I have fished around West and North Yorkshire in ponds, canals, rivers and reservoirs for a short 27 years. It seems a lifetime to me. But if I think about it, it isn’t been a long time at all. Sadly I stopped going fishing from 2018 because I didn’t have a job and I wasn’t going out much due to trying not to spend anything.
I remember the first time I went fishing. It was on the west coast of Scotland when I was 8 years old in 1992.
I can vaguely remember the first time I mentioned fishing to my dad.
I was meeting my dad outside his work place with my mum, and a friend of his came out and told me my dad used to go fishing and from that day I pestered him to take me fishing. My parents finally gave in and they found a spot on the Scottish West Coast where we’d never been before. (We had holidays at Ardnamurchan when I was a wee baby/toddler previously. Not that I remember anything about it).
I remember fishing in a sea loch off some rocks. My dad took a worm, or limpet, and attached one to my hook and he cast a float out far. He set the rod down on the rocks. After a while I picked the rod up and I said “I think I have something on”. He replied “It’s only weed”. I kept reeling in and mum said he might have a fish on. I reeled in more and I did have a fish on the end. It was a saithe or pollack. After that day I wanted to go fishing when we got back home in Yorkshire.
We joined Bingley Angling Club. We were with the club for some time and had some great times fishing together. Sadly I couldn’t take the fish off, so when I hooked a fish, he had to stop fishing and come and take the fish off. After a year or so I caught my first barbel. I used worm and caster (could have been cheese, unsure) on ledger on the River Wharfe at Boston Spa, near Tadcaster. We cast our rods in the run-off below a weirpool. Such a nice looking river. I remember leaving my rod, to get a drink or something. I was walking back to my seat and saw the rod tip moving. I moved swiftly over the dodgy ground below, (We were on the edge of the water with a very small island of long grass and it wasn’t great to walk on). I lifted the rod and striked. I had something on. The fish pulled and pulled. It ran this way and that way up river and down river. My arm ached. It felt it was a good fish. It was a good 5 minute or longer fight. When the fish neared the end of his fight, the fish broke the surface and it was my first ever barbel. The fish weighed 7lb 6oz. and was as long as my arm. I also caught a good chub weighing 6.5 - 7lb on the same day. We had some great days fishing there and a little further downstream of the weirpool in a deep stretch dropping a worm on float tackle just in front of our rod tips to the bottom of the river bed and catching big 2lb+ perch.
As the years went by, we decided to join a new club for its brown trout fishing and more course fishing, the club was Bradford No1 AA and stopped with Bingley Angling Club.
It wasn’t until the early 2000s that I managed to unhook fish. It was in our usual holiday spot in Scotland. I decided to go fishing with spinner on my own. I caught a fish and when I grabbed the fish and was trying to take the hook out of its mouth, I was shaking all over. I don’t know why I shaked, I just did….I bet my dad was thankful that he no longer had to take the hook out of every fish I landed.
As mentioned above we found a spot on the Scottish West Coast. We’ve been going on holiday here for 29 years just for a week each time. We love the peace and quiet the 16 acre estate has to offer. The estate is split into two. The first is where the chalets and cottages are, and the other is static caravans. Both sides of the estate has a no-through road so the road is quiet on each side. We have only stayed in the chalets and cottages. The area is surrounded by wildlife; otters, ospreys, the majestic golden eagle, red squirrel, badger, fox, great-spotted woodpecker, owl, pine martin, shag, seal, the odd dolphin and white-tailed sea eagle, together with smaller birds that are there all year round, and some visiting migratories. There’s also 3 species of deer; red, roe and sika. The fishing isn’t too bad although there were times when we didn’t catch anything in a week.
For the most part, we stay chalet (all self catering; other times we stay in a cottage close by) and is only a stone throw away from the water, which is a tidal burn, or small river. The burn is approximately just 3 miles long and can come in spate quickly and run off quickly. It has a good head of sea trout for most part of the year, with thick-lipped mullet and the occasional salmon. There’s also some brown trout too a little further upstream but still within the tidal range. Years ago we fished the brown trout on float and worm and sometimes ledger. A few pieces of lead shot on the line is all that was needed. Sadly as the years went on, an oil spill occurred some ways up the burn, and the brownies dissappeared. Only until early this year my dad caught a few.
About 10 years on from starting going there we see two families starting to stay on the estate who live somwhere below Yorkshire, maybe in the Midlands. I once saw one of the fathers fly fishing. I went down to the river and see what he was up to. He handed me his fly rod for me to have a go while he went to a cottage just 300 yards away. I remember I produced a tangle by the time he came back to his fly rod. From that day I wanted to take up fly fishing. So my dad bought 2 fly rod sets and we started fishing. We got hooked on the sport. And then I wanted to start tying our own flies, and to this day we still tie them. I started tying salmon flies and have sold them to local anglers, but stopped. My father had an online shop, but he had to give up due to unfortunate circumstances in 2016, but still ties them for an ex-fly casting instructor, (who will not be named for privacy).
In all the years we’ve been fishing there we’ve never caught the large sea trout, nor landed any salmon. We’ve heard big splashes which were presumably salmon. I’ve personally seen an 8lb-ish salmon casually swim upstream on the rivers’ surface showing its dorsal ignoring my spinner I threw at it. We’ve heard of the many stories the owner has had seeing salmon and sea trout running in the burn. I can only imagine catching the larger fish. I still hope to this day I’ll catch them.
I’ll never forget the time I was on a jetty in the tidal area of the burn, and seeing a shoal, of say, 4lb sea trout swim by in the clear water. Good to know there’s actually some big trout in there. Beautiful creatures and still have visions of them swimming by!!
Night time fishing for sea trout is said to be best, but with a tidal burn and difficult ground with holes and 2 ditches to gobble you up, it’s near impossible to fish the good part of the burn.
We’ve fished a freshwater loch higher up in the hills along the normal b-road. It’s a nice loch with only brown trout. We’ve had our fair share of good fish under 2lb. But we hear there’s 2 lochs on the other side of the road, a good 20 minute walk from the road which is supposed to be good for fly fishing. We’ve only fished it a couple of times, and now that my dad cannot walk that far, I doubt we’ll fish it now….. I’ll have to try and fish it myself when I get a chance. Maybe next year? Maybe. Who knows.
Because we took up fly fishing, we joined a new club because there wasn’t much fly water with Bradford No1 AA. We decided to join Bradford City AA. My father was with the club in his early years.
In 2022 I am starting to fish again but this time I’ll be doing something I haven’t done before. Keep a look out on my future blog post.
Sadly none of my early fish can be shown because my father sorted and scanned photographs we had out after 2016 and put them on compact disc and didn’t scan my 7lb chub and barbel or any other fish I caught. I was more than highly annoyed.