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Birmingham Anglers' Association

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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Before the BAA!

"Anyone desirous of real sport should join the Birmingham and Midland Piscatorial Association ( est June 1878) which rents portions of the river Trent and other waters."

Showell's Directory of Birmingham 1885
 
In the late 60's the BAA setup a junior section imaginatively called the Birmingham Junior Anglers Society ... which was run by a lovely guy named Ken Aske. The club was subsequently renamed the Starlets.
I joined the club when I was about 12, and remained a member until I discovered girls (.... there were very few girl members). We had regular coach trips to fish contests on rivers and canals I couldn't reach by bus/train. I remember representing Birmingham a couple of times in the national junior angling competition.
We used to have club meetings on Friday evenings in the old BAA HQ in Thorpe Street. It didn't give me a life-long passion for fishing, but it did give me a life-long passion for drinking. There was a cheap bar, and blind eyes were turned to young lads learning the ways of the fisherman !
Are there any other ex-members of BJAS out there ?
 
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?)

Hello Alberta, my dad also fished for pleasure, he used to take me with him regularly. The round pool in Acocks Green which is very close to where we used to live or the canal in Knowle were his regular haunts with an occasional visit to Earlswood Lakes, plus competitions which could be anywhere.
 
I fished Earlswood a couple of times, maybe in the early 1970s, probably Engine Pool. I remember catching a large number of “skimmers” and ending up very very slimy!

I looked at an article for the the present day Earlswood and was amazed to read that over 400lbs had been caught in a match. Probably the recent added carp made a difference, I can’t image a bag of skimmers that large.

https://www.fisheries.co.uk/earlswood/
 
Hello Alberta, my dad also fished for pleasure, he used to take me with him regularly. The round pool in Acocks Green which is very close to where we used to live or the canal in Knowle were his regular haunts with an occasional visit to Earlswood Lakes, plus competitions which could be anywhere.

Hello, Stitcher,

Would that "round pool in Acocks Green" be the one in Fox Hollies Park? I lived near there too in the 60s.

Regards, Ray T.
 
Hello, Stitcher,

Would that "round pool in Acocks Green" be the one in Fox Hollies Park? I lived near there too in the 60s.

Regards, Ray T.

Hello Ray, yes that is the one. We lived in Oakhill Crescent so it was a short walk round the corner into Oakhurst Road and through the park gates. Then it was quite a walk across the park to the round pool. When I was a child my dad took me there to show me how to fish most evenings for an hour or two, during the better weather. I remember when I was quite young dad caught a bream there, it weighed 7 lb. 14 oz. and it ended up stuffed on show in the British Legion in Botterville Road.
 
Hello Ray, yes that is the one. We lived in Oakhill Crescent so it was a short walk round the corner into Oakhurst Road and through the park gates. Then it was quite a walk across the park to the round pool. When I was a child my dad took me there to show me how to fish most evenings for an hour or two, during the better weather. I remember when I was quite young dad caught a bream there, it weighed 7 lb. 14 oz. and it ended up stuffed on show in the British Legion in Botterville Road.

Wow, I didn't even know there were bream in the Fox Hollies pool. I lived in Tavistock Rd and did catch a nice tench there of just over three pounds. I often tried for the pike but the devils kept following my spinner to the bank then turning away. I watched a bloke pull one out weighing 19 pounds one afternoon, so I was keen to do better!

Regards, Ray T.
 
Wow, I didn't even know there were bream in the Fox Hollies pool. I lived in Tavistock Rd and did catch a nice tench there of just over three pounds. I often tried for the pike but the devils kept following my spinner to the bank then turning away. I watched a bloke pull one out weighing 19 pounds one afternoon, so I was keen to do better!

Regards, Ray T.

Hello Ray, I have no idea whether or not that bream is still in the British legion or whether the Legion building is still there.
Stitcher.
 
Does anyone remember a peg on the River Severn that was called Cromwell’s Hole. I seem to remember it was on BAA Water.
 
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