For as long as I can remember I was one of those kids who would be trying to use a net and cane pole, or my hands, to scoop out newts, water boatmen, sticklebacks and so on. At age eleven this developed further when an uncle took me spinning for pike and I somehow managed to catch a jack from the River Idle. Every birthday or Christmas after that saw me with a new fishing rod kit from Woolworths, or some hand me down cane or glass rod.
My mates and I would venture off to the River Torne every Saturday and fish for gudgeon. There were other fish there but we couldn’t catch ‘em. I learned a lot there as we could see the fish and their reactions to out attempts to catch them. By my teens we had somehow swerved towards fishing a local pond, Cusworth Lakes, where we could catch roach, crucians and even the odd tench but we’d rarely land the odd big carp that we would inevitably hook. Inspired by reading about the England match fishing team at the world championships, in Ang.ling Times, I bought and learned to fish the pole very early on and would try and use my skills to win imaginary matches – me against everyone else on the lake, especially anglers who had all the kits and their team name printed on their seat box.
The River Don in Doncaster had been one of the most polluted rivers in Europe but after a mate at school claimed he caught a gudgeon my friends and I ventured out to see if we could catch one. There were fish there, plenty of ‘em and for the next couple of years I experienced the best roach fishing I’ve ever experienced. The odd trip on the train down to fish Newark Dyke would see us bag huge amounts of fish.
In 1988 I moved south, for work in Basingstoke. There wasn’t a lot else to do other than fish so the Kennet, Thames, the Basingstoke Canal and the masses of water in the Reading area became my playground. The fishing was fantastic and ridiculously easy compared to what I had been used to and there was so much un-pressured water to go at. Although I caught good barbel and big chub I still didn’t really have the big fish bug and preferred to fish for bites.
Returning to Doncaster in 1991 I went back to fishing the River Don. I never tired of the bags of roach on the stick float. In 1992 and 1993 the EA introduced barbel, a fish I dreamed I would be able to catch from my local river. Within a few years these barbel became too big to land on the roach tackle so I bought an Avon rod, a big reel and heavy line and because targeting the barbel. After passing my driving test I began to venture to the Trent or the Wharfe but still enjoyed fishing the Don.
After spending far too much time on web forums and going to ‘fish ins’ I hooked up with a variety of mates, some of whom became the Don Valley Specialist Group in 2005. Being in DVSG has inspired me to fish for a much wider variety of species and I’ve learned much along the way. It’s only in the last few years that I’ve turned into what I would class as all round angler. I’m as keen as I ever was as there are so many fish to catch, venues to visit and people to fish with.
