Fishing Roundhay Park Lake

[wayniac]

John Croggy wrote: Hi Geelong, I'm glad someone remembers the little gudgeon. I used to catch them and ruffe on the dam wall under the tree in the middle in the '60s.. I had some nice roach and perch there too. Yes the police were a lot better then than they are now and we could do with the borstal back!! I imagine it's warmer in Australia at the moment than it is here. It's 23C today in Geelong. We've missed most of the heavy rain, so far this year we've had a total of around 700 mm of rain. Geelong has almost the same rainfall as Leeds! Although we've had a 10 year drought which has just broken. Up North and inland they are having massive floods, the Australian PGA was rained off at Coolum and we're going up there for Christmas to stay with some ex-Yorkshire folk. It will be hot and probably wet.

[wayniac]

iansmithofotley wrote: Hi everyone,I used to fish at Roundhay Park in the 1950's and 60's. It was possible to fish on both lakes. I remember the Leeds Amalgamation Juvenile Match being fished there, for the first time, around 1960 because I won it two years in succession. Previously, it was fished on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Kirkstall and the 'draw' for pegs was made in the Whitbread's Brewery Yard. I had to go to the old Angler's Club on Beckett Street to the presentation nights. The trophy was about about 2' 6" tall and was ancient and 'worn out' with polishing. The winner held the trophy for a year but was given a small trophy, to keep, as a momento. The winner also received a new fishing rod. In those days, there were around 200+ young anglers who took part in the Juvenile Match. From memory, I think that there were two Age Groups e.g. under 12's category, and 13 to 16 category, because I once came second in the younger category at Kirkstall. I caught one roach which weighed 3 ozs, most people never had a bite.Leeds Amalgamation gave up the rights to fish Roundhay Park and it is now 'free fishing'. For those who are interested, here are some recent links about fishing at Roundhay Park:http://leedsdasa.proboards.com/index.cg ... d=17037Ian     I remember the prize giving evening at the Anglers Club.Back in those days (I think it was around 1961 when I started fishing), the big name in fishing was Henry Pollard. I was taught to fish by Sid Lister who was also a darn good coarse fisherman. Sid hated ledgering, he said that was for old men and lazy people. We used to pack up his Morris Traveller and drive out to Cundall on Sunday mornings in Winter, fish the Ure. There were some fine big Barbel and Chub there. At the start of the trout season we would head off to the Wharfe at Pool in Wharfedale.Roundhay Park was just for school holidays when I got bored in Summer.I used to have a massive 12' built cane rod with a split cane tip and an Alcocks "Flick 'em" reel. Those reels are worth a packet now. Sid always used to use an Ariel reel, big aluminium centre pin reel and nothing more than 2 lb line and a 16 hook unless there were big barbel around and he'd break out the 6 lb line and play them in for 45 minutes. Great stuff, I loved fishing in the old days with the old-timers.

[John Croggy]

I remember fishing the Mucky Hole just down stream from Tadcaster. A mate from the police and me fished it a it in the late '60s and we couldn't stop pulling out really big roach - up to 1lb 8oz. We had another day when the pike went mad on livebait - you could use it then. But I had some really good days at Easedyke, above Tadcaster. So, Ian did you fish with the police on their matches? My memory is a bit vague on some details but I seem to remember some in the late '60s and it always seemed to be the same people who won. One person won with minnows - all nipped in the head to stop them getting through 'minnow mesh' on a match at Kirby wharfe, near the sunk barges. I was one peg off him.

[pashy2]

Check out "Angling in Leeds" thread.

[tyke bhoy]

John Croggy wrote: Can I delete posts sent in error? Nope but the admins can. Best you can do is edit them to mark for deletion. Something like "Oops duplicate post please delete"

[iansmithofotley]

Hi John Croggy,I only went a few times on Leeds City Police matches in the late 1960's/early 70's. At the time, the regulars were Eric Bullock, Len Barker, Peter Stead and a young Terry Bettany. It was quite an active club but I didn't know a lot of the other members. Terry (who had been a cadet) and I also played in the rugby team.Ian

[grumpytramp]

