I’ve been fishing from the age of around 11, when I persuaded my father to buy me a rod and reel which we then took to the Admiralty pier at Dover. Here I caught my first fish, a Pollack shortly followed by a number of mackerel! From that point on I was hooked and spent many an hour fishing the Kent coast.
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Around 1978 I began helping Stan Smith who ran a charter boat at Queenborough. I made teas, netted fish and pulled up the anchor in return for being allowed to fish from the foredeck using an old reverse taper beach caster and being, I guess one of the first uptide anglers.
A move to Cornwall shortly after this put me back onto the beaches for my fishing until I brought a dinghy in 1985. In 1990 I purchased a Shetland Alaska 500, and joined the Birchington Angling Sea Society where I was elected committee positions as Safety Officer and Competition Secretary. Venues were mainly around the Kent coast, but I also trailed it to various more ‘exotic’ locations. These included Penzance to compete in, and win, the English Small Boat Shark Championships in 1997, Brittany in France, and my first visits to Littlehampton both for fun and to compete in the various Bream competitions organised by the Littlehampton Angling Club and the Bognor Region Angling Association. I always came away with a prize and enjoyed the fact I had ‘beaten the locals’! In 1997 I took heaviest fish/best specimen in the NFSA Boat Competition fished from Littlehampton with a bream of 4lb 3oz.
Having fished over many wrecks the need to see what was down there finally got the better of me in 1992 and I joined North West Kent BSAC and learnt to dive. In 2002 I joined Bexley Sub Aqua and became a BSAC open water instructor. In 2007 I became a BSAC Advanced Diver and took on the role of Diving Officer.
In March 2008 I bought Sally Ann and chartered her in West Sussex from Littlehampton and Shoreham until 2014.
In August 2014 Sally Ann and I moved to Weymouth.
In August 2015 I brought Sally Ann Jo.
In March 2023 I sold Sally Ann Jo and all trips from now on will be aboard Snapper or Jurassic.
My greatest enjoyment is seeing customers catch fish, particularly younger anglers.
Amongst my personal best fish I would includeBlue Shark 100lb+ using 18lb line, boat Cornwall
Cod 18.5lb, shore, Dungeness
Cod 22lb, boat, Margate
Smoothound 18lb, boat, Selsey
Pollock 15lb, boat, Littlehampton
Bass 8.5lb, shore to lure, Shoreham
Bream 4lb 3oz, boat Littlehampton
Conger 80lb, boat, Shoreham
Blonde Ray 22lb, boat, Weymouth
Butterfly ray 150lb, shore, San Juan, Tenerife
Boll Ray 220lb, shore, San Juan, Teneriffe
Spurdog 19lb, boat, Weymouth