PAC General Secretary's Address - Alan Dudhill

                                                     PAC Web May 2012

 

Firstly, many thanks to all those who attended the AMM to give thanks to the outgoing committee and welcome in the new. Before I start to outline our many aspirations for the future of the club I’d like to extend my thanks and congratulations to Graham and the out-going committee for their dedication and individual contributions to the club during what has been very difficult and somewhat trying times. They have worked tirelessly behind the scenes and on many occasions, gone far beyond the call of duty in the interests of the club. You can rest assured that 12PAC will build on this progress and the club very much remains in safe hands.

12PAC is already in full swing

We have an advantage over previous committees in that some members are staying on for another term,

which has given us some continuity. Graham also ensured that we were involved in committee issues in

plenty of time prior to the handover, so we have not been thrown into our roles unprepared and are aware

of all the major issues affecting our sport at present and will be following all these issues up in due course.

12PAC is already in full swing and we’re going to make an impact.

We have an awesome team with a good mix of knowledge, experience and business acumen. All of which is essential if we are to progress the clubto where we think we should be. Most importantly, we are all motivated by our immense passion for theclub and will be working hard to preserve our sport in it’s entirety.

I’ll only be covering the basics here but I hope this gives all members an insight into 12PAC and what we’ll

be striving to achieve. We have a very capable team. Each member has been hand-picked for their

individual roles based on their relevant skills, knowledge & experience.

 Most importantly, we are honoured to serve our members and will work tirelessly for the club.

Challenging times lay ahead

Our sport is under constant threat. Before I cover our plans for the coming term and our way of doing

things, it’s important for us to look at some of the present threats to pike and our sport:

Other angling groups – Other angling disciplines often undermine us by restricting our sport, for example

where they implement a livebait ban. To them this may seem trivial but as far as I’m concerned a livebaitis

as natural a bait to us as a worm or maggot is to the matchman. This is the thin end of the wedge. Any restriction or ban sends out the wrong message and only acts to support those who would ban our sport altogether.

It’s worth bearing in mind here, that all angling disciplines often benefit from the hard work of our

members and for this reason, they should support us in what we do, not obstruct us.

Government Quangos - We are often left bewildered by the naive attitudes & responses of Government

Agencies and are faced with having to challenge these on a regular basis.Chris Bishop was instrumental in

uncovering the hidden agendas of Natural England, whose policies influence many other organisationsand

therefore effect us on a national scale. We are often in conflict with other agencies including the

Environment Agency, Broads Authority, and British Waterways, to name but a few.

Large Conservation Organisations – these are often linked to NE and are pressuring our sport on a

massive scale. We have long since been considered the guardians of the countryside & wildlife but in

recent times we are being pushed aside to watch from the side-lines as the very countryside we’ve

protected is being inappropriately re-developed. Often this decimation of our existing wildlife and

environment is hidden behind an inappropriate SSSI and carried out without appropriate consultation or

regard for local knowledge.

Other serious threats include; Eastern European fish theft, Prymnesium, Killer Shrimp, Cormorants, Otters,

Pollution, Systematic pike removal, senseless pike culls, etc, etc.

The list goes on and on but the common denominator is that our main opposition comes from large

organisations who, either cause these problems or continually fail to address them. These are usually well

organised, well funded and have massive member support. It’s also worth noting that many of these

organisations are the very same organisations who we entrust to preserve our environment and our sport.

Indeed, in some cases, angling funds their anti-angling policies. This in it’s self is a disgrace. It’s

sometimes difficult to be positive about these organisations but we should be mindful that they also do

some good.

12PAC is here to make a stand and get the PAC seen and heard

As a committee and club we have to stand our ground, while we’ve still got some ground left.

To do this we have to make our presence felt. Though we have proved over the years that we can make significant progress at local level, the only way to make real long-term progress is to address the policies of these organisations and that can only be done at the highest level.

If we are to challenge these organisations and have our voice heard, we have to be taken seriously. To

achieve this we have to be equally well organised and portray a professional image and shop-front. Our

shop front being the magazine, web presence and of course the Convention. All of which we intend to

bring bang up to date with professionally re-designed web site & forum and face-lift for the mag.  All with the backing of dedicated teams to ensure that these are also kept up to date and continually improved.

Dilip has already set the standard here with the introduction of Team Pikelines and our dynamic Online Team will be announced shortly. We will not be stopping there. Where we find the need to

set-up additional teams to support the work of the club, we will do it. We have many skills within our membership and to date, this has been a relatively un-tapped resource. The Committee is the driving force and will continue to steer the club in the right direction but we cannot do this without member support. We will be encouraging members to become more involved within their regions but also welcome anyone with specific skills to come forwardand support our committee work.

