Pilgrim’s Progress

He is also a very keen angler, having come back to the sport in 1995 following a break of several years. In this regular column he will tell us about his progress as an angler – his thoughts about the sport, what he learns, the fishing trips he makes, the anguish, the humour, in fact everything he experiences as his angling career develops.

Pilgrim’s Progress – read it everyThursday!

Bits And Pieces

No, this weeks Pilgrim’s Progress is not a tribute to the DaveClarke Five…I have a number of things I want to share about thisweek and so felt the title best reflected that. So sorry, to allthose Sixties fans, who were expecting a music article with a touchof nostalgia. The nearest we can get here on Fishingmagic is G.Marsden. Not Gerry, the leader of the Liverpool based ‘Gerry Marsdenand the Pacemakers’, but Graham. Still, if ever he feels the need toexpress himself musically, he could always start a group called’Graham Marsden and his Pacemaker’…..

Well, as far as angling is concerned, there seems to be light atthe end of the Foot and Mouth tunnel. For those of us who are tooyoung to remember the 1967 outbreak, I’m sure the severity of it alltook us by surprise. Ten weeks ago I was beginning to wonder if I’dever get back to business as usual this year, such was the limitationthat was placed upon angling.

From a fisherman’s perspective, there has certainly been a wholeload of anomalies over the last three months. My own approach hasbeen to take what I believe to be a balanced and sensible view.Initial calls by some anglers (and clubs) to put in place a blanketban, was I feel a knee jerk reaction, which wasn’t logical. Stoppingangling on rural farmland, where sheep and cattle are about is ofcourse, the right thing to do. I don’t think anyone can argue withthat. But to ban angling on a lake smack bang in the centre of anurban area defies logic.

As the number of waters available for fishing has graduallyincreased I made a visit recently to a small lake in Worcestershire.It had opened up again just that week. Imagine my surprise as I drovedown the track to the lake to see the surrounding fields full ofsheep. With Worcestershire being one of the areas affected byF&M, I felt really guilty as I made my way down to the water.But, I thought to myself, I don’t make the rules. I’ll abide by them100%, but if the powers that be deem that the water should re-open,then I won’t argue with them. However, I didn’t go back to thatparticular venue.

But what the F&M situation has meant is that although I’vebeen able to get out, most of the waters I’ve fished recently havenot been by choice, but simply because they were open. However, thatchanged just in the last couple of weeks. There is a small lake inSouth Staffordshire that I fished in 1999, called the Island Pool.Affected by the restrictions, this water too, was closed, but openedup again recently.

I’ve now taken out a ticket to fish the water for the rest of theyear. For now, I’m in carp mode and will continue till September. Ofcourse, depending on what happens come June, I will also mix thatwith some sort of river campaign. I’ll write more about the IslandPool in a couple of weeks time and let you know how I’m getting on.

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated my 39th. What better way to dothat than out at the water’s edge. I had an all-nighter, whichunfortunately saw a drop in temperature to minus two. Still, one canalways look on the bright side of things, and at least I wasn’t wokenup every five minutes by the buzzer going off. What I’m trying to sayis that I blanked…..

Regular readers of this column will recall at the end of last yearI was involved in the setting up of the Black Country Specimen Group.What happened is that we attracted interest from around the country,whereby only two of us were actually from the Black Country – Paul’Brummie’ Williams and myself. Other members came from Derbyshire,Hampshire, Leicestershire and Northants. There was also a common thread – we were all linked via the Internet. Thus BCSG re-invented itself and became the Specialist Web Angler’s Group (SWAG).

This is not a recruitment drive, by the way. It was decided tokeep the group to about 15 members, and that’s where we are at themoment. We have a monthly fish-in, the first couple were definitelyaffected by the ‘Curse of Sedge’….. In other words, nobody caught.However, our recent fish-in at the end of April produced some nicefish.

Eight of us (plus one guest) made our way down into deepestSuffolk to spend a couple of days or so after some specimen fish.Only two group members obliged, but what fish they were. Bream of 11.3, 10.12, 9.2 and 8.10 as well as tench of 7.6 and 6.8 were thefish that graced the nets of SWAG members.

Yours truly did his usual blank (along with 6 others, so I didn’tfeel alone). Still it was a nice venue to fish, actually the firsttime I’ve fished in the county of Suffolk. Driving there I was reallysurprised to discover that there were hardly any tractors on theroad. Suffolk folk actually have cars not carts. But forgive mysurprise, after all, Ipswich Town fans do call themselves ‘TheTractor Boys’…..Which must be true, as a football chant directedtowards them goes ‘You can’t read and you can’t write…but you candrive a tractor’…..

I’m enjoying writing Pilgrim’s Progress each week. What startedout as a monthly column, from July 2000, became twice monthly,finally hitting your screen on a weekly basis from November lastyear. In fact I’ve been really surprised to find I’ve embarked on anew found ‘career’ as an angling ‘writer’. As well as FishingmagicI’ve also been writing for a number of other mediums. And enjoyingevery moment of it too, as well. If you can’t be fishing, the nextbest thing is to be writing about it…

But what has bemused me most is being recognised on car parksalongside rivers and pools. ‘I know who you are…you’re Sedge’….’Irecognise that face…you’re the one who writes Pilgrim’sProgress’….I kid you not, it has happened to me on a couple ofoccasions now. At this rate it will be autographs next…Still, it’sbetter than what happened to me on another forum where someonethought I used to be an Alton Towers bear…That really made megrizzly…

It’s nice to see the union of FISHINGmagic and Coarse Fishermanand to realise that there needn’t be friction between the Internetand the printed word. I personally enjoy both mediums ofcommunication. In this month’s CF, I enjoyed Graham Marsden’s articleon bream, particularly as it was the venue at which we had our recentSWAG fish-in, previously referred to in this article.

I tell you the truth, the photograph of the whisky bottle (I’mreferring to Graham’s article in CF) was not a set up. It’s all true.On our recent fish-in, there was that much scotch being poured, itwas like living next door to a distillery. Although I was fiftymetres away, I was tipsy just breathing in the air…One of the worstculprits was Gary Knowles. Still it gave me an opportunity forrevenge, as I ‘owed him one’ (but I won’t mention why….). Waking upat 5.00 am I made my way to his bivvie to find him well and truly inthe land of nod. Shaking him, I shouted ‘Gary, you awake?’….I havenever seen anyone jump so much, he literally flew out of his sleepingbag and was on his feet in a split second. It was funny watchingGary, still not sure of where he was yet, standing there mumbling tohimself. I chuckled to myself as I made my way back to my bivvie. Allsquare now, Gary?

Well, I could go on, but I’ll stop here. This week’s PP, ‘Bits AndPieces’ has been a bit of a ramble, a trip around the Wrekin, as theysay in my neck of the woods.

Next Thursday in ‘Surprise,Surprise…Expect The Unexpected’, I want to share about some of thesurprises, both pleasant and otherwise, that I’ve encountered in myfishing.