For The Times They Are A Changing

[hawkfanz]

caught bass to,when i was beech warden on anglesey,had a sea hog hunter and a lovely wife sadly departed 16 years ago,boat went soon after couldnt fish anymore without her.

[Yellow Bear]

1 hour ago, wymberley said:

"I would settle for simply being able to once again catch the odd bass on occasion."

Ate Bass 2/3 times a week sometimes during my teens in the 60's, so much so that I still cannot face it.  It was about the only fish we could not sell (or even give away at times).

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, JDog said:

My regret about changing times is not about gun licences or dog licences or intolerance. My reflections are that as a late teenager and young man I used to be invited to shoot wild Grey partridges in East Yorkshire and when the bag would be anything between 30 and 50 brace.

One great joy for me here in the Lincolnshire Wolds is to see them again, not in prolific numbers but enough to please me. 

Only ever shot driven English Partridges once and that was in 1976 , the year of the drought , me and my brother got an invite from the farmer whose land I still shoot on today, although the farmer then is long gone and his two boys still farm some of the same land , that year was a Red letter year for Partridge broods with many of them being in doubles figures , we met just before dinner and done walk and stand all afternoon over late stubbles , and root crops , when we finished we had in the high nineties and I didn't know at the time we would never see the like again .

During the late 60s the council used some of the marshland  not far from this farmers land as a household rubbish tip , then after it was full up they put three foot of soil over all the tip land , after a short while all the land they covered in soil had a mass of weeds which Partridges found to there liking , one of our high lights was when we came back from morning flight on a Saturday morning was to walk over this land to get a shot at the partridges , we didn't do them to much harm as the numbers soon built up and there wasn't many times where you didn't end up with a brace or two .

I could never tell the difference in the taste from a old one or a young one and in those days any spare game or fowl ended up at the game dealers , one day I took some wild Partridges in and the chap opened the wings to check the end of the flight feathers , if they were pointed they were classed as young and if they were round they were then classed as old ones , the difference in the price we got from young or old was a fair old bit , at the time if we sold one young one you had enough for a bit of steak and if we sold two you could buy a joint of meat , we never had a lot of money then ( or now come to that ) but we certainly lived and ate well , happy days indeed .

[NatureBoy]

Been a really fantastic year for wild grey/ENGLISH partridges my way. How they doing else where? Several broods on a lot of farms. Some large between 13-17 birds. See coveys most days Never tire of watching and listening to them. Plenty of wild pheasants done well to. Early broods of both seem to of done really done well. Combination of good weather, plenty of food/insects, right covers/habitat management, pest control and educating walkers/dog walkers. Plus A lot of effort put in by many with a passion for partridges. Kind of numbers that remind me of when i was a kid in the 70's. . . .    Seem like rabbit numbers bouncing back . I wonder if this is helping to, by keeping buzzards and badgers at bay.     NB