Category Archives: Boating and Fishing

Coarse Angling Section.

Just when you were thinking….does that Section still exist ? …here we are, like a bad penny.

I’ve two very different tales to tell…

The Bob Bennett Memorial Match is an annual event held in memory of a lovely man who had many facets. Some of you will remember him……he had one of those voices you could bottle….just like that man on ‘Coast’….to be opened up when you wanted cheering up. He had a ready tale, not always PC but witty and never hurtful.  He had a softer side in his love of wild life especially birds and it was to that Charity formed to help protect their environment that the proceeds of the Match were destined.

During Bob’s life he was a Grenadier Guardsman, a Police Officer, an Environmental agency Water bailiff and a Member of the Buffs. These 4 institutions together with the Aldershot Garrison angling Section are invited to enter Teams of 5 anglers each year to contest for a silver trophy donated by his family.

Unfortunately the Buffs couldn’t enter a Team so the remaining 4 teams met on Sunday 1st July at Shawfields Lakes in Ash to do battle. These are 2 picturesque lakes holding a variety of species of fish but the main target for match-anglers are the bream, tench and roach. Unlike carp venues favoured by commercial fisheries bream venues tend to give a few anglers a good day and the rest a frustrating day scratching for bites. Bream tend to stay in shoals and rarely move far during their day so it’s the luck of the draw. We are good ‘scratchers’ though and those with no bream in front of them did enough to secure our third win of the trophy – but only just.

We tied on points with the Environment Agency but had superior weight that tipped the balance. Yours truly was lucky to have the bream in front of him and topped the weights with 28lb together with the biggest fish of the day, a bream of 5lb. Brian Stevens won his section with 16lb of tench and roach with Ian Chandler eking out just over the pound of bits to win his section, although he did have ‘the one that got away’ story to tell later.

After the match we retired to a local hostelry for a buffet, raffle and presentation of trophies. Bob’s son attended this year to do the honours and thanked all who attended.trophies.

The two other team members were Ian Moram and Fred Jackson.

Two days later we are out again for the Annual Regional Championships hosted by Kent Police. This was not the Police Service Sports environment at its best. It started acrimoniously with unfortunate attitudes and discrimination which may go further so I will relate the bare bones.

The Match was originally to be fished on the River Rother at Newenden but the recent torrential rain had damaged the banks and were considered dangerous on the stretch we were to fish which forced the organisers to change the venue to a commercial Fishery……Hartleylands. This is a popular carp fishery that regularly produces  200lb bags of fish.

The Match was for teams of 6 anglers. Unfortunately we were unable to field a full side. We had 5 anglers up until the day before when another member dropped reducing our  numbers to 4. This meant we had no chance of competing for any honours apart from the Individual aspect. The match was fished on 2 lakes, Nick’s and Pear Tree lakes. It was a wet, drizzly day reflecting  the controversy at the start and set the mood of the day.

As with any carp venue the method of catching fish and the bait to be used was crucial and local knowledge was of tantamount importance. To a non-angler this sounds like an excuse but there’s far more to it than ‘chuck it and see’ With little chance to practise it was try different methods until you caught. Suffice to say we all caught a lot of fish but not in the quantities required. Just as an example……I caught 60 carp and weighed-in 42lb.  Every fish was under 1 lb with the Kent angler next to me caught 74lb of carp all of a similar size. On the opposite side of the lake the majority of fish were over 1 lb.

Hampshire Police we’re also one angler short so we both propped up the bottom of the table with local lads Kent taking all the honours with Sussex 2nd. The top weight was 150lb with 2 other weights over 100lb.

After the match we retired to a local for the results but it was a sombre occasion with little cheer.

Our next venture will be the Force Individual….but let’s get the Olympics out of the way first.

Jim Findlay

Last year we trekked to Northern Ireland for these Championships so it was a pleasure to have a venue on our doorstep….the Beaches at Deal, Walmer and Hythe. Apparently this was the fourth time Kent have hosted the event and they certainly got it right. It was slick and efficient and ran very smoothly. The HQ and main accommodation was the Great Burstin Hotel at Folkestone which took the influx of over 150 Police anglers easily in its stride.

