01 Tuesday Oct 2013
Posted in Pike
Tags
Non-anglers probably don’t realise that certain months of the year are affiliated with some species of fish. October has the pike and the first day of the month is the start of the traditional pike fishing season. In truth this is something that fisherman have invented over time as a pike needs to feed all year round, but as the water temperature drops in autumn the pike will feed more often and the chance of large fat esox is more likely…one hopes.
16 Saturday Feb 2013
Posted in Tackle
With little success on the bank at present despite a few trips out, The Traditional Fisherman’s Forum has become a winter refuge for me, and for many of its forum members it has become a gathering place for traditional float makers.
I’m not sure if staring at a float while waiting for its disappearance draws the eye of the beholder to find beauty in such an object? Just like a salmon fly the colour combinations and use of materials is close to art and the artist.
Yesterday, a parcel arrived from one of the artisan float makers from the aforementioned Traditional Fisherman’s Forum. Stuart AKA ‘Fatfishfloats’ had sent me three exquisite Norfolk reed wagglers which I originally spied on the forum and commissioned Stuart to make three variations with yellow tops. The results just like Paul Cook’s floats are things of beauty, works of art that shall be launched into the British countryside, with much care!
Anyone who appreciates traditional floats should look at Stuarts website or The Traditional Fisherman’s Forum and see what talented floats builders are doing with new and creative uses of colour and materials but keeping the traditional float building ethos.
31 Thursday Jan 2013
A package arrived the other day in an eight inch length of plastic tubing, I knew what it was but I was quite taken by surprise by the exquisite fishing floats that were carefully packaged inside. Within the tube was a rolled up note from artist, writer, rod restorer, angler and all round gentleman, Paul Cook.
I met Paul a few years ago, at his house to pick up my rather sorry Allcocks Carp Superb rod which needed a new top and some general tender loving care, the result was stunning, and still is after three years of abuse. To say Paul is a restorer of rods or maker of fishing floats would be like saying Michelangelo is a decorator of churches, Paul is an artist, his floats are true works of art.
The four floats that arrived yesterday were simply stunning and even a non-angler would appreciate their beauty, a careful mix of feather, wood and coloured thread, all with an inscription ‘The tuesday swim.’ The question is, shall I cast these floats (often quite badly) into a weedy pond or a snaggy river? The answer is “yes” they have to be enjoyed in the field.
In Paul’s covering note he talks of an extra float, in his words states “Its a copy from an original Victorian float that I have overdressed for the occasion!” Bloody brilliant!
Mr Cook, the tuesday swim salutes you. Thank you.
30 Monday Jul 2012
Tags
angling, british, carp, english, fennel, feral, fishing, hudson, journal, nigel, traditional, wild
My father fished mainly for black bream off the Sussex coast in the 1940’s and 50’s from his boat ‘Vulture’. I always thought the boat was more of an excuse for my father to hang out on the beach and watch young ladies pass by rather than a serious fishing vessel. In more extreme summer showers (just like this year) Vulture could accommodate a canvas pup tent, where upon pipe smoking and general tackle sorting would take place amongst friends. I now own that pup tent and have used it for many camping trips and was my prime over night fishing shelter for my carp fishing obsession as a teen in the eighties. The old sea tackle was sadly disposed of a few years ago in the local dump, (when I found out I went bloody mad) an old army haversack bag containing wooden line winders, floats, two Penn multipliers, three boat rods, a wooden centre pin and some old round pipe tobacco tins with hooks and lead weight, nothing of any great value but it was something that I wanted to keep. Now it has been thrown out in one of my fathers clear outs, hoarder he is not!
