Passionate amateur angler Michael Burdett is one of 12 members of the Dodgy Scale Club, a group of disparate but talented amateur anglers whose liking for old fishing tackle is limitless. Between them, they have over 450 years of fishing experience, but this is mainly due to one of the members being very old. In his blog, Michael shares his love of his favourite pastime and his successes and frustrations on the hunt for fish.
"I woke up with a smile on my face this morning.
I don’t often dream…actually that is nonsense. I dream all the time, for I am a fisherman.
What I mean is I don’t often wake in the morning and remember the dream I was having in the night. However, this morning was different. And maybe you would care to guess which of these was the dream that seemed so logical when I had it last night.
a) I found a first edition of The Compleat Angler dated 1654 in a Sue Ryder Shop in Redditch
b) I introduced David Bowie to roach fishing
c) I caught a one hundred pound Leney carp at Cartench lake
d) I could see through water to any depth and tell where all the fish were in lakes and rivers, even when the water was cloudy.
To anyone who guessed a), you were wrong. There is no Sue Ryder shop in Redditch. On top of that, a true first edition would be dated 1653.
To anyone who guessed d) you were wrong, too. Even when water is gin-clear, I have an unerring ability not to see fish that are right in front of me.
And to anyone who guessed c), of course you were wrong, too. The legendary fish breeder Donald Leney never provided Cartench lake with any of his carp. And besides, Cartench lake doesn’t exist as it was a fictional lake from Peter Mohan’s book Cypry the Carp.
Let me tell you, though, David’s tenacity with a rod was something to behold. Although completely new to the sport, he decided that bread might be a better bait than maggots to try to tempt the bigger, solitary specimens.
I liked the way he shunned the first three proffered swims and went for a difficult pitch, battling his way through some tall reeds to get to the waterside.
He seemed adept with the rod, which was fully tackled-up as he went through the rushes, keeping it high and watching the tip so that it didn’t snag on anything, including a rather old bedraggled looking willow tree beside which he settled.
He set up his own shotting pattern, which seemed exemplary, and he had the measure of the water, its flow and depth pretty quickly.
He was reasonable company, although I have to be honest I set myself up in a swim about twenty yards upstream with a tree between us.
I baited quite heavily, working on the principle that the fish would follow the food and come through the downstream swims to the source of all the offerings. Net result: I caught eight roach to one and a half pounds. David had one terrific little half-pounder (well, it was his first time).
The day would’ve been perfect but for the fact that Archbishop Desmond Tutu was upstream of me hidden behind some laurel bushes, feeding his own swim heavily with breadcrumbs and hemp and ending up with seventeen roach all over two pounds.
And you wonder why I woke up laughing?
Actually having written it all down, I now feel a tad scared."
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