3 month rest period

[Lucky13]

Starts today! Do you UK boys remember the old "closed season, 15 March to 15 June, and did y'all agree with it?

[baitbucket]

Yes Terry i remember it well, the ending of the season sucked but as the new one approached the anticipation was like Christmas on steroids.
The close season gave you time for planing out the next campaign ,going on work party's with your local angling clubs to take care of the club waters, pruning up the bushes and tree's fixing bords into the swims and backfilling them to make the swims on sloping banks a little more level i enjoyed giving something back.
Then there were the cloak and dagger prebaiting missions that was fun in its own right
 2 weeks or so prior to the glorious 16 there was nothing that could get my mind away from the glorious 16th of june, i still remember that feeling around that time of year.
It was great when all the grass had grown back over the banks in the well trodden area's it would make the lake seem new.
We would sometimes be set up in a swim a couple of days before the off waiting and watching for the fish and yes we could still blank after all that 
Memories.

[K]

Coming from Gods Country (Yorkshire) we always had a 14 day head start on the rest of the country ....The 'Stolen Fortnight".

I still remember being a kid of 12 or 13 and getting to the lake before dark on the night before the "Glorious 1st day" which actually started at first light (usually around 4am)

We sat there alongside the other  eager souls just waiting for the baliff to give it a shout, then it was sit back and wait for the first tench or carp of the year.  I so wanted to cast in early, but we never did.

Although I fished all year round in the neighboUring  county of Lincolnshire (No Close Seaon) the first always held that magical suspense for us as kids and teenagers.

Magic!

[Lucky13]

I figured there'd be a couple of other nostalgics like me out there. Why I thought of this is, an old fishing mate of mine in UK keeps telling me how the UK fishing of yesteryear has come back. Bigger and more fish in waters all over the country. Especially a favourite of mine the barbel and now the perch are back bigger than average with 4 & 5 pounders not un-common. I can honestly say after 25 years in USA, I've never wanted to go back, but lately I thought it would be nice to go over for a couple of months to fish for barbel & perch again and maybe see some old friends & family. Just got to remember not to go 15 March to 15 June, that's close season on the rivers. If anyone is going around September and needs a paid guide, I'm available.