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Birmingham Anglers' Association

davidfowler

davidfowler

Exiled Brummie
When I lived in Birmingham I was a member for many years but moving away restricted the times I could fish their waters so I dropped out. I bought this 1937 BAA Railway Travelling Card on eBay recently and thought I'd share a couple of its pages with you.
 
Thanks for that David will show them to Pete when he gets up. He too dropped out of the BAA when he joined the White Swan. Jean.
 
I wasn't aware of the Birmingham Anglers' Association, where could i find out more about them.

many thanks
Neville..
 
Thank you for sharing that card with us David. I will show my Dad as I think he was a member.
Amanda
 
I don't know if they still do it, but years ago the BAA used to have a contest that took place in many venues on the same day,rivers,pools canals.It was known as the Big'un.
My husbands grandfather won it in the 30s and his uncle won it in the 40s.
 
Birmingham Anglers Association have a number of streatches of river bank fishing rights around the midlands and when I was there my father and I used to have a membership. Yes they had the Big Contest back then and the various clubs were allotted so many tickets. The river stretches associated with the tickets were not known till later after some form of draw I suppose...not all of the river streatches had the same potential for a big catch. Betting on this match was quite high and very large sums of money could be won...so much for the fishing and day out in the country aspect. During the rest of the year the various BAA venues could be used by clubs on the week ends by arrangement during the fishing season.

I notice on the BAA site that very large fish are cought now in these venues the likes of which I never saw in my time, so that the fishing must have improved over time; which is good to hear. I must admit that this activity was more the total thing for me...the day out of the city...the beauty of the countryside...quality time with my dad...the ride on the Midland Red. Catching the fish was sort of incidental. I suspect that contest fishing is much more refined and mechanical now and has become an activity that I would not like at all. Anyway I still have rods but they have not been used in many years now...I don't know...seems cruel to drag a creature out of it's environment by it's lip just for pleasure.

Fishing in North America is very different to most of the course fish angling in the UK. They have contests here but they use 400HP high speed bass boats to chase the fish from a starting gun. Bit daft don't you think? The general angling here is counducted in a much coarser way...non of your 11/2 and 2 pound breaking strain lines...Moby Dick would not break what they use here and no keepnets are used...the fish are either chucked back or into the boat. Maggots are not used...just worms or lures or live bait. Fly fishing is different though and is conducted in the same manner on either side of the Atlantic. It being a higher form of angling in my opinion. I would go fishing again but only if I was going to eat the catch and when that was caught I would have to pack up and go home since I don't care for 'catch and release' for pleasure...probably would just sit on the bank or in the boat and enjoy the day. With my kind of luck though I would be fishing all day mostly...for no result. Salmon fishing here is limited to a single catch since there are only a few returning to the Atlantic Provinces now. The Mirramichi used to be the best salmon fishing river in the world
 
When I was about 11 I entered the annual Junior contest. It was fished on the canals exclusively (I think) and I was drawn near Tardebigge. Caught a few tiddlers with my Dad behind me encouraging but didn't get a sniff of any prize. Boo hoo!
 
davidfowler said:
When I lived in Birmingham I was a member for many years but moving away restricted the times I could fish their waters so I dropped out. I bought this 1937 BAA Railway Travelling Card on eBay recently and thought I'd share a couple of its pages with you.
Click to expand...
Hi Dave, very interesting to see the old BAA card, my Dad was
a big fisherman(He was 6FT4) being a carter on the GWR he used to cheap rail travel, and would be out all day Sunday
during the season.He had six sons and I dont think any of us took it up seriously like he did. I do believe he was was on
the BAA committee at one time, dont know if any records exist from all those years ago, with this forum nothing surprises
me any more. Its as well all this history is coming out now, once we are gone it will all be dead and buried, take care now, Bernard
 
My father was a member of the BAA both when he lived in Brum, his birthplace, and Hereford, where he moved with Henry Wiggin and Co which was in Wiggin Stret the home of BAA right up to his death.


Sue

I just looked at BAA website my father and my parents, after their marriage, lived in Icknield Port Road.....
 
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My father was a member of the BAA both when he lived in Brum, his birthplace, and Hereford, where he moved with Henry Wiggin and Co which was in Wiggin Stret the home of BAA right up to his death.Quote SBSFFamilyhistory.

