The one & only
John Currie ....
It seems as if John
Currie works full time to give anglers a voice in Broadland but he finds time
to work and fish a bit too. Even in the
mad week before Christmas he’s still found time for a chat with the Pool-siders.
Thanks John, here we go…
How long have you
been an angler?
I understand you’re
not native to Norfolk, where did you grow up and how was the fishing there?
I’m
53 now, first session on the Medway at 7 so 46 years an angler. I was born in Scotland and moved to Dagenham
at age of 6, then moved back to Scotland at 8. We then moved to Brixton aged 9. Fished the Thames a lot and pits around
Cheshunt and Broxbourne. The Medway a bit, Blenheim lake and even Wraysbury. We used to jump on a train and head for some
place we had read about in the papers or heard about from Johnsons tackle shop
in Brixton. My old man was good about
taking me and my mates, a different world then, he would leave us out at nights
on our own all of us under 16. We got booted off Diana fountain at Hampton
court trying to night fish. Police gave
us lift back to station were we slept till first train in morning. Had great weekends around Goring and
Pangbourne. It felt like paradise to us,
getting out of Brixton to real greenery.
We even fished Clapham common just to get our fix. The serpentine seemed
pretty good when your that age. We got
kicked off all the royal park lakes, didn’t seem to matter at the time. One winter we kipped on a boathouse near
Pangbourne, one of the crew lit a fire and next thing is we are trying to stop
this posh boat house going up in flames.
The house behind must of seen the flames as we heard shouting and torch
lights, we decided to leg it for the station.
Really good move as the bobbies were waiting for us there. We all denied knowledge of any wrong doing and
apart from been covered in and stinking of smoke our story was somehow blown! Next morning saw a group of loving parents
reunited with a bunch of Herberts all crying "It weren’t our fault". All charges were dropped as soon as said
loving parents agreed to cover all damages.
I was 13 at the time and my Dad said I needed to learn some discipline. He
enrolled me in Fitzroy lodge boxing club.
Now this I liked, we had meets with other clubs or wars. Repton was always nasty but great fun. I loved it until I met a lad from Repton who wasn’t
a fighter but a boxer. I managed to
catch him a few times but he was class, made me feel useless. In the third round my old man said I needed
to pull something out of the bag and dig deep.
I bided my time, missed him with an upper cut and as he stepped
back I kicked him in the nuts! Dad didn’t
speak to me for a week and I never boxed again.
I moved onto things were I could boot people and the star at the
time was Bruce Lee. So started an
interest that lasted for 20 years. I
loved to fight, it made me feel alive. I
never was a technician but enjoyed the battle.
I took gradings in 6 different arts and I can’t describe how much it
meant to me. At 36 I suddenly realised I
wasn’t enjoying it anymore and stopped. At
16 I was well known in the Brixton area as someone who enjoyed the healthy
rough and tumble. The inevitable
happened and after waking from a coma and a nice knife wound in the back my
parents moved to Norfolk..
Norfolk was a shock to me.
Took me a while to get used to the quiet and being out of the speed of a
city. The fishing was the biggest shock,
lots of space and not many other anglers.
I had fished the Scottish Lochs with my uncles and loved the vastness of
the lochs, but Norfolk had a different feel.
My first few years were spent fishing for anything and everything. I would like to paint a picture of my
incredible angling skills but truth be told you didn’t have to try hard to
catch. I had a couple of periods when I left Norfolk and moved back to London
for work reasons. Also a long stay in Rhodesia.
I always ended up back mainly for the fishing. The Lochs had a huge draw on me and I had a
couple of dangerous incidents due simply due to being on my own. I only fish then in company now.
With all the
stuff you’ve got going on, how often do you manage to go fishing? And do you
have time for any other hobbies/interests/family?
Why Pike?
Do you fish for other
species?
At 27 I realised I was enjoying Piking more than anything and
apart from the very rare carp trip, brief chub interest and Perch trip it’s
been that way ever since. I manage two to three sessions week in the winter,
preferably boat fishing. I’m lucky
enough to live a mile from the River Yare and am placed well for most of
Broadland. Speaking to some mates I
realise how lucky I am in being able to pop out and be fishing in under ten
minutes, it’s something I have never stopped being grateful for. As I’m self-employed
I will stop work to milk the good times, this to me is important. I read Nev’s list and know some of the
hardcore guys, I also know how far they have to travel to catch. I know how much time they put in to catch and
I’m impressed. I often wonder how some of those names would fair with what I
have on my doorstep? There is no doubt that Norfolk Piking has gone downhill in
many ways for many reasons and this is something myself and others are
working on improving..
We can’t ignore the
politics & the Heigham Sound dredging in particular. A couple of years ago
I attended the meeting at Norwich where Dan Hoare of the BA answered
questions. From what I remember a lot of
the proposals anglers put forward that night are finally being implemented by
BA. (e.g. suction dredging, work in winter, toxin tests
etc) Is if fair to say the BA are
finally listening?
