Foundation
It was in November of 1968. A dedicated and fanatical sea angler John Timmins a litigation manager for a legal firm in Bradford, was travelling to York for his monthly meeting with the 1066 Sea Angling Club, this being the nearest sea angling club to Bradford in the Yorkshire area. John thought, this is ridiculous, travelling 70 miles every month to sit in at the meetings, let's start our own sea angling club in Bradford. So in December 1969 John placed an ad in the Telegraph & Argus and he also went on air at BBC Radio Leeds, asking for sea anglers in and around the Bradford area if anyone was interested in joining a sea angling club to come to a meeting at the Park Hotel on Manningham Lane Bradford on the third Tuesday of January 1970 at 8pm, they would be most welcome. 12 people turned up, from all walks of life. So it was then decided to form the Bradford and District Sea Angling Club. The following year membership had risen to 65, with trips all over the country, from Lands end to John o'Groats. From the early days to the present day the club has never been far out of the headlines in the local and national newspapers..
1970s
1974 saw them fishing from Ullapool in the North West of Scotland, they really hit the headlines. One of the members Bruno Korszanski hooked and landed a Common Skate weighing 164lb. At that time it was one of the largest Skate caught on rod and line in the British Isles. In 1975 the club, having regular trips to Scrabster in the far North of Scotland, a round trip of 1,000 miles, this being before the motorway was built. In those days it took 14 hours to travel. In that year John Timmins was really on cloud nine. Fishing in the Pentland Firth, John landed a magnificent Halibut of 94lb. This took twenty minutes to land.Then on a weekend trip to Mevagissey in Cornwall, Bill Holland landed what was then a gigantic Conger Eel of 76lb. A club record. And Bruno had a ling of 44lb. Another club record, and they still stand today.1976 the club hit the headlines again. On a return trip to Mevagissey 8 members set up a new British sea angling record. They discovered a new wreck lying in 37 fathoms of water, and some 45 miles out from land. It had probably been torpedoed during the first would war. They fished the wreck for 4 hours before anchoring over it for the night. They continued to fish early the next morning until midday. Then they decided to head for port as a storm had been forecast. Altogether they had caught 340 stone of fish in 12 hours. A new British record. On the way back in the storm hit them. 20ft waves battered the 55ft. Boat, with winds gusting up to storm force 11, with no visibility because of the intense rain they came back with radar only, the only means of finding port. It was a frightening experience. Back on dry land scores of caravans and Lorries had been blown over. After unloading the fish and had a meal, they came out of the cafe and there was not a breath of wind. The same year on a trip to Plymouth Alan Howram caught an Angler fish of 38lb. yet another club record.
1980s
Then came 1980 a bonanza year for the club. Bad weather spoilt some of their plans, but altogether 14 medals were collected from the National Federation of Sea Anglers. The NFSA. Is the governing body of all sea anglers in the British Isles. Notable medal catches were Bob Bradley with a Cod of 26lb. 8oz caught from Whitby, also a Ling of 21lb. Also from Whitby, Stuart Swires had a Cod of 29lb. 12oz. And Whitby again was the port were Ernie Day caught a Ling of 28lb. And John Wilcox caught a Pollock of 21lb. In August of the same year the annual trip to Wick produced 200 stone of prime fish in 6 days.The following year 1981 was the year for big fish. They couldn't match their feats of the previous years, could they? Wrong. A weekend trip to Plymouth fishing on the Eddystone reef saw 5 members of the club boat 22 Bass weighing between 8lb.and 10lb., along with a catch of 600lb. Of Ling and 150lb. Of Conger. The same year, the weeks fishing holiday to Wick again. This time John Timmins who was by then the President of the club, landed another club record. A Torsck of 9lb. 2oz, a fish not often caught around our coast. And then the icing on the cake, Ken Powell caught and landed another Halibut weighing 90lb. When the skipper gaffed it, the power of the fish pulled the gaff out of his hand and it dived for the bottom some 30 fathoms. After boating the fish he baited up again with whole mackerel and immediately was hooked into another, but after 10 minutes the line broke and the fish was lost. The amount of fish caught in the 6 days was a staggering 6,300lb. A major feat in its self. But the Bradford and District Sea Angling Club can be proud in the fact that they are the only inshore club to have captured 2 Halibut in a clubs lifetime. Then in October of the same year, they returned to Plymouth to fish a wreck 80 miles into the English Channel. 