ALLROUND TRYER
Active member
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2021
- Messages
- 68
Hi all, great forum btw.. well here goes my first thread.
Im an 80s kid just turned 50, My fishing started out on small farm ponds, and every summer holidays we would literally spend dawn till dusk on various ponds within reasonable walking distance.
Occasionally a trip to the canal if the old man was feeling generous, or we did the dreaded bus trip with tackle {you know the one} and ventured to the mighty ribble, which was always a steep learning curve to say the least. But worthwhile in the long run.
Anyways after doing some reminiscing about times gone by with a mate recently my thoughts turned to a small pond where my fishing bug really took hold.
A 3rd of an acre maybe.. 2ft deep maximum, choked with weed and absolutely full to the brim with stunted perch.. you could easily catch a hundred or so in a day, and so we did regulary and it was great fun.
There was also a shoal of bigger perch in there.. looking back i would say 20 or so fish and these were obviously cannabalising on the stunted perch and getting huge, but landing them was a nightmare mainly due to the nature of the pit.. it was snaggy as well, and my fishing skills being raw to say the least, it was seemingly impossible to land one, so the race to a hundred stunted perch always won the day and the bigger fish remained something the older anglers occasionally caught... and the pond became a place to go if all the other ponds were full or fishing slow.
Fast forward a few years or so and my thirst for knowledge growing, skills gradually improving and john wilson on the box i was ready for the perch pit again.
Gone was the 2.6lb bayer and 18 hooks, instead it was 4lb maxima a size 8 hook and a lob from the old mans compost heap.
I arrived at the pit an hr after school, the pond was empty as it quite often was and i set up in anticipation of what might be.
An hour passed by,,,Nothing.. nothing happened.. was it the worm?.. to big?..surely i could get a bite on a piece of worm.. NOTHING.
I sat there all day confused.. wtf was going on, wheres all the fish gone.. it was a mystery... the stunted perch had dissapeared too WTF???
I mentioned at the beginning i was an 80s kid.. and the dreaded perch disease of the 80s in the uk had hit overnight and the pond was no more.. the fish had been netted by the farmer a few days before and that was that.
Anyways my question is this.. if you could take the skills and knowledge you have now, and grab one moment in time from the past, where would it be and why?
Cheers.
Im an 80s kid just turned 50, My fishing started out on small farm ponds, and every summer holidays we would literally spend dawn till dusk on various ponds within reasonable walking distance.
Occasionally a trip to the canal if the old man was feeling generous, or we did the dreaded bus trip with tackle {you know the one} and ventured to the mighty ribble, which was always a steep learning curve to say the least. But worthwhile in the long run.
Anyways after doing some reminiscing about times gone by with a mate recently my thoughts turned to a small pond where my fishing bug really took hold.
A 3rd of an acre maybe.. 2ft deep maximum, choked with weed and absolutely full to the brim with stunted perch.. you could easily catch a hundred or so in a day, and so we did regulary and it was great fun.
There was also a shoal of bigger perch in there.. looking back i would say 20 or so fish and these were obviously cannabalising on the stunted perch and getting huge, but landing them was a nightmare mainly due to the nature of the pit.. it was snaggy as well, and my fishing skills being raw to say the least, it was seemingly impossible to land one, so the race to a hundred stunted perch always won the day and the bigger fish remained something the older anglers occasionally caught... and the pond became a place to go if all the other ponds were full or fishing slow.
Fast forward a few years or so and my thirst for knowledge growing, skills gradually improving and john wilson on the box i was ready for the perch pit again.
Gone was the 2.6lb bayer and 18 hooks, instead it was 4lb maxima a size 8 hook and a lob from the old mans compost heap.
I arrived at the pit an hr after school, the pond was empty as it quite often was and i set up in anticipation of what might be.
An hour passed by,,,Nothing.. nothing happened.. was it the worm?.. to big?..surely i could get a bite on a piece of worm.. NOTHING.
I sat there all day confused.. wtf was going on, wheres all the fish gone.. it was a mystery... the stunted perch had dissapeared too WTF???
I mentioned at the beginning i was an 80s kid.. and the dreaded perch disease of the 80s in the uk had hit overnight and the pond was no more.. the fish had been netted by the farmer a few days before and that was that.
Anyways my question is this.. if you could take the skills and knowledge you have now, and grab one moment in time from the past, where would it be and why?
Cheers.