There are no heats or Regional events to get to this National, all Forces were welcome. There were 42 Teams of 4 anglers and the format was two Matches each of 5 hours duration over 2 days. Every fish counted. Each species of fish was worth a number of points depending on its availability but had to be a certain length to get those points. If it was not sizeable then it was worth 1 point……so for example the most common species at this time of the year is the Channel Whiting. It had to be 27 cm long and was worth 5 points. By contrast, a turbot had to be 35 cm and was worth 15 points. If either of these fish were under their limit in size they were worth 1 point. There was an additional 10 points for each different species caught. Every Angler had their own score sheet suitably indicating all the species likely to be caught  and the adjoining angler was the adjudicator and his signature confirmed the catch.

The first Match was from 3pm – 8pm on Walmer and Hythe beach. The beach is a steep shingle beach with each angler having about 20 yards in each direction to his neighbour.  It started quietly with very few fish being caught but as soon as it got dark the fish came on the feed. I hadn’t done a lot of beach fishing before so I was not expecting the frantic activity that then ensued. Cast, wait, bite, strike, reel-in, unhook fish, back to ones ‘base’, measure, take to neighbour to verify, record, fish to sea, re-bait, cast, wait, bite……… and so it went on. That together with signing for his fish and moving your gear down the beach as the tide receded. Most anglers had little battery-lights on the tip of their rods to see the bites but I was not that sophisticated. I had a little bell….alright, I know now but it used to work…..so I was holding my rod all evening and feeling for the bites.

Great fun but really tiring. I really wasn’t sorry when 8pm came round with 16 fish to my credit. Back to the Hotel for some welcome hot chilli-con-carne and a couple of pints and hit the sack. Couldnt face a ‘session’ or cards when we had to be up at 0630am for breakfast the next morning and off to Deal for the next match starting at 10am.

This was much more like it, very few fish and time to chat. This was an in-coming tide with light winds, sunshine and a calm sea. It was disappointing after the previous day. I had one whiting and one dab for my efforts which put me 13th on the Section. Other areas fished a lot better. My neighbouring angler had finished 2nd on his Section the evening before and was eager to do well. He was casting possibly twice my distance but still only finished with 2 whiting for the day. The fish just were not there.

Surrey’s contingent consisted of Captain Kevin Selfe, Corporal Nick Hemmant with Ian Robertson and yours truly making up the numbers. We had entered another team (B) but finished up with only one man in that, stalwart Tristan ……… We were all pretty mediocre finishing 30th of 42 teams but it was ‘the taking part’ that mattered. We enjoyed an excellent Presentation meal, enjoyed the speeches and dutifully cheered the Individual winners and teams whilst absorbing a pint or two into the small hours.

The Winners were Kent A,   2nd were Dorset,   3rd Essex A.

14 species of fish were caught with the Winner catching 76 fish over the 2 Matches.

In 2013 the World Police & Fire Games are going to be held in Belfast, Northern Ireland so in order to prepare for such a large event the Irish Police Angling Sections decided to hone their skills on organising National events.

Last year (2010) they held the Beach Fishing Nationals at Portrush and this year the Coarse Angling Nationals were held at Enniskillen. They were very conscious of the reluctance of some Forces and Individuals to attend events in their Country and spent a lot of time and effort reassuring those attending that they would be safe. With that in mind the National Committee allowed mixed Teams for the first time.

This allowed myself and others to attend where we were unable to muster a Team of 6 to attend from our home Forces. I traveled and stayed with Sussex Police, initially attending as their Reserve but in the lead up to the event, Norfolk Police were touting for Team members so I agreed to fish for them.

Our Team consisted of 3 Officers from Norfolk, 2 from Essex and myself.  The event was one 5-hour Match on Thursday 19th September but in order to get some practice and see something of the area we traveled on the Sun/Mon. Unfortunately you may remember that a Hurricane had crossed the Atlantic and was venting the last of its energy on the western part of our Isles and we were right in its path.

Practicing in gale-force winds and driving rain was no fun but we could choose where we went and made the most of the time available. We were billoted in cottages in the grounds of a Hotel on the banks of the River Erne. They were well appointed and comfortable.

The evening before the Match was an official gathering with an interesting run-down on each of the areas to be fished by a local ‘expert’ and a tackle display to purchase that last item deemed to be wanted the next day. We were to fish Sligo Road, Derrycharra, Cornagrade, Bellanaleck and Dolans Ring…….. names of the different stretches of the Erne to be fished.

