The good old days...

[Charlton]

Thats some fishing Alan...

cheers Davy, thought the old git had better stop there.

[jordy]

Love hearing about the fishing from years ago.I`ve got some sea angler mags from the early eighties somewhere,few articles in about up here.Few articles on the blast beach with jim dobie and a few with alec harvey too.Will try and dig them out.

[Davyred]

cheers Davy, thought the old git had better stop there.

I love hearing the stories. The two blokes who I used to fish the opens with in the early 80's used to tell me of the stories of Holy Loch and the Kilmun jetty. Sadly, when we went up not long after, it had already been fished out years earlier.

Love hearing about the fishing from years ago.I`ve got some sea angler mags from the early eighties somewhere,few articles in about up here.Few articles on the blast beach with jim dobie and a few with alec harvey too.Will try and dig them out.

That'd be great Jordy.

Jim Dobie taught me a hell of a lot just through watching him. He was the one who got me going up to Kirkcudbright for the summer opens. I fished next to him in the Isle of man during a match in 84, and he was just full of great advice - top bloke.

[Charlton]

I love hearing the stories. The two blokes who I used to fish the opens with in the early 80's used to tell me of the stories of Holy Loch and the Kilmun jetty. Sadly, when we went up not long after, it had already been fished out years earlier.

her's one for you, the whole family go to my wifes cousins at Xmas for a right clarty tea party, got home around nine, absolutely bloated, thought need some fresh air, picked up a single tub of mussel and headed for West Bay, eaterly wind had just dropped and a good sea running, a lad was already there fishing the back hole, he had nought so went to the front hole, dropped a mussel bait in, bang, next cast bang, with eight fish in the bag I was scractching around on the ground for bits of mussel i had dropped, the next two fish took the smallest bits of mussel you can imagine on a hook, all fish 3-7lb, how many I would have got if I had bait i don't know.

Holy Lock, brings back memories loads of big cod, big coalies at the Rhu, was up there a few years ago in the caravan, not an angler in sight, spoke to the guy in the tackle shop, had been trawelled out years ago.

[josum]

i remember the weights alan, john summerbell 8 for 33lb 8oz
george dixon 13 for 22lb +
alan charlton 4 for 21lb +
len mcgregor 5 for 21lb
it was a winter of good average size fish , lots of doubles landed that year but failed to get one myself. just another " old git " remembering how it used to be.
john

[johnf]

You might be "old Gits" ( don't know who used that phrase first, I preffer "enlightened" ) but you lads definatley have seen the best fishing and have the best catch stories. About 10 years ago I worked with a fella in his 70's who lived & fished in Tynemouth his whole life, had some great stories, fish of over 20'lbs quite common. "Pillen" crab for bait. He wrote some of his marks down for me, including a shot at King Eddies named after a ship that went aground. Sure he was a Tynemouth club member,I'll try & remember his name.

[Charlton]

i remember the weights alan, john summerbell 8 for 33lb 8oz
george dixon 13 for 22lb +
alan charlton 4 for 21lb +
len mcgregor 5 for 21lb
it was a winter of good average size fish , lots of doubles landed that year but failed to get one myself. just another " old git " remembering how it used to be.
john

remeber you swearing at me when I beat you for the heaviest fish, don't things like this bring back memories, shall i tell everybody the tale of you and your brother Alan fishing in the harbour, not getting a bite, when I came down and pulled seven out. Believe you had the biggest jar of fresh mussell I had ever seen, and I had a couple of tubs of frozen. Na better not.

[Davyred]

remeber you swearing at me when I beat you for the heaviest fish, don't things like this bring back memories, shall i tell everybody the tale of you and your brother Alan fishing in the harbour, not getting a bite, when I came down and pulled seven out. Believe you had the biggest jar of fresh mussell I had ever seen, and I had a couple of tubs of frozen. Na better not.

[josum]

happy days alan, bib and brace waterproofs,thigh waders, scarborough reels and skinned knuckles. but we did get some rather large bags of fish back then, even tyne mouth pier fished in daylight.did i mention the time you got the runs while wearing a one piece thermal suit.i think you were on stoney at the time.
john

[Charlton]

happy days alan, bib and brace waterproofs,thigh waders, scarborough reels and skinned knuckles. but we did get some rather large bags of fish back then, even tyne mouth pier fished in daylight.did i mention the time you got the runs while wearing a one piece thermal suit.i think you were on stoney at the time.
john

it was on the rocks behind the Barge Bottom, there was a convenient gulley i could squat over just in time I may add, and just as I squated a nice big wave came, no need to wipe backside, it had a good wash, remeber it well, now you remind me. Still got a canny bag of fish though. Scarborugh reels my little right hand finger is still bent where i put it through a hole in the reel and it came to a sudden stop on the reel fitting, when I stumbled while casting. Remember the looks on the anglers faces back at the weigh in when I showed them the white of the bone. Those where the days, blood, sweat and loads of fish. And those bib and brace oilskins, could hardly move in them when it was cold, kept you dry though.

