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In reply to Post #244
Thanks Pete, your posts are a really good read 
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In reply to Post #242
well on leaving school i went to the cooparative shop to train to be a butcher the boss was a right old bugger he would give you a smack if you did not do as you were told. next door was the cobblers run by a man called george he was a fisherman and loved roach fishing which he did mostly on the severn do you want to come pete i jumped at the chance he had got a motor bike and side car and always went on a sunday morning so it was to be tackle in the side car rods on our backs and away we went we fished the shrewsbury waters and used bread paste as bait and sat watching the rod top for a bite i learnd so much of george in those early days and will always be gratefull for all he taught me we caught some lovely roach always arround the pound mark some much larger he also introduced me to pike fishing. i can well rember catching my first big pike from the severn with george encouriging me how to play it and showing how to unhook it when weighted it was only fourteen pounds it looked asolutly huge i fished with him many times and learned so much catching lots of roach and pike alas he now passed on like so maney others a great man who we live on in my memory for ever. my job at the coop did not last long i got my own back on that old bugger one morning i went in there was a gas heater on the wall and i accidently blew it up the fire service was called and that was the end for me ha ha well more stories later
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In reply to Post #241
well it had got happen some time there was a water fall at a place called halford on the onny not far from our house i used to fish it on a regular basis using lip hooked minnows i would catch perch and the odd trout before i knew it i was surrounded by baliffs and the farmer and police man i had a mate with me a lad called allan barker he was asolutly petrified, to cut a story short the policman cuffed me across my head and conficated my rod and the trout id caught. on getting home i had to tell mum and dad i thought i would get another hiding but as it happend i did not, we were visited by the police that evening and had another telling off he also returned my rod so all ended well. but that did not stop me i carried on catching those trout for the next few years and never got caught again. i suppose i was forteen when dad mum moved back to bayston hill not long before i left school, now there was a little brook not far from my home known as condover brook i was determind i was goiing to fish it all my mates said it was ballifed by a game keeper called mr bell and his under keeper well of i went on my bike hiding it in the nettles i caught many trout out of that brook on spinner and worm i was chased by mr bell on many ocasion but was never caught, i rember once lying in this ditch coverd by weed and wet throught while old bell talked to the local policman a man called stan sharp even the dogs were sniffing round little did they know if they had only looked down at that ditch they would have found me well there you go more tales later
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In reply to Post #240
well as i said id like to tell you about my early life in craven arms and how it effected my angling life, as i said i lost my father in the war and mother got married again my step father was a signal man on the railway and we moved to craven arms i think this was the happest time of my life. right behind our house was a brook called the onny it was stuffed full of brown trout it was mostly a syndicate water and very private patroled by baliffs most of the time, i atarted off with a old tank earial rod. id poach that water day and night, so much so i would play truant from school wich i was soon found out and had the cane three on each hand i soon learned that was not the thing to do. we lived in a railway terrace and food and money was short in those days so most saturdays in the summer i would be up at 5 am and would be on the brook half an hour latter i think i supplied most people in that terrace with trout fishing with worm id catch as many as seventeen fish in a morning some quite big a couple of pounds i would usualy be back for eight silly buggers were easy to catch. although my step father managed to save up and one christmas mornining i woke up to a hardy built cane combination rod bless him he is now in his eights and that rod cost sixty pounds then a lot of money well my fishing realy took of i started to travel on my bike to some of the local lakes some legal and some not i rember sitting behind my rod with a guy called ray evans now sadley dead fishing this private lake catching carp and roach not big only a about a pound wiht the owners having a garden party just in front of us on the lawns they never did discover we were there i wont mention there name as they are related to royalty not that it makes much difference after all these years you rember i mentiond the bach in a earlier thread well ray and myself would fish that with floating bread catching many carp arround three pounds a can rember catching one weighting 10 pounds absolutly enormous for two young lads we used to get quite an audience catching these carp off the top and well rember this chap weighting that 10 pounder not believing his own eyes the pool was owned by a farmer called syd evans and used to gharge two shillings and six pence to fish the lake. but always let us youngster go for nothing well thats all for now got to go and meet my syndicate members to get corn to feed my pheasents more later
