A Timely Word Of Warning

[marsh man]

With most of the balmy days of September now behind us we can now look forward to weather more suited for wild fowling , this is all well and good but it don't come without its risks .

On the local news this morning it was saying a lifeboat was called out around the Kings Lynn area for a wild fowler who was in trouble , I didn't catch it all but I think it was saying other fowlers came to his rescue before the lifeboat got to him , I hope he is alright and maybe someone from the area could give a few more details .

With these big tides and strong winds you need to be very careful and without local knowledge it pay you to stay either on the sea wall or well inside of it , better to be safe than sorry .

[Old farrier]

Good advice MM👍

[figgy]

Read stories of wildfowlers with decades of experience getting caught out by unexpected big tides and a shift in the wind blowing it in quicker.

Better to err on side of caution.

[Westley]

Having been in trouble whilst in the company of an 'Expert'  on Southport marsh (before the local Council stopped the shooting there) I strongly back the original post. I was in water deep enough to fill the breast pocket on a Solway wax jacket, a spaniel swimming alongside my left ear and me holding 2 pinks and a gun above my head.  It was the cold that made it extremely difficult to breathe, but the fear that forced me on,  to gain higher ground and eventual safety.

Two weeks after this event, 2 local lads lost their lives in the same place.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Westley

[muncher]

Chap thought he would ride the Ride the tide  after duck on an old Cradge bank,, when the tide got to his knees with a hour of tide left he called for help.

[wisdom]

When I was on the lifeboat we rescued 1 Fowler and his lab.He was very experienced but the fog caught him out and he couldn't find his route back.He was up to his chest when we got him.It was high tide.We were called when someone heard his shout.

A compass is invaluable.

[marsh man]

8 minutes ago, muncher said:

Chap thought he would ride the Ride the tide  after duck on an old Cradge bank,, when the tide got to his knees with a hour of tide left he called for help.

THANKS for the update , hope the chap is alright and it goes to show even with local knowledge you can still get it wrong , one of the reasons my wife bought me a mobile phone as like a lot of other fowlers we never bothered with modern day technology .

When we had the last major tidal surge at Yarmouth the top of the tide was around 10pm , the problem we had was the wind kept the first tide well up and the evening tide was coming in on top of the last tide , when I was going down the marsh for the evening flight it was blowing a gale and I started to have doubts weather I should go or not , but you know what it is like when you think you are going to have a good night , you put up your hood and carry on , when I got to the bit of water I was going to flight on the duck were already coming in for shelter , the wind by now was gale force and it was a job to keep your gun straight when you took a shot , I had shot several Wigeon when my phone went off , I could hardly here my wife running on about the expected floods and I said I can't hardly hear you and I will be home in about an hour , by now I could see the blue lights flashing in the town and on the new bridge , I had just about reached my imposed limit of 10 and called it a day , time I got back to my house the police cars were going up and down my road getting the older people to higher ground , when I asked my wife why she called me said , the police had just knocked on our door asking if we wanted a hand to move out or do we want to stay put , she didn't like to tell them I was still shooting down the marsh and said for the time being we will stay where we are as we had two dogs and guns in the cabinet , as it turned out we didn't get flooded although some did near the river , that was one of the roughest nights I had been out to shoot a few duck , looking back it was also one of my the best nights for duck as well . 

[Smokersmith]

1 hour ago, muncher said:

Chap thought he would ride the Ride the tide  after duck on an old Cradge bank,, when the tide got to his knees with a hour of tide left he called for help.

ooops !

Glad I'm in Holland .. sort of thing I'd do !!

[figgy]

18 minutes ago, Smokersmith said:

ooops !

Glad I'm in Holland .. sort of thing I'd do !!

If your chest deep at the highwater mark in Holland with huge tide you won't be the only one.

[Ttfjlc]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

THANKS for the update , hope the chap is alright and it goes to show even with local knowledge you can still get it wrong , one of the reasons my wife bought me a mobile phone as like a lot of other fowlers we never bothered with modern day technology .