The River itself it so different from our rivers in that it can be a mile wide at one point and 200yds wide then 500yds another mile away. Some parts were 6-7ft deep others up to 30 ft deep, each requiring different tactics.

The Match-day answered the Organisers prayers in that it was a balmy, sunny day with a light breeze but there it stopped…. nobody told the fish to turn up. It was so disappointing for quite a number of Anglers to have come all that way at no little expense to ‘blank’ on the big day….. but that’s fishing.

My day was at Cornagrade, allegedly the hardest Section and I was next to the NI team Captain. The river was 18ft deep at the end of my rod-tip and about 28ft as far as I could throw my feeder. I saw no point in setting up my pole and float fishing would be a waste of time so I was relying on my feeder tactics.

After an hour I had one small perch….but at least I had caught. Then my neighbour tried the pole and within 10 mins played and landed a bream over 3lb. Too late to set the pole up now so I used the small feeder out in front of me……nothing. Back out in the deep water….nothing. 3 hours gone, one fish and no indications. Changed from double red to single white maggot……immediately caught a hybrid (roach/bream) about 1 lb followed by a 6oz roach. Double white maggot produced another hybrid and 2 more roach. That was it, I had one more bite and missed it. I hadn’t seen my neighbour catch any more and the weigh-in confirmed that…his bream went 1K 960, my 6 fish went 1K 680…….he won the Section and I was 2nd! I didnt expect that….well pleased.

That evening there was the presentation meal and results. Everyone ‘booted and spurred’. ….and after an excellent meal we found that we had come 4th overall. The Match was won by West Mids with the Met 2nd.

The event was well run very sociable and although there was a lot of uniform presence throughout our stay I never felt threatened or concerned. Would certainly go again.

Due to injury, we are one short in a Team of 4 for the below Championships next week.

The National Beach Fishing Championships are being held in Northern Ireland next week (19th and 20th).

The Championships will consist of 2 Matches on Beaches at Portrush. The first is a Match of 3 hours in the evening of 19th from 6-9pm and the next is a 5-hour Match the following day.

Accommodation is booked with other Teams for 2 nights.

 The itinery is to fly by Easyjet from Gatwick at 8am on the Tuesday morning and fly to Belfast, pick-up a hire car then drive 60 miles to Portrush.

After the Matches there is a presentation meal on the Wednesday evening then return home the following day.  Bait has been ordered.  There is a cost involved but we are getting assistance from the Sports and Social.

The other members of the Team are Ian Robertson, Bobby Ball and Deadman-Nicholls.

 If you are interested, please contact me by e-mail to   ASAP.

I am circulating this internally and through Old and Bold.

Jim Findlay.

 On the day of the launch all of the occupiers of the close we live in were notified that the road would be completely closed for access by vehicle to properties beyond our own. Those who lived before us on the way down the close were asked to leave the road clear for access by a 60 ton crane, lorry and trailer. Carolyn had the day off work to supervise the operation. The River Wey navigation authority had been notified that we wanted to launch the boat at Cartbridge wharf and they agreed to open it up for our access.

The crane duly arrived and set up ready for the lift and the lorry and trailer got into place ready for the boat to be loaded. The close by this time was full of residents with camera’s ready to photo the big lift.

Carolyn said her heart was in her mouth when the boat was lifted off the sleepers it was resting on and hoisted up above the height of our bungalow then swung round over the roof on to the trailer. Carrie – Ann was tied down and transported to Cartbridge wharf where she was lifed off the trailer and lowered in to the water where Carolyn smashed a bottle of champagne over the bows and officially named her. The boat was declared a floater as she did not sink once the hoist was removed. (Thank Goodness).

Carolyn then took her on her maiden voyage to her mooring on the Wey.

When she phoned us (We were in Cyprus) she told us that all went well but that the boat had a bad shudder when on low revs. We were greatly relieved to know that the boat was okay.

On return to home we went straight up to the boat to see our pride and joy in her natural environment. The judder turned out to be a mistake by the builder of the boat who had put a 20″ prop on which would have been ideal for a slow revving engine but our modern engine needed a 16″ propeller so they came and fitted the right size prop without taking it out of the water and working through the weed hatch. All nice and smooth once it was fitted.

For the next three years every weekend that we could we used to pack everything up ready the night before so when we came home from work we were able to go on the boat for the weekend and sail her up and down the river. We loved it. Every annual leave we took her on the thames to cruise to Windsor and beyond.