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In reply to Post #238
it was not all bream fishing in those early days i would like to tell you the story of my beloved rea brook about half a mile from my house. i fished this brook long before i met graham it was my grandad that first took me there the year probably arround 1946 so i would only be about four years old i well remember those old cane rods he used i suppose thats how i got the bug for fishing i got married at the young age of eighteen. and lived in the village of bayston hill my place of birth. not having transport in those far off days i spent many hours fishing the rea, it was full of chub roach dace and a few nice trout, i would walk from my house rod in hand half a loaf and a few worms in a tin . one method i found worked well was floating bread crust the chub loved it and i took many specemens to four pounds or i trundle a free lined lob i remember one such mornining i had a tremendus pull on the rod top i lifed the rod and struck, away it went, down the brook this fish went with me in full cry behind i could not keep up through the brambles i went eventualy ending up above this deep pool after a bit of a scrap i managed to land this fish i had trouble getting it in the net i just could not believe what i had caught it was a salmon of nine pounds i was up those feilds i can tell you and home .i caught many brown trout from there usualy arround the pound mark but they made good eating. one method that realy worked was danish blue mixed with bread and made into a paste looking back at records i caught my biggest chub from that brook on that paste wieghing in at four and half pounds not a bad fish for those days, the brook and surrounding area abunded in wild life i rember crouching behind these reeds one morning with the rod resting on the top and two young kingfishers perched on the end of the rod absolutly brill i could of reached out and touched them. the roach fishing was also good i spent many mornings trotting a quill float and a couple of maggots on the hook catching good bags of roach not big arround half a pound i think the largest i ever had was about a pound and a half but great fishing. i eventualy meet graham and we spent many winters trotting for those roach with the line at times freezing to the rod rings i would not have missed it for the world. the brook has now been dredged and i suppose spoiled it is now full of grayling there are still chub preasent but with my aflictoin i can not walk to fish it so i live with my memorys. i would like to tell you next about life and fishing in a little village in south shropshire called craven arms i lost my father in the war mum married again and we moved there for a number of years. well more later
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In reply to Post #238
Good stuff Pete, loving it
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In reply to Post #233
we started to fish a pool called brazingtons i met the owner on a local shoot he mentioned his pool and kindly gave us permision to fish it after a chat it was decided two do a two nighter at the far end was a dam which we could get are bivies onto having a look arround there was carp every where the pool was asulutly stuffed with them the pool had been strictley private so no angling presure not many had serusley fished the place after a cupa and a meal out went the end tackle it did not take long to get a run but not from carp but tench not much of a fight on carp tackle. so out with the float tackle they must of been quing up for the bait it was fish after fish all from three to four pounds. on closer inspection the carp looked very much like wildes. we fished the two nights without acarp we ended up with about 200 pound of tench maybe more i got bored with catching them we returned many times to that pool and never ever caught a carp out of it we were beat. i have returned since although harold has now died and the little buggers are still in there and thats where they will stay i dont think ill be back i am getting to old but you never know more tales later
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In reply to Post #234
no mark its a lot in my memory its a plain as yesterday and i have lots of cuttings from angling times from years ago
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In reply to Post #234
no mark its a lot in my memory its a plain as yesterday and i have lots of cuttings from angling times from years ago
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In reply to Post #234
no mark its a lot in my memory its a plain as yesterday and i have lots of cuttings from angling times from years ago
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In reply to Post #232
Brilliant stuff Pete - do you have a diary recording all these tales- if not I think we should be calling you memory man.
