A close season working party at Redmire
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2017 4:45 pm
I went to Redmire Pool just the once, it was Saturday May 1980 and I drove down for the weekend to attend a close season working party. Tom Mintram had said I could come along and help out. I’d met Tom a few times via Chris Yates and he had arranged for me to help out on the working party. I got on well with Tom and so that weekend I drove down to meet Chris and Tom at Redmire Pool.
I was 20 years old and a bit overwhelmed in in the company of some much older and experienced carp anglers. Chris Seeger, Ritchie McDonald, Tom Mintram, Barry Mills, John Carver, Roy Tuckey, and some of the Norfolk lads whose names I will remember eventually. I guess it would have been all of the 1980-syndicate members plus a few potentials like me. I remember the weekend hazily but it was also significant because it was FA Cup Final weekend, and my football team Arsenal was hosting West Ham at Wembley stadium. I listened to it on the car radio and we lost 1-0 to a Trevor Brooking goal. I was devastated.
There was a lot of activity on the banks of Redmire that Saturday afternoon, with swim clearing and cutting back of branches, Ritchie was very active and I still have this picture in my head of him swinging from the branch of a tree. I knew Ritchie from fishing Longfield in Staines; he was a very entertaining character. There was also a bit of rivalry between him and Chris Seager, who was even more of an extrovert than Ritchie.
With all the commotion on the Saturday it wasn’t surprising that we didn’t see any carp. In the evening we went into Hay or Ross on Wye for a pub or Indian dinner. I honestly can’t remember which on both counts!
But a lot of ale was drunk and I had some great conversations with Barry Mills, Roy Tuckey and John Carver.
We slept overnight in bivvies by the lake, I shared with Chris Yates, I think we were pitched in Keffords. Sunday morning saw a more subdued Redmire as I think there were a lot of people with hangovers.
By mid morning some of the anglers had started to leave and soon after the weather which had been cloudy, broke and the sun came out. A few dark shapes soon appeared but the carp were still aware of the anglers and they soon disappeared.
We were amongst the last to leave later that afternoon, and I drove back to London thinking it would be nice to fish Redmire one day.
The week following the working party Chris told me that Tom Mintram had said as a reward for helping on the working party that weekend I could have a few days fishing there that season.
But funnily enough I never took that offer up!
A few weeks later Chris would catch the Bishop and I learnt of the capture by postcard that he sent me. The fish was caught on a hook that I gave him, a Mustad 4826, so I had a small part in its capture.
I was 20 years old and a bit overwhelmed in in the company of some much older and experienced carp anglers. Chris Seeger, Ritchie McDonald, Tom Mintram, Barry Mills, John Carver, Roy Tuckey, and some of the Norfolk lads whose names I will remember eventually. I guess it would have been all of the 1980-syndicate members plus a few potentials like me. I remember the weekend hazily but it was also significant because it was FA Cup Final weekend, and my football team Arsenal was hosting West Ham at Wembley stadium. I listened to it on the car radio and we lost 1-0 to a Trevor Brooking goal. I was devastated.
There was a lot of activity on the banks of Redmire that Saturday afternoon, with swim clearing and cutting back of branches, Ritchie was very active and I still have this picture in my head of him swinging from the branch of a tree. I knew Ritchie from fishing Longfield in Staines; he was a very entertaining character. There was also a bit of rivalry between him and Chris Seager, who was even more of an extrovert than Ritchie.
With all the commotion on the Saturday it wasn’t surprising that we didn’t see any carp. In the evening we went into Hay or Ross on Wye for a pub or Indian dinner. I honestly can’t remember which on both counts!
But a lot of ale was drunk and I had some great conversations with Barry Mills, Roy Tuckey and John Carver.
We slept overnight in bivvies by the lake, I shared with Chris Yates, I think we were pitched in Keffords. Sunday morning saw a more subdued Redmire as I think there were a lot of people with hangovers.
By mid morning some of the anglers had started to leave and soon after the weather which had been cloudy, broke and the sun came out. A few dark shapes soon appeared but the carp were still aware of the anglers and they soon disappeared.
We were amongst the last to leave later that afternoon, and I drove back to London thinking it would be nice to fish Redmire one day.
The week following the working party Chris told me that Tom Mintram had said as a reward for helping on the working party that weekend I could have a few days fishing there that season.
But funnily enough I never took that offer up!
A few weeks later Chris would catch the Bishop and I learnt of the capture by postcard that he sent me. The fish was caught on a hook that I gave him, a Mustad 4826, so I had a small part in its capture.