I worked for Henry Wiggin, Holmer Road, Hereford and its different names for 30 years. Come November I hope to get my pension. People who worked for Wiggin pop up all over the place . In Herefordshire you used to see a lot of BAA signs.
 
Arkrite said:
I worked for Henry Wiggin, Holmer Road, Hereford and its different names for 30 years. Come November I hope to get my pension. People who worked for Wiggin pop up all over the place . In Herefordshire you used to see a lot of BAA signs.
Click to expand...


Well if you ever went to the Central Stores for bits and pieces then you must have known my Dad, Joe Burrows.

Sue
 
Very Likely. I packed in 3 years ago to care for my late mrs. I often visited Central Stores . I worked in Heavy Machining.
 
Is there anyone out there with memories or information on Brummie angling clubs from the 50's and before??? My Dad, Thomas 'Tommy' Jones of 199 Percy Road, Sparkhill, was a very keen angler apparently..... after his death in September 1955 (he died in a car crash whilst on a fishing trip with two good friends, near Banbury), flowers and condolences were received from Reynolds Tubes Sports & Social Club, the Swan & District Angling Society, the Good Companions Angling Society and the Sparkbrook Angling Society as well as the more obvious Birmingham Anglers Association. I'm still researching my Dad's history so any information would be gratefully received.

Kindest regards,

Fairport
 
I have a pendulum wall clock that came from my dad, I believe he won it in an angling competition when he was a teenager so it would be something like the early 1920s, anyone know if there were any records kept for this sort of thing?
 
Eric Gibson said:
I have a pendulum wall clock that came from my dad, I believe he won it in an angling competition when he was a teenager so it would be something like the early 1920s, anyone know if there were any records kept for this sort of thing?
Click to expand...
Hi All,
I believe that the Birmingham Angling Association still exists although I do not have details. It may be worth contacting them.
Old Boy
 
The BAA was huge, when I was kid. In fact I'm pretty sure I was a junior member.
I used to love going fishing with Our Dad, it got me to all sorts of exotic places, like Tardebigge, Hampton Lode and Cleeve Prior !
Has the assn. really gone into decline ?
 
We used to go to where dad called Fernhill Heath to fish in the canal, I later found out it was better called Martin Hussingtree, it was near Droitwich.
 
Hello Everyone
Great memories of fishing fishing in the Worcester Canal. Stoke Works, Wychbold, Hanbury Wharf and Blackpole.
Used to go quite often early on Sunday Mornings, it was the only place I ever caught a fish. I'm going back 63 years.
Tight Lines Everyone.
Garden Gerald.
 
I was a member of the BAA from the end of the 50s to late 60s, I should think. That membership got me fishing on many canals and some pools. I didn't catch any "glass-casers", but enjoyed being out next to the water, mainly. Competitions weren't my thing, I enjoyed fishing alone or with a pal. Happy days.

Regards, Ray T
 
Coach company I worked for in a the sixties used to take out the fishing clubs on a Sunday. I can remember loading the boot with many crates of beer ready for the return trip home often stopping off at a pub to top up :)
 
Hi Gardengeraid
The Birmingham Angling Association is the Largest association in the country with at least 200 clubs and 10,000 members
It had a membership of nearly 70,000 anglers with1,200 affiliated clubs when at its peak in the seventys
may i add my comment gerard its still very popular at stoke prior wharf I can tell you as i live down here
down the lane from it but i will also say or so i am not a fisherman yet i like the waterways and the cannals
and do the waking along for miles on them to city worc i start from Hambury and go either way
the great news is they have cleaned the rivers up and openened the cannals wide with plenty of fish in now
my mate is the water bailiff whom checks for the licences he his a right old stickler for it
I myself when a kid went down to Aston resser with a cousin and he lent me some rods ,spent hours there
never caught a thing so that putme off for starters and never tryed it again
so get a grip and tight lines gerard best wishes Astonian;;;;
 
If you were a fisherman in the 1940s-70s you belonged to the BAA but sadly things have changed.
Firstly they lost a lot of their waters and then the fish stock began to decline with polution plus the dreaded Zander.
Then anglers began to change ,my husband tells my amused son of how he sat for hours on the banks of the Severn watching the kingfishers, taking in the air of the countyside, fishing just for pleasure ,occasionally a contest.
My son , a keen competition angler, sits for hours around bleak .soul less, overstocked pools catching fish such as F1s (what?)
 
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