The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

The humble maggot, a most traditional bait and if used singly on a mixed fishery is most likely to tempt a tiddler. So it came as quite a shock to my youthful self the first time I caught a 'specimen' sized fish on one. I think I was fifteen, certainly still a schoolboy in the holidays leading up to Xmas. The 'diehard' club members were holding a sweep stake on the park lake. The day was cold and dark and expectations were low. But I had an ace up my sleeve. I had fished almost every day that week and had discovered fish shoaled up in a very unexpected area of the lake generally considered to be a waste of time. I drew a peg with modest form. Brian, a northerner, schooled on the canals drew the the spot I wanted and immediately bemoaned his luck. He was quite bemused when I suggested we swap pegs! But he went along with it. With an hour to go I had about a pound of little roach and perch in the net, more than the rest of the field combined. Then my rudimentary homemade swing tip lifted positively and something much bigger lugged away at the top of the rather pokey spinning rod I had pressed into service. I got into a bit of a muddle in my panic, dropping the clutch knob of my old Intrepid Classic. A big spiny fin broke the surface and a monster perch dropped into the net to a big sigh of relief. Two pounds and four and a half ounces precisely. Cloud nine! And a few wry smiles amidst the hearty congratulations!

Nice one! It must have been New Year before your feet felt the ground beneath them again.

Excellent, a lovely tale!

Yes nice tale Iam hoping to catch one of them Monday mike

Yes Vole it was a brilliant Xmas present and a wonderful confidence booster for a budding match angler! In twenty five years I never bettered that perch on the park lake. I am reminded of another match caught perch on the lake. In the eighties we had a Chinese lad in the club, he had an uncanny knack for catching the unusual. He was sat on the next peg to me one winter and had fished for three hours with the same worm on the hook, dead, drained of colour and hanging in loops like a piece of soggy sphagetti. Unbelievably a pound and a half perch took it on the umpteenth cast to win the match!