Basingstoke Canal Angling Association

Member Chris Kingston’s story is a similar one to many of us who have come back to angling after a long interlude.

Chris tells it himself here:

Hi there, I resumed angling last summer (2006) and joined as a member of the BCAA in August, some 35-40 years after I last had a go.

In those days I fished mainly on the Thames at Kingston, and with little or no success at catching anything!

You can imagine my surprise therefore when on my first outing on the canal on 11^th August (2006) I caught the bream and the tench

in the attached photos.

On the second outing (28^th August) I caught the carp – all at the same venue, which was just upstream of the Waterwitch pub in Odiham.

All safely returned to the water to give me further pleasure in the future.

Because I was new to the game at that point I didn’t even possess scales to check the weights!

Since then I’ve been on the canal some 20 to 30 times and never yet (touch wood) have I had a blank.

Suffice to say I’m firmly hooked on my new hobby and rarely miss the chance to get out on the canal.