Like a lot of men of my generation (I’m now 38) I first took an interest infishing as a young boy. I can’t remember exactly what got me hooked (punintended!) in the first place, for I didn’t have a fishing father, we didn’tlive near any water and I didn’t have any friends that fished – but hooked Iwas!
I think it’s true that the older one gets, the more nostalgic one becomes.Certainly, looking back, I have some fond memories of my childhood fishing.I can still remember the Mr Crabtree book that I owned and how reading itstirred up within me an unquenchable desire to go fishing. Some things neverchange!
I can remember my first rod; a stout wooden affair given to me byan uncle who in his earlier days was a keen fisherman, but like so many menwas forced to surrender the noble art with the onset of marriage! I canremember my very first fish, a gudgeon, from the Staffs / Worcs canal at aplace called the Bratch, near Wombourne in South Staffordshire. Whenever Idrive over the canal bridge at that spot I still go all ‘goose-bumpy’ andnostalgic.
There is one incident I recall very clearly from my boyhood days. I wasfishing the River Severn at Bridgnorth in Shropshire and found a dead pikein the margins. Fishing it out I promptly took it back home, very proud ofmy ‘catch’. I had a grandfather from the ‘old school’ who would literallyeat anything.
Now I’m afraid it’s confession time, I never let on the pike wasalready dead when I found it. My grandfather ate the pike. He’s now dead.But death did not occur until some fifteen years later, so I don’t carryguilt about the incident!
My pushbike soon gave way to a car and my fishing expanded in terms ofdistance. I was never really successful as a young fisherman, but I enjoyedit. I fell in love with the River Teme in Worcestershire, a love affair thatwas to re-surface later in life, as you will soon find out.
However, like many young men, my life began to change. A combination of work, etc, meant that fishing not just took a back seat but disappeared off thescene altogether. Thus began the barren years as far as fishing wasconcerned. A total of 14 years in the wilderness. However, even though Ihad let go of angling, somehow angling never let go of me. I found itimpossible to walk past a fisherman without becoming hypnotically mesmerised at the float in the water or the rod tip, willing the former to dip and the latter to pull round. A walk in the countryside invariably found memagnetically drawn to any water that existed, a sort of human diving stick!
During this time, I got married to Debby and the union produced two girls,Rebekah and Miriam. My career changed from the beginning when I worked in the plastics industry at leaving school to the late 80’s when I became anordained Minister. In 1992 I began a charitable organisation, Sedgley International Christian Ministries (SICM), which proved to be very successful. I soon found myself the full-time Director.
Am I digressing? Well not really, as all this led to my re-conversion(forgive the religious terminology!) to angling. Prior to working for SICMfull-time my life was extremely busy balancing family life, my role as aPastor within the Church and also employment in the furniture industry, asmy Church work was non-stipendiary. However, the new position brought a lotof freedom, now I was ‘my own boss’, so to speak.
SICM is involved in more than 30 nations of the world and my position has meant that I have travelled to many different parts of the globe. But unfortunately, as far as angling is concerned, I’ve only managed to cast a line in two other countries, lake fishing in South Africa for bass and fishing the River Prut in Moldova for anything that came along. However, as SICM is a non-profit making organisation, it means we don’t have the deadlines, competition and pressure that is found in the world of commerce, business and industry.
My decision to get back into angling was not of the ‘Damascus Road’ type ofexperience, more an inevitable draw. I kept promising my wife that ‘I’mgoing to take up fishing again’, and one day, I did just that. I went intothe local fishing tackle shop empty-handed and came back through the doorssome time later equipped for action. The ‘Stars In Their Eyes’transformation was complete. I was now an angler!
Armed with a BAA (Birmingham Angler’s Association) card, the world was my oyster. Well at least 200 miles ofriver, canal and pool anyway. But there was only one place I could headfor, the River Teme. Like a first love, the memory never fades, and now itwas time to re-kindle the passion.
Taking up angling again, it was definitely beneficial to have had theprevious experience as a youngster. But in many ways it was like startingall over again. My entry into the tackle shop on that memorable day in June1996 was bewildering. Expecting fibreglass rods, gudgeon-mesh keepnets,creels, etc, I was confronted with carbon-fibre 12 metre poles that literallyweighed ounces, a range of hi-tech hooks, floats, lines, etc. Yes, the ageof technology had reached the angling industry. However, there was still thegroup of ‘experts’ gathered around the counter, smoking, drinking tea andmaking you feel like an intruder for interrupting their conversation. Somethings never change.
All I wanted to do was catch fish, no matter how small, so on 19 June 1996,I headed for Eastham Bridge armed with a pint of maggots. That first castwas a feeling I will never forget. I felt like the Prodigal Son returninghome, I knew that I had reached my destiny. Forgive the way I write but thepassion for angling had truly got hold of me!
The evening I went home a very happy and contented man. What brought on that sense of deep satisfaction …. a 10lb barbel, 4lb chub or a 2lb roach?Actually, all I caught was a tiny bleak – but I had learned a secret that Istill hold to this day. It’s not about the size of fish you catch, oreven if you catch at all, it’s about the thrill of just being out there andenjoying every minute of it. It saddens me when I hear of matchmen who driveback home in disgust because they don’t draw the peg they want, or thespecimen anglers who try to shake off a 3lb chub at the net because it meanstheir average for the season will drop.
Anyway, that first fishing trip on 19 June led to further sessions on June 20,21, 22, 25, 27, 28, 29………. You could say my obsession was ‘instant’.Over the four years I’ve been fishing, there has been no slow-down either, Istill get out two or three times a week. When I’m at home that is.
The desire just to catch fish, no matter how small, gradually progressed toa stage where I wanted to aim for bigger fish. I soon began to developtargets, both for waters fished and for size of fish. There have been manymemorable fish. My first barbel of 8lb 8oz, which still remains a personal bestfor that species, a beautiful pike at 20lb 2oz – a real monster! But the fishthat have brought the most pleasure have not necessarily been the biggest.
Fishing a tiny spring-fed pool in the hills of Radnorshire I caught a browntrout at 3lb 5oz. This was a truly wild fish, not stocked and the water was notmanaged in any way. That same pool also produced fish of 2.8 and 1.8,all returned to fight another day. Last Winter I targeted the River Stour.Not the Dorset version, but the once polluted tiny tributary of the Severn,that runs through the Midlands. I ended up with ten chub over 1lb, thebiggest being 2.4. Hardly likely to make headline news in the anglingpress but from the river concerned they were excellent fish, even If I say somyself!
As I write this article four years have gone by since taking up angling.What I like about the sport is that you can aim for the top without puttinganyone else down. It’s not about being better than anyone else, it’s aboutgetting ultimate pleasure in what you do. There have been a number of bigfactors in my development as an angler, not least of which was joining thee-mail list established by Graham Marsden. It has been very influential. Myquest for knowledge on matters piscatorial parallels very much mytheological learnings – the more you know, the more you realise you don’t know much at all.
If you want to know more about my other passion in life please contact:
Sedgley International Christian Ministries
PO Box 1216,
Dudley,
DY3 1GW
Telephone: 01384 – 828033
e-mail: missionscentre@sicm.org
Director: Rev. Stewart R. Bloor
Direct e-mail: sbloor@sicm.org
Check out the SICM website at www.sicm.org
