My Story – Fred Bonney

FRED BONNEY

FM regular Fred Bonney is the latest member to ‘bare all’ and tell his story.

Fred has lived in several areas of the country in the past 40-odd years but now seems to be settled in the Lincolnshire Wolds.

Fred Bonney

Fred loves his river fishing for chub and barbel, particularly on the tidal Trent. He has a soft spot for tench too, but like all keen anglers he wouldn’t turn his nose up at any species – except bream that is!

My Story – Fred Bonney

FOR ME, WITH NO MENTOR or family member to take me fishing, what got me into fishing from a very young age was my inbuilt lust for the countryside and all that was in it.

My dad was a glazier by trade and an electrician by qualification. He wasn’t your typical house window type glazier (although he could do that and we did keep him busy!) he was more of a big London storefront window glazier. Up on the brewery roofs, replacing their glass, were his daily load.

He was on Charlton Athletic’s books as a goalkeeper before enlistment, and the war put a stop to all that. He was a good all-round cricketer as well, which stayed with him almost throughout his whole life. Well, he still played into his early 70’s! He had no spare time, or inclination for fishing, but he never discouraged me. In fact, from time to time, he would buy me a little item of tackle, nothing major, just bits.

I was 1 year and 2 months old when my brother Bill came into this world and the opportunity to be re-housed, out of the smoke, to the new London County Council, which were housing estates being built in the countryside. One of these was offered to my parents. The choice apparently was Crawley, Sussex or Harold Hill, Essex. Much to my mum’s disgust, as I learned later in life, we moved to Essex, despite my dad, having been evacuated to his family in Sussex, and being enlisted into The Royal Sussex Regiment. He chose easy access to London, and the transport system available to us. He also never owned a car until the early 60’s.

Anyway, two extra brothers and a sister later, and a mum tied to the house, we started to roam on our own, me at around ten years old, with two brothers in tow. My dad now was working for Romford Borough Council five and half days a week and playing cricket for Gidea Park & Romford at Gallows Corner, every Saturday afternoon.

Just over from the cul-de-sac we lived in, behind the houses on our main road, were acres of open field. Not farmer’s fields, just open meadows. Within these fields were two ponds, and a stream, the River Ing, bound the fields on one side. With the aid of Christmas present Observer books, we learnt all the flowers, all the birds, animals and water life of those fields.

So there we were, bird nesting, stream jumping and pond paddling. One of the ponds was almost a marshy dip but was full of great crested common and maybe Palmate newts, some of which very often ended up in a jam jar, to be taken home and shown to mum. The other pond, as well as common newts, was the home for loads of small perch, tench, crucian carp and stickleback.

This became my first experience of fishing, with literally the bamboo bean cane, cotton, and a bent pin for a hook. Fishing for newts at first, with just a worm tied to the thread and then, not catching the perch, because they didn’t hold on, the bent pin was attached.

This pond was decimated by the winter of 1963, the newt pond was flattened to make way for a new grammar school’s playing field, and the stream was culverted to make way for more housing in later years.

This was also where I met Michael Cuthbert, who was two years my elder and had a proper fishing rod and reel. For a short few years he became my friend on fishing expeditions to the pond and further afield. These other spots were always within biking or bus distance such as Romford, Dagenham, South Ockendon and Rainham. Park lakes, ponds or gravel pits were our targets, but no rivers.

I can’t quite remember how I got my first rod and reel but it was a fibreglass two-piece with a tin centre pin reel. I bought bait and bits in Everards, a bike shop in the newly built shopping centre, paid for from the proceeds of the paper round I had. I read all I could from the weekly angling papers that were available to me on my rounds, and the library of course. My only heroes were Mr Crabtree and Tom Williams.

