the biggest i caught was forty five pounds and that got me membership to the British Tope club they could really fight we also caught loads of skate well thorn back ray a lot of the lads would kill and cut the wings off and take home with them but i was not that keen most of the fish i caught were returned unless it was a big turbot i always remember catching this big one and by the time we got back in to port there was a queue waiting to see if i would sell it i did but can not remember how much i got for it i will have to look in my diary vic had been in touch with his wife by radio and she had told everyone about the fish.
The big turbot
All the Tope and shark were tagged and returned to the sea, Vic had records of all the fish he had tagged and one turned up in Australia now that's a long way from ab er , but i can assure you all it happened, we also had a few sad times on board his boat, people being taken ill, and we even had some one die that really put paid to the day as you really did not want to fish after that they would fly the sick off the boat by helicopter the lad that died we carried him below into the cabin and placed him on the bed with a sheet covering him up what a thing to tell his wife but usually the helicopter would fetch the body before we got back to the harbour it only happened to me that once but i think vic had seen it before but it really spoiled the day and i for one was really glad to get back to the harbour, the other fish we loved catching and you did not have to go far out was sea bream i have caught them on a small spinners and they do give you a great scrap and of course fresh mackerel we have even cooked them on the boat what a beautiful smell they were great to eat fresh from the sea. well a bit more latter

In reply to Post #43
Up to now i have not spotted any swallows or sand martins they seem a bit late this year no cuckoo either they usually arrive around April and i have heard him in the past in march a recent decline in meadow pipits and dunnocks have been put down to agricultural changes which has also effected the cuckoo as they favoured the pipits and dunnock nests to lay there solitary egg when i was a young lad they were very common and you would hear them nearly every day there was nothing nicer then casting a spinner or fly on a summers day at the same time listening to the cuckoo you certainly knew summer had arrived i don't know if my memory is playing tricks but thinking back our summers were hot and the winters cold with snow we got the true seasons we would swim in the river i cant remember very bad summers and we would go sledging every winter but perhaps i am remembering the good times i know in the summer when off school my parents would not see me from, early morning until dark they knew no harm would come to you, us young lads would walk for miles taking with us a few sandwiches and a bottle of pop and at times a packet of turf cigarettes first time i had a puff or to i was violently sick but lads will be lads and it was an accepted thing to smoke in those far off days, i don't now packed it up a couple of years ago wish i had done it before but we would walk the woods and paths the and hedgerows birds nesting or take the catapult and shoot a rabbit or two they were idyllic days we would set up camp like all boys did then boil our eggs in a tin on the fire summer to us youngsters was a time of play and was always looked forward to.
MY beautiful woods
I would go and see old Sam it was perhaps a couple of miles from my house up through the fields then through the woods to his house, the woods were be full of life in those days the big rookeries i would clime the trees to look at the eggs green and spotted with brown and black Sam would shoot these birds as they were agriculture pests although they would eat most things invertebrates and such there is a big population in the British isles about one million breeding pairs what ever Sam shot he would take home for his misses as i have told you before she would make rook pie for Sam he offered me some said i did not know what i was missing not for me i am afraid the very thought made me retch why i don't know but it was something i did not fancy but old Sam would eat a plate full with potatoes and swede carrots peas and big chunks of home made bread he lived off the land he was in the right job the occasional pheasant or duck and rabbits by the sack full which he sold on to the market the money went back into the estate when myxomatosis came around for a few years it decimated the rabbits and some of the estates really missed the extra income that was made from there sale.
The old cock pheasent in the blue bells
Any vermin shot or trapped in those days were skinned out and nailed onto a board and they were treated when dry they would be sent to Horace friend i think that was the name of the company, they would send any monies due to old Sam it was the perks of the job he taught me how to catch moles i also made friends with the mole catcher he would trap hundreds of the little creatures and did not mind me going along how on earth he made a living out of the skins i don't know but arriving at his house one day i saw that he was curing rabbit skins as well and also saw a couple of fox skins so maybe he scraped some sort of living from his work they were hard times and he would only get pennies for his skins. I would spend most of my time in the school holidays either in the woods or fishing down the river onny or on one of the numerous estate lakes they were mostly private but i was young nothing troubled me in those days as you know i poached them, and really had some good sport but the woods were my life i loved them and the animals within. well a bit more latter

