TIME MACHINE

A look back through the archives of Britain’s biggest and best sea angling magazine…

A look back through the archives of Sea Angler.

FEBRUARY

2011

■ Fourteen-year-old

Tyler Hallet caught the fish of most people’s dreams when he boated a

34lb cod during a trip on Grey

Viking II, out of

Brighton Marina,

East Sussex. The youngster from Portslade fished a whole cuttlefish on a size 8/0 hook.

■ Former Sea Angler contributor Andrew Rackham bagged a personal best cod of 21lb while fishing from his own boat off Lowestoft, Suffolk. He was fishing with his pal Paul Kerry when the big cod took a double squid bait on a Pennell rig. He also caught a 15-pounder.

■ A lure fished over an English Channel wreck produced an 18lb cod for South Coast angler Kevin Justice, who was fishing on Silver Spray, out of Poole, Dorset.

■ While using a Dexter Wedge lure, Allan Painter caught a 19lb pollack. The angler from Chepstow was fishing 20 miles offshore on the Weymouth charter boat, Katie Ann.

■ Rob Reynolds made his two-hour drive to Chesil Beach in Dorset worthwhile when he caught a 15lb 3oz cod. It smashed his personal best by 12lb.

2001

■ A mark in Devon’s Kingsbridge estuary produced a personal best flounder of 2lb 13oz and another of 2lb 7oz 8dr for Matt Bickle, from Plymouth, Devon.

■ Winner of the Needles Cod Championships, fished off the Isle of Wight, was Steve Pilbrow, a charter skipper from Minehead, Somerset. He caught his winning cod, weighing 25lb 8oz, during slack water while fishing on Steve Pitt’s boat Uncle Len.

■ The reefs at Hinkley Point in Somerset produced a 14lb 13oz cod for Keith Lock, from Bridgwater, who fished a ragworm bait.

■ A mackerel and squid cocktail tempted a 14lb 2oz thornback ray for Tam Lyon, of Clydebank, while boat fishing in Loch Etive, Argyll. His pal Jimmy Thompson, from Kilwinning, caught a 12lb 2oz spurdog on the same trip.

■ Painter Len Morrow, of Ballykelly, Northern Ireland, caught a 2lb 1oz flounder on lugworms when he fished at nearby Benone Strand.

■ The magazine carried a tribute to tackle dealer and rod maker John Metcalfe who had died in December 2000. John founded Metcalfe Fishing Tackle in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex. He went on to produce the Meta-lite brand of rods from 1986.

1991

■ Ron Cowling, skipper of Our

Mary, had been hitting the headlines with his cod catches from around the Needles,

Isle of Wight.

Biggest on the boat during the winter was a

31lb 12oz cod for Ray Ashby, of Southbourne, Dorset, and if that wasn’t enough the same trip produced others of 21lb and 18lb for Tom Ritchley.

■ A 26lb 4oz cod fell to a mackerel and squid cocktail off Watchet, Somerset. The captor was Geoff Dyer from Bristol, who was on Seafire II. There was also a 25lb 12oz cod for Roy Beaton, of Yeovil, Somerset, while fishing on Tiger Lily, skippered by Chris Caines, out of Weymouth, Dorset.

■ Colin Hurst, from Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, uptided a squid bait to catch a 14lb 2oz bass while boat fishing off Margate.

■ Peter Broughton, of Blackburn, beat the cold conditions to catch a 17lb 8oz coalfish and a matching pollack. Both fell to artificial eels worked from the Plymouth charter boat Artilleryman II.

1981

■ It seemed that Paul Glover had a way with cod. Twelve months earlier he caught a 27lb 5oz fish from the South Wales shoreline. Not bad for an 11-yearold lad. But a year later he did it again with a fish of 20lb 10oz while fishing at Llantwit Major.

■ Salcombe in Devon was due to get its first full-time charter boat when local garage owner and keen angler Ted Cooke decided to move into charter fishing. His boat was the 35ft Anglo Dawn, which was formerly at Dartmouth.

■ Andrew Upson, of Ongar, wasn’t expecting anything special when he fished low water on the River Thames at Tilbury Dock, but his lugworm bait produced a 17lb 12oz cod.

■ Jim Churchouse, secretary of the Bass Anglers’ Sportfishing Society and Weymouth AS, had been awarded the Torch Trophy in recognition of voluntary service to sport. The presentation was made by the Duke of Edinburgh. Jim got the award for his work with junior anglers and his dedication to fishing.

■ Fish of the month winner was Plymouth angler Barry Speed who caught a 14lb 10oz pollack and 11lb 14oz 4dr small-eyed ray during a shore session in the Stoke area of Plymouth.

■ The minimum size limit for bass was due to be increased from 26cm to 38cm on March 1, 1981. The increase was the climax to a lot of lobbying of the Government about the damage being done by monofilament gill nets to bass stocks.