The World According to Wurzel

Despite the west country nickname, Wurzel, Paul Hiom was born on the banks of the River Thames at Chiswick in West London, but now resides in Swindon, Wiltshire.

Paul considers himself a half-serious specialist who has dabbled in most things fishing-related with varying degrees of success, but is in the main a pike and barbel man with personal bests of 24lb 8oz and 11lb10oz respectively.

Why Groups are Important

Unlike the last fairly poignant World According to Wurzel, this month I am going to exercise my fingers and waffle on about some things that effect my fishing in a more positive way.

I think I have mentioned in the past the importance to me of being a member of the FISHINGmagic web site and Mailing List. The reasons for this are quite simple: I have made some good friends in the time that I have been a regular on the site and it has been interesting to share my successes and failures with people who seem to have genuine interest in each others progress.

List members Dave Cooper (Cooperman) and Stewart Bloor (Sedge) are two anglers that I meet up with occasionally on my barbel sessions and I rate both very highly because they put a lot of thought into their fishing. List member Ray House is another very good angler who I have fished with and whom I have a lot of respect for. I have had some good times fishing with these people and have learnt a thing or two by comparing my own fishing with theirs and by talking through methods and tactics that have or have not worked for us.

Being a specialist who specifically targets barbel and pike, it would be rude for me not to mention the positive impact of being a member of the Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain and the Barbel Catchers Club.

I suppose I have fished seriously for pike for around seven years and joined the PAC in 1996 after attending Piking 96 at the UMIST in Manchester. Before joining the PAC, I had never caught a twenty pound pike. In fact, it took me until April 1997, when I caught my first twenty at 22lbs 8oz from a small Cotswold gravel pit. The best part of catching that fish was sharing the joy of that moment with other members in my region of the PAC. Three years on and I have managed a best fish of 24lbs 8oz, but I enjoy the capture of every pike I catch and I have had some cracking doubles in perfect condition which are equally memorable.

The PAC are structured into regions which are looked after by a Regional Organiser. The role of the organiser is to arrange monthly meetings, fish-ins and trips, social bashes and of course to pass on any relevant information regarding the work of the PAC and its committee. Being a member of the PAC has given me many happy times over the past four years. I cant remember a time when I’ve been more sober reflecting on the importance of the PAC, or in contrast, being so spectacularly pissed in the company of some of the members on the social bashes. The annual awards ceremony springs to mind, which is the biggest piss-take of the yearly piking calendar where each member of our region is presented with a home made award. These awards have to be seen to be believed and are a fitting reminder of either a crap season’s piking or something amusing that happened in the year. It was good to see that our Regional Organiser Malcolm Yates won the PAC RO of the year for his excellent job in arranging the Introduction to Pike Fishing day at Linear Fisheries, Oxford in April this year.

More recently I consider myself very fortunate to have been initiated into the Barbel Catchers Club. I have fished for barbel on and off since 1985, with varying degrees of success and can honestly say that joining the club last December was and is one of the highlights of my angling career. It takes a little more commitment being involved in a small dedicated specialist club, but that is exactly what being in the BCC is all about.

Being the longest established barbel club in the country, the club is steeped in tradition. However, the experience and the dedication of the membership ensure that the club remains at the forefront of developments within barbel fishing. If you are looking for a meal ticket to instant success with barbel or ways to inflate your ego, the Barbel Catchers are not for you.

This is a dedicated club with a strong social base where attitude and commitment is more important than having caught a string of doubles. Being a part of this team can be extremely rewarding if you are looking for more from your barbel fishing and if you are prepared to share your experience with likeminded anglers. Being steeped in tradition, you won’t be surprised to learn that such dedication often needs great sustenance and it should come as no surprise to learn that the Barbel Catchers have a similar liking for that great British tradition, Indian Food! All washed down with more than a few generous beers!

What I am trying to say in all of this, is that being a part of a specialist group or fishing club, large or small, can have major benefits to the enjoyment and understanding of your fishing. I know from conversations with other specialist anglers in other organisations, that my experiences are not restricted to the PAC or Barbel Catchers. If you have reached a stage in your fishing where you want to share and learn new ideas I strongly recommend that you join your region of one of the following:

The Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain
The Barbel Catchers Club
The Carp Society
The Lure Anglers Society
The British Eel Anglers Club
The Barbel Society
The Catfish Conservation Group
The Tenchfishers
The Perchfishers
The Grayling Society
The Zander Anglers Club

etc, etc, etc..

Whilst on the subject of worthwhile clubs, the ACA have had a good airing in the angling press of late and too bloody right! The time is very appropriate to consider joining the ACA as I believe that whilst great strides are being made, the continuing threat to our rivers as can be seen by recent disasters in the UK is evidence enough that the ACA needs as much help as it can. When you consider that there are supposed to be a million or so active anglers on the banks of our fisheries each year, it seems disproportionate that in the ACA’s annual report, the end of year membership was stated at only 15,205 anglers.

So come on people, send eleven quid to the ACA now. The ACA are critical not only to river angling and it’s your interests that they are looking after (and only since 1948), I might add.