The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I never knew that there was a tackle shop on Clarence Street. That's the street in York where I was born, and we moved from there in about 1963 to Dringhouses, when I was a toddler. But I bet my dad was a regular customer as that shop would have been literally on his doorstep. The house where I was born is now, apparently the York Conservative Club. One of my earliest memories is my dad holding me up to the upstairs window to watch people walking by in heavy rain with their brollies up. Most of the street was pulled down, so dad told me years ago, that's possibly when the tackle shop closed. And my mum worked in the nearby Ebor cafe. In those days my dad fished the Ouse near Leaman Road. He told me that he mainly fished for roach, and would sometimes get broken by barbel, even rods, which is why he didn't really miss cane when glass fibre and carbon rods evolved.

George Hills shop was a bit further up the road on the other side from the conservative club , opposite what was then I think a cinema , then Reghams motorcycles , the building was subsequently demolished and a vet surgery currently occupies the site . Yes Leeman road was a popular fishing spot , at the end of Marygate near the railway Bridge was a swim called the '' bomb hole'' a deep depression in the river bed left by an WW2 bomb explosion , this harboured lots of fish and was the go too swim

You have got me going now! The Cinema in question was the Grand which closed in 1958 , if you are interested just google '' Lost Cinemas of York ''apparently it was converted in to a skating rink

I think my parents were living in Workington in 1958, so the cinema would not have been there when they were. My brother use to fish Leeman Road for pike and caught several up to nearly twenty pounds.