The Anglers Handbook and me in slimmer days

To this day I still have a dog-eared copy of ‘The Angler’s Handbook, 3rd Impression, April 1962, “Especially written for SPRATT’S by a well known angling expert”. Spratt’s by the way, for the younger of you, were pet food manufacturers who had a line of groundbait called ‘Silver cloud’ as well as ‘Anglers Bait’ (a paste) and sealed packets of cooked hempseed.

At the age of 11, I moved up to the senior school and very soon became aware of a few more individuals, who had an interest in fishing. One of whom was my old friend Colin Adams, who became a constant fishing companion, until I got married and moved away from Harold Hill. We just seemed to drift apart after a few years. A Shame!

We fished for many years on all the local ponds and gravel pits, spreading our wings, as often as possible on London Transport, to trot the Thames at Hampton Court and Eastern National buses, to fish the Chelmer and Stour. We also did many a bike ride to the Roding.

There were not many monster fish landed and I can’t remember if we ever thought of catching records, just catching fish, learning techniques and presentation.

By this time, I had acquired a Dawson’s of Sheffield split cane and fibreglass three piece rod, plus an Intrepid Monarch fixed spool reel. This of course bought us results, but it wasn’t until our working lives started at 16, and Colin got a Company van, that we really started to stretch ourselves, moving from the Essex countryside, to holidays on the Dorset Stour and Hampshire Avon. Never straying further north than the gravel pits around Cambridge.

Winkton Avon, 1971

My equipment then was a Black Arrow float rod, a Mark IV carp rod, a Mitchell 300 and an Avon Royal Supreme. We always used plenty of hempseed and my mum didn’t seem to mind the smell when it was cooking. She always had an old stocking available for draining it off and for the transportation. Our main baits were hemp, gentles, worms and bread flake, with occasional added flavours, like aniseed. We targeted mostly roach and tench and on the trips to Hampshire and Dorset, better chub and the odd barbel. Well, just one for me in fact!

With no car available to me, and the dwindling visits from Colin, at the age of 23 I decided it was time to learn to drive. A car wasn’t needed up until this time as I was commuting to London and I didn’t have the money until then, and Colin was always available. Having got myself a new job and a cheap mortgage with Abbey National, things started to open up for me.

My first motor was a Cortina Mark II, second hand, red with a go faster white stripe down the side. It held all my tackle with ease. Then started my next phase of fishing. I never really ventured any further locally than the Shell Angling pits at Stanford le Hope, where I caught many a fine tench and equally fine roach. I missed the company of a fellow angler and so trips became occasional.

So I joined my first club, the Abbey National Angling Club. We used to have monthly trips to waters owned by Taywood Angling, to whom the club were affiliated, and fished their pit’s around the M4. It was on one of those trips that I landed a massive bream, it came in like a wet sack, I was so disappointed with it, I didn’t even bother to weigh it, and I have not purposely fished for them, or caught one anywhere near it’s size since.

First visit to Trent

During this time I did visit The Trent, at Holme Pierpoint, but apart from seeing the river from the M1, I had no experience of such a river. Anyway we had a match against other building societies, and I came 6th in my section with a chub of 1lb 4ozs! But I was not to return until many years later.

My other visits, apart from when THE BOSS, Pauline, fancied the idea of a picnic or a holiday, were on my own. I don’t think she has ever forgiven me for taking her on our honeymoon, to The Bull at Downton, and I complained about possible damage to my rods, as she fell over a stile, spraining her ankle in the process. Women!

She’s still putting up with me, after 40-odd years.

Then came a job relocation in 1983 to Milton Keynes with the Abbey. I remember telling my boss that the move would be no problem for me. I would have the chance to get back into fishing, with easy access to the Upper Ouse, the Grand Union Canal and many gravel pits. It was a good move for us, into a smashing area, north of the City. We were quickly accepted into the village and the darts team in the pub.

