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Old 06-02-13, 14:49
AndyHoldcroft AndyHoldcroft is offline
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Default Family transcript 4: "Fishing Diary" pt 2

The second set of excerpts from the diary of Edward Dolton, commencing in August 1888

August 20
River Meese (sic) at Haselour14 with Mr Brecknell. Weather wet morning & evening and fine during middle of day. Wind S.W. & warm. Roach etc not biting or at any rate not with ordinary float fishing. Try stret-pegging15 next time as seen at Boston in the Witham. Lost fine perch by hook twisting round & sticking into the bait (a small gudgeon) instead of hooking the fish. Also lost another good fish (probably an eel) through gut breaking by injury from rust at shank of hook. Plenty of minnow & small gudgeon here for bait. Caught 7 kinds of fish here including minnow & a quantity of small gudgeon. Good place for legering16.
14 Near Tamworth. River usually spelt Mease and spelt as “Meace” by Edward later in diary.
15/16 Angling techniques


Aug 29
Arley (Warwickshire)17 with Will. Pope. Fine day, after heavy rain all previous day. Water well coloured. Too thick for any bait but worms. Lost 2 fish, about ¾ lb each, one lightly hooked, & the other through gut breaking at shank of hook.

17 West of Nuneaton: presumably Edward was fishing in the Bourne

Sep 10
Knightsford Bridge18 with Wm the Pope. Got there on Satdy. afternoon and inspected the length of river available for fishing. Water very cold & wind N.E. Tried fly – but no use – no fish rising. On Sunday tried spinning for trout & touched 2 fish each but failed to get them through the fish coming shyly & not being securely hooked. Monday morning William got 2 fine trout weight 2 lbs 14 oz the two, spinning & 2 smaller ones in afternoon about ¾ lb each. This river is very foul from willow branches & roots & unfit for pike spinning the proper way & by which the heaviest fish are caught is by trolling19 the dead gorge, searching all the holes especially in the pool below the mill. Live baiting might do if the bait is not above 2 feet deep. Waders are absolutely necessary to fly fish here and much the best to use them when spinning for trout. Note that in spinning the bait should only be 3 or 4 inches under the surface so as to show as little of the trace as possible; and no line on the water. Also with fly; only the trace should fall on the water & be instantly & gently straightened out so as to rise the droppers & leave only the tail fly, with as little trace as possible in the wake. The above refers to shallow water- both fly & spinning. In deep water let the baits sink.

18 On the River Teme near Knightwick, Worcestershire.
19 Angling technique


Sep 20
Birdsgrove Fish Club20 water on Dove, near Ashbourne with Wm the Pope. Hot bright day & water fine. Wind N.E. Spun natural minnow all day but only rose 3 fish – 2 coming short & 1 caught. Would be best fished wading. 4 miles of good water but more grayling than trout. Finest tackle required. A member today took 7 ½ brace tout & grayling spinning small artificial (Devon) with very light hooks & trace. A grayling 2 lb amongst them. Worked the minnow by winding in on left hand, round thumb & two last fingers. Must try this. Beautiful scenery.
20 Trout fishing club still based in Staffordshire & Derbyshire based around fishing on Rivers Trent & Dove. It would appear that Edward was a guest of the club.

Sep 21
Fly fished all day for grayling but sport poor owing to water being very fine & sun & wind same as preceding day. Rose very few fish owing to cast not falling straight on the water, the dressing being worn off. Wm the P. rose many fish but only caught 1 grayling 4 oz. Very unlucky this time – not usual. Think his liver was out of condition. Caught my first grayling today, and a nice fish. The accommodation at Inn (Royal Oak, Mr Booth) very good & charged about 7/- day. Think there are more flies in proportion than fish in this part of the river.
Oct 2
River Stour21 with Al.22 Bitterly cold & dull morning but sunny & warmer after mid-day. Trailed artificial bait after boat but caught nothing but weeds. Worked down from the Sheep wash pitching the bait (eel tail on Pennell23 tackle) into likely places near the banks where the fish seemed to be. Rose & hooked 6 fish but only secured one owing to their swimming into the dense masses of weeds with which river is filled & the Pennell flight not holding well. Try live bait next time, with large triangle. Cannot fish here for pike without a boat: charge 2/- a day from Sigwells. Good place for perch is in large holes on right bank just above the Gas Works. Fish for them with float & worm & minnows.
21 Presumably the Dorset Stour he fished in earlier in the year: see note 4 above on Page 1.
22 Presumably his brother Alfred who was living in Boscombe by July 1889 at the latest (see note 44 below).
23 Now spelt Pennel


