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Birmingham Anglers' Association

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 ?
 
Alberta said:
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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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/
 
Stitcher said:
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.
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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.
 
Ray T said:
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.
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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.
 
Stitcher said:
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.
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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.
 
Ray T said:
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.
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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.
 
Last time I went fishing with my Dad was in a lake at Hewell Grange which was a Correction Centre for wayward youths.
(Was this BAA waters ?) I remember sitting, freezing, and listening to the Drill Pigs, behind the wall, yelling at the inmates.
 
I remember fishing with my Dad the BAA waters at Netherseal on the river Mease. Used to get some great chub out of there.
 
My Dad, his Dad and brothers were all BAA members and as kids they and my Grandad used to fish at the 'Pool' in fox Hollies Park which was just a few minutes walk from home.
When I was younger we were always off somewhere fishing, aunts and cousins in tow, regardless of the weather. In my early teens the most frequently fished place was on the Avon near Alcester town - knew it well as I used to get bored and go on long walkabouts! (still have some old cine film of him fishing too). Dad was also a member of the Birmingham Co-op fishing club and also recall that he was in a works fishing Club with HDA/Alcan.

I thought I'd escaped it all but when I met my wife I learned that her Dad was Secretary of the BAA, always out fishing and also made /repaired rods in his spare time for a tackle shop near where the Post Office is on Shirley Road - was it called Roys? I think he also got quick fixes from the Pool too. My wife and I both have childhood memories of hemp seed boiling on the stove, prepared secret bait concoctions of bread, spam and maggots - each mix uniquely prepared for canal or river fishing.

My last day fishing was in the late 70s at Earlswood lakes - cold and raining - I packed up and left my mate fishing while I sat in the car with a flask of hot soup!
I guess I was a great disappointment to my Dad as I never really took to fishing - I just couldn't bear to eat anything after touching maggots ;-(

Below is a picture of my Dad and Grandad ( the two shortest back center , Dad wearing beret, grandad on his right) on a Co-op fishing club trip ( early 60s I think).
Co-op Fishing Club.JPG
 
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Ah yes the smell of boiling hemp and tares! I remember going into a supermarket and piling the whole shelf full of tins of luncheon meat into the trolley.

Now off to catch the Barbel!
 
Not BAA, but of interest to all those old Birmingham anglers out there. Many would have fished Edgbaston Resr. I remember over 40 years ago, on summer nights, shooting over to get a couple of hours fishing. But has anyone had a day like this?

Here is a 36 minute very recent film by Cadence Fishing UK, superb quality...

 
Barbel were introduced into the River Severn in the late 50's, but it wasn't until the 70's that they started to become the predominate fish on the middle reaches of the Severn. At that time I was the secretary of our local fishing club and although we fished many BAA waters the Severn at Ribbersford just down from Bewdley was our favourite spot.

Not being much of a fisherman myself my favourite spot was in the Woodman that fronted the local caravan park. I heard that the pub was washed away in a flash flood that occurred about 10 or 15 years back.

Here are a couple of images taken inside the Woodman on the opening night of the season in the early 70's whilst waiting for midnight and the season to start. Looking at these photos it makes me sad to realise that all but one of those lads and those that are not in the photo (except myself taking the photo) are no longer with us.
 

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If you enjoyed the video in post 52 above, then here is another this time it is BAA.

Filmed in January 2018 and on the Droitwich canal at Hanbury. Another amazing bag from a canal!
 
Hello :) My dad was John Harding (aka Jack) and his father, my grandad (though I never knew him) was Albert Harding, who was a big cheese in the BAA apparently! He ran a tackle shop on the Warwick Road. After my dad passed away a couple of years ago I scanned some slides in which seem to show a fishing outing. If anyone can name the people in the pictures, let me know - I would be really interested to hear about anything related to the shop or the family. Dad was never into angling, he hated it - he ended up teaching fencing instead.20140808174901_10.jpg20140808174901_09.jpg20140808180346_01.jpg
 
Thorn1979 said:
Hello :) My dad was John Harding (aka Jack) and his father, my grandad (though I never knew him) was Albert Harding, who was a big cheese in the BAA apparently! He ran a tackle shop on the Warwick Road. After my dad passed away a couple of years ago I scanned some slides in which seem to show a fishing outing. If anyone can name the people in the pictures, let me know - I would be really interested to hear about anything related to the shop or the family. Dad was never into angling, he hated it - he ended up teaching fencing instead.View attachment 128743View attachment 128742View attachment 128744
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April 1949 from the Sports Argus...

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FDAEA256-2DC7-492B-875E-B55C7330A782.jpeg
 
Thank you! I reckon that's Albert, 2nd from left in my big photo, but I suspect those were taken earlier than '49 - hard to say really as I know so little about them. I used to have a photo of Albert behind the counter in the shop, but I've no idea where that's got to.

The bus they were in is rather lovely too.
 
Pedrocut said:
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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This peg is on the BAA water at Arley and is notorious for being a "bottomless" hole on a fast mainly shallow stretch. It is also a terrible place to draw in any fishing match as it produces very few fish. One story is that it was created by a German aerial bomb in the second world although that may be just a story. When I was a kid I drew it this peg out of the draw bag for my dads mate, he was not best pleased.
 
Yes I recall this peg being discussed but luckily never drew it, if my memory serves me correctly it was just a few pegs up from the car park.
 
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