We’ve got to work in partnership with others

We strongly believe that the only way forward is for the PAC, as a whole to engage with other

organisations. All too often we have to bear the brunt of a decision, policy or rule introduced by another

organisation or club. After the event we rant & rave and appropriately have our say, but the horse has

already bolted. It therefore makes perfect sense that we try to become involved in these decisions. In some

cases we may even be able to eliminate a threat at inception. At the very least, we will be more aware of

potential problems and have an opportunity to have our say from the start. For this reason, we have to

accept that we need to work ‘with’ these organisations but only where appropriate. In some cases, where

there is a serious conflict of interest, we will not engage fully but even a restricted level of engagement

could serve as a source of vital information for the club. 12PAC will be therefore be placing a strong

emphasis on working with other organisations and groups as appropriate. Rest assured that we will not

however, compromise on our beliefs and will fight strongly to preserve our sport in its entirety. We will also

be fully prepared to take the hard-line approach when necessary.

We have allies and need to support those who share a common interest

Angling is by far the biggest participating sport in the UK but we are fragmented between numerous

different clubs and organisations. Considering that it only takes 10,000 signatures to have a matter raised

in Parliament, imagine what clout we would have if we could ever work together. The Angling Trust is the

latest in a long line of organisations designed to bring us all together to unite against our threats. Though I

have reservations about their worth to us as a single specimen group, we need to accept that we are a

minority group amongst anglers and we wont get everything our own way. Like it or not, they are the best

chance we have had for some time to get our voices heard and we will endeavour to work with them

wherever we can.

Scotland’s PAAS & LAIA are prime examples of like-minded groups and indeed many of their members are also highly regarded members of the PAC. These will appropriately receive our full support.

Modernisation is the key to increased membership

One of the most serious issues facing the club at the moment is membership numbers.

Members are by far our greatest asset, we can achieve nothing without their support. Though we still have

a healthy following, membership has decreased significantly over the last few years. Clearly the present

financial climate has a bearing here. This is an area, which leaves us vulnerable and we have already

started to address this issue. Our improved national profile and shop front is very much aimed at this, as is

our intention to engage with all anglers & angling groups. We quite frankly have no choice but to become

more attractive & receptive to new-comers. Some may argue that the more members we have the more

angling pressure and competition for pike. I disagree, these anglers will fish for pike anyway so lets get

them onboard and have them doing it properly and contributing to preserving our sport.

Businesses have to deal with the same economic climate to survive and we are no different. For this

reason, although we are a club, we have to be more business-like in our approach.Modernisation, Publicity

& Marketing is the key to this, and again the mag & web site will play a major role here. There are also

many other mediums available to us today; Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, News Feeds, Interactive Apps and

Forums and we will be using these to our full advantage and increasing our presence on a national basis.

We would encourage all members to embrace these technologies and get fully involved where you can in

promoting the club and what we do. This particularly applies to forums but when interacting on forums I’d

ask that you do this in a responsible manner. Those who seek to undermine angling often use abstracts

from these forums to support their anti-angling agendas. The Committee will also be fully engaging with

other forums. However, as committee members, what we say is often taken as official PAC policy and this

has caused particular problems in the past, so our engagement will rarely be direct interaction but more a

case of publishing statements and promotional articles and keeping these forums and fellow anglers fully

up to date via news feeds, etc. Also, neither of us have an unlimited amount of time so what we do have,

will be concentrated on routine matters and major issues. If pikers want to know more about the club or

want to directly interact with the committee, they can do this via our web site & forum.

Though we as a committee will be openly encouraging interaction with all anglers, groups and forums, we

are fully aware of the risks of us doing the same. Where there is a serious conflict of interest, we will not

engage on any level. The principles, reputation and ethos of the club will always take priority and we will

not compromise on any of these.

We are already developing realistic ways to make the PAC more attractive to our members and are

confident that we will increase PAC membership in the short-term. There are many other issues to address

here, not least the reputation of the club amongst fellow pikers and the many misconceptions about us and

what we do. Often in the past, individuals have damaged our reputation, brought us into disrepute and

rightfully left us open to accusations of elitism. This undermines the hard work of the vast majority of

members who are unselfishly committed to the club. No single member is above the club, that includes the

committee and all decisions will be based purely on the ‘interests of the club and its members’

.

Our members are second to none

Membership may be lower than we would like but on a more positive note; though limited in numbers, we

are still a force to be reckoned with and highly regarded throughout the sport and industry. This is all down

to you, our members. We get results because no other club shares our level of passion and this is an

absolute credit to all our members, old and new. What I will say here is that I would rather have a club of

2000 dedicated members than 5000 numpties. One of the best ways to build membership is for existing

members to introduce a fellow piker to the club. There are many responsible pikers out there who are not

members and should be and there is no better way to recruit quality members than by recommendation.

We are one of the most successful angling clubs in the UK and have made significant progress regarding

pike angling & conservation. Sometimes we need to cast our minds back 35 years to fully appreciate what

we have achieved. It’s impressive!

We take membership so seriously that the Membership Secretary’s duties will now be a shared role and I

hope that Brian and John will be flat out busy for the next 3 years.

