Tring Resevoir's

[Sandgroper]

I never realised that Peter was fishing Tring in those days. In the early '60s we felt that the place for big bream was going to be Tiddenfoot Pit and we fished there every week day evening in the summer. Unfortunately we never succeeded there. In fact we never caught a bream of any size there. I am sure that they were present but we just never found them. Specimen bream in my experience were always one of the most difficult fish to catch even if you knew where they were. That day in 1976 was just a day on which everything went right for Rod Lane and I.

[Tengisgol]

Thanks for the reply Sandgroper, I was hoping that my Bream were those bream that you had caught 40yrs earlier but after searching the net i find that they live to just 20yrs

I know this comment was from some time ago but I've just noticed it.

I had a bream in 2005, from a bend on the Wensum, that weighed eleven pounds fourteen ounces. It had a paricular mark on its fin. Interestingly a friend of mine who has fished the river most of his life (that's probably 50+ fishing years) was able to identify that fish as first having been caught by him in the seventies at seven pounds and then caught again in the eighties and nineties when it topped out at eleven pounds ten. It had grown for probably up to twenty years but in fact was likely nearer forty years old when I caught it. Just like the longevity of Raspberry in Redmire demonstrated that carp stop growing but can live for much longer than first thought, the same is the case for bream.

[Sandgroper]

Tiddenfoot did produce big bream before the pollution. A Mr Fathers who lived around the corner from me caught one of over 10lb and I'm guessing now, about 1965-68. If I can find an old LB licence I will give you the proper facts. He had the club record and probably still does. I didn't start fishing Tiddenfoot till about 1970 after the pollution. The stories of how good it was before and the fact that Hilton, Walker etc had fished it, were talked about for another 10 years. I would have probably been playing down there in the sand dunes when you was fishing it. Do you remember the big piles of old leather that were on the canal bank side, We used to play amongst it as kids, they took it away in the 80's. You can still find small bits of it trodden into the mud, if you know where to look.

I cant remember Dick and FJT fishing Tiddenfoot pit though I guess that it might have been just after Peter Frost caught his carp in either 1959 or 1960 (I think) his first weighed 25lbs 8ozs and his second - a week later - weighed 31lbs. Peter and I were fishing the pit every evening in either 1961 or 1962. Jack Hilton was a friend of ours and he frequently fished there on the same evenings as Peter and I. Jack caught the first ten pounder I had ever seen one evening. One evening, when the three of us were there, I crept round to have a word with Jack and as we talked, he hooked what was obviously a huge carp. It was tremendously powerful and really working out the Walker MkIV Rod Jack was using. I picked up Jack's landing net and was conscious of the fact that Jack might be playing one of the biggest carp to be caught in England when suddenly, the fish found a snag and Jack's line fell slack. Both of us were devastated but big fish do get lost and nothing can be done about it. I was disappointed when Jack later said that Peter had put him in a swim that had a snag after Peter said there was nothing there. Peter honestly believed that the swim was snag free and he put Jack into a swim in which he believed Jack might hook a big carp. In my opinion Jack should have been grateful to Peter for advising him to fish a swim in which he was able to hook such a big fish.

Footnote. Pete's 25lb 8oz carp was caught on the opening day of the season in whichever year it was. The guy he was fishing with was the late David Cheshire who would have taken any photo's that exist of the fish. While FJT and Dick may have fished Tiddenfoot in 1961 or 1962 I am almost certain they did not fish there from that time onwards. I was in frequent contact with both of them from 1962 onwards and we shared information on where we were fishing and what we were catching. There was so much going on in the angling world at the time it was exciting. There were several trying new and productive things while others were talking a lot but doing nothing. I would think that Peter Frost is still in touch with some of the achievers who are still living, it would be good to hear what is happening amongst those guys today! There is one of them who I would very much like to contact if he is still living and that is Peter Grundle. If anyone knows anything about him, I would be most grateful for information on him.

[Sandgroper]

I really don't know if Pete Frost is alive or not. When I was last in the UK in 2004 he was very much alive and still fishing. He was still enjoying a pint or two as well as He joined a group of my old friends and I for a few beers at The Anglers Retreat. I didn't achieve as much as some of the other lads, but I take pride in the fact that I was the first person to intentionally catch barbel from the Great Ouse in 1963.

I enjoyed fishing with Pete though neither of us caught anything special when we were fishing together. As the years passed our paths diverged a bit and Peter fished a lot with the Herts Chilton group and my association with FJT and Dick became stronger. Of course after the Hilton/Walker spat I was in a situation in which I was locked into the Walker side of the spat. I really don't know exactly what happened in that - I do know the outcome - but there was a lot of anger and loyalties involved. To be honest, I couldn't have cared less about the Redmire side of things. New methods were obviously needed there if the carp were going to be caught, but when I went there with Dick and Fred I did not have the confidence to suggest that we should be trying new methods. Of course as soon as Hilton got into Redmire he did try new methods and he started catching carp there.