In the meeting you refer to it was suggested cold water
dredging was safer, and we gave them some obvious advice about times of tides
for times of dredging. All of that was ignored for two years. They agreed to
winter dredging because we gave enough information to NE so NE could advise
them it was the way to go! We asked for suction dredging they said it was too expensive.
Now they are using it, some success in those areas. Im afraid I believe they
would use clam shell if they think they would get away with it. The toxin count wasn’t mentioned at that
meeting we were just asking for regular cell counts. What I have discovered
since is how we cannot depend on cell counts but need toxin counts.
Could you sum up the
situation as things stand now?
We have had massive success with EA and NE who have listened
to me and are investigating Prymnesium for the first time in 15 years. We have
contributions from them that have enabled us to get a world leading expert on
Prym to visit and investigate the problem. We also have a desktop study
sponsored by NE and a PHD study on Prym on the Thurne. The most exciting thing
is the "John Innes Centres "involvement. They believe they can
produce an on-site test kit for toxin in the next 18 months. This would be like a
pregnancy test kit, add water and it will show if toxins are present. At the moment the test for toxin can
take a couple of days and cost hundreds of pounds. We envisage this kit will be
issued to regular Thurne visitors and boatyard staff. We will then have instant
results. Going on from this is my next challenge, a freshwater fish refuge on
the system. One used to exist but was
deemed to affect reed beds so was capped. I will argue that saving fish is more
important than saving reeds! JIC also
believe it is possible to find the chemical tipping point and negate Pryms
upper hand amongst the algaes present on the system. Johannes Hagstrom also
believes the system could be bio manipulated to push Prymnesium to a position
were fatal blooms would not occur. Whatever happens we are trying and have
fantastically gifted people involved. My good friend and at the time fellow PAC
ro Steve Roberts was with me when we lost the planning application
for Duck island despite passionate letters from the likes of Steve Harper. BA bamboozled the planning committee and it
was frustrating to hear BAs claims on safety. A couple of years on we are in a
good place and BA recently asked to meet with me on how they can get involved.
The meeting was a success and I hope they work with me on solving the problems.
Steve Roberts is now working so many hours as a carer he moved aside for Micky
Cox to take over as RO. Without either of
them things would not be where they are now.
When the dredging issue started I had no end of conversations and e
mails telling me I was wasting my time taking the issue on. I would suggest to
anyone faced with an issue that could affect Pike to get PAC involved and
make the change needed to ensure Pike conservation and protect Pikers. BA have a legal right to dredge, we will make
sure it is carried out as safely as possible.
Another knock on effect from all of this was a tagging
project with the EA. This project was
started in answer to Broadland Pikers worries about declining Pike stocks. We are tagging on two sites and waiting to prove
retention rates of the tags. If as we
hope the tags have a long working life the project will roll out onto the
rivers. We have tagged over 250 Pike and so far retention rates look good. The tags are cellophane thin and measure a
couple of millimetres long and same again wide. We decided on such small tags
to alleviate anglers concerns of number plates on their quarry. We already have
some very good data on growth rates etc. This long term project will enable us
to sit down with all controlling bodies after a fatal salt surge or perhaps a
Prymnesium bloom and work out how to restock the system. It will also give
answers to possible restocking because of low Pike numbers. I have also just
taken delivery of some DO and conductivity meters from the EA. This follows on
from myself and Steve Roberts trying to find how bad a salt surge had affected
the Yare, we were basically looking for
dead fish.
Are there still
things anglers should be wary of?
We explained to EA how useless we felt and told them of
our concerns of the lack of data on salt surges. This resulted in another
project. We now have a couple of DO meters and a couple of conductivity meters.
We will visit any river in Broadland in danger of salt surges and record levels
of incursion. This will enable EA to compile a data base and plan possible
refuges .The sad fact is we don’t have enough info on how bad some of these
surges have been. I and others believe the Yare and Waveney have been very
badly affected. Before anyone asks why EA are not doing this, well fisheries
staff in Broadland are few and far between.
In a surge they will be out on the rivers raising the curtain at Potter
and doing their job. I would rather be involved and contributing rather than
depending on them for information. Pikers have so much going against us at the
moment we need to help ourselves. We will be getting some basic training in the
meters use and away we go, as always Mr Cox is a volunteer for custodian
of one of the meters.
One of the things local and visiting anglers can do to help
the situation on not only the Thurne but any river drain or lake is to
report anything suspicious to the EA. Fish killing or theft or fish dying or in
distress. It is staggering to hear
people complain about such and such and when you ask if they reported it they
answer no. It’s especially important on
the Thurne so we can react to possible fatal blooms. The sooner we hear of
problems we can save fish. Prymnesium
can be devastating in a short period of time EA have proved in the
past they can save fish if informed of problems. Please remember to
get an incident number so we can track how the problem is dealt with 0800807060
is EAs number. People have rung me before they ring EA, thanks for the info but
please ring them first.
