Tiddenfoot Pit

[Scott]

Nothing to add to this thread but it makes fascinating reading, thanks fellas!

[Mark]

Nothing to add to this thread but it makes fascinating reading, thanks fellas!

Thats what I thought Scott.

[Gurn]

Some photos of how Tiddenfoot looks now....

[Gurn]

...and here the wonderful Rackley Hills..











When I first started fishing here it was a working sand pit..The banks were sand and the water, orange!
Isn't Mother Nature wonderful.

[Shaun Harrison]

Lovely to see those again Gurn, thanks for sharing.

I have some of the late great Vic Gillings's R.I.P. video work from Rackley from around 1987'ish, which follows some bits he shot of us both catching catfish at Claydon.

[Olly]

Vic did enjoy his predator fishing - saw him at Thorpe Park a few times!

[Mark]

Looks a lovely place.

[Julian]

This is a really interesting post for me, with great stories and photos, as I am also fairly local to this area - and was a member of LBAC back in the 1970's - fished the Middle Lake At Claydon quite a few times, and Rackley Hills and Tiddenfoot but only on one occasion at each.
Just to point out that Wing is on the main 'A' road between Leighton Buzzard and Aylesbury, so Fred's recollection of the location re the UFO siting would be correct.

[Sandgroper]

Hi Sandgroper,

Here's a link to a article I wrote on the history of Catfish in Britain.

John Bailey contacted me after I had written it and it was then reproduced in one of the 2 chapters I wrote for him in his 'Fish of the Summer Stillwaters' book.

viewtopic.php?f=207&t=19331

Hi Shaun,

Thanks for your interesting piece, I am trying to reply to it, but my pieces keep vanishing. I will try again tomorrow.

Hi Shaun, thanks for that, it made good and interesting reading. I did write quite a long reply to it the other day but for some reason it didn't appear on the thread and I had trouble with it kept getting garbled.. I think my server was having troubles last week.


I believe Kevin Maddocks did or does own Withy (Maylins) Pool and I believe that it is rumoured that the lake holds a very big catfish though where it came from I haven't a clue. I am quite sure that there were no cats in the water when I was fishing it in the late '50s and early '60s.

ever caught in Britain there. Eventually I lost interest in the Shoulder of Mutton and went to Linden Lake instead where I could catch a bag of tench almost every time I went there. That is the only water where I have caught tench of only four or five inches in length.

Those days were interesting and exciting, a number of us were doing interesting things, Chuck Nunn and I were catching barbel in the Great Ouse at Hemmingford Grey by design and were the first anglers to catch barbel there despite Colin Charman's claims to have been the first. In actual fact, he never caught one there until about two years after Dick Walker did a centre page spread of Chuck and I catching them. Its sad when people you regard as friends try to steal your credit from achievements especially as it was Chuck and I who introduced him to the fishery.

I never managed to catch a wels even though I had one of the first fishing tickets when they started issuing them at Woburn Abbey. A good number of us tried for them in the Shoulder of Mutton lake though I don't know how many caught any of them. I do know that Dave Cheshire caught the second biggest zander ever caught in Britain

Your talk of the cats in Marsworth was of especial interest as I tried to target them my self in the early '60s. I used to fish along side the bank furthest from the canal and I would cast with one bait very close to the reeds, and one a little way from them. Sadly I was never successful. I was also interested in the small cats Maddocks and Baldock caught in the '80s which proved that some cats were still breeding there. When I had a holiday trip to the UK in 2004 Bernard Double told me that there had been a small one caught in Marsworth a few weeks earlier.

Was the Bob Baldock you mention the guy who committed suicide on the river bank near Milton Keynes? I had a bit of a history with the Baldock I mention that involved a lawyer and the police.

With the experiences Trev Kilby and I had at Lavendon Mill when we hooked some huge fish at night when fishing for bream, it wouldn't surprise me if one day someone pulls a big cat out of the Ouse. I was sure they were responsible for surprises Trevor and I had and I know of one cat that was caught at Harold a little down stream of Lavendon and there were no barbel in the Ouse in that area at that time.

I have heard that Tring Reservoirs are very low at the moment and if they stay that way until the beginning of the season (if there is still a season there) I wouldn't be a bit surprised if one of the group produces something that will surprise us all.

[Sandgroper]

Julian, thanks for the correction, I was confusing Winslow with Wing. Call it a senior moment!