About Me… (or just skip all this stuff and click on the links to my blogs at the bottom of this page)

Hi, I’m Bill Knight. I consider myself to be an ordinary, average angling veteran of the South West open match and league circuit with a couple of Nationals under my belt too. However, these days I’m much more of a club angler, (and an average one at that), preferring to fish small friendly matches with my clubs, Alcove Angling Club and the Kingswood & Hanham Royal British Legion Angling Club based in Bristol. I’ve also been known to have a go at the odd open match here and there, just to keep me on my toes.

I first cast a line at the tender age of eight, when a kind neighbour agreed to take me fishing after I continually badgered him for about a year. I had been given a fly rod and reel by another neighbour who, due to health issues, had to lay down his rod and move on to less active pastimes. From the moment I caught my first fish, which was a 2-ounce dace, I was literally “hooked” for life. All through my school days I lived and breathed fishing, visiting my local river Welland at every opportunity. If I couldn’t get someone to go with me then I would often go by myself. 

At weekends, I would get up at the crack of dawn, waking the whole household, as I rushed around getting all my stuff together. Then I would set off, rod tied to the crossbar of my bike and everything else packed into a carrier bag, which was tied up with string and slung over my shoulder. The 2-mile journey would take me about 10-15 minutes and a day’s fishing usually amounted to a full 8 hours or more. I absolutely loved every minute of it.

My local river Welland was in the county of Northamptonshire, and I must have fished just about every inch of it from Spalding in Lincolnshire to Market Harborough, in Leicestershire. I also paid quite a few visits to the river Nene around Peterborough to Thrapston and Rutland water (aka Eyebrook Reservoir), where I (illegally) caught a few nice brownies in the stream leading to the reservoir. Worm doing the trick!

My match fishing career began when I moved from Northamptonshire to London. I needed to find some respite from the continuous drinking, dancing, headbanging, girl-chasing lifestyle I had found myself embroiled in, so fishing came back into my life… well, on and off.

I bought some new fishing gear and headed to Richmond in Surrey, fishing on a tidal stretch of the river Thames. You could say I was totally out of my depth. The guys were fishing with long plastic tubes called ‘blockend swimfeeders’ and I hadn’t seen anything like them before. Some were also using a thingy called a ‘whip’, which I thought was more in keeping with some of the establishments I had been visiting lately. Well, I obviously had a lot to learn about fishing on the Thames. 

I joined a small club known as the ‘Thamesly Molesiders’. They had access to a few sections of the river Mole, a picturesque tributary of the Thames, which runs through various parts of Surrey. They had club matches every other week, which were held on the River Mole or the River Thames around Kingston. I learned a lot from those guys.

One time they organised an open match on the Thames at Kingston, and I decided to give it a go. I was drawn next to some guy named, ‘Ray Mumford’. Wow! Could that guy catch bleak. He had whipped out about 2lb of bleak before I managed to get my first bite. At the weigh-in, I finished up with almost 4lb. Ray had over 15lb of quality bleak. I’ve never seen anyone fish like he did. What a masterclass! Little did I know at the time that I was pegged next to a world-class, living legend. RIP Ray.

Well, after more than 4 hectic years of London life, where I somehow managed to cram in about 30 hours a day, it was time to slow down a bit. I left the bright lights and golden paths behind and headed for Bristol. Within a couple of years, I was back on the match scene, joining the Portcullis Angling Club. I fished many matches with them, including some long day outings to the river Stour and river Severn, around the Upton-on-Severn area.

I also began entering a few open matches on the Bristol Avon between Hanham, Keynsham and Swineford. The Bacofoil-sponsored matches come to mind. So, I had a few section wins here and there but I practised continually around the Conham and Keynsham areas, trying out all kinds of methods and baits. I fished a couple of Bristol Amalgamation opens too and won a couple of sections over the years. I was still fishing Portcullis matches too but found myself looking further afield. I was especially looking for bigger open matches.

I had fished a couple of the ‘Poppy’ match opens and did okay, finishing 4th on the first one and 6th on the second one. Not bad considering there were 150+ anglers on these matches. Then on my third attempt, I got lucky and managed to pull off a win. I was drawn at Swineford and the fish were not having it at all that day. Everyone around me was struggling and I hadn’t had a bite in the first 3 hours so I had to make some dramatic changes to my tactics.

I remember, I stopped loose-feeding maggots and casters and decided to fish bread on a short line. It wasn’t long before I had a good size skimmer in the net. After a few lost fish and some vital adjustments, I had 7 more skimmers in the last hour ending up with over 11lb. I knew I had won my section and was more than happy with that. At the presentation, I was quite shocked to learn that the next weight to mine was just 7lb, so I had won comfortably.

A few months later I was approached by the secretary of a local Match Group (name witheld) and offered a place in their squad. This meant I could fish one of the Nationals, so I didn’t hesitate to accept the offer. Although I liked the idea of fishing at this level, especially with the intense competitive attitude the group had, one or two of the characters were really ‘hard work’. I hadn’t performed as expected during the first season with them but I was willing to stay for another year and try to improve. However, the in-fighting, back-stabbing bitchiness got too much to bear and so I decided to leave the club but not before I had stopped the wagging tongues.

This club was in fact part of a well-known national organisation, with similar clubs based all over the country. Every year they would hold a teams of 4 national match and in this particular year, it was to be held on the Bristol Avon at Newbridge.  The match secretary delighted in deciding on the teams, leaving me well down the line in what was probably the 5th team. So, cut a long story short, I won the individual title with almost 20lb and my happy team won the top team position. Second place had only around 7lb. That was my parting shot with this club.

Since then I have fished in various winter leagues and competed in many open matches and qualifiers up and down the country including matches on the Stainforth & Keadby canal in South Yorkshire, the river Witham in Lincolnshire, the river Trent, Warwickshire Avon, river Severn, river Wye, Grand Union Canal at Milton Keynes, river Ouse, river Brue, river Frome, river Nadder, the Dorset Stour and many others including a few streams, brooks, drains, tarns, lakes, ponds and several other canals.  I’ve also visited the Emerald Isle over 20 times and fished all over County Cavan, and I’ve also fished on the mighty river Shannon in County Clare.

I now help to run the Kingswood & Hanham RBL AC, as chairman. I also held the position of bailiff with Alcove Angling Club for about 10 years, carrying out all manner of work, above and beyond the call of duty. I am now a life member of both clubs and recently took over as web co-ordinator for Alcove Angling Club. I still fish the odd open match now and again on both the river and on a few stillwaters and commercials but for me, my real passion will always lie in river fishing.

Somehow, I’ve been lucky enough to win a few trophies for my efforts over the years…

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