We all need to be pro-active

We have to be more pro-active in our approach to succeed. The PAC relies on a network of

Representatives, LO’s & RO’s to establish and maintain Regional Associations. This is our direct link with

members, other organisations and indeed the public in general. This is our front-line and an essential part

of promoting the club and recruiting new members. Sadly, we are under-represented in some areas and

this is something we need to rectify if we are to increase our profile & support on a national basis. As can

be seen recently in Scotland and Norfolk, we can make real progress if we have a pro-active approach and

the right individuals onboard. These individuals are rare creatures and will appropriately be given our full

backing and support.

For regions to be of significant use to the club they must be active. Some regions are very pro-active and

this is an absolute credit to those who run them. To progress the club further, this has to be extended to all

regions and indeed LO’s & RO’s, all of whom I’ll be contacting directly within the next few days. As a proactive Committee we will be leading from the front and by example.

We are not here to play at it - our plans extend way beyond our 3-year term. We intend to use this term to

set the standard for the next 35 years of the PAC. On behalf of the entire committee, thank you all in advance for your support.

Alan Dudhill

 

Interview With New PAC President, and Pikelines Editor, Dilip Sarkar MBE.

 Dilip diving with pike at Stoney Cove in 2003, whilst training

for an expedition to dive the scuttled German WW1 fleet at Scapa Flow.

Pike Pool: Welcome to The Pool from all Pool-Siders, Dilip. Have you looked in on The Pool? If so, to give you a little tester to start with, tell us what you think of the Pool, and what your favourite article and why?!

DS: Thanks Pool-siders, and for giving me an opportunity to introduce myself. Online publishing offers really exciting and potentially unlimited opportunities - especially as it can be achieved from any home computer. This means that so much more material, of all kinds, will be published in future – which, speaking as an author and publisher who came up the slow and hard way, is a very great thing. I’m all for The Pike Pool, therefore, and a big fan of online publishing generally – so much easier and cheaper! So firstly I’d commend all involved with The Pool for setting up this initiative and especially for providing new writers with a platform - because I’ll always remember how hard that was back in the day.



Back in the day: a seventeen year old Dilip Sarkar

with a Severn double in 1978, a year after joining

the new PAC and when Worcestershire RO.

 The articles I found particularly interesting were your interview with new PAC Events Manager Pete Foster – a fine angler and committed PAC man – and those by our mutual friend Steve Bown. I’ve a great deal of time for Steve – another fine angler and committed PAC member, who has worked tirelessly for the Club for many years; I was absolutely delighted when he bagged his first two double-figure zander from my stretch, especially considering their size, and what can anybody say about that terrific brace, including an 18.04, on 14 March 2012 from elsewhere on the Severn. Steve’s pieces perfectly capture both his passion and the moment – which is what it’s all about.

The Pike Pool: Many Pool Siders are PAC members and the three of us who put The Pool together absolutely love the Club, so tell us a bit about your good-self and association with PAC.

 

DS: Growing up on the banks of the rivers Severn and Teme here in Worcester, my friends, with whom I still fish today, got into fishing in a big way at an early age. The pike always hugely excited and inspired us. At a time when every pike caught was killed, we were appalled by this and began returning them. This didn’t go down at all well, putting us thirteen year olds in direct conflict with the local match and game anglers. In those days of the early 1970s there were no other pike anglers in this area, so we were really out on a limb.

Dilip’s first twenty: 3 January 1980, 23.04

from a Cotswold trout water.

 When the PAC started in 1977, therefore, it was fantastic for us, because for the first time we were in the orbit of other pikers, on our wavelength, and had access to information via the Club magazine. Remember that back then piking wasn’t much covered in the angling press, there was no internet and there weren’t many books available either. We largely made our own rods, floats, indicators, buzzers and landing-net frames – how things change! In 1978 I succeeded Des Taylor as Worcestershire RO, but as a student without transport and with so few members it was an impossible task, really. I also had a monumental fall-out with one of my young friends over this, because although a PAC member, and still is, he disagreed with us having an active Regional Association, believing this to be detrimental to our own fishing. I strongly disagreed and still do. We have never changed our positions on this issue, in fact. My view, however, is that people will always go piking – but I would prefer them to do so competent in handling pike.

Piking revisited:
12 March 2011 – River Severn, 25.01

 Anyway, by 1980 I’d had enough so passed over to someone else, and the Region folded soon afterwards. By 1985, for a variety of reasons, I had stopped serious piking, although I revisited it in the early nineties for a while, and at which time I re-joined PAC. Due to work and life commitments, though, I was then forced in to carping for convenience sake. Between 1999 – 2005, I was a very serious technical deep shipwreck diver, so didn’t fish seriously again until 2005, getting involved with PAC once more in 2009. So, here I am again!

The Pike Pool: Have you got any plans or priorities for the PAC moving forward, if so please share them with us.

DS: We have many plans! PAC is moving forward – big time. Our new Committee – 12PAC – is inspired with energy, enthusiasm and vision. 12PAC will be engaging widely with members and increasing PAC’s use of the media – including the internet. This package includes Team Pikelines, to produce both a printed and interactive online version of Pikelines, the latter as an additional member benefit, and Team Internet – to completely oversee a professionally led upgrade of PAC’s entire online presence. This will include a whole new website, forum, dedicated operatives for such things as Blogging, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and video production; Mark Skinner is currently researching a PAC App – so the future is arriving at last! We will be getting PAC’s new ethos and message out there – loud and clear. In short PAC is joining the digital revolution, and as the strapline says on the forthcoming Pikelines, this really is a ‘New Dawn’ – and the blue touch paper about to be lit!

