My Life
I arrived on this Earth back in 1950, another Baby Boomer, believe it or not on the first day of the river fishing season so you could say I was born to fish!
My dad was a fisherman and he set me on the road where I became hugely influenced like many others by Mr. Crabtree.
Caught my first barbel from the River Lea back in 1963 and have been hooked ever since!
Read all the books by Stoney, Dick Walker and Fred J. Taylor, used to get them from the library in Tottenham, always ended up paying the fine for keeping them out too long!
One of my fondest moments in fishing was when Peter Stone came along to the Barbel Society formation meeting where he agreed to become our President. When he sadly passed away I was heavily involved in putting together the BS Tribute booklet for Peter and I am extremely proud of that.
Grew up in North London then moved out to Essex in the late sixties where I stayed for forty odd years until I recently moved to the Welsh Marches.
I now enjoy taking people out for barbel fishing adventures and writing articles for the angling media.
Married with three daughters. My eldest lives in Sydney Australia and has established a thriving business and I like to get over there as often as I can. The middle one is an Insurance Broker and lives in Essex and my youngest is a lawyer living and working in Central London. I am intensely proud of them all.
Apart from fishing I enjoy music, going to concerts and festivals, totally into Bruce Springsteen!
Will hopefully be enjoying a lot more gardening and walking over the hills in the beautiful part of the country where I’m now fortunate enough to live.
Have had many memorable fishing days, the day we actually formed the Barbel Society will always live in my memory as will the time I caught a huge Severn barbel while fishing with Fred Crouch back in the early nineties. At the time amidst all the excitement and confusion we thought the record had gone!
When we regained our composure we realised it hadn’t but it was mighty close.
Being presented with an engraved cut glass goblet at the BS conference from the members and handed to me by Fred will always be a cherished memory as will be the time I was privileged to reciprocate just a short while ago.
Achievements?
I suppose it would have to be the success of the Barbel Society that has given so many people so much pleasure not only from the fishing point of view but all the friendships that have been forged.
Fishing wise, twice capturing the second biggest Severn barbel with different fish. A good few thousand barbel have come my way with numerous doubles from a number of rivers. Before the Barbel Society appeared I was an active member of the Barbel Catchers Club where I was awarded the biggest fish trophy back in 1993.
I was also a member of the Association of Barbel Enthusiasts, that’s where I came across Fred Crouch who has been a great friend ever since.
On a personal note, managing to maintain a life balance where family always comes first.
For the future I just want to enjoy my fishing, my friends, my family and see the Barbel Society flourish and prosper so that the next generation can gain as much pleasure from it as I and many others have.
All the best and good fishing.