In reply to Post #44
Graham and myself went out to look at waters this morning graham is now 75 years old and i am nearly 69 years old the days have now well gone pushing a barrow loaded to the gunnel's with my health and suffering with stenosis of the spinal column, plus an aneurysm of the aorta i personally can not push a barrow to far and it is dangerous even to consider doing it, so we are now looking at waters we wont have to walk to far i am certainly not going to let it get to me and i have every intention to carry on fishing for as long as i can, there is nothing they can do for my back well that's what i have been told by the specialist although i am now waiting to see a spinal surgeon we will see until then i will grit my teeth and get on with life.

There are one or two waters around that will allow you to park your car behind the swim some i have not fished for years and i am quite looking forward to renew my acquaintance with these waters the one such water has some reasonable fish with a good head of carp up into mid twenties and a sprinkling of thirties i have fished this water a few times years ago and it also has some very big roach, this water could be a possibility in the future but it is a very popular water and its banks get full at a weekend but it wont worry the both of us as we prefer going in the week when the water is a lot quieter as far as night fishing goes we don't do much of that any more mostly our fishing is done in the day and i really can not see it has altered our catch rate that much, and we do not have the hassle of putting bives up and such , well i put it down to our age but we both still enjoy our fishing and being out and about.
Feeding the ducks in hill country
We are going to visit another such water latter this week a lovely lake up in hill country it holds some very nice fish mirrors and commons i have had fish up to twenty three pounds and i know bigger fish are in the place but a few years ago it had a very big otter kill it was a massacre they the otters just dragged the fish out and left them for dead i felt really sorry for the owner he did not know what to do but he was very lucky the otters moved on and i am told by some freinds the lake has made a very good recovery i was a bit suprised the otters moved as there was plenty of food for them to eat but there is a small stream connecting the lake and an out let so maybe they travelled down the stream to pastures new who knows but they have certainly not been seen since the lake also holds some very big gold fish the farmer said he did not know where they came from, but they have been caught at a resonable weight they have been in the lake for years even when the ownerer father farmed the land.
Andy with a lovely coloured fish from the lake in hill country
One thing i shall not be doing is taking to much tackle we are going to reduce the amount we take with us some of the taclke we carry with us is never used, most fishing weights i will leave in the car in a box that will reduce a fair bit of weight and we will leave any spare rods and such in the car, when barbel fishing it will be two rods only no spares a few feeders and hooks already tyed up and of course our seat landing net weight bag and mat thats about it exept for bait well i hope things work out for us we will see. thats it for now a bit more latter

In reply to Post #45
As we cut across the fields we were weighed down with nets as we crossed the road all was quite the way we liked it we slipped into the field under the cover of darkness and the wind roared drowning our approach, there were three of us and we had hidden the car in long copy far from prying eyes, we were after the rabbits on the big estate and would lay the net up the side of dead mans wood on arrival we stood and listened we had plenty of time in fact all night, but we must get the job done then on to our next destination it was now nearing ten pm time to run out the net, we would drive a stake, in every yard attaching it to the top line then on and on until you come to the end and drive a a peg firmly into the ground we had run out 100 yrd net, at times we used two nets over lapping the both ends but tonight one was enought we listened once again no sound do we hear only the roar of the big wind we let the lower line falls to the ground now all is ready i stay with the net Graham and Dick traverse around the fields then start to walk back towards the wood dick has his faithful dog with him who will work the field far and wide hearing the slight tapping from the stick hitting dicks wellington boot, the rabbits run for home i can hear the rabbits coming and feel them as they hit the net, up and down the net i go finding rabbits tied in a ball as the net entwines there body holding them fast i kill them in the net and leave them until we finish the rest of the drive, then all that matters is to extract the rabbits and put them into an old sack counting as we go fifty two rabbits i whisper to dick and graham not a bad graham had quietly picked the net up neatly folding it over his arm, we hid the rabbits in the hedgerow to collect a bit latter. We made our way towards the next wood it was called keepers wood as his house backed onto this large expanse of woodland we ran the net as before the wind still roared drowning out our presence i feel the rabbit hit the mesh but then hear the noise of the net tearing i reach the place and see the net bulging put my hand down and feel the feet of the intruder its a fox it is biting the mesh and kicking i pull my hand away the net gives and the fox is away the setting was not a success maybe the net can be repaired but not tonight we make do with the six we caught and head for our car across the fields picking up the other rabbits on our way we load the car and the damaged net, and head towards the road not switching on our lights until we reach the road then we accelerate and away home dropping dick and his dog on the way the net was repaired the following day not a bad night 56 rabbits we got fifteen shillings each from the game dealer it gave us a few quid in our pocket for a pint or two it would not be long before were out again it was away of life one i have loved and would do all again given half a chance. more a bit latter

