What helps us get hooked – and get better!

CAST your mind back to how you started fishing – what or who drew you into it? And what or who made you the better angler you are now?

Never mind catching – it took me several attempts to catch my first fish! I was six though, and the chance of any Thames fish (it was a tough river then) taking a bit of bread dangled in the edge on a big hook to thick line was… highly unlikely.

Therein lies one key point; who took you fishing – my family were all non-anglers – makes such a difference.

For me in the mid 1970s, commercial pools had not been created, fishing wasn’t on TV, and there was no internet stuffed with ‘how tos’ and videos.

Even today, having someone to show you the basics is a huge shortcut.

I’ve just seen a brilliant new feature by Mail columnist Colin Davidson, interviewing Julian Cundiff, a carp angler who has been on the seen throughout its massive modern growth. You’ll get to read this fascinating feature in the 50^th anniversary issue of Angler’s Mail, in shops from Tuesday, June 3.

It shines through how this is a guy generous in helping others throughout his own angling life. Just a few seconds of his time, Julian points out, can make a big difference to someone.

Little things he did helped Colin on his way. And Col also learned via the Mail’s original Carp World with Andy Little – a slot Col now fills himself, brilliantly, each week.

Inbetween delving through 50 years’ of Angler’s Mail issue binders this week, I’ve recalled what got me hooked – and what I suspect may ring bells with your own angling development.

5 things that may have got you into fishing too…

I think that Denton Zoomer ended up in a far bank tree… it cast a bit too well!

The glorious gift of gear! I bet presents helped your angling development. For me, it all started with a bamboo cane with some crude line, what could just about be called a float and a hook. But how grateful I am now to the kid whose mum bought it for my birthday in 1975! A rod with rings and reel bought by grandma on Green Shield Stamps (pre-Argos, anyone remember ‘em?!) And my mum’s boss buying me a Denton Zoomer float when he heard I couldn’t cast far! These gifts and more helped me along.

Winning a prize – it’s amazing what the sniff of success does to a youngster’s confidence. Even today we get middle-aged Mail competition winners say how chuffed they are… ‘the first thing I’ve ever won!’ I still store my hooks in a leather reel case I won from another fishing publication when I was at junior school. At that time, the prize not only gave me unexpected youthful pride, it made me feel part of something bigger.

Like a generation of anglers, I learned a lot and have fond memories of the old Go Fishing series. It makes a special return in the next two issues of Angler’s Mail magazine!

Absorbing info from media – for me and thousands of Mail readers it was hand-me-down fishing print publications which opened up a window on the world. Buying the Mail and other mags myself as a teenager, I learned through Go Fishing cartoon strips with Dave Coster, Andy Little’s Carp World, and the old Helpline (now All The Answers).

Mixing with the right people – the people you meet in life help make you who you are, and in angling snippets of info get filed away. So much of my early development was via insight gleaned off friends. Then it was from fishing club buddies, chance encounters on the bank, and – most of all – in a tackle shop where I helped out. Yes you can learn lots via today’s media, but hearing it off people face-to-face, locally, can often feel more essential.

Parental support – maybe this should be No.1, and my list is in no special order. Could I have such great fishing memories without the lifts in the car off my dad? The days before I could swim when the old man (non-angler) would sit there with me! The buying me (some) of the gear I so wanted at Christmas or birthday?

AM LIKES OF THE WEEK

CATFISH. Read all about the best places to catch them in this week’s AM magazine Where To Fish This Weekend bonus special. All the waters revealed are fishable on day tickets too.

EELS. There’s great news at last in the efforts to get this wriggler back to our waters, and indeed the whole of Europe. Read the story in Angler’s Mail – we ree-ly take you to the wriggling heart of the matter! I know many anglers hate catching eels, but a big one is not only very old, it’s a survivor, a real battler – and a catch I hope anglers of the future will also have a chance of catching.

AM DISLIKE OF THE WEEK

ALIEN SILVER CARP. I know, I know… catfish are not native species, and have spread. Carp – mirrors and commons – have reached saturation levels, stocking wise, if you are not a fan of them too! But do we want a plague of silver carp in our river systems, getting there from lakes, and pushing out native species? No. Read what the EA are doing about this potential problem – the story is exclusively in Angler’s Mail magazine.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Steve Collett is in the latest issue of Angler’s Mail magazine with an impressive 6-page tench fishing feature. Click below to watch Steve showing his maggot feeder, aka The Hedgehog. Be sure to read the big feature in the magazine!

GET THIS WEEK’S ISSUE! Angler’s Mail magazine is in shops from Tuesday and available too for iPad etc – do not miss this week’s issue!