My father fished for the table and once married with a young family the piscator seemed to fade away. We have never spent a minutes fishing together, for my quest to angle was to admire and then put back, my father did not understand this but on one occasion we did share an angling moment and that was when the Passion for Angling series was broadcast on the BBC, in the early 1990’s. We both admired the way nature was captured on film and of course the fish being caught, I loved the old and new approach to angling demonstrated by Chris Yates and Bob James, respectively. But, I always remembered what my father said to me half way through the TV series, when we were having a catch up on the phone, he said “I stopped watching it because I thought the two presenters were too twee and the narration quite naff!” “Great Scott!” I exclaimed but I could see his point, it’s not everyone’s taste. Since the first broadcast A Passion for Angling has become quiet a cult series and generally considered to have not been surpassed in quality or in the way it captures the essence of angling. By chance I ended up chatting to Chris Yates in the pub a few months back and asked him about taking part in a new television series perhaps another APFA, his reply…”never, no, fishing and filming do not bode well!” So there you have it A Passion for Angling II will not be produced with Chris Yates. I digress…
Last year I was pointed in the direct of quite an interesting fellow, Nigel ‘Fennel’ Hudson at the Priory and his new website. Nigel or ‘Fennel’ had started writing at an early age under the encouragement from Chris Yates and over the years has created a quarterly publication that are now available to buy online. While looking at Fennels website and the images a haunting word kept coming back to me in my father’s voice ‘looks a bit twee to me.’ I was a little put off.
When written well, traditional angling writing by the likes of BB, for example is the type of literature that I can read again and again but with ‘traditional’ angling becoming more popular there is a trend for copy cat style scribblings that at best is a poor reproduction and at worst annoying and at times quite cringe worthy. So with Fennels Journal I stayed off until now, just in case of disappointment but then I saw ‘The Wild Carp’ edition!
I’m fascinated with anything to do with ‘wild’ or ‘feral’ carp at present an antidote to the current carping and commercial bagging up scene, so I decided to take the plunge and ordered a copy. Order made, and three days later a signed copy with a pleasant short letter arrived on my doorstep. After a quick flick through I could immediately see this was a labour of love, printed on high quality paper with high quality images. Straight away I had to read the first article chronicling the introduction of the ‘feral’ carp to Britain by the Romans and the subsequent stories of how these carp stayed and survived in the stew ponds over the next two millenia. The writing flows un-hurried without overly romanticising each point and the research is thorough, from the first sentence I was thinking, this lad can write, its informative and very refreshing. As the journal moves from the history to his own personal stories and then the stories of like-minded anglers who encounter the ‘wild’ carp the journey draws the reader into the mystery and rarity of these carp. Towards the end there is an interesting interview with an angler on the wild carp of the Danube that leaves the reader hypnotised by the size and beauty of these feral creatures. The photographs are still a little staged at times but I can live with those, the shot of the large Danube Wild carp is stunning. I shall order some of the back copies but for now I would recommend you get a copy of the Wild Carp Edition especially if you like catching the odd one yourself…
16 Saturday Jun 2012
Posted in Carp
Tags
ambidex, aspindale, cane, carp, delux, english, fishing, latch, rod, slater, split, traditional, wild
Although I do dabble throughout the closed season, the 16th June is still a special date for any traditional angler, and there is no other species that epitomises traditional angling than a good wildie.
Today I was travelling ‘heavy’ as I was taking two rods, a Mark IV Avon with a Ambidex Mark 6 loaded with 8lb line and a James Aspindale Carp Delux with an old Slater latch from around a hundred years ago, loaded with 10lb line.
It was not an early start but it was my way of showing some respect to the closed season, so from about half past Saturday Live I arrived at a rather small and I am afraid to say secretive pond in the south east of England. From the start I saw signs of wild carp (as this water seems to only contains them) high in the water searching for food. How wild these creatures are, I do not know but they certainly take on the classic torpedo shape, large heads, small bodies and big tails. The size in this lake does not exceed 10lb and to be honest I’ve not seen one over 7lb but this is not the point, they are so beautiful, an antidote to ‘Heather the Leather’ and ‘Fat Lady’, wild carp are exquisite…
The final few hours were spent with the old Aspindale rod and Slater Latch, bread cast out into the lilies, a slurp, a splash and then a clitter clatter of an old centre pin reel as line streamed out…
08 Thursday Mar 2012
Posted in Tackle
I pretty much dragged this box around lake and river throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, it could take a lot of tackle and an impressive float collection. It was only when I discovered a low-fi approach to angling that this box was shelved, but it still remains the tackle box that has shared more personal angling experiences than any other. The interior wood is still stained with strawberry flavourings from my early days of carp fishing on a small pond near Ansty in West Sussex, in search of my first ‘double’. Eventually with the help of Carp Fever it did happen, a 11 1/4 lb specimen.
