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George Howard is the last remaining angler from the founder members of the club pictured here in the 1947 club photograph.

As such I felt he deserved a special mention on the clubs history website section. Whilst putting this section together I felt it was very important that I got to talk with George and after a quick phone call he came over to visit me and talk about his time with the club.

Born in 1930 George is now 76 and still fishing.

Interview with George Howard founder member of Bungay Cherry Tree Angling Club. Friday, 23 November 2006

Born in 1930 George Howard is the last remaining founder member of the Club.

George holding the Howard Trophy awarded

 for pole fished matches and kindly

donated by Georges wife.

 Early days

“When did you first start fishing George?”

“When I was young; about, 6 or 8, in and around the Bungay area. My Grandmother used to run a dairy farm on Broad Street and she owned the meadows on the left of the by-pass and I used to fish those because there was no pit on Bungay common then”.

“But you could fish Bungay Common?”

“Oh yes!”

“And when you went fishing, George what would you take with you?”

“Just a rod and a reel”.

”Did you have nylon line in those days?”

“Good God no Mark! It was all silk line.”

“And a cane rod?”

“Well, that was something that my Father bought me.”

“What did you take to carry your gear in George?”

“Oh a tin box or anything you had; we didn’t have sophisticated gear like we have now.”

“And what sort of reel did you use?”

“A little tiny centre pin - only a little one.”

“Do you know who made them?”

“Well various people made them in those days, they were very common. You could buy them by the hundred in those days. I suppose you would pay about Half-a-crown for one.”

“What did you carry in your bag?”

“Well, you’d carry your usual bits and pieces like shot and floats, hooks and a disgorger.”

“Now then, what sort of floats did you have?”

“Well Mark, in those days they would have been crow quills and if you wanted heavier you would nick some feathers out of the goose. You could make your own or buy them”.

“Did they have Avon floats in those days?”

“They had a version of Avon floats with cork bodies but you didn’t need them in the Waveney”.

“So if it was 1947 George, and you were going to fish Bungay Common how would you go about it?”

“Mmm, that was a different kettle of fish then, because the fishing changed after the war. It got a bit more sophisticated”

“So when did you first have nylon line then?”

“Ohhhh nylon line came out before the war. Um Christ I don’t know? What it was called…but it came out before the war? Most of the rods earlier on were made of cane but they were also made of Greenheart; and I fished a Greenheart rod up to about 1950.Then I had a big 14ft cane rod which I bought about 1947. Well,1946 was the first Open Match on Bungay Common”.

Wagglers on Bungay Common

“So how would you have fished a match on Bungay Common?”

“Well, you would have a look at the river, and decide how heavy you would fish. Everybody about 1944 would fish top and bottom - attaching the float top and bottom. Of course just after the war they made a load of floats out of papermache. There used to be a place in Harleston that made them. And then they had a lot of celluloid floats.

Just after the war up in the north of England around Manchester way and Wigan, they came up with what is now know as a waggler about ‘45 ‘46 time. There was Benny Ashurst and that lot. I don’t know how to tell you this but there used to be scheme with the railways you see, so people in the north could come to down with people in the south, we used to work for the railways years ago. You see the fishing down here was brilliant, you could get 2lb roach by the score out of the Waveney then Mark.”

“Any 3lb roach?”

“No. I never saw a 3lb roach out of the Waveney in my life. One 2lb fish that’s about it, but they used to get a lot of roach up to 2lb. I have never seen our heard of a 3-pounder from the Waveney, but some one might have had one. Bob Olley had one but that was on the river Ant.”

“When you fished the Charity Cup match with Rose Olley back then, how did you fish that one George?”

“Ah well, that was a different kettle of fish, those were the days of the waggler. Then I fished it with a crow quill waggler.”

“No stick floats then?”

“Ah. . . . no, the water don’t run fast enough, and people in this part of the world didn’t know what a stick float was. That was a Trent job which came later, with Benny Ashurst, and those sorts of people. We had probably seen some but they weren’t used in this part of the world. You don’t use a stick float unless you have the flow in it. Use a float you can control with out flowing water. So we would use a crow quill attached to the end with a loop of nylon with split shot each side.  This is why they were called Waggler’s because they would waggle from side to side. The shot we used came as bb’s, large or small. There were no number 4’s or such sizes. It was difficult to get the larger sizes and we used Alcock’s hooks the prime manufacture in those days as all hooks were made in Redditch.

We used 16 or 18’s but you could get as small as 24 or 26. You could get them if you were in the North of England, and the reason for this was that in canals in the north you didn’t fish for fish; you fished for bites! And to get fish out of those canals was bloody hard work and they had to use small hooks and fish fine. We used to use 10x gut cause how they used to do it was they had a plate with various sizes of holes that they would draw the gut through it to get the size you know Mark.”

“In those days how much would you have to pay for a basic set of fishing tackle?”

“Man, you could probably buy the whole lot for 10 bob.”

“For a set of fishing gear George! Times have changed haven’t they?”