In reply to Post #46
Well ill start again i have just written one part and lost it don't know where its gone. well once again English nature has started work on bomere they are now in the process of cutting down the undergrowth and trees the one side of the big lake if my grand father was alive he would have a fit or old bell or Gerry the keeper i could see there faces now i just hope English nature does not cut the old tree down that has the tawny owls nest in, or the big fir the buzzard has her nest as they have nested there for generations, talking to the people concerned they say it will encourage better growth of wild flowers and the spread of lilies on this old lake i do hope so as looking at the other side they did last year it looks if a bomb has dropped what a mess but you can now see new vegetation starting to grow last year they took an average of four and half acres of rhododendrons out since then things have definitely started to flourish and new life is showing all over the place i just hope the primroses grow like when i was a youngster it was a sea of yellow we also have a number of different orchids so it may help there future growth the rhododendrons where put in by the keepers years before i was born, more or less for cover for the pheasants it would have been kept in trim in those days but it has been allowed to run amok making it an impossible tangle of branches and flowers which was slowly taking over the wood and stopping other plants growing by blocking out the light.
Lyth hill in its beauty at the top end of our village

Part of the big lake is now going to be used for an adventure play ground the old blind school has now been took over by another school teaching deprived youngsters from all over Britain how to canoe rock climbing and general skills survival and such there is at least twenty new canoes on trailers awaiting use at bomere i am sure these youngsters will benefit from the experience the school has to offer i am not sure if fishing is involved or not but i suspect it may be the youngsters will learn such a lot not just about fishing but the wild life to so i do hope the venue proves to be a good one and i wish them all the success for the future any one helping youngsters has got my vote, how thing have changed at bomere over the years when i was young it was strictly private now so many are getting the privilege of being on there and learning about its wild life it can only be a good thing and long may it continue.
The lyth again looking at the plains of shropshire
Yesterday we went to a place called lyth hill which lies at the top of our village it is a most beautiful tranquil place we really went to look at the old fox earth to see if it was being used once again and i was quite surprised there was no fox in residence there has been cubs here for years ,but not this years the first time they have been missing for at least ten years maybe she has not survived the winter through lack of food or she may have been shot by the local farmers or she may of just moved on to another earth but i cannot see that as there were plenty of young rabbits showing i would hazard a guess and say she did not survive the hard winter a shame but it took its toll of good many birds and animals most starving to death through lack of food.
The hedges of black thorn i did this in black and white

Graham and i have been looking around one or two lakes again and we have got a few ideas where we may fish this year the lakes we have seen i can get the car behind the swim so there should be no walking as such so that will be a great help for me and graham because of his age, life goes to quick when we were young we never gave it a second thought but it creeps up on you far to quick before you know it your claiming your buss pass and such i think graham gets his free television licence this year cor how time flies but we will keep on fishing and keep smiling life is very good and we will fish and shoot until we get to a stage in live when we cant and i really hope that does not come to soon . A bit more latter

In reply to Post #47
I love to be out and about even if i cant walk that far there is always so much to see i would like to get down the brook and trot a float down for the gray ling. The Rea now has some tremendous gray ling fishing and most of the fishing is controlled by a very small club i was watching a young man fly fishing the Rea the other day i never saw him catch but the brook looked in real good nick i used to use nymphs and such but may was always looked forward to as you would have the big hatches of may flies it was a glorious way to fish with a big artificial may fly i used to tie my own but i have not done any tying for a number of years it was a pleasant way to spend a winters day and would pass the time away i am afraid i have not done any fly fishing for a number of years mainly due to my arthritis but i would be away tomorrow if i could nothing better sitting beside a babbling brook eating your sandwiches and puffing your pipe i smoked a pipe for forty odd years although i have now packed it up i feel no different exept being better off in pocket and maybe not burning holes in my pockets.