Even now, twenty five years on a light waft of strawberry essence mixed with pilchard oil lifts the nostrils as the lid is opened and a memory ignited, this box shall never be passed on!
11 Friday Nov 2011
Always in search of fishing tackle shops of the past I present local angling legends Tommy and Tony Wadsworth (Tony is now a local radio show host) of Wasdworth & Son of Leicester. ‘Let Tony fix ‘u’ up’ alas no longer possible.
Also I have a short film from 1968 sadly with no sound..
16 Friday Sep 2011
Posted in Tackle
Tags
angling, cuckfield, efgeeco, english, fishing, floats, middy, old, penfolds, shop, shops, tackle, traditional, ultra
Penfolds of Cuckfield in West Sussex was my place of wonder towards the end of the late seventies and throughout the eighties. After an up hill bike ride of about four miles I arrived, breathless and excited, just as if I was going fishing.
As I recall the front of the shop would have been no more than ten feet wide including the entrance. The exterior was painted gloss black with a hand painted sign, ‘Penfolds’. The window was covered in a layer of yellow celluloid gel to protect the display of angling items and packaging from the effects of the sun.
To enter, a slightly stiff door had to be given a hard push to engage a brass bell, which would in turn alert the waiting staff. Once through the door a waft of maggots, waxed canvas and old oak drawers filled my senses (long before the smells of tutti fruiti boillies and halibut pellets). I was immediately thrown into a magical world of fishing tackle, spools of Perlon, rows of floats, shelves stacked high with boxes of reels, piles of Efgecco bait boxes in the corner, spilling out of a large cardboard box and small wooden drawers filled with hidden angling paraphernalia.
The shop, like the frontage was about ten feet wide with a counter running all the way along the left hand side to the rear, the interior was always quite dark even on a bright summers day. The far end was dedicated to shooting and equestrian related items, this enhanced the smell with fresh cut leather and ointments. Along the narrow corridor on the right was a selection of wall mounted display cabinets full of floats ordered into categories; balsa’s, porcupine quills, waggler’s, chubbers, wind beaters, avon’s and lignum sticks produced by makers such as Ultra and Middy. Between the float displays were racks of rods, not the huge selections that you would expect in a modern tackle shop but no more than about twenty rods from thick glass float rods to the ultra thin and expensive new carbon creations.
One Saturday morning I was taken by my father who used to sea fish, (he had a boat on Brighton beach in the 1950’s) where he purchased my first new rod for my tenth birthday, a 11ft Shakespeare ‘Strike’ float rod, made of glass and as thick as a rolling-pin! I think this was the only time I ever ventured in the shop with an adult; Penfold’s was strictly a place for myself and my angling peers.
The long counter was made of a dark hardwood with a glass top that allowed a display of angling accessories, more floats, swim feeders, weights, pike gaff’s and scales. The custodians stood behind the counter framed by a montage of more tackle including cheap penknife’s hanging from display cards, canvas fishing bags and keep nets dangling from the ceiling. The elderly grey haired couple both dressed in sandy brown shop overalls would stand to attention awaiting my meagre order of bits and bobs.
Also behind the counter, on the wall was a series of matching hardwood drawers, none of which were labelled but if a request for something unusual, a Mitchell bail arm spring or a spare rod ring, a bee-line would be made to the correct drawer and the said item would be found and placed on the counter. If the item was correct then it would be tallied up with a pencil on a brown paper bag. Many times I would have to put items back as the tally became too much for my limited pocket-money.
There were bigger, more ‘modern’ angling shops near by but as a shy youngster and novice angler, Penfolds was the place to go for good friendly advice.
Recently I drove down the high street and to my surprise Penfold’s still exists on the opposite side of the street in a larger premises that is now just a country and equestrian clothes shop, the Penfold’s of old has all but gone.
11 Thursday Aug 2011
Posted in General
The Tuesday Swim is all about time spent in the swim with friends or alone, rummaging through antique stalls for treasure, searching for hidden lanes, empty streets, dusty book shops and bars that still retain the smell of old bream nets…
If there is a whiff of something I like and it takes me off track for just an hour I shall photograph it, write about it and post it here at the The Tuesday Swim.
Tuesday, a perfectly fine day for a spot of fishing…
the tuesday swim... 