 We have some terrific people on the new Committee – you’ll be hearing much more of them all in future – but I’d particularly like to welcome aboard my partner in crime, General Secretary Alan Dudhill – a massively enthusiastic individual, Pike Angler of the Year 2011, and a passionate former RO; former PAC General Secretary and current President and Editor of the Lure Anglers’ Society, Chris Liebbrandt – who joins us as Advertising Manager and will be of so much help in many ways; Pete Foster taking over as Events Manager; Angling Times correspondent and angling author Dominic Garnett dealing with press and news, and PAC stalwarts Brian Birdsall and John Keeley jointly taking over as Membership Secretary. John Synnuck remains Chair, Colin Goodge Convention Manager, Mark Skinner Products Manager, Giles Hill Treasuer, and Mike Skipper continues to have an input into Team Internet – more of which another time. Alan and I are all for pulling down ivory towers – wherever they persist – and 12PAC will be, you can be assured – a CAN DO set-up!

 Externally we will be building bridges and working in partnership with numerous organisations and agencies to ensure that PAC has a loud voice regarding issues affecting angling. For example we are already supporting the Angling Trust in various ways, especially the ‘Building Bridges’ Project aimed at helping to resolve the poaching and fish theft issue, and I have recently become a Patron and board member of the Predation Action Group. Alan is already planning meetings for us with various PAC members, notably in Scotland and Norfolk, so we’ll be out there. We all need to be working together, presenting the right image – and making progress.

 Colin Goodge does a terrific job of organising the annual Convention, and we’ll certainly be looking at how he can be supported – don’t miss this year’s Convention, by the way, a top line up of speakers and traders marking PAC’s thirty-fifth anniversary (22 September 2012, The Pavillions of Harrogate)!

Angling generally needs to encourage young people, and from what I see PAC is on the ball with this. Eric Edwards has really picked up the gauntlet here, and, having qualified himself as an angling coach is driving things forward. So, this area of operations has to be a priority – because without younger people involved, we have no future – and that isn’t an exaggeration. Eric will be PAC’s Angling Development Officer – it needs one. Hopefully PAC’s new online strategy – which won’t happen overnight, because it takes time to get things right – will also appeal to young people.

Dilip considers a big Severn pike to be 25+, and last season was lucky enough to catch two over that mark, 26.08 and 27.02 (the latter pictured here). With 53 doubles from the Severn that season, including three twenties, the ratio of 17.66 doubles per twenty emphasises how few and far between the bigger pike are on Britain’s longest river

The Pike Pool: Pikelines is a great magazine we all look forward to landing on our door mats every three months. Steve Ormrod was a legend in his time as Editor. Have you any plans and hopes for Pikelines yourselves guys?

DS: I’ll say! We have just increased the magazine by four pages, and intend to go ‘live’ with an interactive version ASAP – as an added bonus to members. Rest assured, though, the printed version of Pikelines will remain available – at least until the world becomes totally consumed by the digital revolution and printed paper disappears from common use. As I said earlier, we now have Team Pikelines to produce the magazine. Alan and I are very keen indeed to use members’ professional experience wherever and whenever possible. On that basis Steve remains aboard as Production and Design Manager, which was actually his intended role; Dominic Garnett will be handling news; Roger Howes proof-reading; Tom Balaam is our roving PAC photographer; Chris Liebbrandt will drive forward advertising; my son, James, will continue co-ordinating Young Pikers (which he was doing before I got involved, I hasten to add), and last but not least, I am now Editor. Obviously Team Pikelines will, in due course, be working very closely with the internet team – definitely the way forward.

     A huge victory of 2012 was successfully campaigning to see Major Booth’s record Wye pike returned to Hereford Museum. Here Dr John Tate, RO for Halesowen, and Dilip shake hands at the Museum - on a day they frequently never thought would come. The fish remains displayed there until June 2012, when it goes to a taxidermist for complete restoration. In 2013 the pike will provide an impressive centre-piece to a unique exhibition concerning the history of angling in the Wye Valley – providing an unprecedented opportunity to promote pike conservation and the PAC in that game dominated area.

  The Pike Pool: All work and no play leads to a very dull pike angler; I am sure you will agree. Tell us firstly what you would like to catch next winter and secondly outside of fishing what you would love to do?

DS: Well that’s a difficult one at the moment, because PAC is taking up so much of my time, and I also have to write for a living, so there there may not be much time for personal fishing for a while. That said, I think that the cornerstone we are now laying is so crucial to PAC moving forward that the investment of time and personal sacrifice is entirely justified – there’s a bigger picture, sometimes, than fish in the back of your own net.

