Memories

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MGs
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Memories

Post by MGs »

Here goes. First post in the GU Canal section.

Unfortunately, I no longer have access to canals like those I fished as a youngster. I regularly fished the Grand Union, to the west of London. The Slough Arm, Cowley, Uxbridge and Denham sections being my favourites. The source or decent catches during the 70s. I and my friends often bagged up using hemp, tares and elderberries. Roach and rudd bags of 30-50lb were not unheard of in the summer, with fish up to about 1lb 8oz. There were also some nice shoals of bream, if you could hit on one. The Slough arm had a nice head of tench, which although small where a nice bonus to us lads. The stretch at Yiewsley was renowned for big carp, which were often seen cruising but rarely if ever caught, even by those spending ages hunting them.

Having returned to the area briefly a few years ago one thing was blindingly obvious. The huge increase in moored narrowboats. I spent a few days walking the towpath, looking at all of the hotspots we used to fish. Now sadly inaccessible due to moored boats. canals section.

Unfortunately, I no longer have access to canals like those I fished as a youngster. I regularly fished the Grand Union, to the west of London. The Slough Arm, Cowley, Uxbridge and Denham sections being my favourites. The source or decent catches during the 70s. I and my friends often bagged up using hemp, tares and elderberries. Roach and rudd bags of 30-50lb were not unheard of in the summer, with fish up to about 1lb 80z. There were also some nice shoals of bream, if you could hit on one. The Slough arm had a nice head of tench, which although small where a nice bonus to us lads. The stretch at Yiewsley was renowned for big carp, which were often seen cruising but rarely if ever caught, even by those spending ages hunting them.

Having returned to the area briefly a few years ago one thing was blindingly obvious. The huge increase in moored narrowboats. I spent a few days walking the towpath, looking at all of the hotspots we used to fish. Now sadly inaccessible due to moored boats.
Old car owners never die....they just rust away

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Loop Erimder
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Re: Memories

Post by Loop Erimder »

I'm seeing double
Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish

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MGs
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Re: Memories

Post by MGs »

Oh, cross posting. Don't you just hate it when that happens. Must learn to type quicker. 45wpm is obviously not quick enough
Old car owners never die....they just rust away

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DaveM
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Re: Memories

Post by DaveM »

Wow, so you are a closet cockney Loop! a few of my old stomping grounds you have there! I spent many, many years in love with the Grand Union and still love it. There is a certain buzz I get from catching what were and are prime fish from running a float through with the tow against brick walls, concrete bridges, iron plilngs and the like.

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Gord
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Re: Memories

Post by Gord »

i have nothing but gratitude for the g.u because it made me an angler not just a boy with a rod , it taught me to fish in the right manner ie with patience,observation and to think about what you were doing or you would find it hard going but over the years my catches increased as my stretch of canal gave up its secrets. unlike today if you learnt to fish on the cut you earned your fish as opposed to learning in an highly stocked carp lake maybe a sign of the times,every thing now. they are missing a lot
when you are going through hell just keep on going (winston churchill)

Bluedun

Re: Memories

Post by Bluedun »

I used to fish the Slough arm many years ago - 5am on a still canal in June. Plenty of small tench plus a couple of crucians. I also fished at Denham a couple of times - roach as far as I can remember.

Maggot's Dad

Re: Memories

Post by Maggot's Dad »

Hi all, :Hat:

...as you chaps know of the West Drayton end of the Slough "Cut", you must remember the "Piggery". If you could stomach the sickening stench when they were "cooking", it was an area renowned for the Carp and Tench.
In the years prior to the "cut" being cleared for the boats, it was the most gorgeous fishery full of Crucians, Tench, Carp, Roach, Bream and some monster Eels! Apart from a very narrow boat channel it was full of beautifull water lillies which lined both banks. I have some very fond memories of my days spent there. I often fished from the bank opposite the towpath which was accessed via the top part of Little Britain Lake. There were always plenty of quiet undisturbed swims amongst the pads to fish while sitting upon the nicely rabbit cropped grass between the brambles and bushes.
Proper boyhood memories .........

