Many moons ago,i started fishing in my local park in willenhall back in 1975.
I took a keen liking to fishing and stuck with it for a good few years at that lake but after been pushed in a few times by the local lads i moved on to fish other waters with my (to be) brother in law,my cousin,my mates and occasionally with my late uncle.
I joined a club and fished various pools and rivers around the west midlands including the river severn in bridgenorth / ironbridge and even caught the local bus there a few times with all my gear with my cousin,,i suppose it would be frowned at these days !

In the late 70's / early 80's we moved to Clayhanger in Brownhills, i started to fish the local canal that was very local to me. meeting new friends and new area was very exiting and soon got to know the guy in the tackle shop in brownhills aka,,,, Des Taylor.
Des was a big man back then, with a strong Wolverhamton accent and looking like a viking sums him up well,,,,he's still the same !!!!
I soon got to know the canal by picking des's brain pleasure fishing for the small stuff and catching the odd big tench kept me happy for a good few years.
the tackle shop changed hands to "the crock and tackle",des went off to persue his career in fishing,,,beryl and john stepped in.
By now was the mid 80's,we moved again to Brownhills, even closer to the canal,,i could see it every day from the living room window. I was fishing a long stretch of canal on my favourate peg and noticed a carp swimming past,then another,then another. now,,,i had heard about these "big carp" and guys loosing them all the time,,,so i cast my rod to where the fish was,,,with a size 20 hook,2lb bottom,4lb mainline ,small drennan waggler and double white maggot i thought "what can resist that !",,,well the carp resisted it and carried on going.
I was miffed at this,,many hours of reading the anglers mail,angling times,and the odd book sent me on a warpath to catch a carp.

whilst walking my staffy"gent"god bless him on the canal ,,i came across a shrewed character sat back on his fake brown leather box,trying to hide in some trees on a big bend of the canal behind tesco's in brownhills,this guy was les bowd,,he was fishing for carp,,i was amazed as i watched his float with a size 2 hook on the end with a broad bean side hooked to it. A long chat later i was set to go that week for the carp.

A few lessons later fishing "les"style and i was'nt doing much good,so back to the books and mag's.
I bought myself a bite alarm, sundridge i think, and armed with a fairy washing up liquid bottle top as a bobbin ,off i went back down the back of tesco's,this time using a lead and hookink,,,still using broad beans as bait......... whilst fishing the "arm" at the back of tesco's i was chatting to Elvis and this guy turns up in this blue triumph gt6, long skinny legs ,barber wax jacket,and a red bandana around his neck with what looked like mascara on his eyes,,,, "Dave williams was his name", we was a little weiry at dave at first as he wanted us to go with him in the car and go fishing ! yeah right !

total stanger + car + odd dress sense + wore makeup +go with him = nasty things !

Luckily dave "gypo" turned out to be just very freindly and after a quick chat found he was well into carp fishing and later influenced me and most of the other guys in carping. he worked down the pit ,and seemed to have mascara on his eyes but was just well worn in coal dust !.

Now,,,,,,i had bumped into a few guys at this time who carp fished on the canal,,,, Gypo, loose em Les , Dave Edwards - Elvis ,for some reason i can't remember meeting dave for the first time  - odd ! , Stuart  - "carrot" a top angler who fished and introduced us to Dave Mallin from Bloxwich - currently in most carp mags/books , and Wayne Dunn who has had many large notorious captures also knowing guys like Terry Hearn ,and not forgetting Neil younger than me and took to carping very quickly (see his site HERE ).

1986

Still blanking very much later, i started fishing a different stetch of canal, with much more weed,,deeper and wider.
at last i had a run, it tore me though the weed like a good un,,until it stopped,,,,nearly 2 hours later i was just about to go in and she came free,,,"dopey" 11lb ,,my first fished for,specimen hunted carp !!!
a quick bike ride back to elvis's house to get him and camera later,,,here's the result,

"DOPEY" 11LB

Things moved on rather quickly from there and i got hooked to carping in a big way with the lads having quite a few sessions together with some amazing results considering it was just a canal.

A SMALL COMMON FROM UNDER THE TREE AT THE BACK OF TESCO'S IN BROWNHILLS

TYSON AND 3 SCALE

24.12 A PB FROM HAWKSTONE LAKE IN WEM SHROPSHIRE

ANOTHER FROM HAWKSTONE LAKE IN THE EARLY 1990'S

19lb common from hawkstone lake,kindly photogrophed by Wayne Dunn

Me with a Canal 20

slowly loosing my hair ! here with a brace from willesly lake

myself with gypo with a double capture from willesly lake

my old set up,a lorry tarpalin draped over the brolly,sooo heavy but so warm !

GYPO , NEIL , ELVIS

June 16th 1989 Brownhills canal   Elvis, Niel, Gypo, Me.......A good days fishing for a canal !!

ME,NEIL AND GYPO ON THE TESCO BEND

ME WITH HAIR !! SWEET 16 !

We Move On

As time progressed i had a small break from carping - women and all that - but after a short time i was soon back on track. unfortunatly i had sold most of my gear by this time so had to re-tackle up which was expensive. i tried to get back into things but just could not seem to get there.
Then in 1993 i met Jaime,who did not mind me going fishing, in fact she comes along with me somtimes !

In 2000, i changed jobs and moved on to work at havestime bakery (now Maple leaf) in walsall. meeting new friends there luckly one of my shift partners ,Mark Bowler (timmy as we call him) and kenny are good fishermen.
ken was already a convert to carping from match fishing, Tim however, changed over to carping the last few years and has took to it very well. I have been to france fishing Mirror pool with kenny,,,he beat me again ! but mainly fish Linford Lakes now in Milton Keynes
, this is my main fishery now as i am a lifetime member along with ken. Timmy goes with me and ken when he can.

Tim with a 25lb Mirror

Between us, we have a brilliant time fishing, somtimes we catch sometimes we dont,,,thats fishing for you !

29lb ghosty from linford lakes

25.08 lb leather from linford 1

32.04 lb common + a 23lb leather caught within 5 min of each another

2008 and On!

Well, this is where the website begins,check out our catch and blanking reports by going to latest news.