 Last season Dilip fished for the Severn zander from

the bank, until the piking began in earnest – this 12.03

was one of three doubles caught on the afternoon

of 13 September 2011.

That said, last season I concentrated almost exclusively on my local River Severn, fishing for zander until November, and mainly pike thereafter. I fortunately did well with both species, although James trounced me with a very big zander, so I’d still like one of those! One of the reasons I put so much time in locally was because James was doing a predator survey for his fishery management course, requiring us to weigh, measure and photograph every single pike and zander caught. The data collated has been amazing (and will be published in a future issue of Pikelines), we have learned so much about the predator population. I was proposing a campaign on a different river, but the more I think about it a greater contribution would be to repeat this process, which with data collated over two seasons would be even more useful – indeed, after the recent flood, which was significant, we may even be in for one or two surprises; I am very interested to see how much the pike population in particular changes annually. So, I reckon that’s my mind made up! In addition, I’ll also be getting out and about around the Regions, talking, and personally supporting both our local RAs: Worcestershire and Teme Valley.

Outside angling and writing, Dilip,

now aged 50 and who describes

himself as ‘a bit of a silly old fool’,

is playing cricket again for Malvern

Cricket Club, after many years away

from the game.

 Outside of fishing, I still have books to write and am currently working on a very detailed and critical biography of the wartime legless flying ace Douglas Bader – whose story was featured in the 1954 best-seller Reach for the Sky and film of the same name. I was reading for my PhD, researching the Spitfire as the icon of Britain’s popular memory of World War Two, but that’s on hold whilst we lay PAC’s new cornerstone. I was fifty last August and had a bit of a crisis: I decided to start playing club cricket again! So, together with James and my seventeen year-old stepson, George, we’ve been training in the indoor nets since last October – and now await our first game of the season, should it ever stop raining, for Malvern Cricket Club! Basically I suppose I’m one of those inspired people who do everything 200% or not at all – and my late father, a Magistrate, Quaker and tireless charity worker – always brought me up with a strong sense of wanting to make a positive contribution and difference.

The Pike Pool: One last question: you’ve got to choose both a female and male boat partner for a day on Chew Valley Reservoir this coming October. Holly Willoughby or Fern Cotton? / Mick Brown or Neville Fickling / or others…. Please tell!

DS: Well, for the female I could only choose my wife, the angling artist Karen Sarkar! A passionate wildlife enthusiast, Karen became absolutely fascinated by pike after catching a jack a few years ago. It was at that point my life changed, because with Karen and my son, James, being so inspired it was inevitable that as a family our lives would revolve around fishing – as mine did years ago. Karen has become a competent pike angler and has slowly increased her PB to 16.15 (that’s the way to do it!). When she gets a twenty-pounder we’ll have a party, because she really deserves one – not many slightly built females I know are prepared to go out in all weathers, at all times and day and night, season in, season out!

 For a male boat partner, well, I can cheat a bit here. Nev and I communicate by email on a very regular basis, which is always illuminating; Mick Brown was here for lunch, with Chris Liebbrandt, recently, collecting his angling portrait from Karen - we sat and chatted for hours and only then do you realise how little, by comparison, you know! So, for a male boat partner it would have to be my son, James, who I have taken fishing since he was three years old. It really is his absolute passion, to the extent that he is now studying fishery management. James and I are very close, and life hasn’t always been easy for the two of us, but we emerged through those rough times intact and still smiling…

The Pike Pool: Many thanks Dilip for your time to answer our questions. The Pool wish yourself and your fellow committee members all the very best over the next three years and hope you all get out and catch some nice fish along the way too. 

The Ade Kisbey Interview

The Pike Pool – Thanks Ade for agreeing to an interview. You have been on our interview “hit list” of very notable interesting pike anglers (VNIPA) who have been around for a good while !. Tell us Pool Siders please how you got into fishing and your pike fishing in particular.

Ade - First of all I am totally Gob Smacked that i have been asked to participate in an interview and hope I can keep up the standard of the Pike Pool. My first time fishing was when I was about ten, I used to go fishing on my local river Stort for roach, perch or any thing that might pull the float under. Nothing ever did but then one day while sitting there I saw this long green monster swim by, so I quickly cast my single maggot at it and sat there waiting for the float to go under guess what? Correct.. nothing !


Now fast forward to 1987 while telling a work mate that story, he laughed at me and suggested i went with him and after showing me the basics, badly i might add, i was now a pike angler?.... Not !. I joined my local water that year and fishing the sluices that opened up onto the lagoons I soon starting to catch pike on deads. Then one day i turned up and there was two youngsters pike fishing and they started to catch one pike one after another. Each time I noticed they both reached into a bucket and were casting little wrigley baits. A lesson learnt. That first season having a proper go at it, in total I had amassed a total of over 200 pike using deads and lives. The ratio of  of doubles was one in ten with the biggest ones going 12lb, 15lb and 18lb respectively. I thought I was the dogs bollocks piker!