Oct 31
In the Teme at Knightsford Bridge with Mr Bartholomew. River very low and grayling not rising. Rose and caught a number of samlets24 which were put back into the water. A good rise of flies from 10 till 3-30. Olive duns and a few of whirling blue duns & very small duns25. On next occasion when water is so low the best plan will be to stand in middle of river at bottom of stream & fish the deeper water with worm or maggot on light bottom tackle. When commencing fly fishing begin with a cast of fancy flies untill (sic) rise of natural flies appears and fish commence feeding on them & then put up a cast of the same kind. Also, with fine tackle, pass the line between instead of over fingers so as not to break the cast in striking. In wading today, I stepped into a hole and had great difficulty in getting out of it. In future always try depth at each step with landing handle.

24 Young salmon.
25 All types of fly.

Nov 22
Plants Brook Reservoirs. Wind westerly & very strong; preventing boat fishing. Temperature high for time of year. Tried all three of the reservoirs from the sides with live bait & spinning eel tail & gudgeon and artificial bait but no result. Next time try middle of reservoir from boat with large roach on snap tackle & fish deep. Thousands of plovers & rooks flying over the Sewage farm.
Nov 28
Plants Brook Reservoirs. Calm misty morning & warm. Got the roach together around the boat and had 6 bites, catching four fish when a cold S.E. wind set in, with rain afterwards and ne’er another bite after that. Would have been better to have tried gentles or worms with a foot of line on the bottom if I had thought of it instead of leaving the position; and using ground bait sparingly.
Decr 6
Plants Brook Reservoirs. Wind S.W. Beautifully sunny morning & warmer than many of the days in July of this year. Found the roach at once & stuck to the one place and kept it baited up. Lost several through defective hook – being tied at wrong angle to the line it did not penetrate. Three of the roach 7 ½ oz each. Best days fishing this year for weight of fish caught.


1889

Jan 21
River Meace at Elford26 with Mr Attwood & friend. Day first rate for time of year & water in grand condition. Caught 1 pike spinning with roach, female with large roe, well developed. Was a splendid flavour & probably caused by feeding on trout as her haunt was opposite where a well stocked trout stream joined the river. Tried a bank runner for eels but caught none.
26 See Note 14 above.

Feb 20
Lower Witton Reservoir. Went a-roach fishing. Calm & fine at starting but wind commenced to blow half a gale, getting worse later on; so no sport. Caught a Loch Leven trout, about 9 inches long, with paste27. Put him back to grow.

27 A type of bait.

March 13
Aston Reservoir28 with Mesrs Breckwell & Hills (President Bordesley Waltonians)29. Very windy & rather cold – waves breaking over wall by hot water inlet a yard high. Sport poor & fish small being only 17 all told. Reason probably being some pike near end of the wall, preventing shoal of roach ascending the stream.

28 Originally used for holding drinking water drawn from the River Tame and subsequently used for boating & speedboat racing at various times. Now overshadowed by Gravelly Hill Interchange (aka “Spaghetti Junction”) and situated in Salford Park, Aston Birmingham. The trip there and back would have been about 11/12 miles for Edward.
29 An Angling Club: Bordesley being an area in eastern Birmingham about 3 miles north of where Edward was living in Yardley.



March 20
Sara Hole Mill Pool. Tried for jack but no result except losing 2 baits with small ones. Roach fishing also useless. Miller says there are plenty in the pool. Also says can get trout in the different streams connected with the mill30.

30 This must be the Miller cited by J.R.R Tolkien as the inspiration for the (minor) character in “The Lord of the Rings”. (“Recently I saw in a paper a picture of the last decrepitude of the once thriving corn-mill beside its pool that long ago seemed to me so important. I never liked the looks of the Young miller, but his father, the Old miller, had a black beard..” (J.R.R. Tolkien: Introduction to “The Lord of the Rings”): fortunately the mill has since been saved from the decrepitude Tolkien noted).
March 27
Moseley New Pool. Fine day but cold. Wind N. Baited up 3 places for roach but got none. Water probably too cold. Fished for perch with minnow but only small jack came. Previous night cold & frosty.


April 3
Witton reservoir for trout. Wind as usual N.E. Tried live minnow but no result – not even a perch. Spun natural minnow to same tune & then artificial. Warmer in afternoon & tried flies but no fish rising & caught nothing. Disgusting day for sport. Shut up early & went home.
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