Well at last Mr Pope has spoken after the multiple BS resignations of last week.  On the future of the BS he says……

“Believe me when I say the BS will be moving on, strongly as well. People do not devote a quarter of their lives to something only to walk away and let it flounder”.

Sorry Steve but many have been telling you its floundering for ages, numbers down (again) revenue down, waters lost, half the Committee gone. You dont have a clue what to do and if you really care for the BS then let someone who does take over……. now! Your battle cry words have been heard once to often.

Oh some will see this as an opportunity to get on t’committee, those you wouldn’t entertain before no doubt that see it as an easy ego massage , but is that really whats needed? The normally quieter members on the forum are now calling for change and democracy, good job us gobby ones have all gone, will you deliver? will you eck. 

As for me, Im just expressing an opinion, as is my right, as a long term ex member who is very disapointed at your utter incompetence.

And, if your going to slag me off on Freds blog please do better than this……

“Looking forward to putting the record straight at some point, as for Tony, small man, small mind with an influence that greatly exceeds his worth but hey for a ticket many will sell their soul“……..

Its poor from a bloke who is smaller than me in both departments and for your information 95% of the HPS dont give a flying fig about the BS and its going on’s. Which when you think about it is the case for most of the barbel anglers in this land……. thats the problem you have failed to solve and nothing will change now, and you know it.

Thats it from me on the BS, or rather whats left of it, its little more than a joke now.

Maybe

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Sometimes I fish with a centerpin and sometimes I dont. This decision is based upon nothing other than how I feel. It doesnt matter to me what river or how, but I always use one when float fishing. The only time I find it a little difficult is if I need to use a feeder of over 3oz, I have sliced my fingers wallis casting a big feeder accross a flooded Wye before now.

Anyway, below is an account of  friend Tony Cummings first attempt at “pin” fishing last Saturday on the Trent. I lifted it from a private forum and include it to give those of you that haven’t tried it a feel for what you are missing.

“Started off trying to cast using the ‘loops of line’ drawn off between the rod rings method but couldn’t get the feeder where I wanted it so I soon gave up on this and decided to put into practice the stuff I learned from Biggun. After a few disasters I finally got to a point where I could get it out 15 – 20 yards; it’s amazing how quickly you learn when you’ve got to.

Playing barbel on a pin is feckin AWESOME,  the degree of control you have over the fish IMHO is far superior to any other type of reel. It’s a bit of a steep learning curve though, several times I had the fingers of my right hand well and truly clattered by the handles on the pin when a barbel lunged unexpectedly and set the pin rotating at warp speed”.

Glad you enjoyed it Tone, all you need now is to pair it with a cane and you will really know how “AWSOME” catching a barbel can be.

Note; No carbelling fish haulers were harmed during the writing of this post.

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Tony2Lythes

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Happy birthday Blog.

You have given me many a chuckle.

Seems I got my last posting totally wrong. Two memebers of the BS commitee haven’t resigned…….  three have.

Didnt think it would be that quick but not a bad guess. Read about it on Bigguns blog, July. Link to the side.

Steve Pope, try telling the world that this is not because of you now. Anyone who joins that Committee in its present form loses all integrity as far as I am concerned.

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Do I detect a slight listing to starboard on the good ship Barbel Society?

First we have a call for members to commit to fisheries permits, not just for this year but next also. Apparently there is something of a shortfall in covering fisheries rents due to poor take up and falling membership. More waters will go next term if the situation doesn’t improve. Do they know what to do about it? Do they buggery.

 Then Communications Manager Fred Bonney verbally abuses a longstanding member on the forum and the moderators see fit to impose a forum ban on him, how ironic is that? Dead right though.

 Steve Pope sees red and tries to get the moderators to reinstate his Southern brother resulting in all the mods resigning on mass. Fred, unable to post on the BS, takes out his frustration on another forum but just gets a thrashing, as usual.

Pope trys to recruit  new moderators but is told, “no thanks”……. Looks like its up to you Frampton……… what fun that would be, my word, it’s almost worth joining for.

 I feel it’s not over yet and if I were a betting man, which I am, I would say one or two names may yet walk the plank of their own free will..

 On second thoughts its more than a slight listing, there is a hole in the bow. Will Popey be able to shore it up?

Only a fool fails to see when enough is enough, time to leave the party.

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They say its grim up North. Not half as grim it is around some parts of Hackney ….. I can tell ya!

We left the splendidly re-developed St Pancras Station and jumped in a taxi to Mare St (apt name) Upon arrival the taxi driver asked why on earth we were wanting to stay in Mare St. “Off to a gig” we said, and, “It was the closest hotel we could find”. “I hope you have guns on you”, he said laughing. Boy was it rough. My London correspondent today told me Mare St was also known as “murder mile”.

The hotel was by far the worst place I have ever stayed in but it was only somewhere to sleep….. and I can sleep anywhere. My mates sister wasn’t too pleased though and objected strongly to the fact that you got a free mouse trap in your room,…. I kid you not. She actually refused to pay for the room the following morning and a mighty row was had, she won.

However, less than half an hours walk away we were in the beautiful Victoria Park. Very nice, made me think of Mary Poppins,…… Lets go fly a kite…… its surrounded by lovely crescents of houses that apparently  run to £800,000 each, quite a contrast to Mare St.