When we had the last major tidal surge at Yarmouth the top of the tide was around 10pm , the problem we had was the wind kept the first tide well up and the evening tide was coming in on top of the last tide , when I was going down the marsh for the evening flight it was blowing a gale and I started to have doubts weather I should go or not , but you know what it is like when you think you are going to have a good night , you put up your hood and carry on , when I got to the bit of water I was going to flight on the duck were already coming in for shelter , the wind by now was gale force and it was a job to keep your gun straight when you took a shot , I had shot several Wigeon when my phone went off , I could hardly here my wife running on about the expected floods and I said I can't hardly hear you and I will be home in about an hour , by now I could see the blue lights flashing in the town and on the new bridge , I had just about reached my imposed limit of 10 and called it a day , time I got back to my house the police cars were going up and down my road getting the older people to higher ground , when I asked my wife why she called me said , the police had just knocked on our door asking if we wanted a hand to move out or do we want to stay put , she didn't like to tell them I was still shooting down the marsh and said for the time being we will stay where we are as we had two dogs and guns in the cabinet , as it turned out we didn't get flooded although some did near the river , that was one of the roughest nights I had been out to shoot a few duck , looking back it was also one of my the best nights for duck as well . 

Geez Marshman you can even make a potential natural disaster story sound somewhat poetic. 

[JDog]

16 minutes ago, Ttfjlc said:

Geez Marshman you can even make a potential natural disaster story sound somewhat poetic. 

I agree. What he hasn’t said is that his wife subsequently smacked his bottom and banned him from ever going to the marsh again.

[Ttfjlc]

[marsh man]

10 hours ago, JDog said:

I agree. What he hasn’t said is that his wife subsequently smacked his bottom and banned him from ever going to the marsh again.

If she did the ban didn't last long , l recon it would have been more like 24 minutes instead of 24 hrs 

I was born in the same house we got flooded in 1953 and remember being taken down to a holiday camp for a few days until the water levels went down , in those days the estuary wall was quite flimsy and it was breached in a number of places so we not only had the main river over flowing , water and sewage coming up from the drains , we also had the muddy water coming in from behind us , at the time in that old house we had water slightly above the wooden mantle piece which was about five foot , nowadays we seem to get constant threats of flood warnings and that was one of the main reasons we moved a few miles to higher grounds two and a half years ago , during the 60 odd years I lived there we had seen loads of flood warnings , in fact we had a flood siren on top of the village school , each time we had a flood warning I would go up to our boat shed and make sure our two gun punts were safely tied up and nothing was floating about that could cause damage , as this was a fairly regular occurrence I could tell by the height of the tide on the back doors weather there was anything to worry about , normally on a flood warning tide the water would be about half way up the doors , when we had the tidal surge in 2013 this one was different , the water at it's peak was at the top of the back doors and round the front there was water where I had never seen it before , in the shed it'self the punts would have been floating in over six foot of water towards the back of the shed and round three foot at the front , when I went up the river to where all the media and television people were at around 9pm that night the water was coming underneath the main bridge faster than I have ever seen in it during my lifetime and it was then higher than when we were flooded in 53 , but due to the updated flood defences and the wind dropping at the right time we were kept dry by a matter of inches , one day all the links of the chain will come together and the East coast will get major flooding again , now our boat sheds have gone and we are well above sea level I will still think about the warnings but no longer worry about them .

[Old Boggy]

9 hours ago, marsh man said:

If she did the ban didn't last long , l recon it would have been more like 24 minutes instead of 24 hrs 

I was born in the same house we got flooded in 1953 and remember being taken down to a holiday camp for a few days until the water levels went down , in those days the estuary wall was quite flimsy and it was breached in a number of places so we not only had the main river over flowing , water and sewage coming up from the drains , we also had the muddy water coming in from behind us , at the time in that old house we had water slightly above the wooden mantle piece which was about five foot , nowadays we seem to get constant threats of flood warnings and that was one of the main reasons we moved a few miles to higher grounds two and a half years ago , during the 60 odd years I lived there we had seen loads of flood warnings , in fact we had a flood siren on top of the village school , each time we had a flood warning I would go up to our boat shed and make sure our two gun punts were safely tied up and nothing was floating about that could cause damage , as this was a fairly regular occurrence I could tell by the height of the tide on the back doors weather there was anything to worry about , normally on a flood warning tide the water would be about half way up the doors , when we had the tidal surge in 2013 this one was different , the water at it's peak was at the top of the back doors and round the front there was water where I had never seen it before , in the shed it'self the punts would have been floating in over six foot of water towards the back of the shed and round three foot at the front , when I went up the river to where all the media and television people were at around 9pm that night the water was coming underneath the main bridge faster than I have ever seen in it during my lifetime and it was then higher than when we were flooded in 53 , but due to the updated flood defences and the wind dropping at the right time we were kept dry by a matter of inches , one day all the links of the chain will come together and the East coast will get major flooding again , now our boat sheds have gone and we are well above sea level I will still think about the warnings but no longer worry about them .