6 anglers arrived at the wreck after a long steam and looked and the sounder to see a great mushroom cloud some 20 fathoms down. The skipper told them to drop their baits down into the cloud to see what it was. Bingo!! Everybody was into fish and big fish at too. Cod into the 20lb-30lb. bracket, Pollock up to 16lb. After about 6 hours they left the wreck and headed to Guernsey for an overnight stay. The next day they steamed for the same wreck on their way back to Plymouth. Six more hours of plum busting action. John Wilcock, Jeff Forrest and John Timmins, all three had Ling in the 30lb. Bracket. Altogether 2,000lb of fish were landed. Mick Seal had the biggest Cod of 27lb. Bill Holland also had Cod in the 20lb. Bracket. but after 10 minutes the line broke and the fish was lost.In November of that year, the club decided to give the South West of Scotland a try with a weekend in Luce Bay. The result was Spurdog up to 14lb. and Tope up to 44lb. Both caught by Bob Lawson. A Spotted Ray of 4lb. 3oz. By John Timmins and a 23lb. Thornback Ray by Mick Robinson. All the fish were returned alive as the club had decided that due to fish stocks plummeting in the past years they had to do the right thing to preserve the fish stocks were they could. This was to prove the best year for the club. In the next few years the dreaded gill nets came into use by the commercial boats, and this had a devastating effect on fish stocks over future years. They would literally empty wrecks of fish so much so that when the angling boats visited a wreck, they would be no fish on it.In 1983 the club entered a 4 man team in the NFSA national fishing competition held at Bridlington to see who the champion of champions was. Yes you guessed it; Bradford and District Sea Angling Club came up with 2 championsin the Yorkshire region. Two of our members, John Wilcock and Brian Clarkson won with the two top weights for their respective boats to become champion of champions for that year.In 1984 saw the Wick trip bring the best catch. 2,500lb. of fish in six days and on this trip John Timmins did a live broadcast on BBC radio Leeds from the boat in the Pentland Firth.In 1986 saw the club retuned to Luce Bay for a week's fishing. On one day they decided to fish into the night for Conger Eel. What a shock. 15 Conger, and lost 6. The biggest being 41lb. caught by Paul Kitchingman, which was just 7lb. short of the Scottish record. These great feats of angling will never be repeated because of the pressures of overfishing by the foreign and our own commercial fleets. But you can be sure that the Bradford and District Sea Angling Club will try their best, such is there dedication for the sport of sea angling.
1990s
.1991 another milestone was reached in the clubs history. 5 of our members decided to conquer the world. They fished the Gambia. We were in the headlines again. As well as many exotic species, John Wilcock landed a Barracuda of 49lb. The heaviest to be caught in the Gambia. The Bradford and District Sea Anglers have left their mark across the world. What an achievement. In 1995 they turned their attention to Ireland. 6 days fishing holiday to Culdaff in County Donegal, there feat's were recognised again. Fishing wrecks that had never seen fishing line, they hauled up stones of Cod in the 10lb. bracket, Pollack up to 12lb. Coalfish up to 10lb. and Ling in exes of 15lb. And on one day our President John Timmins landed a Red Gurnard of 2lb.12oz. Which beat the British record by some 6oz? But could not claim the record as it was caught in Irish waters.In 1996 the club returned to Ireland, to Westport in county Mayo on the Western sea board to fish the annual Skate competition which anglers from all over the British Isles take part every year. And what a trip. Two new members to the club Paul Myers and Dave Kitchingman caught and landed two Common Skate, Dave had one scaling 150lb. Paul's Skate was a staggering 168lb. which beat the old record which had stood for 22years.In the same year the club thought Wales was the only place they had not fished. It sounded like a spot of easy fishing, after jigging with heavy pirks on the majority of trips. So they decided to go to Rhyl. They rang Alan Tilsney the skipper of a boat they had been recommended.The 8 members had booked to do a spot of general fishing, you know the sort of thing, Rays, Tope and Pollack, on a wreck. Having caught mackerel on the way out to use as bait, the skipper said let's try a wreck I know one about 19 miles out. They found the wreck in no time at all, finding the fish was proving harder, so the skipper advised some of us to put on a whole mackerel and try it. The bait hadn't been in the water more than five minutes, when a rod gave a big rattle. The angler struck into the fish and soon had it on board, a 16lb. Conger. Well that was it, all the members put on bait. One member after another pulled in Conger; the skipper didn't know which way to turn with the gaff. Altogether 23 Conger were caught, the heaviest caught by the now secretary of the club, Brian Clarkson, catching a personal best fish and also enter him in to the British Conger Club for catching a Conger of over 35lb. and the entire Conger were returned alive, giving anglers there chance in the future. But the club were not done