The gig itself was mixed. That Paloma Faith bird was on and she was very good. Next up was Mark Ronson. Didn’t like him before, like him even less now, he was rubbish. Then a surprise, Duran Duran nipped on stage and did a couple of numbers. Now I was never a fan but I have to say they were very good.

And finally Roxy, who played a lot of their early 70’s album stuff to the delight of us oldies in the audience and the bewilderment of the young uns. They really were excellent. Myself and the boys did of course push our way to the front of the stage just before Roxy came on and for a while at least we were all 16 again.

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Had a call from one of my school mates at tea time.

“Ey up Roc”

“Now then Dog”

“Want to come to London tomorrow to see Roxy Music, got a spare ticket”

“Well you could have given me a bit more notice”

“Yeah, been meaning to ring you all week”

“Ok then, whats the score”?……..

So I am off down the smoke on the train from Chesterfield in the morning to once again see the fave band of my youth. 

Fishing will have to wait.

VIVA ESPANA

Cant tell you how pleased I am.

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BFW carries tales of woe from the tidal trent, dead barbel floating down river, barbel retained in nets in this warm low river, litter everywhere and anglers pitching up on other folks knees almost when half the river is devoid of fisher folk.

 The easy fishing always attracts the morons and lets be honest the Trent IS the easiest barbel fishing in the country at the moment. The internet must carry some of the responsibility for the situation, it spread the word that attracted the fools, though there have always been some. Be better when winter comes and they are tucked up cozy like.

 As it happens I fished the Trent yesterday for the first time this season, no thoughts of barbel for me though, I trotted for the silver fish and had a nice time, mainly because I wont fish in the places that attract morons these days. I did have a very happy few years on Collingham before this all started and I am glad of that. Believe it or not there was a time when you could turn up and almost always find peg1A empty on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, if you fancied it, now there’s a queue for it sometimes. …… Peg 34 was my particular favorite, not a pellet in sight, big lumps of curried meat did the job and maybe still would……..Seems such a long time ago now.

COME ON ESPANA.

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I started work in the motor trade straight from school in 1976. By 1983 I had decided that maybe fishing all the time when I should have been at school wasn’t such a good idea after all and I had better do something about it before it was too late. So I secured a place on a degree course as a mature student, to start Sept 85. Then in late 83 my employer went bust and I found myself with a year or so to kill.

I accepted a 1 year post working in a South Yorkshire probation hostel, a sort of half way house between prison and back to the real world. It was full of blokes of all ages who had committed a host of crimes, some quite serious, there were some real nasty sorts in there, about 30 in all.

There were various projects running at the hostel that were designed to give the inmates a “fuller day”. Decorating and gardening gangs went out to do jobs for the elderly and disadvantaged and there was a huge poly tunnel on site where veg and flowers were grown.

It’s difficult to get accepted in such an environment but accepted you must be if you are going to do any good. I had a hard time of it for the first couple of weeks and it became obvious that a couple of inmates had it in for me whilst the rest watched on with interest. I knew I was going to have to fight, and fight I did, but I picked the moment and place, it was on my terms and a bloke called Tom was left in a heap*. Thereafter I was accepted and never had any  trouble, Tom and I got on fine and I actually really enjoyed my time working there.

My work was mainly administrative but I did have time to contribute to the “fuller day” thing. What did I do?…….. I took them fishing of course.

I got in touch with the National Rivers Authority and Bruno Broughton sorted me out a fishing licence free of charge that covered any hostel resident. I got funding for 15 sets of tackle and did a deal with a tackle shop down the Wicker in Sheffield, no not Bennetts the other one, Calcotts was it?.  We had a mini bus and enjoyed many trips to the Trent, Chesterfield Canal even the Idle. We even did a day out of Bridlington on a cobble (that days a story in itself).

Of course most of them weren’t interested in the slightest in fishing, it was just a day out, but a few did learn and really enjoyed it, they even caught some fish. I remember Tom catching a roach of about a pound and a half on a lob worm tail from below Radcliff weir on the Trent one day, he was over the moon. Strangely most of them seemed to like pike fishing more than anything else………. does this say something about pike anglers?

1984 was the time of the miners strike and me and my mini bus full of ‘nutters’ were pulled over by the police a handful of times when we were off fishing, they thought we were flying pickets. My passengers of course hurled a torrent of abuse at the police on each occasion from the back of the bus whilst I tried to explain who we were. It got interesting a time or two, to say the least.

My year ended and I went off to be a student for 3 years. As time went by some of the names I knew from the hostel popped up in the Sheffield paper. Wilf, who was an ex male stripper with one lung was found dead in a shop doorway one winters morning. Nigel, a likeable lad with a temper like an angry bull was burned to death in a house fire and Tony, a very bright fella even though he couldn’t read or write, went back inside for armed robbery.

I never saw any of the residents again and I have no idea if any of them continued to fish but I enjoyed my time seeing them smile, fishing.

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* Tom was a big mean bugger but he had a drink problem. I waited until he was drunk before I retaliated to his torment, drunken blokes don’t fight too well!

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