The Pike Pool – Many of us will first have seen you in Dave Horton’s “Ultimate Pike” book with photos holding a couple of big pike. They are photos that stick in the mind. Dave is obviously a great friend of yours, tell us about Dave and your fishing together. What have been the highlights for you ?

Ade –  One day a beat up old car screamed up at the sluice, and out got a skinhead and we started talking pike. From the very start we bonded. I told this skinhead about my catches that season, 200 pike and one in ten doubles. He then told me that my ratio of bigger pike would be improved if I got my backside down to Abberton Reservoir as there I would find a better stamp of fish.

Another important lesson learnt.... as you can not catch what is not there in front of you. After exchanging telephone numbers and the fella leaving me with a bucket full of the biggest roach I had ever seen, he was back in his car and off.


 The skin head was Dave Horton.

 So happy days, bucket of big lives and plans in my head for Abbo as I was  now part of a grapevine of two !


 Most of the time Dave likes to fish on his own, but at times will fish with others and I think I have been more fortunate than most over the years when fishing with Dave. One such time was in Nov 95 at Ardleigh reservoir. The plan was to get there at first light, nice and early and sit it out just off the trout pen with the wind on our back and on the "hotspot"  drinking tea all day. But no such luck as while loading the boat we could just make out another boat already in the spot. It turned out to be Billy Palmer and Steve Wells, so we decided to go on the troll, to no avail, it was hard work and uncomfortable. We both agreed that we should get back to the pen for the last hour and plot up at the other end of the pen to where Billy and Steve were positioned. After anchoring up and getting the thumbs up from Billy that we was not too close to them we had our baits out and were settled in, time for a cuppa me thinks, no chance. Dave tells me they have up anchored and gone off down the Ressa and we have time to move into the hotspot. It was getting dark quickly now but once there the baits were out in position quickly with one each tight to the pen. With the light fading we could barely make the floats out. Dave gets a take and bends into a fish and at first he thinks he is hooked into the netting under the pen. Then the fish kites away from the pen and he asks me to get the net, that's not quite true, he tells me to get the FERKING net !. I reply telling him not to panic as I wont let him down and have the net in the water and he does the rest. We are soon both looking at a lump in the net ( she was a new pb for Dave at 37lb 4oz ) and he asks me to lift the net up a bit higher in case she jumps out. I lift the net up and over did it a bit and the net handle snapped. I cant stop laughing writing this now, I've got tears coming down my face as Dave was not a happy bunny !! . Driving home he is pissing himself laughing at me and apologises for his pb breaking my net, I said no need to worry Dave as it was your net !

 

This fish got me back into my piking as this was a time in my life where I was in a really bad place, it was1995. My fishing had totally ground to a stop, a break up in my marriage, a son on heroin and me drinking far to much.


I was turning up at work smelling of alcohol all the time, this ended with Fords giving me a offer I could not refuse. Redundancy of £60k or the sack. I jumped at the money. But then I really hit the self destruct button with a string of new girl friends and lots of hanger-ons. They were all "wrong-uns" and rarely sober to every substance available, I was a heart attack waiting to happen and it did happen a few years later. It was around about this bad time in my life when I had Dave move in with me at my house. We did not see a lot of each other ,with him working his shift pattens and me out down the pub or clubbing !. On one afternoon when we were both in together he suggested we should grab a couple of big baits out the tank and go pikeing. Yes !.... when Dave moves in the whole lot comes as a package, live bait tank in the garden the whole ball game and I could not open a cupboard without a copy of  his Ultimate Pike book hitting me on me head !

We both head off down to the Dobbs Weir to have a crack at catching the the big old girl that lived in the Pool at that time. When we arrived he told me to jump in the swim that the fish had been previously caught from.When I reached into the bucket to get a bait out Dave told me to put the biggest chub on as he just wanted me to catch this fish. This fish lived just under a fishing platform that you can stand on, so if she is there on the day you stood a good chance of catching her. I put the chub on a  paternoster and the bait was lowered the  just off the platform and stuck the a rod on a rest, sea fishing style. The bait was working like a goodun. I sat back and waited and after about ten minutes the float starts dancing about . I walked to the end of the platform to see what might be occurring and I see the chub try to swim to the surface. Then from underneath a huge pike with open mouth and all its teeth showing engulfed this big chub !. Time stopped for a moment and the bait runner screamed. I hit into her just before she reached the snags.After a few scary moments holding on to her as she tried to make the for over hanging trees next to platform we were both looking at my first 30lb and 1oz pike. On reflection we were away from my house for only about an hour. An hour of sanity for me, but a kick start for my own-sanity . Thanks Dave ( crumbs off the table )


The Pike Pool – Who else have you fished with who have influenced your pike fishing 
           

 Ade - How long is a piece of string on this one as the list is endless. From Billy Palmer, Steve Wells & ET at Abbo to James Garner (the Doc) fishing the Yare, who always seamed to catch when we all failed. But there are two that stick out for me, Steve Rodwell (Rodders)from the Fens and Lee Corrigan from Ireland. Lee for his knowledge on the big Lochs in Ireland and Rodders for his experience on the Fens and the Broads.When ever i am presented with the opportunity I will always except a days fishing with either of them.

