Fishing Diary: The Interview Series Part 1

Mike Lyddon

Age, Occupation?

48, Sales Rep and account manager for Gardner Tackle.

Earliest fishing memory?

Catching my first fish, a gudgeon from the Wey navigation in around 1976. I went with my older brother, dropped off by our parents and left on our own. Good times.

What tackle did you use?

Almost certainly a blue solid glass fibre Winfield rod, some thick curly nylon and I would think a float fished worm.

Did you get the bug there and then, did it take time to incubate or did you just think it was cool because your brother was into it?

I think it more or less started there. My dad never fished and although my granddad did, he was a fly fisherman and by the time I started fishing, his eyes were getting worse so had pretty much stopped. I used to go out a lot with my brother in our youth but as we got older he went more with his mates and I with my school friends. He then got into racing cars and I carried on. He still has the odd dabble on holiday but work and family commitments take up most of his time.

I just sort of bimbled and pleasure fished through my teens, then got into match fishing. I did that for a few years, winning a couple of minor leagues before a job change to working shifts put an end to that as I was working weekends. From there I went into full-on carping, fishing headbanger waters where you could easily go a year between bites (twenty-one months being my longest blank on one water). Eventually that began to lose its appeal and I migrated to specimen hunting which would be about ten years ago now.

Fishing wasn't your only pastime though was it?

Oh no, I had a good play at a few things. My main other hobbies though were martial arts and paintballing. I did both for many years, competing at both with varying degrees of success. I taught Taekwondo for a few years and worked on a paintball site for a few years too.

Your peers constantly roast you about the Drennan Cup, how did you become involved?

I think my first weekly award was for a 4lb 1oz crucian. I've only really had two attempts at winning it outright, placing fouth in 2015 and then third the year after. It wasn't really a conscious effort of chasing the cup, I was just very fortunate to have two exceptional years where I couldn't put a foot wrong.

Both years I caught fish early enough in the season that were big enough to win weekly awards, so I thought i would push a bit harder and managed to catch a couple more big fish both seasons. The biggest problem is that I am good friends with four previous winners so am constantly compared. I've never set out and said to myself- right, this year I will target it.

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Obviously I would love to win it one day, but the time and dedication to be on the ball all season chasing those special fish is just too knackering.

That a bit disingenuous, you once told me you had probably done 1000+ nights on your old bedchair?

Not in one year though!

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I probably average 80 - 100 nights per year, but the two Drennan seasons I reckon I did 140+.

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I think that's why these days I seem to be veering more and more towards the pleasure fishing side than outright specimen hunting, I get bored more quickly now when I'm blanking and want to actually catch something. I used to be able to do 2-3 weeks in one go in a swim without a bite, that would bore me senseless now.

Tell us about your experience with Weil's disease?

That would have been about twelve years ago now. I'm still not a hundred percent where I contracted it from as symptoms start to show anywhere between two and thirty days from infection. I suspect it was either doing a work party on a lake where I was in and out of the water most of the day and probably had cuts on my hands from doing the work or from helping my sister out in the barn on the farm she was living on. It took a while to be diagnosed as it isn't something they routinely check for. At the time I had been prescribed some new painkillers for my neck and I often react badly to painkillers so I initially thought I was just having a bad reaction. Then the flu like symptoms got worse and worse. At its worst I couldn't even stand up. I lost two and a half stone in a month as I couldn't eat or drink properly. As my body was busy trying to fight the disease it opened the door to all sorts of other stuff, so I also got glandular fever, hepatitis C and jaundice. Speaking to the doctors afterwards they said at one point they had me down as a less than fifteen percent chance of survival.

Crikey, thankfully it is still a rare disease but are there any precautions you take now to reduce the likelihood of contracting it again?

Not really, no. Just be very vigilant with any cuts you have when fishing and make sure everything is clean and unable to be contaminated by rodents. There is no cure for it, your system either beats it or it doesn't. As far as I know, nobody has ever survived it twice so if I get it again you can have my selection of perch hooks.

I've noticed you're always one of the first to delve into your pockets when your friends are doing something for charity. Are there any you're involved with personally?

My main one is 'Stoney and Friends', a charity set up by my good friend Allan Stone for MacMillan Cancer Support. We've been doing it for just over twenty years, running various different fishing events. To date we've raised just shy of £600,000. Even if I do say so myself, not bad for a bunch of smelly anglers.

https://www.stoneyandfriends.com

If Mr Gardner caught you in bed with his wife and left you in a bloody heap down the alley next to the dole office what products of theirs would you still use?

Ha ha.

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I'd honestly be happy to use all of them. I've been using their stuff for years anyway, since well before I was working in the trade and still would. I still use some of their bits I bought back in the eighties, that's quality for you.

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Without a shadow of a doubt their hooks and line are the best on the market. Their sundry items are also the best I've used.

What are your thoughts on the luck aspect of fishing?

It plays a massive part, that said you can swing luck in your favour. Watercraft, prebaiting, time on the bank etc all play to your favour but if lady luck really is against you, you might as well go home. The problem is you never know when she's going to change her mind for or against you.

Which leads me nicely onto my next question. You had eleven consecutive blanks on Chew - bad angling or bad luck?

Bad luck. I did everything I possibly could, fished the right areas with the right baits. I saw numerous fish caught around me, even witnessing a forty-three pounder to a boat from a spot we had just drifted over. In another place at another time though luck has been on my side. My PB Pike of thirty-one pounds was so lightly hooked as I slid the net under her and released the pressure on the line the hooks fell out.

Some quick fire questions

Favourite fish?

Perch

Favourite capture?

16lb 6oz Barbel

The one that got away?

A Perch I lost at the net my mate caught the following week at 5lb 11oz. That was the final time anyone got to fish the water.

Best ever session?

Sixty-three crucians with the vast majority being over three pounds along with a load of tench to around 7lb, some 2lb rudd and a couple of carp.

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The crucians of 4lb 4oz and 3lb 12oz I caught on New Years day was also very special. A morning so cold the net had frozen to the ground. Nate Green was with me and he had a PB that day which, although I'd never tell him, was fantastic to witness.

Do you fish for carp at all now?

I fish for them mainly in France these days. I love the social aspect of a week away with mates plus the added bonus of the chance of catching an enormadon.

Pet hate

Litter and people who don't thank you when you let them through a gap in traffic.

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