yet. They had booked a mid-week trip to Whitby with their usual skipper, Richard Ward and his boat "Shy torque" An early start was paramount. Richard wanted them on the boat for 5am. So with the early start, our 8 anglers had to set off from Bradford at 3.15 am. On arrival the sea was like a mill pond, so they set of to do battle with the Cod on the fastest boat out of Whitby, giving you plenty of fishing time. The first wreck was some 18 miles out in the North Sea, taking only an hour. The pirks went down, 32 fathoms. When they hit bottom it was one pull, two pulls, bang, fish on. The skipper shouted from the wheelhouse, Dave's in Andy's in Jeff's in Mick's in, Brian's in o' lost it. The others hauled fish over the side, not big fish, up to 9lb. After two more drifts Richard said, let's go further out, the tides not moving here. So we steamed another 9 miles out to a wreck lying in 38 fathoms of water. 20 minutes and we saw the wreck on the sounder. You could see the fish tight on the bottom. The pirks went down to the bottom, bang! Everybody into fish and good fish, in the 15lb. bracket. One angler, Any Greenwood thought he had a big fish on and it proved to be two fish one of 18lb. which was the biggest of the day, and the other of 12lb. It was a plum busting drift. A few more wrecks were fished before it was time to head back to Whitby. So all the fish were weighed and a total of 1, 125 of prime Cod had been caught. On the way in all the fish were gutted and filleted, arriving back in Whitby at 4.30 completely knackered.
2000s
During the next decade a significant milestone was reached. In 2002 it was voted on if we should allow women to join the club. This was voted on and was passed by 12 votes to 1 that we allow women to take part in club activities. Then in 2003, sadly John Timmins our life president as he was now been given the title of by the club, died after a long illness. But the anglers of the club vowed to keep the Bradford & District Sea Angling Club going from strength to strength. And will never forget all the work that John put into the club.No big catches were recorded in this decade, because of over fishing by the commercial boys, but a few big fish were caught. Notably in 2001 Paul Kitchingman caught a Common Skate of 140lb. In 2002 His son Dave Kitchingman caught a Common Skate of 172lb. 2003 Roger Smith caught an Eagle Ray of 23lb. In 2004 young Ben Kitchingman who was only 14 at the time, and the son of Dave and grandson of Paul, landed an enormous Common Skate of 198lb. smashing the club record by 30lb. I think we can safely say that the Bradford and District Sea Angling club is the only club were 3 generations of one family have caught a Common Skate in exes of 150lb. That is some record, and will take some beating!!! And in 2007 Mick Robinson had two more Common Skate of 180lb. All the Skate being caught from Westport in Ireland. This must go down as another record for the club. 14 Common Skate have been caught by our members. To my knowledge no other sea angling club in the country has caught so many.
2010s
And what of the future? Well fish stocks are getting lower and lower, such are the strains that are being put upon by commercial vessels on our fish stocks. But you can be sure that the Bradford and District Sea Angling Club. Will pursue their sport of sea angling as long as there are fish in the sea. And Just as I write this story, one of our long time members. John Wilcock who was fishing out of Whitby in September 2010. Landed a Halibut of 50lb. Not many Halibut are caught at Whitby. But they are getting more numerous as time goes on. So who knows we may be in for some more big fish from the Bradford and District Sea Angling Club. Long may they continue.
2013
Well It's happened again. The Bradford and district sea angling club hit the headlines again in 2013. Fishing out of Whitby aboard “Shytorque 2000” On a shark fishing trip. 21 year old Ben Kitchingman hooked and landed a Porbeagle shark of 320lb. And a new club record. From hooking the fish to boating it, they had covered a staggering 4 and a half miles, and it took ben two hours fifty minutes to boat it.
2014 was another great year for the Yorkshire anglers. Fishing out of Rhyl abourd Goldylocks, skipperd by Gwynie Andrews. In June 8 members were into the Tope. One or two Tope were caught, All over 30lb. But the highlight of the trip was a bellting Tope of 60lb. Caught by one of our older members 71 year old Brian Clarkson. Club secretary and tresurer. His personal best and smashed the old club record by 15lb. And it was the heaviest Tope for 2014. He then topped it all of when he went to Culdaff in Ireland fishing abourd John McClauclines boat “Gamini 2” with 7 members, by catching another Tope of 47lb. The biggest one of the weeks fishing. All together 32 Tope were caught all over 29lb. and all were released by the 7 anglers. Bring on 2015.
Come And Join Us
If you would like to join this great sea fishing club of ours. You can come along to our meetings now held in the New Inn, East Bierley BD4 6PP. On the third Tuesday of every month. Commencing at 8pm.