The small rivers and brooks held a magic for me you could see so much wild life from the moor hen the coot ducks and lots more beside i think the love of small brooks came from my younger days when i used to poach in those days the brooks were strictly private owned by the big estates they were full of brownies mostly stocked every year for the owners friends and acquaintances to fish i would hide in the bushes and watch them cast a line but i did better on worm and at night when dark could catch a bag full they were usually around a pound or so and were great to eat there was still food rationing and a few trout always helped us out adding to our diet, in those days it was a necessity and i always got a big kick out of doing it you would have to keep your eyes peeled and use your ears, as the keepers kept a watch on the fish and any poaching that might be going on as i have said i have been chased many times and have always got away but to me it was like a game the keepers versus myself, my parents never once gave me away and thinking back they must have been under great pressure when the local bobby or sgt called to see if i had been out the night before all i can say i was lucky and never once did they catch me in all the years i poached the streams.
GRAHAM WITH A FISH FROM ELLESMERE
Another from ellesmere

Just lately i have been thinking about giving ellesmere a go i have not been to the bird sanctuary for a few years and the lakes did hold some very good fish i have had commons to twenty four pounds and have caught some very big roach they could manage a fifteen mil bollie i have seen them come out to three pounds plus but the biggest i have caught was two pounds plus but still a good fish but on carp tackle you don't get much of a fight but there are some clonkers in the place i did try float fishing and managed a fish a cast but none of the real biggies so perhaps graham and i may try a day or two on there . a little more latter
ANOTHER FROM ELLESMERE

In reply to Post #48
It never ceases to amaze me and i have seen so often when a carp, angler catches a big bream and throws it back without even weighing the said fish when asked the answer is i don't like catching the slimy things i am after carp fair enough but i must be different i am grateful whatever fish graces my net if i am honest i have had as much fun catching bream as much as carp a few years ago i suppose i cut my teeth catching the big bronze bream i think it was the mid sixties when we first started fishing for them and that was on a small lake in the shrewsbury area at place called Berrington it was known then as heart break pool you would see the fish but you could never catch them i remember talking to some of the anglers that fished the lake how hard it was and no one could catch it also held some good roach well over the magic two pounds but no one seemed to catch them in any quantity.
A Berrington bream from years ago
A photo from years ago at Berringon using the ping pong balls for indercators and only one alarm
It really wet my appetite and myself and graham started to think seriously, about the place and how to catch the fish it held i think at the time it all boiled down to bait ground bait i watched other anglers i never once did we see them, bait up, so graham and myself set about baiting the place up using anything that was available at the time layers mash as a favorite also sausage rusk bread crumbs and maggots in those days graham would call at the maggot breeders and buy a big bucket full it did not cost much like today we started to put a bit of bait in on a regular basis a little bit often we did not even cut the swim until the night we fished but the baiting up defiantly worked i think without looking in the diary the first night we fished we caught over twenty fish they were only four or five pounds with the odd one going seven but a good fish for the sixties, we were the only anglers at the time allowed to night fish the place i don't think many in those days really did much night fishing it was a learning curve for us no bed-chairs only the old sun lounger with a bit of canvas and a blanket to keep the cold at bay, a light to see the doe bobbins which, in those days we used the little night light small candle in a jam jar it gave us plenty of light to see our bobbins, i would be a liar if i said we did not fall asleep you would it was quite a strain on your eyes watching the bobbins for hours but we caught we caught roach to over two pounds beautiful deep bodied fish i think most of the anglers that fished the place were pike anglers so really did not know what stamp of fish were in the lake it was quite deep with depths of over eighteen ft fishing straight from the bank, but we still managed to catch even at that deapth. It was years latter when myself and graham took the lease on and formed a syndicate which we had for many years it was called burycroft syndicate, as i have told you all before its where we fished with jack hilton and bill quinlon but that was in the seventies we did eventualy catch some real biggies from the lake it took a lot of hard work over the years but was well worth the trouble. well a bit more latter