 You can probably see a pattern emerging from that first encounter that day on the  Sluice with the grapevine of two. I would  probably be able to write the "who's who" of pikers now.

The Pike Pool – Who would you like to have a day’s fishing with Ade , someone who you don’t actually know who might just tickle your fancy !

Ade -    That one is easy for me. George Higgins from Ireland and Steve Younger. The one that tickles my fancy that has been about for ages and I would like to hear about some of his great catches is Tony Pie Eater from Wigan, but for now will just have to settle with a chat over a beer at the PAC conferences ( cheers guys  )

The Pike Pool - OK Ade , we have a mission for you. Fast forward to November 2012 and we want you to catch a 25lb plus pike. Where are you going to catch her and how are you going to go about it ?


Ade - Due to the rising cost of fuel these days i try to keep my piking quite local if possible. I  will recount what happened to me last season, which will be taking forward my plans this coming October and November.


While doing social carping with a friend at a fishery not too far from I live, 15mins drive, i started hearing from the carp anglers of 20lb pike and good size doubles being caught. With this knowledge I was eager to give this water a crack come the start of the pike season. The piking on there was good, first trip having a 16lb and 20lb 6oz. This water was on a day ticket at £10 for two rods,  I decided to have one trip a week there and on one of these trips I got talking to a old piker from the past, Peter Mann, he used to fish with Billy Palmer on the King George Reservoir (Peter named it the big pond) back in 1969/ early 70s.

 

Peter showed me some photos of some pike on his camera that he had caught the previous season, one fish stuck out from the rest, she was a 28lber. He told me he would get me a guest ticket to fish this water. I had my day with him and blanked with Peter having a good size eel. Now this place is what I would call a small pit as you can cast a lead and dead bait the length of it. The water is fenced off ,a very pretty place with the lilly pads, and most days in the winter you have it all to your self. Loverly !. I was told that i could get a concessionary permit if I was 65 and only £25.


I wasn't 65 till December 19th so I decided to wait until my birthday to buy the ticket and this is going to be easy I thought. On the 19th December with my pensioners permit in my pocket, I started my campaign to catch this fish, starting with deads and later with lives, After fishing the place hard for eight days all over the Xmas period, dawn to dusk I was now losing the will to live!. But then just on dark on the 27th December i had my first run, I had been putting in smelly chop in the margins for the previous eight days and  I knew she would have to make a mistake eventually. She came out on a small dead roach and weighed 28lb 1oz. Now I am thinking she might just go the magic 30 at the back end of the season with a little bit of help by baiting the swim up too. So at every opportunity I started to prebait every time i was near the water. I had her out again at the back end of  February weighing 271b10oz so maybe 28lb is her ceiling weight.


I will give it another go this coming season but will start putting in bait all though the summer months to try fatten her up while on my trips over there trying to catch a big eel or the odd big carp, I have renamed this water after Peter Mann calling it The Small Pond . Plus I am still keeping my ear to the ground, for new waters near home and i am hearing about a few good river pike near home too. So who knows ?,  might get lucky and Tight Lines to all Pool Siders.


The Pike Pool - Thanks Ade for this very interesting interview. Catch you at the PAC Convention we hope for a beer or two.

" Just Like Buses "

Steve Bown

I’m sure all you Poolsiders will have by now read my account untitled ‘Down by the River’ where I retold the account of how after the best part of twenty years predator angling on some of the finest running waters in this land I finally managed to break a long standing personal best of 9lb 5oz by raising my Zander bar over the double figure barrier to 15lb 4oz.

Well to say fish started me on a roll would be somewhat of an understatement and in the weeks that followed leading to the end of the season I experience some of the finest and most exciting fishing of my life; and that from a bloke who has experienced plenty of fine and exciting fishing over the years.

Now a change in direction was just what I needed. The previous season had seen finances tight and my regular long distance piking trips to ‘God’s river’ were having the edge knocked off them by the cost and more significantly the fact that all those quiet little out of the way places I used to sneak off to were now full of anglers. Every legend in their own rucksack had been heading off to the valley, snagging a one or two big pike and splashing it all over the weeklies and social networking sites encouraging everyone else to get on the gold rush and so it was no surprise to find added pressure on my beloved river.

Being at a bit of a loss and having a stressful year at home and work I didn’t really start fishing until December and I didn’t get into the full flow until the Christmas break. I’d already decided that Gods River could wait for season and I’d concentrate closer to home and target the best fish I could locally and by that I mean within 50 miles of home. I’d also had a boat sat on my drive for years going no-where and I love boat fishing so I was getting a double dose on inspiration to get out on the local rivers and to do most of this fishing from my boat.

Naturally I chose to target the Zander which proliferate in my local rivers and grow to true specimen sizes unlike the neighbouring pike.  Having  ‘got the monkey off my back’ with the 15.04 I was full of confidence with the Zeds but a cold snap lasting weeks was to pour cold water on this idea until on a cold day in February I was to have another PB with a 9.08 out of the lesser of my local rivers that fell to a sardine whilst piking. This was a real bonus and as the temperature began to rise again I my thoughts turned to the other river that had done me so proud a few weeks earlier.

