Fishing Diary: The Interview Series Part 5

Andy Wilson

Age, Occupation?

53. I spent twenty-five years in transport and logistics management before running my own business for nine years installing solid fuel heating systems. Twelve months ago I decided to take a sabbatical and am currently a white van man.

Earliest fishing memory?

I always just loved water and being around it. I remember a family holiday to the Lakes when I was about five and I was catching elvers in the river that flows into Grassmere in one of those kiddies nets with a cane handle.

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It was a holiday three or four years later to Muddyford in Dorset when I saw a boat come in with a Blue Shark on the back and kids using crab lines off the harbour wall that the angling spark was ignited. I nagged for about twelve months for a rod and reel and eventually became the proud owner of a boys fishing outfit from Woolworths. My first fish using it were bullheads on bits of worm from the Blackbrook near Shepshed. My first genuine proper fish was a Rudd from the Bude canal in Cornwall, again on a summer holiday.

How did you progress from then on?

I didn't know anyone that fished, I had no mentor, my father had no interest and neither did anyone else in the family. I had to teach myself everything really, learning from my mistakes as I went along. I read a lot too. The likes of Walker and of course Mr Crabtree, but it was Ivan Marks who probably had the greatest influence and I was fortunate years later when I met him a few times and even fished a few pegs away from him on one memorable occasion.

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Once I reached High School I made new friends and quite a few fished, some with their fathers and we had regular trips to the local canal, lakes and best of all- the river Trent. I soon got into match fishing with the local Ashby and Measham Angling club and I had quite a successful time on the junior match scene. Good times.

How long did the match fishing last and what drew you away from it?

I fished matches between the ages of twelve and sixteen. I think deep down turning up, drawing a swim and fishing to a whistle was never going to be my thing for long. I was too much of a free spirit. When I caught my first proper fish on the family holiday to Cornwall I'd seen a youth catch an enormous common carp, looking back it must have been all of four pounds. It made a lasting impression. Carp had always fascinated me not least due to Walker's writings, I must have read his account of his record carp capture a hundred times. So bubbling away under the surface there was always a desire to one day fish for those mythical creatures. The hot summer of 1976 was probably the turning point as the local carp spawned successfully so by 1980 I was targeting those little carp of three or four pounds. I caught loads and learnt a tremendous amount. I really enjoyed it too and it lit the fire to chase bigger ones which is where my fishing went from 1980 onwards. I became an out and out carp angler.

Carp angling is notoriously difficult in winter. I know you also played cricket during the summers and had a young family at the the time. How did you balance everything out?

Actually back when I was starting out I don't think winter carp fishing was that difficult, my mates and I used to catch them regularly enough. This was before fishmeal baits and heavy angling pressure. The carp were very green and catchable. What I didn't like about winter carping was the lack of stalking opportunities and not seeing the fish. After carping for a few winters I got the pike bug and morphed into a summer carper, winter piker and stayed like that for years interspersed with the odd dalliance with barbel.

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Regarding cricket, I'd always played from a kid and did right up until around four years ago. I loved the game and played for Leicestershire right through the junior ranks and played for an exceptional club side where I played alongside seven guys who had or went on to play test cricket, heady times. The fishing was always fitted in around everything else really and it worked well for me and still does. I love angling as much as anyone but it has never been to the exclusion of everything else. By my early twenties I had married for the first time and a daughter and son soon followed within a few years. I still angled, probably a bit less than before, usually a 'quick' overnighter or very early morning session on the weekend and was back home before I was missed.

You also kept carp didn't you? Tell us the lengths you went to.

Yes I really got into keeping Koi. It was around the time the kids came came along, I guess it was a substitute for doing less angling. It was a hobby I could do at home and still be available for the family, the kids loved it too. I ended up as the secretary of the Leicestershire Koi Society and allsorts. As for the lengths I went to, I just had the usual six foot deep, several thousand gallon heavily filtered pond, heated by its own gas boiler, nothing special, lol.

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Old carpers may remember the name Geoff Kemp. He disappeared from carp fishing and got into keeping Koi big time.One year I bought a high quality eight inch Koi from him, I actually ordered it from him while he and the fish were still in Japan. Anyway the day came to fetch it from Geoff's which required a four hour round trip. I got the little beauty home and settled it into the pond nicely. I got up the next morning and it had jumped out and was lying in the middle of the lawn, stiff as a board. A great shame.

I've only known you for a few years but can't remember you fishing for carp at all. What happened?

In the late 90's my personal life had been put through the mill, I'd got divorced which is never easy but even more so when kids are involved. I had moved to Burton-On -Trent and found myself in the wilderness for several years. It was a real low point, the kids were my priority and I was spending as much time as I could with them. My fishing was all short session stuff local to Burton, the Trent, the Dove and a few gravel pits. Looking back I was just going through the motions I suppose.