Many happy hours were spent at the dam after school during the summers of the 1970's with nothing more than a cane rod, a fixed spool reel and a selection of floats from Woolies. For bait I relied on nothing more than bread, spam (nicked from my mums larder) and a variety of grubs and worms uncovered on the hill between the dam and Saint John's.I never had a ticket but then was never ever challenged by a bailiff or parkie (probably spotting my apparently hopeless technique). I often watched in awe of the "real anglers" with their angling boxes, multiple rods, endless maggots and weird plastic contraptions at the end of their lines.I occasionally managed to pick up roach (from memory), bream, the occasional scrappy perch, a jack pike and probably most memorably a 4 to 5lb Tench caught on a bit of bread.My adventures on Waterloo Lake has left me with a life long passion for angling, which now manifests itself in an obcession with fishing for wild trout on the rivers and burns of Perthshire, Clackmannanshire and Kinrossshire. Funnily enough on the final day of the salmon season on the local river (nothing posh here; £45/year for salmon and sea trout) I was nattering to one of our bailiffs a retired miner who has returned home from the Yorkshire Coalfields. As soon as we started talking about Yorkshire, he immediately said how much he loved fishing on Waterloo Lake!Next time I am in the city, I might be tempted to take an early morning jaunt and cast a fly and see if I can raise a trout (bloody shame I need to buy an EA licence )

[stutterdog]

grumpytramp wrote: Many happy hours were spent at the dam after school during the summers of the 1970's with nothing more than a cane rod, a fixed spool reel and a selection of floats from Woolies. For bait I relied on nothing more than bread, spam (nicked from my mums larder) and a variety of grubs and worms uncovered on the hill between the dam and Saint John's.I never had a ticket but then was never ever challenged by a bailiff or parkie (probably spotting my apparently hopeless technique). I often watched in awe of the "real anglers" with their angling boxes, multiple rods, endless maggots and weird plastic contraptions at the end of their lines.I occasionally managed to pick up roach (from memory), bream, the occasional scrappy perch, a jack pike and probably most memorably a 4 to 5lb Tench caught on a bit of bread.My adventures on Waterloo Lake has left me with a life long passion for angling, which now manifests itself in an obcession with fishing for wild trout on the rivers and burns of Perthshire, Clackmannanshire and Kinrossshire. Funnily enough on the final day of the salmon season on the local river (nothing posh here; £45/year for salmon and sea trout) I was nattering to one of our bailiffs a retired miner who has returned home from the Yorkshire Coalfields. As soon as we started talking about Yorkshire, he immediately said how much he loved fishing on Waterloo Lake!Next time I am in the city, I might be tempted to take an early morning jaunt and cast a fly and see if I can raise a trout (bloody shame I need to buy an EA licence ) From distant memory there was a legendary very large pike in the Waterloo Lake, around the early 70's. There was a chap I worked with would go and fish for this particular pike every week in the wintertime.Dont think he ever caught it . I think he hooked it but it snapped his tackle. (painfull!)

[tilly]

grumpytramp wrote: Many happy hours were spent at the dam after school during the summers of the 1970's with nothing more than a cane rod, a fixed spool reel and a selection of floats from Woolies. For bait I relied on nothing more than bread, spam (nicked from my mums larder) and a variety of grubs and worms uncovered on the hill between the dam and Saint John's.I never had a ticket but then was never ever challenged by a bailiff or parkie (probably spotting my apparently hopeless technique). I often watched in awe of the "real anglers" with their angling boxes, multiple rods, endless maggots and weird plastic contraptions at the end of their lines.I occasionally managed to pick up roach (from memory), bream, the occasional scrappy perch, a jack pike and probably most memorably a 4 to 5lb Tench caught on a bit of bread.My adventures on Waterloo Lake has left me with a life long passion for angling, which now manifests itself in an obcession with fishing for wild trout on the rivers and burns of Perthshire, Clackmannanshire and Kinrossshire. Funnily enough on the final day of the salmon season on the local river (nothing posh here; £45/year for salmon and sea trout) I was nattering to one of our bailiffs a retired miner who has returned home from the Yorkshire Coalfields. As soon as we started talking about Yorkshire, he immediately said how much he loved fishing on Waterloo Lake!Next time I am in the city, I might be tempted to take an early morning jaunt and cast a fly and see if I can raise a trout (bloody shame I need to buy an EA licence ) Hi grumpytramp i dont dont know if you know this but you can buy a day licence you dont have to buy one for the year.

[geoffb]

[From distant memory there was a legendary very large pike in the Waterloo Lake, around the early 70's. There was a chap I worked with would go and fish for this particular pike every week in the wintertime.Dont think he ever caught it . I think he hooked it but it snapped his tackle. (painfull!) I think every lake has a big pike, I used to fish Clayton Ponds as a lad my biggest fish there was a perch probably 1lb. But there was a pike in there that ate a fishermans dog (allegedly) and bit my mates dad when he went for a swim when he was bored with fishing, probably the size of a baracuda. But I think Miggy pond once produced s 5lb perch or am I dreaming?