After 2 weeks of evenings in the garage getting my boat ready I was ready to launch her and for the first time in years I was out afloat on Sabrina. The first trip out saw another 9 pounder to my rods and fish of 9lb plus and 10.07 to my good friend and boat partner for the day, Matt Rance. I felt I was onto something special here and vowed to now spend every possible chance until the end of the season ‘up and out and at ‘em’ having first cleared the way for the end of season madness with my poor long suffering wife, Lucie.

And so to the day of my 42^nd birthday, I always like to fish on my birthday and a morning on the boat with my best mucker Rob was to be followed by an afternoon on the bank with team Sarkar, or Dil and Karen as they’re otherwise known. The river was looking lovely turning green and fineing down with a couple of feet of extra water on. I was soon into fish and one particular swim saw Zed after Zed coming to alternate rods as Rob and I took turns to trot a rather productive crease.  With a couple of 9 pounders in the boat the fishing was as good as it gets but I soon had to retire to the bank for the second part of the day.

Within minutes of arriving on the stretch and having shared greetings and civilities with team Sarkar I was soon fishing and quickly netting a ‘schoolie’ in my chosen swim. The Zeds seemed to really be on the feed and rods were trembling every few minutes. I started to twitch baits and as I lifted the first rod baited with half a roach for the 5^th time something grabbed the bait and after a spirited fight that saw the fish head around the only obstruction on the river, I soon slipped the net under my second double figure Zander weighing in as 14lb 02oz. Chuffed to bits with my ‘birthday fish’ I fished on and caught several more small zeds and then lost one that I still have nightmares about that popped up mid river to show me how massive she was before screaming off under a bankside snag where I eventually straightened the hook as I hung on tight.

Next trip out was a few days later and despite a coloured river the Zander weren’t playing ball but this was not a disappointment as the pike were. With several nice doubles coming to the boat as well as bonus Salmon Kelt that gave me a bit of a surprise as it grabbed a small crankbait.

I’m loving this boating lark and I was soon slipping her off the trailer again with another mate and catching some nice Zander in the home of the Bard. The following day I was back on the other river and a slow days fishing saw my first bite of the day come in the late afternoon but boy was I pleased. At 14lb 7oz this fish was an absolute peach. That evening we fished well into dark and several more nice Zeds came to the boat including another 9 pounder for me and a brace of 11’s for Matt.

We weighed the biggest of the brace first and I had to check the scales several times. Photos taken and well and truly nailed by Rob she went and kicked off strong. The first fish weighed in at 10lb 15oz’s, my 4^th double of an already incredible season. The biggest of the brace hit the scales at an incredible 18lb and  4oz’s and somewhere in the 20’s on a big list of things Zed like. The combined weight was 29lb 3oz.

I was and still am stunned by this, just 6 weeks after finally breaking the double barrier I put an incredible amount of time and effort into a few weeks fishing and had caught a fish that every Zander angler would die happy catching. I have topped that long standing PB no less than 9 times in those 6 weeks taking 5 doubles in the process and as you can probably guess I’m already looking forward to next season.

The madness was now nearly over now and I had just 2 days left to fish hard before the season closed. The first day was on my own. Launching before first light saw me soon into fish but whether it be pike or Zander it was a day for small fish but plenty of them. I netted 9 pike and 7 Zander loosing a lump on my vey last bait that forced me to call it a day well into dark again. A great days fishing in anyone’s book and a nice haul to put a smile on my face and I drove home tierd. I left the boat on the back of the car and just crawled into bed when I got home ready to give it ‘the biggun’ on the last day. I met Rob Shallcroft at the slipway early doors and we headed up river in search of another big Zed. We watched the sounder and settled on a likely looking spot and a few rattles and taps were soon giving away the presence of feeding Zander. Rob’s float bobbed and attentive as ever he was soon into a nice fish that at first we thought might go the weight but just failed to make doubles. A call from my little lad Charlie before school broke the morning silence as he shouted ‘catch a big fish Daddy’ down the phone. A few minutes later I was to do as he asked as my float sailed away and I quickly struck into a hard fighting Zander that was netted superbly by Rob and looked very big indeed. But before I could lift her into the boat and admire her I saw my other float vanish and again I quickly struck into a solid head banging lump of Zander. This fish felt even heavier and was charging towards the marginal trees, I really had to pull back hard but when after several minutes of playing this fish she showed herself at the back of the boat I eased off the clutch and sank to my knees and took it very, very steady indeed because ‘SHE WAS FOOKIN MASSIVE’.

Rob had got things sorted and the first fish was in the sling and over the side of the boat. He was ready with the net and despite looking as shocked as I was, Rob superbly netted her and whilst I went to bits he made sure I had my baits back out before he would let me sit back, light a fag and have a coffee !.

I eventually calmed down ready to do the business of putting numbers on these two zoo creatures that were sat side by side in the big sling.