It all started at Rushbrooke Lake some 30 years ago
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Eric Bolton’s popular and acclaimed coaching sessions at Rushbrooke Lake for Bury St Edmunds Angling Association juniors around 30 years ago.
I mentioned Carl Hitchcock, Darren Newport, Andy Flight, Simon Price and Nigel Howard.
Another angler from Eric’s juniors read the article online and contacted me from his home in Portland, Australia.
Jay Owen and his close friend Mark Bryant (also one of Eric’s young stars) still go fishing, in fact, they both have represented Australia in the Trans-Tasman coarse fishing competition verses New Zealand, on two occasions.
Jay posted on Facebook about my article: “A nice tribute to Eric who did a great job of motivating us juniors.
“You realise as you get older what a commitment that was. He was quite the mentor and a great character. Eric really helped focus our healthy, competitive edge which has endured to today.”
Some 30 years after Eric’s initial guidance at Rushbrooke, Jay and Mark have competed at match fishing on an international stage. And it all started at Rushbrooke Lake junior evening coaching sessions more than 30 years ago.
Jay has a 22ft Wellcraft Sports-Fisher boat that is kitted out for sea fishing, primarily for trolling for tuna.
Aside from the tuna they have a great summer run of tun and kingfish which are just about to get under way. Jay added: “Also during our summer there is always snappers to be found on the reefs, which are excellent sport as well.”
All very different from tench, roach and carp at Rushbrooke all those years ago. They both asked me about Rushbrooke, clearly with much treasured memories to support.
Sadly, I had to tell them that for over a year it has been closed to fishing with the banks now quite overgrown.
More on their Australia versus New Zealand match after Christmas.
Talking of sea fishing, but much closer to home, Bob Bonney (long time Bury AA member) enjoyed a rare outing from Felixstowe last Sunday in Graham Garwood’s boat.
Bob’s last sea fishing encounter was 25 years ago. The weather was dry with a light easterly wind and they fished up tide in about 29 feet of water and about two miles off the coast.
The bites came steadily throughout their five-hour session and their catch included loads of small to medium whiting, seven small dog fish and Bob caught a 7lb thorned back ray.
Bob said: “The weather was kind and the experience was very different to my match fishing which is safely on land but I thoroughly enjoyed the day fishing at sea.”
Phil Southgate, a Bury AA club member, visited Fendicks Fishery near Methwold last Sunday and chose to fish Lake 2.
His previous visit to Fendicks had not gone well with a blank but this time he caught well.
He landed seven carp in all, ranging between 8lb and 12lb in weight. The highlight of his session was a striking 10lb ghost carp.
Phil said: “The five lakes are relatively small and would not suit those who like to cast to 40 metres plus, to catch their fish, but the banks are well tended and the fish are in excellent condition.”
However, the fishery certainly holds big fish and boasts carp in excess of 30lbs, tench up to 8lbs and catfish over 100lbs. It is a day ticket fishery.
In June last year Bury AA member Rodger Welham went on an organised fishing trip to Spain, with Catmaster Tours, specifically in pursuit of catfish.
The venue was Mequinenza in Spain on the River Ebrow. Roger said: “There was five of us in the group: two lads from Norfolk, two from Birmingham and myself.”
He added; “We ledgered large hair rigs baited with four or five 20mm halibut pellets and various liquid flavourings (two rods each).
“The baited hooks were placed in a dingy and rowed out to the middle of the river by a guide where he dropped the hooks and threw in more pellets for ground bait.”
The river was very wide, estimated at half a mile, and the days were very long with fishing from 6.30am to midnight (no overnight fishing allowed).
The group caught around 20 catfish in total and five carp up to 40lbs. Roger had the largest fish of the trip, a catfish weighing in at a massive 145lb.
Locally, the Bury AA lake at Badwell Ash is still fishing well despite the much cooler and wetter weather in the past 10 days.
Tackle Up is now open to receive customers with their normal trading hours returned and closed on Tuesday and Sunday.
Read more: All the latest Suffolk sport news