“Yes you’re talking upward of 3 grand if you want the best pole and all the gear today!”

Big Baskets and great anglers

“So now, George, who inspired you?”

“Well, there were two blokes who taught me to fish they came from Manchester. One was called Charlie Farringdon which you might find talk of. The other was Ted Brindle, and they used to fish for the Manchester Associations. There were two Brindles, Ted and his son T. E. Brindle, Ted was a brilliant angler. They used to fish for Grove’s and Whitnall’s AA. They came down to Bungay in 1944 - 1945 time and they stayed with my Parents. When they came down they showed me what to do. Most of the people from the north were the star anglers at that time.”

“So who were the famous anglers at that time, I mean in the 70’s?  We have people like Ivan Marks and Kevin Ashurst?”

“Well now me Boy, you are asking a question. I shall have to think on that one . . and well to be honest; there were really no stars as such, but you had a lot of good anglers about. Let me just flick through my old NFA booklets here. You see there’s a load of good anglers from Birmingham, we had some from around here that were very good, but I mean, Coventry produced Billy Lane; and Billy Lane was still fishing in the 50’s; he started off very young. Then you had Sam Buxton from Doncaster and District Angling Association - his brother S.D. Buxton, the two Buxton’s. Then you had a bloke called Freddie Foster, on the Witham. They were all practically unbeatable. . . . ”

(Page 15 NFA 36^th open, guide book).”

“. . . there was another bloke called Willy Thompson who used to fish for Groves and Whitnall’s AA. He was very good. Also Leeds and District AA anglers were a very hot-bed of angling too. They had Freddy Friend, Kenny Kendal and Harry Pollard. Norman Seal, Harry Seed and the two Thompson brothers. These were excellent. I think W. Thompson won the national in 1947 and I think Harry Seed won it in 1952 or there abouts. Boy they were good.

Now when you got to Leicester and District; well you had Joe Thorpe. He was good but whether his still alive I don’t know. There was one or two London anglers but they were always handicapped as they had to fish to size limit in national matches. They should have won the National’s several times but they always fished to size limits! Bloody ridiculous.

 Then of course you start getting into the Midlands, the Nottingham AA had a bloke called Hugh Storey who won the national championships. Then there was Joe Sharpe. Some of those Scunthorpe boys were quite good and when you got to Sheffield, well it’s even better still. You had Joe Emmens the captain; bloke name of H. Taylor; then you had Joe W. Taylor -  yes he was good he was. Then there was this bloke called Morris Jackson. Well, he had the biggest fishing basket in England. He was a big man and he had a huge bloody basket! Oh it was colossal that was, you could get a big side plate in it.”

“What about Benny Ashurst?”

“Well I can’t remember who he fished for in those days but I new Benny and his son Kevin. He was the best match angler I don’t care what any one says. When Benny got to work on the canals you couldn’t get near him he was that good. They are great anglers and came up with all sorts of new ideas”.

Best fish and secrets never to be told

“What was your best fish or match weight George?”

“Well I’ve had roach up to 2 lb, that’s all you want. I had a perch went 2 lb 9 oz. I’ve had some big dace in Denmark but that don’t count. My best pike I had went 17lb 11 ozs and that was very near the spot where Rose won the Charity cup on Bungay Common. There used to be row of willow trees where Rose fished. It backed on to the old Earsham gravel pit and you used to get an overflow from the water. And that’s where all the roach were, although I weren’t going to tell any one that but of course we knew that were a happening. Of course people used to fish the bottom of the Common then, but they don’t now which is a shame. Then I had a carp of 21 lbs, but I won’t tell you how I caught it at the time, but I was match fishing on the Grand Union Canal at the time?”

“Did you win the match…?”

Yes. No one got near me that day, and I caught that in the first 5 minutes…if you switch that off I’ll tell ya.”

At this point I turned of the tape and the secret will never be told suffice to say it was a part of Bungay Angling Club’s history.

Rockets and fishing matches

“Now George I read in the old minute’s books that when you had a fishing match they used a rocket to signal the start of the match is that right?”

 “Yes Mark, that was a maroon.”

“A maroon?”

“Yes! It was a big rocket that would go bang in the sky. When they had the old life boats out they would send of a maroon or alternatively some people would use a shot gun. There was no whistle then? Oh yes, that came later.”

“So you just fire the shot gun and off you go then?

“Yes. So did you all meet at the Cherry Tree Pub and go on coach? Well no it depended on what you’re doing. If you fished a match on the Common you would meet at Bungay Common.”

“So you would all meet down there on your bikes and what not?”

“Yes. Others would come in there charabangs. . .  or bus to you”

“In our picture there’s an old bus in the background with Rose Olley”

“Yes that’s Preston’s bus. Well no, that’s Lamberts, but we used to use old man Preston’s when he was alive then. He used to do things cheap you see.”

“How many people would attend the matches like the Suffolk Championship George?”

“Oh well you could knock out 150 or more anglers.”

“That many?”

“Oh Christ yeah”

“You’re lucky to get 40 nowadays.”

