18. Fishing

I have been a keen angler my entire life. My father liked to fish and my first trip to the River Stour was when 6 years old. Nearly all the boys in Monkton fished, and from the age of 9, along with my elder brother and other older boys, from the opening of the fishing season, 15th June, to the end of the summer holidays, a lot of our time was spent on the bank of the River Stour.

The only way for us to get to the river was to walk across the marshes. From my house to the river, it took 30 minutes each way. Then, there were trackways around the fields Monkton side of the railway and once over the railway the fields were all in grass.

We all fished together in a place that became known as ‘the usual place’. Still easy to find. Where Docker Hill Farm meets Sheriffs Court Farm and where the water levels on Monkton and Minster marshes are controlled. Up until the 1980’s there was a big black metal sluice 50 yards from the river which was manually opened and shut. The levels are now controlled further back on the Abbots Wall.

My fishing gear for a few years was very rudimentary, my rod was made of metal, which I was told was a ‘tank aerial’ with about 8 feet of line tide to the end of it, a hexagonal nut for a weight and any old hook tied to the end. Bait was always garden worms. We always caught because there was a huge abundance of eels in the river. In fact, then you could catch an eel in almost every dyke on the marshes.

As I grew up, my fishing tackle improved and my skills got better, bait choice became worms, maggots and bread. Eels were still the main species caught along with Bream, Roach, Dace, Perch and Gudgeon. When we all had bicycles, we went further afield. The river Wantsum at Sarre was a favourite place to fish, as was Plucks Gutter. To fish these places then you only needed a river authority licence, which cost 1 shilling (5p) annually for a junior.

Another place that I fished for a few years, was in the dykes next to the River Wantsum, where  the Wantsum goes under the Thanet Way. When my father worked for Terry Whiteman, most of his ground was there. My dad took me there one afternoon and told me where to fish. I was in fishing heaven, every time I put my float in the water it disappeared in seconds. Roach, Rudd and a few small Tench in huge numbers. I had to empty my keepnet halfway through the afternoon. Sadly, these dykes became almost empty of fish when nearly all the marshes surrounding Thanet were drained and most of the fields went under the plough in the early 1970’s.

When I was about 15, along with 2 or 3 other friends, we started to do a bit of all-night fishing, we had heard that Bream fishing in the Stour was good during the hours of darkness. Darkness in the summer was only 6 hours long and the temperatures reasonable. It was good fun even though the amount of fish we caught was no better than day-light fishing. The only time when we didn’t stay all night was if it rained, as none of us had any clothing that was waterproof. If rain was on the forecast, we asked our parents not to lock the door as we may be home during the night. I can’t imagine anything like this happening today.

Terry Marsh

Originally published in the Monkton News (February 2024).