What happened? Well after six months I got a job offer I couldn’t refuse, back in London. I also took up two games a weekend cricket. No time for fishing! Well, there was after the occasional frustrating day commuting or in the office. I would pop down to the River Tove, which was close to my house, to fish for chub and roach in all weather conditions. Bliss. During this period, I continued reading all I could about fishing and started up my angling book collection. It was always my intention to get back into fishing and after all, I had all the time I needed to read whilst commuting from Milton Keynes to London every day.

Me dressed up and ready to go!

Fifteen years and three village clubs later I ended up becoming a club captain and chairman. I got fed up with petty village politics, ditched it all, and reviewed my fishing tackle.

I still had everything stored in the garage, but decided to supplement my tackle with a Mitchell 410, a Blue Diamond light bomb rod, and waggler rods. The Black Arrow is retained in storage to this day, the Mitchell 300 and the Royal Supreme, to my big regret, sold on eBay.

I took up a Membership at MKAA and my fishing started again. The Upper Ouse and MK’s other waters were my targets. I also started fishing with three mates from the pub dart’s team. Many visit around the country, but never north of Leicester, other than on our way to Holyhead, for our Ireland trips.

It was soon apparent to me that my waggler rod was not suitable for fishing the Ouse in flood. So I brought my MK IV out of retirement, and coupled with the 410, soon found I could handle the conditions and keep hold of the very good chub inhabiting this river. I also had some experiences of being broken up, by big fish, which later I put down to barbel. Not what I first thought, carp. Once again, the MK IV was abandoned, eBayed, and replaced by a 1.25 Leeda Specialist. Another regret…

My 52nd birthday came, and I took retirement on the closure of the C&A empire, my job for 18 years. More fishing time! I fished Adams Mill for the last two winters, before it was syndicated. In the meantime FishingMagic came into my life, it must have been some time in mid-2001, as the computer was a leaving gift. My dreamtime experiences of The Mill can be found on the site so I won’t bore you by relating them again.

From then on, and as a result of FM, I started to meet more anglers, the first of whom was Paul Thompson (Tommo) an enthusiastic carp angler. At that time he was living in Luton. We had a few trips together on the Ouse, and at Furzton. He moved to Hereford but we’re still in touch.

I also attended my first ‘Fish-in’, at Clattercote, and met many of the people still contributing to this site. I made it to two more of the same Fish-ins, and fished an intersite match for FM and therefore I’ve met a few more.

In late 2002, we decided to change our lives; Pauline took a voluntary redundancy offer from Parcel Force. We downsized and moved to the Lincolnshire Wolds, in the middle of a snowstorm, in January 2003. It wasn’t our intention to move so far north. We nearly bought a house near Spalding, but this location is almost perfect for a countryside lover like me. I say almost. The River Bain, although rising in my village, is not fishable until a 45-minute drive away, and the Trent is an hour away.

Through this site I then met up with Ron Clay, who met me for my first experience of the tidal Trent at Sutton, prior to the Barbel Society taking it on. A major experience for me, as I had not fished a tidal river since my days on the Thames in the 60’s.This was an entirely different river though. With his advice, on the day, I was to take my first Trent barbel, of about 4lb.

I disappointed Ron a bit, because, I didn’t bring any gear for a night session. He obviously was ready for one though. A case of lack of communication between us I think!

My next move was to join the Barbel Society, primarily to fish Sutton on Trent. I’ve met many new friends as a result of this, some of whom I meet and fish with regularly on the middle Trent. They occasionally have a dabble on FM too.

My most recent friend, as a result of FM, is John Ledger, who took me along to the Idle for a reintroduction to trotting and who I have since fished with on the middle Trent a couple of times. One of a number of Yorkshiremen I am pleased to be acquainted with since my move up north.

So, there you have it, a potted history of me and my angling over 40-odd years. Plenty of places and plenty of new friends met. I’ve never been one to keep records of fish sizes, or personal bests, apart from tench, chub and barbel, my three favourite fish. In fact, I have only kept a fishing journal, since last season. I do aim to have a good go at some roach fishing from this autumn onwards, and of course with luck, make a few more angling friends.