As I've mentioned to you several times in our PM's Marshman, you really should write a book on your exploits in the field, down on the marsh and on the water. Your  puntgunning adventures particularly would make fascinating reading and an insight into sport of a bygone age within your own area and no doubt of great interest to many, if not all on pigeon watch. So get those fingers tapping on that keyboard.

OB

[London Best]

What he said.

Please write it all down before there is nobody left from the generation that can remember that way of life. I’ll buy a copy.

[Big Mat]

23 hours ago, Smokersmith said:

ooops !

Glad I'm in Holland .. sort of thing I'd do !!

I think we'd all have done similar!

I had to have a rethink and reposition sunday night when the tide came in faster than expected. Even what should have been a safe dry spot, ended up underwater! 

[Saltings]

glad he's ok  and safe         rnil  and  coastguard  and a work boat out  to find him  ,  how much did this cost ,          this given flood warnings 8 mtres +  in all local news reports  papers  tv radio  etc even in the midlands  its not like he didn't know it was coming  flood warnings all along the east coast    tide chart / media     the warnings are all there,     ignore at your peril ,  if in doubt don't do it (simples ) 

Edited October 3, 2019 by Saltings

[misser]

Wise words MM and even the experienced can get caught out, I shot the ticket marsh at Southport for years and can remember how a few poor souls lost their lives out there...think that was the start of SDWA wardening it etc, Westley you were very lucky, am sure it will be an experience that youll never forget...a near miss for sure....lets hope there are no accidents this season...atb….misser  

[marsh man]

12 minutes ago, misser said:

Wise words MM and even the experienced can get caught out, I shot the ticket marsh at Southport for years and can remember how a few poor souls lost their lives out there...think that was the start of SDWA wardening it etc, Westley you were very lucky, am sure it will be an experience that youll never forget...a near miss for sure....lets hope there are no accidents this season...atb….misser  

One of the reasons I always advise any new members who are thinking about joining a coastal wildfowling club is to get to know the area you are going to shoot over during the warm Summer months , what better way to spend a few hours after a hard days work is to take yourself and your dog if you have got one and walk around the sea wall and check out where the bridges ( or liggers ) are that go across the drains , also get to know how high the tides get up on a Spring tide , wind directions and strength also make a huge difference with the height of tides , on the East coast a strong North Easterly wind can put several feet on top of the predicted height and then if you don't know the area that well the only safe spot is to stick to the sea wall, good luck and stay safe .  

[marsh man]

23 hours ago, Old Boggy said:

As I've mentioned to you several times in our PM's Marshman, you really should write a book on your exploits in the field, down on the marsh and on the water. Your  puntgunning adventures particularly would make fascinating reading and an insight into sport of a bygone age within your own area and no doubt of great interest to many, if not all on pigeon watch. So get those fingers tapping on that keyboard.

OB

Sadly we only caught the tail end of an era we will never see again , at least around our way , we had two schools in the village that were only two roads apart , the only thing I remember going to the infant school was having a sleep in the afternoon on a canvas bed and apart from playing about we done very little else .

Then when I was 7 / 8 we moved down the road to the big school , this was when I got my first taste of the folwing bug , the school was next door to a passage that went up to the boat sheds where the punt gunners kept there guns and punts , many a time we would be in the play ground when they would be going home after a successful trip out with the duck tied to there handle bars, and the old cripple stopper strapped to the cross bar. that would be about the time where we started to go up that passage and what we saw started off a passion that would last for the rest of my life .