In reply to Post #49
sorry i have not put any stories on but having trouble with my computer i have some one coming to lookat it latter thanks pete

In reply to Post #50

In reply to Post #51
Well here we go again this is on my laptop still having pr obs with the desk top hopefully will get it repaired by tomorrow night its really the time of year to get the rods out and have ago at the carp i have always managed a session or two by now but with all the fish we lost in Shropshire due to the bad weather its really awkward finding any where to go i have always had lordys to fall back on but not any more a most beautiful fishery dead and gone all the carp had been in the lake for years as far back as i can remember no one fishing there but myself and who i invited it was heaven piece and quite no over crowding like you get on some waters and the wild life was amazing i don't know if it will be restocked as lordy does have a pond used for restocking i shall be going up to see the man soon to find out where we go from here the problem being the lake has a average depth of around five ft and last year it was near impossible to fish it was absolutely choker with weed in all the years i have fished there i have never seen it so bad and while the farmers keep spraying and using nitrates i cant see it getting any better when i was a young chap they grew clover and plowed it back into the fields and that was the only nitrate it had i think it has been banned in some countries and it should be here as it causes weed growth in most lakes and water courses.

When i was younger and fished the lakes in and around Shropshire you never had the problems with weed as you do today, the lakes did have weed but you would pull an area out with the old rake then bait it up the tench would go mad and loved to grub about on a freshly cleared spot we would float fish with maggot or bread on a well baited spot and would catch good bags of tench , 100 pounds was nothing we regularly caught big bags but we had always done our home work most were fish around four to five pounds but they were good sport on light gear i never used a line over four pounds BS for all my tench fishing and i have caught specimens to ten pounds using it, i suppose it was used for all our bream fishing as well we never used line over five pound bs and i have caught a number of double figure bream in my life time and have never lost one because the line broke maybe i have been lucky. well i have had a bad day today arthrities has been playing up so that will have to do for today hopfully a bit more tomorrow
A COUPLE FROM YEARS AGO

In reply to Post #52
I met an old friend this morning while out and about his name is mike and we fished together for a good number of years i well remember mike catching his first twenty he was over the moon he loved to stalk fish and caught a good many specimens with the old dog biscuit he had it down to fair art and would rather catch fish that way than sit on his chair waiting for the alarms to sound, the only time i saw him do that was when we were night fishing i well remember fishing with mike at a lake in south Shropshire i had set my rods up for the carp and was fishing through the holes in the big weed beds but mike had other ideas and decided he would fish with worm he caught some beautiful perch that night up to three pounds but he had the time of his life when it got dark catching some cracking eels he caught a good many over the four pounds mark with a couple which went to five pounds plus it really wet my appetite and the next night put out an extra rod for the eels and i caught i think the biggest was around four pounds but the perch really interested me and i was determined to get in the action i fished for the perch in the day and caught some really nice fish not huge but some approaching three pounds it was a wonderful lake and it held some really nice fish the average depth was no more than six ft, the carp were a bit harder to catch but i did manage a few up to twenty pounds.
SOME OF THE EELS FROM THE LAKE
A few years before it was fished by the carp study group and i saw some photos of fish caught in those days but i think the fish had either died, or had been removed years before, a friend took the lease and formed a syndicate yes there were still fish in the place but no huge , we managed to catch fish to twenty pounds but that was about it. Really it wanted restocking but it was far to far to keep an eye on the place, they did have fish poachers a few years before i became a member. it was eventually wound down and the syndicate finished a shame really as the lake could have been quite a good place with a bit of work put in and could have produced some good fish
another from the same lake

mike also fished with me at betton and a few other lakes around Shropshire's we caught some really good fish we also fished for the barbel and on one occasion caught thirty seven barbel in one session with fish going into double figures i am afraid to say those days have gone you don't seem to catch them like that any more as i have stated before to many predators otters and mink there is no control i don't know what it will be like in a few years from now but i feel we must get our act together and lobby parliament before its to late. A bite more latter