Our first trip on the tidal Thames was done in association with a group of boaters from the Wey when we all went down to Limehouse basin in London for the Limehouse festival. We took Ann’ sister and her husband with us as crew and made our way down to Teddington lock where all the boats gathered ready for an early 6am start.

With some nervousness we went into the tidal Thames lock and were locked down into the stream and off we went. It was a fantastic experience with a flotilla of 15 boats all going down stream together. Bacon butties and coffee were supplied by Ann and Daphne to John and I on the back deck.

We checked off all the bridges as we went down stream going through Richmond half tide lock down past Brentford where I used to live then Kew gardens and Kew bridge. Finally the highlight of the trip, going past the Tower of London and under Tower Bridge. They did not have to raise it. We all then turned across the tideway being careful not to cross across the path of any commercial traffic either coming up stream or overtaking us going down stream. We then stemmed the tide until our turn to enter Limehouse lock. This lock is unlike any lock we had seen as the gates are hydraulic and half round in shape.They let water in or out by opening the gates slightly until the water either side of the gates is level then open them fully to let us in.

The festival was a great success and included a trip round the Bow Back rivers and an evening cruise from Limehouse down stream past Greenwhich and in to the Bow River then back through the lock to the Limehouse cut. Seeing London from the river at sunset was a magical experience.

Our trip back to the River Wey was a taken with a lot more confidence.

To be continued.

As a few of you know I have been boating for the last 16 years having fitted out my own narrow boat outside our bungalow whist still in the job.

When we decided to buy a narrow boat we spent a long time looking at different types of fit out and even looked at some second hand boats for sale. After a lot of thought we decided to buy what is known as a spillway hull. This is a shell with an engine one battery and floorboards. We the set about designing the interior and I ended up building a balsa wood scale model of what we wanted to build. This enabled us to tell the manufacturer where we wanted the window openings to be cut out. After that there was the problem of who to choose as our boat company so went round several companies and selected the one we wanted. We showed them the model of what we wanted and they said it would work with doubts about the tip up bed.

Colecraft built the hull which we went to see from time to time during its construction. This was an exciting time to watch as it slowly took shape. On the day it was delivered to our boat company we watched it arrive with a lot of pride and anxiety as it was off loaded and rolled into the shed where the work was to be carried out to make it a sail away. Ann and I spent a few days painting the inside of the boat before the floorboards and engine were fitted. I cut out all the holes in the roof for the vents The windows were fitted into their cut outs and finally the day came for it to be delivered to the waste land alongside our bungalow. The day arrived and it poured with rain making the whole area boggy. I had previously laid six railway sleepers on the ground ready to have the boat lowered on to them. The land owners permission had been obtained and a rental agreed for the use of the land. As we live in a close it was necessary to write to all the neighbours and tell them the road would be closed for a few hours whilst the boat was off loaded from its trailer. Anxious moments as the crane arrived and set up ready to off load the boat. Eventually it was hoisted into place with an audience of the neighbours.

Then came the hard work. First was lining out which involved battening all the struts with self drilling stainless steel screws then fitting all the insulation and finally fitting the interior sides and roof lining. Try holding a sheet of 8 x 4 ply up against the curved roof of a boat and drilling and screwing it in to place on your own. I made it possible by making a jig to hold it in place at one end whilst working on the other. Plumbing and wiring came next as it all had to be hidden behind woodwork so as to be accessible but hidden. Gas pipes were also fitted ready for the heating boiler and gas stove. Then came building all the cupboards bench seats visitors slide out bed in the lounge area. Partitioning the bathroom, Building the airing cupboard fitting out the bathroom and kitchen to Ann’s requirements, then finally the tip up bed and wardrobes. All made by hand by me. I learnt and awful lot about carpentry.

We then had to choose the soft furnishings and get someone to make them. Also had to varnish the interior using floor varnish. This took four coats of varnish. Finally painting the exterior of the boat to the design an colour we chose. We had a completion party for all the occupants of the close to thank them for their tolerance whilst we were fitting out the boat for 18 months. I must say they were all very interested in what we were doing and were often seen looking in the windows at the progress we were making. Finally came launch day. The day decided was whilst we were on holiday so our daughter Carolyn was left to oversee the loading of the boat on the trailer and its launch into the river Wey at Cartbridge wharf.

To be continued