I'd been fishing Newhaven arm since I was 14 or 15 when, during the school holidays, mum used to get rid of me by offering the fare of a weekly "runaround" on the Railway. We always got area 4 which cost £1.65 for the week catching the 09:14 to Warrior Square as the ticket wasn't valid before 09:00 This covered Tunbridge Wells to Rye via Hastings and all the way to Brighton including the Seaford branch. It was a good excuse to explore other areas for potential fishing trips. During this period, I caught my first sea fish, OK, it was just a Pouting, but the 6oz fish put up a good scrap on light tackle.
Those weeks saw some coarse fishing, most notably on the "Wallers Haven" behind the Star Inn. Did we buy a day ticket? Hmm.. I think not! The rest of the week we just pissed about on the trains and played the putting greens all over Sussex.
One day myself, Neil Scott and David Heskett met up to get the usual train, and on the way to the station, David found a wallet with £10 in it. We chucked the wallet out of the tunnel and spent most of the money on Chocolate and the "Pitch n Putt" course at Hastings. It's what the owner would have wanted!
In May 1977 I decided to do a rail trip from Penzance to the tip of Scotland. I'd got free rail travel by now, but couldn't get anyone to accompany me, so embarked on a solo away day. I took my rod with me to go on one of the Mackeral trips offered out of Penzance. It was on this occasion I found how badly I suffered from sea-sickness. Another family group on board caught loads whilst I was offering some "rubby dubby" to the fish.
Until I arrived at Thurso, I hadn't realised how much windier the north of Scotland was. An overnight stay was not taken into consideration, and I caught the same train back to Inverness. I must revisit that highland line again before I die.
When Kevin passed his driving test, it was a good excuse for night's out for all the lads. I think there were six of us in his old Land Rover for the initial trip to Newhaven. It must have been around November 1978, I would have been in the passenger seat with the other four in the back experiencing a very rough ride. I think I was the only one with any angling experience as I can't recall the others fishing. Perhaps they came just for a jolly?
Another night out saw us change the location to Dungerness, or rather Denge Marsh which is gobbing distance away. We hired a bigger land rover to accommodate a couple of extra freeloaders. On arrival, I remember it was blowing a gale and no fishing was done. As the night progressed, tension was mounting and arguments started. At dawn, Paul Neal went outside and found a box of flares. God knows why they were on the beach apparently abandoned? He brought one back to show us all and we thought it would be a good idea to let it off. As none of us had seen one before, it came as a shock to see what happened. We scarpered pretty quick before we got into trouble, but I can't understand why we left the remaining flares on the beach?
I think that was the last time we all went out together.
Strangely, when I moved out of home in 1980 to Eastbourne, it was many years before I did any sea fishing again. Even when I lived at Seaford, I only walked along Newhaven arm once and was not tempted to fish.
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