42 | 9 JULY anglersmail.com
Back in Time
with Matt Sparkes
The Mail’s
historian looks
at what made
the news on
this day.40 YEARS
AG O TODAY
Catches of the week
St. Leonards, East Sussex,
angler Bryan Turner, 42, set a
new Clive Vale AC record with
a 3 lb roach from Hurst Haven,
on the Pevensey Levels, on fl oat
fi shed bread fl ake.
Merseyside angler Lynne
Westwood had to enlist the
help of her fi ancé, Dave Guest,
when she hooked a 20 lb-plus
carp on single maggot, a size 18
hook and 4 lb line. After playing
the Church Street Canal fi sh for
over fi ve minutes, she handed
the rod to Dave, who got it in.
Barnsley fl y fi sherman
Jim Fielding travelled to
Hampshire’s Avington Fishery
and caught a 15 lb 8 oz rainbow
trout. After spotting the huge
specimen in the clear water,
he cast a leaded
marabou-bodied nymph 3 ft
from its nose, and three
minutes later fi shery manager
Roy Ward was weighing it.
Plymouth’s David Matchett’s
caught three mullet of up to 3 lb
2 oz on his 18th birthday, from
a local breakwater, all on fl oat
fi shed bread fl ake.
20 YEARS
AG O TODAY
A work of art
This week’s front cover of the
Mail featured a fantastic photo
of renowned angling artist
Chris Turnbull with a plump
tench of 8 lb 14 oz. Chris, one
of the key men behind the
Norfolk Anglers Conservation
Association, fi shed their
Bawburgh Lakes using a feeder
with red maggots on a size 14
hook to 6 lb line.30 YEARS
AG O TODAY
Big bream
worth the wait
Patience paid off for
Hertfordshire specialist Andrew
Nellist, as he landed a superb
11 lb 8 oz bream after enduring
a 150-hour blank on his local
Tring Reservoir.
Searching for Britain’s
cheapest maggots
Mail reporter Thomas Petch set
out to discover the cheapest
and most expensive pints
(maggots, not beer) in the
country. Typically, £2 a pint,
Petchy found a tackle shop
in Warwickshire, Allen’s of
Kingsbury, selling them for
just a quid. They had taken the
decision to slash their prices at
the end of 1998, and the move
had paid off handsomely, as
they were selling more bait and
tackle than ever before.
Co-owner Gillian Allen said:
“Nobody makes money out
of maggots, so we don’t mind
breaking even on them. Werecently had to spend £10,000
on a bait room, so we’d have to
be charging £4 or £5 a pint to
make money.”
The award for the most
expensive grubs were
Mag-Its, available from vending
machines. An innovation of
the late ’80s, there were 70
24-hour bait dispensers, from
Yorkshire to Kent, but the £2
cartons held just over half a
pint of maggots, reckoned
Daniel Brydon, of Tom Boulton
Tackle, in Norwich, Norfolk.
“They’re among the worst
I’ve seen,” he said, “but there’s
a place for them, because on
Sunday mornings there aren’t
many shops open. It’s just a
shame about the quality.”anglers’ constant headache of
bait shortages. He had scoured
the globe for suitable baits, and
carried out successful tests on
a range of weird sea creatures.
Included in his
exotic bait menu were
18 in.-long Giant Worms, Sweet
White crabs, soft crabs,
6-in.-long and 3-in.-wide fl at
worms, and a large, tropical
insect called the sea fl ea, whichBruce was certain would make
a cracking whiting bait.Man about town
Readers wanting to look as hip
as super-cool Richard Howard
needed to look no further than
the offer for stylish Angler’s
Mail t-shirts, sweatshirts (a
bargain at just £8.50) and
baseball caps, in grey with an
embroidered Angler’s Mail logo.Andrew, 24, from Tring,
hooked the specimen at 40
yards on a paternostered
cocktail of maggots and bread
fl ake over a carpet of hemp,
casters and mashed bread.Hooked on
sea creatures
Essex bait dealer Bruce Silcock
was trying to come up with
the answer to the British sea