LOCKDOWN OLD FISHING PHOTOS CHALLENGE

As we have a bit of time on are hands at the moment  I thought we could put some early photos of our early years , when we was a lot younger. They don't really have to be pike related any fishing will do, I will start it off ..... think I was in my early twenty's tench fishing.... wax jackets were all the rage then ........ . these photos are quite old so the quality  is trueprint quality ........

J
Here's one of mine. My first ever pike, 7lb . I used to fish next to my dads work on the Bristol Avon most days of my school holidays and one day my dad told me one of his workmates had offered to take me pike fishing at a local weir pool . I remember the anticipation and excitement leading up to that trip.I was 12 and this fish changed everything for me.
At that time I was into junior match fishing and doing well at it but at the age of 16 the time came too chose whether to continue with the match fishing by moving up to youth level or put my time into piking which I had been enjoying. Despite the offer to join one of the best youth teams in the area there was only going to be one outcome!

its very pleasing to look back once in a while to see why we all got into this fishing
you look made up with that fish matt .....your first is the biggest in my book...
keep them coming .....

from the age of about 10 or 11..... I was out down the local canal or the farm pond catching roach and perch with my school mate David
we used to sneak out his dads fishing tackle and stay out hours at a time ,
if its wasn't a rod in my hand ...it would be a ferret and a dog in the other , think I took after my granddad he too was a keen poacher and fisherman ....talking of match fishing this is me receiving some trophy's at the annual presentation night .....did ok at the match fishing but i would prefer sitting it out for a big fish .........on a lake somewhere on my own.....

I found match fishing frustrating when you looked forward to it all week then drew a bad peg. At least with piking you can choose where you fish.i did have a knack of putting together a few fish on tough days and that ability won me the knock out shield in this pic twice. I must have been around 15 in this pic

How do you make photos smaller please Stubbo?

mattjb wrote:How do you make photos smaller please Stubbo?

matt , when you find the pic you want look at the size choice... click on the small arrow to reduce this starts at 1024px down to 320px
I have all my pics stored on my pc , but sometimes I have to take a photo of my old pics then put them on my computer them load up
then change the size if needed......hope this makes sense matt

Cheers, I'll give that a go next time.

stubbo wrote:

mattjb wrote:How do you make photos smaller please Stubbo?

matt , when you find the pic you want look at the size choice... click on the small arrow to reduce  this starts at 1024px down to 320px
I have all my pics stored on my pc , but sometimes I have to take a photo of my old pics then put them on my computer them load up
then change the size if needed......hope this makes sense  matt

I used to fish a lot on the Bridgewater canal you could always get a good mixed bag on the waggler.......but the boats were a pain , just as you got the swim on fire....

I've just done it for you on my computer Matt :-)

I thought that's bloody strange, it's made itself smaller! Cheers Adie

adie1200 wrote:I've just done it for you on my computer Matt :-)

mattjb wrote:I thought that's bloody strange, it's made itself smaller! Cheers Adie

adie1200 wrote:I've just done it for you on my computer Matt :-)

No problem mate

adie1200 wrote:

mattjb wrote:I thought that's bloody strange, it's made itself smaller! Cheers Adie

adie1200 wrote:I've just done it for you on my computer Matt :-)

 No problem mate

come on adie lets have some photos of you when you were a nipper , that's if cameras were around then mind......

Cheeky sod lol i was born old
I will have a look when I get chance our lass is keeping me busy with her being at home due to this bloody lock down Wont have many as my x wife binned most of our photos when we split up with most of my fishing photos in

adie1200 wrote:  Cheeky sod lol i was born old  
I will have a look when I get chance our lass is keeping me busy with her being at home due to this bloody lock down  Wont have many as my x wife binned most of our photos when we split up with most of my fishing photos in

bet you looked angelic adie.........

probably early 80,s

Here's one of my first ever 20 at 20lb 2oz. Taken in 1992
I was 21 and had started travelling a bit further to a large res and putting in more time.
It came at dusk when I was stood right next to the rods willing a drop off to drop off!
The black eye came from breaking up a scrap my mate was having in a club the night before. I was pulling him away and he drew back his arm to throw a punch and elbowed me in the eye! As this knocked his aim off he missed and punched the other blokes mate who was also pulling him away! The two fighting ended up uninjured.

having travelled like yourself looking for my first twenty , the lakes were visited on a weekly basis for what seemed a life time , had loads of fish but that twenty eluded me , came very close 18lb 19lb 12 oz and lots of doubles , fished them all  Windermere , Grasmere ,derwent thurlmere, Coniston , all good waters in there day......but ended up catching my first twenty on the Bridgewater canal.....  about 15 minutes from home.
my mate had a 27lb fish the week before , so I went back and had a lovely marked fish just a tad over 20lb on a dead roach think I was about 28 or 29 years old by then...this fish actually got into the angling press as a monster pike , would not say it was a monster but I was well chuffed with my first 20lb fish.....actually I think I remember 20lb 2oz ...same as yours matt.....

