A long association with angling brings home to you just how impermanent above average fishing is a
t any particular venue.
For example, in the 1930s, quite a lot of big roach, including a record fish, were being landed at Hornsea Mere in East Yorkshire.
And when this amazingly good roach sport declined in the 1950s, pike fishing became good.
Pike weighing under ten pounds were the exception and those that I landed averaged over 14lbs apiece with more than a few 20-pounders.
Then the pike sport declined, though I am informed that it is recovering now.
When I first fished for barbel, the Royalty Fishery on the Hampshire Avon was the place to go and it is still a good spot. Barbel much bigger than the old record are now being caught regularly from many venues that did not hold barbel before. The river Trent is well to the fore in this respect although one short section of a river further south is capable of producing plenty of enormous barbel in these last few years.
After the upsurge of interest in carp fishing in recent years and the abundance of venues, the position at the moment is one of worry because of the spread of disease among carp stocks.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, chub in the river Trent were so numerous and widespread that it was almost unheard of not to catch a few chub from almost any swim on the river. Now it is big chub, rather than numbers, that are making the headlines.
Some years ago, perch were almost wiped out by disease on several fisheries but now these are common place again.
And the fishery that most excited me in my younger days was called Slapton Ley in South Devon. Here catches of really huge rudd afforded outstanding sport, though sadly a great decline in later times ruined all that.
The lesson to learn from these changes is that when venues that you are able to reach undergoes a period of above average sport then make sure that you fish there long and hard, for it will not last for ever. Nothing does.
