I've started; so I'll finish - Claydon and beyond

As if I require an excuse? Now I've lifted the lid off that box of memories - can there be any reason why I shouldn't use the resultant images to provide inspiration for my blogging? My time spent around the concrete banks of the Tring Reservoirs were some of the happiest of my angling journey. The period that surrounds my pursuit of Wels Catfish was as crazy as it could ever get, Cuddles, the two Mitch's, Vic Gillings, Stuart Martin, Joey Darville and Shaun Harrison all converged on that muddy puddle that is Claydon Middle Lake - home of some of the largest, and most accessible, catfish in the UK (in the mid-80's)

Benno with one, of two twenties, he caught in September 1991 - he was seven

Carp were a nice distraction for a youngster awaiting the bite from a cat.

The banter was ruthless, the fishing excellent, as was time in the nearby pub - there was a night fishing ban at the venue, so we kipped in our vans in the car park, climbing over the style bang on the time (as set out in The Leighton Buzzard AC membership book) which we were allowed back on. When Kevin Maddocks got involved, anarchy ensued, we didn't always see things from the same view point and disagreements were not uncommon, often spilling over into the Catfish Conservation Group meetings and publications (I got called Zeberdee in one such altercation - how hurtful?)
We got noticed because we were loud, generally pissed up and incredibly successful - people either loved us or hated us, but no-one could ignore us. I would think that the majority of our detractors were jealous of the fact that we were able to make the experience of fishing a muddy puddle so much fun - some of the guys were deadly serious and spent their days looking like they were still at work. Claydon didn't require any particular skills for fish location, yet bait and rigs were critical for consistent results and we worked tirelessly on ensuring our terminal set ups were as good as we knew how. Vic Gillings was a great thinker and many hours of discussion took place on the bank as we played around with ideas for baits and hook-link materials. Great times and very happy memories of a wonderful place frequented by some of the largest characters involved in speccy hunting of that period.

Trees, one of the hardest fighting catfish in Claydon - I never caught it any heavier than 15 lbs

An 18 lbs 10 oz cat from the dam end of the Middle Lake

One of the Claydon "originals" stocked by Leighton Buzzard AC from
a Woburn netting session. 25 lbs 2 oz

The late Vic Gillings does battle with one of the Claydon cats

Our move on to Tiddenfoot Pit was a completely different challenge and required a very much more focussed effort in order to be successful. We cracked it, but much of the fun went missing as this venue allowed night fishing and lacked the ambience, and intimacy, of Claydon - we became rather serious and the social side of angling got overlooked as we strove to become better catfish anglers.

Sye with the largest Cat from Tiddenfoot Pit - 23 lbs 14 oz
The same individual as landed by a certain Gavin Haig a few years later