Inside fishing history

Keith looks back to the heyday of fishing in park lakes, where a generation of youngsters began their angling journey

“You fished as close as possible to whoever was catching fish”

THIS photo from times gone by brought back some memories. When I was a youngster, you fished as close as possible to whoever was catching fish. Mostly they didn’t mind... because they’d moved there for the same reason!

Much of my childhood was spent on park lakes, in fact I could well have been one of the lads in the photo by the pond with the diving boards. That is the ‘Mens Bathing Pond’ at Highgate, on the eastern side of Hampstead Heath. There was also a Ladies Bathing Pond that, legend has it, contained more and bigger fish, but ‘the views’ weren’t considered suitable for young anglers – although we tried a few times.

The four main ponds were the ‘One-Sider’, because only one bank could be fished; the Model Boating Pool (where I caught my first-ever fish), the aforementioned Bathing Pond and the Mud Pond, as we called it, because the sloping banks meant standing at water level instead of on a man-made bank.

Each pond had its different methods – the Mud Pond responded best to chrysalis fished 18ins below a matchstick float with no weights. The Bathing Pond was for legering – I recall using my front door key as a weight when I lost my last lead. The One-Sider was best floatfished with paste – either made with stale bread or flour and water with a touch of custard powder – but worms ruled on the Boater, especially when it was stocked with tench.

Most of the fishing has gone now, but the reformed Hampstead and Highgate Angling Society has campaigned for better angling access and now runs regular taster sessions for newcomers, who will hopefully drive as much joy from the sport as I have.

Places such as these are essential if our sport is to continue to flourish.

Nearly all my mates fished back then, and most still do.