Having grown up in the area, I fished the GUC everywhere from "Ricky" to the Three Bridges at Southall (Windmill Lane), the Slough "Cut" (as already stated) and the Paddington branch from Bulls Bridge, Southall to as far as Alperton, West London.

The GUC always had plenty of "hot spots" and one of my favourites was exactly that.
In Southall there was a short arm which originally serviced the Quaker Oats factory in the days when it transported, by barge, it's raw products in and finished products out.
Even years after the barge transportations finished, when they were working and in production, they continued to pump warm water out into the "cut". I don't know what part of the production line it was from but the fish loved it and the water practically boiled with fish. There was no finesse involved, it was "a Roach a chuck". We often got well and truly smashed up by the Carp that would turn up to enjoy the warm waters.

I once spent two days with my Cousin Dick and a mate, Jake, dragging a small section of the "Cut" in Southall which was directly opposite Jake's house. We ended up with an enormous pile of rubbish on the towpath which the Council kindly cleared for us. It took three transit pick-up loads to clear.
Jake fed the area for a week with stale bread, courtesy of the Sunblest Bakery, whom his Mum worked for, then we fished it from dusk until about 2 am.
As the area we had targeted was between two streetlamps on the verge between the road and the towpath, we had plenty of light to work by. All three of us had more fish than I'd ever caught before or since and true to form, not one Carp did we beat, once they'd reached the sanctuary of and old bedstead or bike frame it was all over.

My first and only Catfish came from the "Cut".
I started night fishing a stretch near West Drayton which involved a trek down a filthy little lane, past a junkyard which was home to the biggest, baddest and filthiest "Rotty" that I've ever seen, over a tiny iron bridge, down through the bushes into the undergrowth alongside the bridge and onto the canal edge. I hasten to add that there were always two of us , myself and long gone Pal, Colin. It was not a very nice area and was only ever approached by us once it was dark. We fished from the opposite side to the towpath, so providing we were alert, we managed to avoid the unwanted attentions of any marauding locals, drunks, druggies and brickbats!
All setting up was done by a candle apiece in a jam jar and any talk was only ever in whispers. This way, once the candles were out we could hear the approach of anyone on the towpath long before they got to us. Even though the lane ended on "our side of the cut" in a small gravel area which was used by "The Railway", it got quite busy at times and was usually visited by courting (?) couples and the local Panda car team that stopped for a smoke.
We both used tiny Betalights which were only 1/4" long and totally useless beyond eight feet from the tip of the rod, this was ideal as it allowed us to lay-on in the half-hearted flow. Sometime in the early hours I had a bite which resulted in me unhooking the most peculiar feeling fish (?) I have ever handled and sliding it into the net.
We always started to "pack up" at 06:00 so as to avoid unwanted eyes from spying out our "secret swims" (which were cleared of any obstructions on the bottom and fed regularly with loaves of bread during lunchtimes) and also before the "living dead" crept from under their sheets of corrugated iron to wander the lonely towpaths once again, while searching for victims!
On this occasion, I lifted the net with Colin peering over my shoulder, only to see something resembling an 8" length of slippery, writhing, soft rubber hosepipe, writhing in the bottom of my net ...... Catfish..... one of the weirdest things I've ever hauled from the good old Grand Union Canal!

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AshbyCut
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Re: Memories

Post by AshbyCut »

A rivetting read, sir.
"Beside the water I discovered (or maybe rediscovered) the quiet. The sort of quiet that allows one to be woven into the tapestry of nature instead of merely standing next to it." Estaban.

Maggot's Dad

Re: Memories

Post by Maggot's Dad »

AshbyCut wrote:A rivetting read, sir.
"Evening AC", :Hat:

.....thank you, kind Sir.
Just a few of many thousands of happy hours spent in my younger days on the GUC.

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Gord
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Re: Memories

Post by Gord »

hi md the stretch i used to fish was from alperton to park royal did you ever fish the two willows near alperton bridge or a still better swim called the hole in the wall, all these memories take me back to a time you could jump on your bike and disappear for a day on a great fishing adventure it was at the time anyway since those days i have fished in russia,italy,france to name a few but i still think of those days on the cut
when you are going through hell just keep on going (winston churchill)

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