Then after my 11+ I moved on to my last school which was a secondary modern one , where they got the modern from that I could never make out , the only interesting class room was the science room that was full of glass cases of stuffed birds ( none of them belong to ditchman I might add ) , apart from that I had very little interest in the rest of the school , two things that stuck in my mind was when the R I teacher noticed I had no interest in religious instructions and I was finding it boring , I think at the time I was half asleep when he came to my desk and said you can stand outside in the corridor until you shows signs of interest , to cut a long story short , I stayed outside every time we had that lesson and as far as I know I never gave in to him and went back while he was giving the lesson , to say the school was a bit rough might have been putting it mildly but we were brought up where you stuck up for your self and wouldn't let anyone walk over you , we had one nasty teacher who would pick on the weak ones for no reason at all , one day during a lesson I was yarning to boy on the next desk , out of nowhere came a cricket ball that he had chucked at me , by a stroke of luck it just missed me and hit my desk , this was like lighting a fuse and I jumped out of my desk , picked it up and threw it as hard as I could back to him , my aim wasn't that good and it smacked into the black board , he was fuming and while all the kids in the class were laughing he carted me off to the head master , when the head master started to get his slipper out of the drawer I asked if he was going to use it on the teacher as well , why should I , because if he hadn't thrown it to me in the first place then there wouldn't had been any need for me to throw it back , at that point the slipper went back in the drawer and nothing else was said about the matter 

[Old Boggy]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

Sadly we only caught the tail end of an era we will never see again , at least around our way , we had two schools in the village that were only two roads apart , the only thing I remember going to the infant school was having a sleep in the afternoon on a canvas bed and apart from playing about we done very little else .

Then when I was 7 / 8 we moved down the road to the big school , this was when I got my first taste of the folwing bug , the school was next door to a passage that went up to the boat sheds where the punt gunners kept there guns and punts , many a time we would be in the play ground when they would be going home after a successful trip out with the duck tied to there handle bars, and the old cripple stopper strapped to the cross bar. that would be about the time where we started to go up that passage and what we saw started off a passion that would last for the rest of my life .

Then after my 11+ I moved on to my last school which was a secondary modern one , where they got the modern from that I could never make out , the only interesting class room was the science room that was full of glass cases of stuffed birds ( none of them belong to ditchman I might add ) , apart from that I had very little interest in the rest of the school , two things that stuck in my mind was when the R I teacher noticed I had no interest in religious instructions and I was finding it boring , I think at the time I was half asleep when he came to my desk and said you can stand outside in the corridor until you shows signs of interest , to cut a long story short , I stayed outside every time we had that lesson and as far as I know I never gave in to him and went back while he was giving the lesson , to say the school was a bit rough might have been putting it mildly but we were brought up where you stuck up for your self and wouldn't let anyone walk over you , we had one nasty teacher who would pick on the weak ones for no reason at all , one day during a lesson I was yarning to boy on the next desk , out of nowhere came a cricket ball that he had chucked at me , by a stroke of luck it just missed me and hit my desk , this was like lighting a fuse and I jumped out of my desk , picked it up and threw it as hard as I could back to him , my aim wasn't that good and it smacked into the black board , he was fuming and while all the kids in the class were laughing he carted me off to the head master , when the head master started to get his slipper out of the drawer I asked if he was going to use it on the teacher as well , why should I , because if he hadn't thrown it to me in the first place then there wouldn't had been any need for me to throw it back , at that point the slipper went back in the drawer and nothing else was said about the matter 

They are exactly the type of stories that should be recorded for posterity.

Thank you for that and well done MM, keep 'em coming. I know that there's many many more anecdotes still to be recorded.

OB

[Continental Shooter]

Wow, I love your stories MM, thank you

Edited October 3, 2019 by Continental Shooter

[subsonicnat]

Had a teacher throw a blackboard rubber at me and my mate talking across the isle.

it hit the geoghraphy cabinet that hard it split the door,God knows if it had hit me  in the head it Could have killed either of us.

Try Doing that today, most likely go ,and certainly lose your job or go to prison.

First caning I had,,, Had a steel rod down the middle...

Good old days eh.lol.

 

 

 

 

 

[hawkfanz]

newcomers to fowling dont realise what they need to carry,must have kit,,tide charts and know if you got onshore/offshore wind n streanth,torch,compass,whistle,and that b4 u start with shooting kit,something i dont want to do any more.

[figgy]

12 hours ago, subsonicnat said:

Had a teacher throw a blackboard rubber at me and my mate talking across the isle.

it hit the geoghraphy cabinet that hard it split the door,God knows if it had hit me  in the head it Could have killed either of us.

Try Doing that today, most likely go ,and certainly lose your job or go to prison.

First caning I had,,, Had a steel rod down the middle...

Good old days eh.lol.

 

 

 

 

 

First cane I got was a split bamboo with fabric player strip round the end and again about foot down from end.

We used to have to go over to waste basket in office and pick which cane. Mates said pick a short fat one it don't hurt as much, got suckered that day. Felt like six at every bloody hit.