[Charlton]

You might be "old Gits" ( don't know who used that phrase first, I preffer "enlightened" ) but you lads definatley have seen the best fishing and have the best catch stories. About 10 years ago I worked with a fella in his 70's who lived & fished in Tynemouth his whole life, had some great stories, fish of over 20'lbs quite common. "Pillen" crab for bait. He wrote some of his marks down for me, including a shot at King Eddies named after a ship that went aground. Sure he was a Tynemouth club member,I'll try & remember his name.

John it was me, and I was referring to myself, thats before Bob Lydon used the terminology.

[sam harris]

Good Old Days

I'm an even older "Git" than Alan.
During the War (1939-45 not the Crimean) I lived at Tynemouth and we used to crawl through the barbed wire that was all along the sea front in those days, ignoring the 'keep out - mines' signs, to get down on to Sharpness Point, the Oxfauld, Castle Rocks etc. It wasn't a case of "will we catch fish here" it was more a case of "how many shall we take". Remember this was in the days of food rationing and very little trawling. I would say the average size of fish that we caught was between 6 lb and 10 lb. on mussell and limpet.
I was a founder member of Borough of Tynemouth Angling Club in the late
40's and we used to meet at the Wooden Dolly Pub on North Shields Fish Quay until we went 'up market' and took a room in the North Shields YMCA. At the beginning of the 1950's the Club acquired an old 26 ft open lifeboat. Three or four of us were elected as 'skippers' to take club members out each week. Now this craft had a habit of breaking down on a regular basis and one of the 'skippers' Gordon White (sadly no longer with us) had the most evil temper you could wish to see and one Sunday, fishing close inshore off Tynemouth, the engine broke down for the fourth time that day. Gordon went berzerk and, using everything we could get our hands on, we paddled ashore, landing on the beach next to the bathing pool skeer. We left it there and walked off in disgust. Now, in those days, we didn't have the posh, fancy floatation suits that we have nowadays. It was anything you could get your hands on to keep you warm and dry. This happened to be in the middle of summer and there were lots of people on the beach - and we got some very strange looks. (I forgot mention, by the way, that this was at the time of the Hungarian Uprising when lots of these people were coming over here.) The following night the headline on the Evening Chronicle screamed out "Hungarian Refugees seen landing on Tynemouth Beach. Police are appealing for information and witnesses on this incident" !!! We all, very sheepishly, went into North Shields police station and gave ourselves up. As far as I know - and care - that damned boat is still buried under the sand at Tynemouth, as we didn't bother going back for it.
Chairman of the Tynemouth Club at the time was Ernie Wood, Secretary was Laurie Robinson and Treasurer was Charlie Martin. Happy Days !!!
I have lots of other memories from that period - if anyone would like to hear them.
Tight Lines
Sam Harris

[Davyred]

I have lots of other memories from that period - if anyone would like to hear them.
Tight Lines
Sam Harris

Keep them coming Sam....

[roncoe]

love to hear you old memories Sam, keep posting

[Stores]

it was on the rocks behind the Barge Bottom, there was a convenient gulley i could squat over just in time I may add, and just as I squated a nice big wave came, no need to wipe backside, it had a good wash, remeber it well, now you remind me. Still got a canny bag of fish though. Scarborugh reels my little right hand finger is still bent where i put it through a hole in the reel and it came to a sudden stop on the reel fitting, when I stumbled while casting. Remember the looks on the anglers faces back at the weigh in when I showed them the white of the bone. Those where the days, blood, sweat and loads of fish. And those bib and brace oilskins, could hardly move in them when it was cold, kept you dry though.

I've kept my bib and braces from the 70's - Christ they were cold, no pockets, nothing. The bib, in the garage, can stand up on its own it's that stiff. No-one could have got one off if they went overboard or got washed in (not that many of the previous generations could swim). My old man talked of sneaking through the sea defences during WW2 to supplement the food shortage. Bigest risk was not blanking but being shot at by the local Home Guard.