stubbo wrote:having travelled like yourself looking for my first twenty , the lakes were visited on a weekly basis for what seemed a life time , had loads of fish but that twenty eluded me , came very close 18lb 19lb 12 oz and lots of doubles , fished them all  Windermere , Grasmere ,derwent thurlmere, Coniston , all good waters in there day......but ended up catching my first twenty on the Bridgewater canal.....  about 15 minutes from home.
my mate had a 27lb fish the week before , so I went back and had a lovely marked fish just a tad over 20lb on a dead roach think I was about 28 or 29 years old by then...this fish actually got into the angling press as a monster pike , would not say it was a monster but I was well chuffed with my first 20lb fish.....actually I think I remember 20lb 2oz ...same as yours matt.....

Nice one. The first 20 is memorable milestone in a pikers piking career,one you always remember.

I'm This fish came from the same res as my first 20.Me and a mate had been fishing it a lot since the 20 and I'd had a few more 20s to 22+. I was now 27 and it was 1998.
We'd had a spell of cold easterlies and the weather had turned mild. There were a load of roach trapped in a nearby tower and temptation was too much! Popped up legered lives were sent out in our newly acquired bait boat. After a quiet morning I had a run and struck into a good fish.A fairly drab fight in the cold water resulted in a fat 29.02 being soon netted. I'd blown my pb away.I was over the moon and was thinking that pb will take some beating.An hour or so later I had another run and wound down into another big fish. Another fairly unspectacular fight and a fish of 33.12 was in the net. I was totally blown away.
I lost another big fish soon after when the hooks pulled.We kept those fish quiet for around 10 years, it was too risky to our fishing to do otherwise.
After the event when things settled down, I lost my drive a bit when it came to piking. I thought I had a pb that I couldn't possibly beat.My mojo soon returned and little did I know that over those hills in the background that in the future I would catch two pike that would be in a different league.

well done on your first 30 lb fish stunning fat fish and it looks a nice location
will try and find my first 30 photo

on visiting this water for the very first time , I struck lucky on a very shallow peg , had a 27lb fish followed by the 30lb half an hour later , but not sure which is which pike on the photos as they both looked similar  in size , rubbish photo anyway , I continued to fish this water for a few seasons and did very well , having had 3.... 20lb fish in one day , something  I have never repeated , had 2x, 20lb on a few sessions....like everything nothing lasts forever and the place got invaded with numtys and poachers killing most of the big fish...... had my biggest brace of pike on here  27lb  31lb.......  but this was back in 2001.......

stubbo wrote: on visiting this water for the very first time , I struck lucky on a very shallow peg , had a 27lb fish followed by the 30lb half an hour later , but not sure which is which pike on the photos as they both looked similar  in size , rubbish photo anyway , I continued to fish this water for a few seasons and did very well , having had 3.... 20lb fish in one day , something  I have never repeated , had 2x, 20lb on a few sessions....like everything nothing lasts forever and the place got invaded with numtys  and poachers killing most of the big fish...... had my biggest brace of pike on here  27lb  31lb.......  but this was back in 2001.......

Looks a chunky fish that one.Funnily enough the season after I had the 33/29 brace I had 3 20s in a day from the same swim and have never repeated that either.Days like that rare!

mattjb wrote:

stubbo wrote: on visiting this water for the very first time , I struck lucky on a very shallow peg , had a 27lb fish followed by the 30lb half an hour later , but not sure which is which pike on the photos as they both looked similar  in size , rubbish photo anyway , I continued to fish this water for a few seasons and did very well , having had 3.... 20lb fish in one day , something  I have never repeated , had 2x, 20lb on a few sessions....like everything nothing lasts forever and the place got invaded with numtys  and poachers killing most of the big fish...... had my biggest brace of pike on here  27lb  31lb.......  but this was back in 2001.......

Looks a chunky fish that one.Funnily enough the season after I had the 33/29 brace I had 3 20s in a day from the same swim and have never repeated that either.Days like that rare!

I am just glad I fished this water when I did , as the water has never got back to were it was, before I started fishing it there were reports of a 39lb fish which was sadly long gone when I was on there .......

That's the key for big fish in piking, being on waters at the peak of their cycle. Usually more luck than judgement! The water I had mine from had produced some good fish way before I fished it then went downhill. Luckily when I started fishing it it was on the way back up. 20s are pretty rare from there nowadays. I still do a couple of days a year on there for old times sake.