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In 1999 I met Jules and we married in 2001 and now sixteen years later I couldn't be happier. I'm a very lucky man as she supports me in all I do. I got right back into my fishing however the carp fishing was losing its spark for me. I guess I'm a bit of a romantic and I loved the sense of the unknown, the pioneering, the magic that came as part and parcel of early my carping. It had become a big cult-like machine and it wasn't for me any longer. Previously quiet waters had become so busy, everyone had all the kit, everything could be bought off-the-shelf, there were no unknowns anymore. The same old fish were coming out time after time. I was tired of it. I needed my own space and to recapture the magic so about twelve years ago I diversified into other species and I've never regretted it for a single second. Nowadays I love fishing for whatever I am after on the day.

You explored carp baits in almost forensic depths didn't you? I think you may have carried that over into aspects of your fishing today. have you ever considered that you might over think things or is it just part of your nature?

Oh, without doubt I over think things massively. As you probably know from some of our forays, I've got a theory on most things and occasionally one of them works, lol.

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I loved that carp bait development era, I wasn't alone. crikey, the hours of research and pratting about in the kitchen but I relished it. Nowadays I think we all acknowledge much of it was a waste of time, carp and some other species will eat more or less anything. If a bait has a degree of attraction, the fish like the taste of it then you are in the game. Ironically my UK personal best was caught on sweetcorn. In addition to the bait thing I've always enjoyed and still do, making my own bits of gear. it just adds a bit of something to my own enjoyment.

What is the worst idea you've ever had?

I could be a while.

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Hand rolling several kilos of very expensive milk protein bait using duck eggs. I had a colleague who kept ducks and he let me have a load of eggs for nothing. So I rolled all this bait and to a boilie the whole lot floated like corks.

Trying cod deadbait for pike. That was about twenty years ago, if I hadn't wound in I'm sure it would still be there (cue someone to say they've caught on cod).

Using a concrete block I found on the bank to get my sun lounger bedchair level right next to my rods so i could hit any twitches during the night. It was a memorable night, I was listening to Alan Wells winning the 100m at the Moscow Olympics on my transistor radio. Anyway during the early hours the concrete block gave way, the sun lounger cocked up and i slid straight into the lake in my sleeping bag.

Having witnessed you falling off a gently sloping beach I can easily picture the last one.

You could be forgiven for thinking I am accident prone but honestly I'm not, far from it. I was an outstanding gymnast at school. I am though, very unlucky.

Among other things you've caught Sturgeon in Canada and Bonefish in Belize. When you get the holiday brochures out now, does Jules suspect foul play?

Not for a minute. I love an adventure, always have and thankfully so does Jules, especially if she can join me. Angling in general is like that for me, I've always seen every trip as an adventure even if it is a day on the Welsh coast or a trip to a Lincolnshire drain, I'm a big kid at heart. I made five trips to Holland back in the day before France became the mecca for big carp angling. I too went to France many times including Cassien in the early days. Now it is other things much further afield that I look forward to planning. I have a few trips in the pipeline.

Favourite fish?

Perch

Favourite capture?

My first big Perch, 3lb 6oz from Blenheim. I've caught bigger since but it blew me away, made a huge impression.

Favourite capture by someone else?

The Black mirror by Jason Haywood from 'the mere'. Uncaught and unknown, true pioneering under very difficult circumstances.

Best session?

That's a tough one. In terms of specimen fish I guess this summers barbel catch of ten fish in four hours including seven doubles is pretty memorable. I also had nine double-figure bream on an overnight session last year. A big haul of three pound plus perch.

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I could go on but these days catching nice fish with good mates means a lot. that said, I still prefer to fish alone and fish best when I've go the bit between my teeth.

How much money would you want, say if your mates had a whip round, to grow your mullet back?

I'd do it for nothing, I loved that mullet, it is Juli you'd have to bribe, she hates it when my hair grows past a number three.

Pet hates?

Carp lingo and all its dreaded cliches- 'Quick' overnighter; stunning; woodcarving; pukka, etc.

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And top of the tree- 'made up for you'.

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Oh and 'buzzing', that really does my swede in.

Fishing will be banned the day after tomorrow, where do you go for your last session?

The middle Trent, I love it there. As mentioned I went there in my early days, learnt to trot a stick float there etc. It's a different river now to the 70's. It's clean, weedy but full of fish again and best of all it is quiet. I rarely see a soul often having to cut swims out of the undergrowth. For many people the Trent appears to start and finish with Collingham and the tidal reaches but it has so much more to offer.

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