A busy start to the season – just like the good old days!
THERE’S a definite buzz around fishing at the moment, and I got the feeling we’d stepped back in time a little bit the other week as we celebrated the start of the new season.
Busy shops and packed-out banks are mirroring a time I thought we might be in danger of forgetting. There has been a big resurgence of river fishing in the past couple of seasons, no doubt helped by the influx of newcomers entering our sport last summer.
Despite the extreme heat and then heavy rain, thousands of anglers made their way to the rivers during opening week and your catch pictures and stories, plus the bustle of the local tackle shops, brought back some great memories of the ‘good old days’.
Many moons ago, as maggot boy in a tackle shop, I’d spend early mornings getting a huge amount of bait prepped for June 16.
Hundreds of pints of maggots and casters would be served, sacks of brown and white crumb would be decimated in minutes, and then came the joy of filling out new licences.
In my shop that meant Welsh Water, North West, and Severn & Trent permits, and all were handwritten, sometimes in duplicate if the blue carbon paper had been put in the book the wrong way around!
At that time, most anglers would be heading for rivers with floats and wriggling baits, but 30 minutes in my local shop last week highlighted how much river fishing has changed.
Instead of gallons of maggots in large buckets, hitting the counter were bags of pellets, lures for perch and chub, casters and groundbait for silvers, and bags of big boilies for carp and barbel fishing.
We’re so lucky in that there’s so much choice in fishing these days. Almost every angler can enjoy a day on the river catching their chosen species on their favourite tactic. Long may it continue!