Tidying up

Remembering an old friend

Tidying up my study isn't a chore I carry out often, if at all!

Having finished Chris Yates latest book The Lost Diary I started shuffling the bookshelf around to loosen the squeeze that was occurring, and found this newspaper cutting from December 2005 tucked in an old journal of my fishing experiences. I've reworked it as it's a full page and the layout wasn't condusive to the scanner reproduction.

Sadly John died on the 23rd March 2007, he had suffered the dreaded cancer for about nine years, so our too few trips were reliant on his health on the day.

 I have missed our trips out to the Witham, Idle and Trent, I learnt a great deal from him

14   December, 2005      The Angling Star (copyright)

Isn't it time some specimen hunters learned manners, asks  JOHN LEDGER

Ambushed by the brainless

barbel bashers

          NO NOT US:This is my good pal Fred Bonney with his "consolation" 9lb barbel on a foamy Trent 

I DECIDED to fish the Upper Witham the other week but on arrival found the river low with minimal flow, making good fishing out of the ques­tion on this little river. So in haste I headed back towards the Trent. The upper Trent was just a little bit far away so I dropped in at the middle section of the river just outside Newark with every intention of fishing for roach.

As usual I was first on the bank and set up in a nice-looking glide. First trot down produced a small roach and over the next 30 minutes or so a steady stream of roach came, with two or three around the 12oz mark. I was just about thinking to myself "this could be one of those days" when alas, it was all about to go horribly wrong. About an hour after starting a car pulled up below me and two anglers got out and; bearing in mind there was about half of mile of river to go at, I thought to myself they will not bother me ... wrong again.

One angler got out of the car and started to hammer a bank stick into the bank for his rod rest about 10 metres below me, while his mate parked himself in the swim above. The fellow below started to bait drop a load of bait upstream and proceeded to cast slightly upstream with his heavy feeder, at which point I asked if he wanted to fish in my swim because he had knocked it dead. The fellow came up and asked me what the prob­lem was and said he had no problem with my stick float passing through his swim, which just beggared belief.

Asking him why he was fishing vir­tually in my swim, he replied: "Because that's where the barbel are", to which I replied "Yes, and that's where the roach were until you came!" 

He then went on to tell me he was a member of the Barbel Society, which went down like a lead balloon because two weeks before this outing the same thing happened on the Dove when two members of the same Society took root in my swim after arriving five hours after me!

On both occasions I packed in fishing and moved, which leaves me wondering just what sort of angler is joining the Barbel Society and why they are so keen to lay the law down on handling fish, yet have anglers who have no manners on the bank side. They seem to have tunnel vision regarding barbel and no respect for their fellow anglers' different style of fishing. To them the only fish worth catching is the barbel; well, how sad is that!

My good pal Tom Riordan, who is a specialist angler from Derby, emailed telling virtually the same story with another group from the Barbel Society descending on the Derby Rail section of the River Dove without books, stating they belonged to the Barbel Society and could fish virtu­ally anywhere. 

Needless to say Tom moved them on rather rapidly.

Let's cut to the chase. I know some very fine anglers who belong to the Society, but after saying that it seems to have its fair share of idiots who think and believe they are a law unto themselves. I have spoken to Paul Owens of the Barbel Society, who sounds like a pretty decent sort fellow to me, but certainly something wants doing regarding respecting other anglers and other species of fish they fish for.

 I can honestly see the time coming when night fishing is banned due to the behaviour of some of the morons on our banks. You don’t go letting fireworks off in the middle of the night at Collingham if you want to carry on fishing and you don’t go leaving luncheon meat cans for cattle to walk on to. Caster bags and hempseed tins are not left by floodwater as some anglers suggest and it’s time to get our house in order…and fast. The past few years have seen hordes of them descending like the SAS, but are all camouflage and no brain.

In Tom’s email he also made a very valid point regarding internet websites for anglers, saying that although they can be helpful they can also cause problems - certain anglers handing out too much information on loca­tions, resulting in too many anglers descending on certain locations, for example. Tom is a man who can think for himself and is willing to do his own spadework on finding both location and swim. It's all too easy for some to be told the exact location, peg number etc. I have started to notice the number of young anglers who want instant success, usually with carp on the commercials, and who shun the rivers. 

Give me 10lb of river roach over l00lb of commercial carp any day.

Speaking of the Barbel Society, one fine member is my pal Fred Bonney, a Londoner who now lives at Market Rasen. Fred fancied a bit of roach fishing, so where better to take him than the Idle.

Fred is a big-fish man and he fished quite a lot on the Upper Ouse and has a string of big chub to his name including one of 6lb14oz. But he told me he would like to try the stick float, a method he had not fished for years. I set a few rigs up overnight for Fred and it was not long before he was catching roach like a good'un ... and I do know he wants to go back to this wonderful little river.

IDLE TREAT: Fred  Bonney enjoying a successful session after the roach on the idyllic River  Idle

The next outing was to a stretch Fred fishes on the middle Trent near Newark and, although the river level and temp was OK, there was too much foam on the surface for the float. So we settled down for some barbel fishing, resulting in a fine fish of over 9lb for Fred, while I managed a chub of around 3lb but no barbel. I would like to go back to this section and  for the roach in the not too distant future.

A telephone call from my old mate Mike Townsend, who has been setting the angling world alight with his recent catches of huge roach, bream, tench, barbel and crucians (yes, I'm getting jealous) was the trigger for a spot of chub fishing, Swale style. One fish Mike has not had is a big chub, so it was a pleasure for me to be there when he caught his personal best - a fish of 4lb 8oz, which is not big by Swale standards but it's a start as Mike has not fished for chub as much as me. We had eight fish in all but lost a few. I lost six and Mike five, with mine coming to the stick float, Mike's coming to the feeder.

• Once again at the time of writing the news has come through that our old mate Traveller, the barbel, has been caught again for the second time in a week at the syndicate water Adams Mill. Apparently members are arriving so early they are drawing lots for the favoured swim - what a sad indictment on our sport that is. Rumour has it the fish is so tame it's started to talk and wants to do a pantomime season in Blackpool.

I have said it once and will say it again: this fish wants removing and placing into a large river like the Severn, Trent or Thames for a bit of peace and quiet. If this cannot be done then let the fish come and stay with me for a couple of weeks as I will ask the wife to live with her sister for a while. One can only hope that angling papers pull the plug on the catching of Traveller because in my humble opinion (and I know it’s shared by many), these so-called anglers looking for 15 minutes of glory do not deserve our respect.
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Obituary by Ron Clay and Graham Marsden

I'll probably have to shuffle the bookshelf again now 
The Fool and His Eel by Mark Walsingham, turned up in today's post. It's a hefty tome! 

Thanks Coch-y-Bondddu for the great service..as usual.

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