I was really
impressed with the way you handled the original meetings particularly as there
was a lot of passion involved. People were able to express themselves
strongly but there was never any hint of things getting out of
control. At one of the meetings I
managed to attend, I was impressed with Mark Owen of the Angling Trust, has the
AT been a big help?
I was impressed
with the anglers’ attitude of those that attended that meeting. It was
potentially explosive, yet everyone conducted themselves professionally. Mark
Owens later involvement and attendance at meetings was impressive. I dare say
he could be great in an appeal for funds or some such project but he shines in
conflict situations, you want him on your side. I can only speak as I find but
I’m an AT member simply because I have witnessed AT in action.
Do you have any
fishing heroes, past or present?
What is your
favourite type of water? If you had to
choose would you fish Broads or Lochs?
Who is your ideal
boat partner? This could be a mate or a
hero, crumpet or all three.
Will
have a think about heroes as I don’t think I do! I love the vastness of the
lochs and there wild places at times. I also love the intimacy of the broads
and there tranquillity, so I couldn’t choose. Steve Roberts is a good boat
partner for me as he is easy going, mostly I want to strangle boat partners. The
embarrassing thing about it is everyone who knows me just accepts it, when we
do tagging or social fish ins I nearly always wangle a boat on my own. I have a
huge interest in polar exploration so would share a boat with Shackleton or
Amundsen to hear their stories. The only other person who
has survived my company a fair few times in a boat is Julie my partner.
She enjoys lure fishing and has become fairly proficient at it. Because of her hatred of getting cold and for
some reason she thinks i get stroppy if she is noisy in the boat her trips with
me are few and far between! I will
mention another project with the EA and backed by NDPC ,PAC and Broads Angling
Strategy Group, our wheel chair friendly boat. It has been very rewarding at
times to take out adults and kids .We have always been flexible who we take out
and it has a lot of use from kids who shall we say need escorts from their current addresses! I underestimated how enjoyable the whole
thing was going to be. I would like to hear from more people who would like to
use the boat escorted or not.
Is there anything you dislike about
modern Piking/Pike scene??
As
for dislikes of modern Piking, there are a few.
I always like reading Nev’s list but I never meet anyone anymore who has
had a good or bad season. Its all I’m on my 50th or one more to do a hundred.
To contradict myself it has so many flaws, but I like to keep an eye on it. The
guys who have to travel to get to half decent waters, guys that push family
ties, the lads who work long hours then fish weekends all have my admiration
and there are plenty of them who catch impressive Pike.
We
Pikers always seem to be on a knife edge of falling out, anti-livebaiting, some
pikers don’t like lure anglers, if you fish chew you’re a glory hunter. We
would do well to remember we are all Pikers and a bit of understanding and
acceptance to different opinions and techniques might make us all a lot stronger.
Pet hates in Broadland are people who leave rods unattended, speeding Pike
boats who whoosh past you .People on the bank with all the latest gear costing
a fortune and no unhooking mat. They weigh as much as a tin of coke aren’t
always needed but why not have it in case? Better stop there as I feel a rant
coming on.
Many of us have enjoyed reading your
story of a Scottish 31 as told in ‘Dream Pike’.
Do you still have another ‘Dream Pike’ you’d love to catch one day?
I
still have dreams of monster Pike. I fished a loch that was a grueller to get
to, 5 hour walk with tackle. First cast I had a trout, third cast made the trip
worthwhile but I watched a Pike in stream that fed the loch that would of been
a dream to catch. These things keep you going in the lean times. I fished for
three days on that loch and caught nowt else. I have been back once for a few
small Pike, but the place haunts me. Steve Roberts and I also have unfinished
business on another loch, he hooked the biggest Pike I have ever seen had
it boat side and he lost it. He was quite calm and I went ape shit. As a bank partner I seem to do well with Mr
Cox, we have had some good days together. But I nearly always fish on my own.
Thanks a lot John, really enjoyed
this! If anyone from the BA ever reads
it they’ll think twice about getting into a row with you again, come to think
of it they’re probably thinking that already!
As a frequent visitor to the Broads can I thank you, Steve, Micky and
all in the Norwich club once again on all you continue to do for angling in the
area. Over the years, Pikers have been
given a bad press at times but here we have an example of Pike anglers leading
the fight on behalf of all anglers and true wildlife lovers.
This interview from John currie, yet again emphasises the tenacity of the man in the face of what was historically a difficult issue to deal with, whereby the relevant authorities are having to now face up to accountability, and culpability.
Besides John, stands Mickey Cox and others, who are slowly changing the mindset of these authorities, and put in selfless amounts of time and effort (even personal funds), for the benefit of pike and angling.
I sincerely hope that those who fish remember these individuals and the bodies that are fighting for our chosen sport, and put their support behind them, be it Pike Angling Club Of Great Britain (PACGB) or the Anglers Trust (AT) and that to unite is to strengthen our cause behind the maligned ignorance of days old. (Editor)