“Well yes, that’s a problem you got now Mark!”

“So off you would all go, and what bait would you all be using?”

“Maggots or bread or worms.”

“Ground bait?”

“Yes, we used to use sausage rusk; or go down the corn chandlers Warne’s. Well you don’t known them, but they had a coal yard and shop so we got it from them. But we used bran mash, stewed wheat, sausage rusk or bran and that would mix up for our ground bait. Trouble is it used to feed the fish too much, but we didn’t realize that at the time. But you see if you were roach fishing you couldn’t feed too much and they would go. Then if you were bream fishing you could feed them all day.”

Big Bream and the Club pit

“Tell me George, did you catch big bream in those days?”

“Well yeah. I mean there were no bream around Bungay Common then at all. They were added very late on.”

“Who added them?”

“Well I think Cherry Tree caught them. “So the Bungay Cherry Tree Club put the bream in?”

“Yeah, accidentally. But we had them in the Club Pit you see and they went into the river in the floods.”

“So Bungay Cherry Tree had the Ditchingham Club Pit right from the beginning then?”

“Yes, we got it from Commander Cheyne.  We got it through him. The Sprake’s new him quite will you see. During the war it was a gravel pit with no water in it when they needed the aerodromes built around Bungay, they dug it out, and built the concrete road to run the trucks down.”

“Oh so we had it right from the start!” .

“Yes. From 1946 onwards. Mr Cheyne was a big submarine ace during the war. Mr Olley and Jeff Buck approached him and secured the water for the club. The Club Pit originally just had roach and chub. Then we put some bream in the ‘50s.They probably approached the Norfolk Suffolk rivers board and said if we can have some of your roach you can have some of our bream. That’s how it was done in that time. It wasn’t a question of paying for them.”

“So we got quite a lot of bream but because the pits flood they got out into the common.”

Yes. They were originally all in the Club Pit, and then they moved upstream and then right down to the bottom and there are big bream there now  of course.”

“Certainly George, they are big now!”

 “Yes. The nearest bream before then were Wainford Maltings downstream section; but they didn’t have any in the upper Waveney above the Falcon Meadow stretch and the Common. Now they are there up to 9lbs or more.”

Water abstraction pig muck and the future?

“Finally George, the Club is now 60 years old.”

“That’s right, yes.”

“Ian Gosling is retiring in April next year and I will be taking over from him in the New Year. You were secretary for a time I believe?”

“Indeed so! Bob Olley moved away; Jeff Buck took over; and then I got involved but I got married and moved.”

“So what are your hopes for the future of the Club?”

”Well my ideas are bit alien to what others may think. You see we fished matches in rivers and lakes, or still waters like the Club Pit; but now what has happened, is you have the Commercial Fisheries, Mark my man.”

“I agree! Commercial Fishery impetus is huge now and most tackle shops are geared up for them, but they are good in one respect and bad in another. For example, they give a lot of anglers a great deal of pleasure and are very accessible for disabled anglers, but many anglers who fish them are missing out on the rivers, I fear.”

“Yes, but you have a problem. The rivers have gone to pot and let go! Water abstraction effects all around Bungay common exist. It used to be up a foot or two and I can prove it .We had an incident about pig effluent years ago and I did what I felt was right and set up a public meeting. We got it sorted with 29 prosecutions. It started because I was on the Angling Waters Fishery’s Consultative Committee; and also Vice-Chairman of the Norfolk and Suffolk Consultative itself. They wanted to keep it secret but I thought that was not right, so I put it in the Press, held a big public meeting and it was put right. And don’t forget we had the Suffolk County Association then, of which I was the Secretary at the time.

"And what of the rivers George?"

“I can’t see the big rivers being like they used to be. The Waveney at Beccles is abysmal!”

“Well I don’t know about that George. I had a good catch of roach from there last week almost 30lb of fish!”

“Ahh yes, but I bet they were all in one block by the quay.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Well years ago they used to be all the way down to the Old Swing Bridge. We used to fish matches down through there, and if you didn’t have 20lb of fish, you had had a bad day! Now they all move up in one block. You know where the Pink Boater’s House is? Well, that used to be brilliant for bream.”

“How would you like to see it going then George?”

“Well I would like to see the rivers back to how they were back in the 50s; but now the Commercial Fisheries are what people will go to in the future.”

“Yes. Commercial Fisheries are the main ones these days.”

“Correct! You can drive your car to the peg and with the amount of gear we all have these days you need to!”. . .  laughs.

Final note from the editor

Well it was obvious to me that George loved fishing the rivers, having come from the days when rivers were at there very best but I admire his efforts to end pollution, and being willing to stand up and fight for the protection of our fishing in Bungay. Things have indeed changed a great deal in angling but one thing remains, we all love to catch fish and we all need to work together to protect our sport and waters for the future. I hope that George will continue to enjoy his fishing and thank him for giving me this slice of history from Bungay Cherry Tree’s past.

M. Casto

 Bungay Cherry Tree Angling Club.