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In reply to Post #232
right behind bomere is another pool called shomere no one fished it in those early days long before i took the lease on bomere after approaching the owner graham and myself decided to have a go there ,.the only problem was acsess . it was very bogey the ground actually moved under your feet the owner warned us of the dangers of fishing there. but we went a head , in the following days we managed to cut a swim and put a few small buckets of ground bait in, after chatting we made up our mind to float fish the pool it was like a basin completly round fringed with liles with an average depth of 10ft the day arrived we eventualy got set up and both fishing with maggot and bread flake. from the start we caught rudd not big but there colour was magnificent owing to the peaty water i suppose the biggest no more than a pound in weight, it was then the bream moved in it was a fish a cast getting broke many times the fish were not that big by todays standards averaging four to five pounds but great fishing on light tackle. at the time i did not know it even contained bream. we were also getting plagued by the resident pike so out went the live baits we caught eight in all the biggest no more than ten pounds but the most striking fish i had ever seen again all most certainly due to the peaty water we ended the day with over a hundred pound of bream. and great many rudd to a pound and a half. the only trouble we had been the mozzies we were practicaly eaten alive. we returned many times in those early days always catching consistently. a freind at the time got permisoin and did a night on the water with some diffaculty but did manage to catch a six and half pound eel a big fish at the time but never puplicized. in recent times approx seven years ago i came out of hospital having had a new hip and recieved a phone call from the owners of shomere saying they were having it netted and could i come along i new this would be an impossible venture but i struggled down on crutches i was right they could not because of the depth. but decided they would electro fish the margins. i was gop smacked with the results, six eels smallest four pounds biggest six in fact they took a photo of myself holding this specemen i must get a copy but the biggest suppprise was crusion carp to over three pounds and a number ot tench to five pounds we did not know they were even in there a freind walking arround also found a dead commen weighing arround twenty pounds . but i suppose no one fishes it these days because of the mozzies you get eaten alive so who knows what will come out in the future if some one is brave enought to face the elements. so ends another story more to come
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In reply to Post #229
graham and i still fished with dennis fishing colmere we managed a few big fish myself catching a 10pounds 4 oz fish i was over the moon. one thing worth a mention were the big raoch that inhabited the mere superb fish we used to catch them when we were bream fishing. graham had a lot of sucsses float fishing for them using long floats partial self cocking you needed weight to get the distance. one night wich sticks in my mind i dont think i mentioned it early on. we set out one night to fish colmere it had been a very hot day getting there at 7 pm and setting up we started to catch some roach arround a pound no one else from the goup was on that night. well about midnight it started to thunder and the lihgtning was quite spectacular you could see the geese the other side the mere up went the brollie well did it rain. behind us was a bog which we had to cross to get to our swim the wind got up and the storm continued i had never expeirenced anthing like it we were getting quite frightend i got of my bed chair to speak to graham and there was one big flash of lightning and this silver birch was hit and crashed down on my brollie and bed chair enought was enought we started to pack up the bed chair was absolutly ruined trying to get through the bog was another thing the water a come up that quick it was un true with only a small torch we made our way out the muck and water was above our knees christ i thought we had had it if you did stop moving the more you sank into this fowl smelling stuff eventualy we made it to the van we were totaly can i say buggard and coverd in mud. poor graham was saying never again, the storm was still raging. , well of we went towards home which usualy takes half an hour i kid you not it took two hours there was graham and i removing branches of the main road it was asolutly terrible the roads were flooded as well but the old a35 van managed to get throught by the time we got home we were soaked throught, as graham said never again, i have never been out in a storm like that since . more tales of the old days latter
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In reply to Post #229
Real quality Peter!! Keep those diary accounts coming mate!! 
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In reply to Post #227
jumping a head a bit we were still fishing lordys lake he had started to let others fish it the bolie had come and the hair the fish soon wised up to these little round baits i heard on the circuit about peanuts . i managed to get some . and every time i left the lake i put a handfull in by the way they were prepared by boiling ..i did this for two weeks, when we eventualy used them the fish went barmy every one on the lake was sruggling but we were catching i thing we were catching anything up to ten a day with fish up to twenty pounds. others were asking what we were using bolie we would say i never did tell any one not even to thisday. we moved back onto bomere i was determined to catch the tench and carp. we started to catch bream not big four or five pounds in weight but very welcome. then one morning while using lob worm i caught one of my biggest tench a 9 pounds 12oz specemen followed by one of six pounds. i new there was carp in there but not many but no one believed us so i started to introduce some bait bolies not many a few often we did this for about five weeks. the first night we fished bern and myself we came up trumps bern had a screamer and landed a 27 pounds 12 oz mirror . the next week i was away on holiday bern and graham fished the same swim poor old graham got badley bit all over by mozzies when i got back he was coverd back legs even his chest i believe berns mum had to rub calomine lotion all over him, well the next week i blanked but three weeks latter i had two a 23 pounds eightoz and a 20pound four oz boyh mirrors i was over the moon we had done it and proved a point the trouble was word soon got arround and anglers started to appear from far and wide the lake had been sold to new owners who let it on a day ticket basis i was made baliff once again so had my work cut out checking tickets more on bomere latter
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Stickies