Dad's Dawns and Dusks

[Graham Marsden]

This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Dad's Dawns and Dusks

 

[Graham Whatmore]

A very evocative piece of writing and it brought back memories of my Dad, now long gone, and fishing on quiet early mornings when I was a nipper, when that tingle of excitement was running though my body, that expectancy of monsters of the deep somehow attaching themselves to my hook which sadly they never did. Certainly those memories are tinged with regret because I no longer have a Dad but they are happy memories and reading that has brought it all back - yet again.

Great article.

I shall retreat out of sight and have a bit of a weep

 

[Peter Jacobs]

What a great article.

Evocative writings of; 5 foot solid glass rods, Intrepid Black Prince Reels, cork and balsa floats and Wicker Baskets, intertwined with those fabulous photographs.

T'was good to see the now unfashionable woolly bobble hat as well Gary, but didn't those forceps hurt being attached to your chest?

Like you my first fish was a Roach, about 4 inches long and a little 'stunted' but that fish set me on a path that has lasted for the past 50 years, and I would still rather fish for Roach than any other species.

So, my own memories are very similar, except that my male parental unit was never interested in my fishing.

 

[Cliff Hatton]

Lovely, Gary. You write on behalf of so many, I'm sure, and I bet you felt the same as me the day you got your first Mitchell. I have in a display cabinet a small number of old Intrepids and boy...do they look antiquated! My dad was using an Intrepid De-Luxe at the time I used an Intrepid Standard and I was SO jealous of him! And do you, as a boy, remember the advert for Mitchell reels which boasted that Captain so n so had been using his Mitchell 300 for 25 years without a hitch? Do you recall thinking 'Wow! Fantastic!'. Well, I'm still regularly using my 300s FORTY years on!
More of your recollections would be mucho appreciado, Gary.

 

[Mark Wintle]

I'd love to know how you kept a wicker basket going so long; I bought one in 1973, in 1976 it was very slack in the heatwave as it had dried out so I used it as a bait tray by sinking it in the river. Lifted out 5 hours later and the bottom dropped out.

 

[Gary Cullum]

Dads Dawn and Dusks

Thanks chaps for taking time and trouble to comment - very kind comments. There are plenty more offerings to FM already logged in Geoff‘s ‘editorial for consideration database‘ and several more on the way, complete with decent imagery which i think adds so much to an article.
The wicker basket - well, since the early seventies Mark I have tried not to eat too many pies..ha, seriously, my basket, which was seriously secondhand when it was gifted to me, has loosened and become somewhat wobbly on several occasions. You did the right thing by dunking it Mark as they do dry out - given your bottom fell out, so to speak, perhaps yours was completely dehydrated by then! Every so often, of a summer month, mine goes on holiday for a day and swims for 24 hours in my garden water butt. Then it is left (not in the heat of the day) to dry and that returns it to ‘new’ . It is starting to go a little wonky, but hey, I’m 50 also and my body is also starting to fray a little round the edges!
Good memories about Mitchells Cliff - I vaguely remember the ad you are talking about, that, the writings of **** Walker, and seeing a Mitchell in the tackle shop window inspired me to get an assistant’s job with our doorstep Milkman when I was seven or eight years old. No legislation then preventing an enthusiastic nipper earning a few bob. Boy was I chuffed, when a few years later, I worked every day with Adam the milko, and also delivered bread and eggs, and glass bottled orange juice..and earned a lovely crisp brown ten bob note. Wow... come on down Mr Mitchell 300!
Graham/Peter - pleased I have brought back a few memories. Good ol’ days, eh... and with an ebay name of Roachtench, you can probably work out my favourite species. Tight lines, Gary

 

[Skoda]

Smashing, nostalgic article Gary. Like Peter my Dad wasn’t interested in fishing, nor any of my family. I went with a few mates to the Wharfe, eventually caught a six inch rainbow trout on a couple of maggots, after two blank sessions. Sadly my vintage tackle was stolen for our garage in the late 1970s, I had to renew the lot with the insurance.
Many thanks for the trip down memory lane, keep ‘em coming.

Andy

 

[slime monster]

Brilliant Gary ,yes I smelt that net and my last wicker basket suffered a similar fate to Marks.

 

[Gary Cullum]

Dads Dawns and Dusks

The sky at night, and dawning. Out of interest, pictures used by the editor, from top, are of freezing fog at dawn; 1974 fisher boy (my grandmother made the bobble hat Peter - a lovely sweet Geordie, she died last year aged 102); yesteryear tackle still doing the business, sunrise over Fred J’s Wootton Lakes; Colne sunset, dawn over Bucks estate lake; sunset Herts Colne; terriffic time for tench (note the bubblers); sunrise over Cransley Reservoir, Northants; Wootton dawn; glorious sunset over the lower Itchen signalling the end of another grayling day; Buckinghamshire sunrise; eight pounder at season’s very last knockings, 7.30 pm on March 14

 

[barbeldave]

Great article Gary, takes all of us 50+ anglers back to the time when you had to learn how to fish for tiddlers first. I recognized Cransley and Nursling straight away and you know how I feel about both of those fabulous places. My fishing started on Weymouth pier with my Dad and then to Portland Bill, Chesil beach and Clevedon pier. Many fine days I spent with my dad way back then and I well remember him buying me a 10ft solid glass pier rod (Modern Arms Dover?) and a Penn Sea Boy 85M multiplier reel. It weighed more than I did !!!

I never gave up with them though and they served me well for several years whilst we were on holiday in Weymouth. When I took up freshwater angling my dad would walk to where we were fishing with a bag of sandwiches. If we were night fishing he would bring a flask of tea as well and I was never so happy to see him after a cold night on the lake with 'uncatchable' carp ...

 

[Gary Cullum]

Dads Dawns and Dusks

It’s satisfying to evoke so many of our childhood and youthful memories - I remember the Cransley day so well. You caught (I didn’t say landed) more tench that day than anyone else I have ever fished with.