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Back in the day I picked cockles for a living. It was seasonal about five months of the year. It was  a get rich quick game and it attracted lots of crazy people. There were gangmasters paying illegal

Great stories lads. Personally I grew up right beside an estuary and at one time or another as youngsters we tried absolutely everything to get a few bob. We dug bait, raked cockles, picked winkles to

They were great times and I can honestly say as much money as there was in it for the years it went on when someone got a haul everyone on the street was fed especially the older guys who couldn’t get

This has all ended now, we got out on the last season with this crew, the old boy who ran this boat is no longer with us, lived into his 90s a family friend as my mum grew up in Topsham and we were all from a mile up river in Countess Weir... My mums family worked the river like this for over 50 years, my Uncle Den is still about 93 now and fit as f**k, has 4 ferrets a couple of chickens and was still wildfowling 2 years back... i saw him 2 weeks ago as I picked an old Vauxhall Frontera up from him, he needed it gone was his old dog truck.. Fin (my lad) is thinking of doing it up and putting it on the road. He was trying to offload hs old outboard engines on me, oars, anchors... help yourself.. lol

The chap with the patch on his eye was out with us the day I took Fin out with them, he owns a very nice restaurant in Topsham (Topsham is a pretty up market place, bit snobby now to be honest), but we had 4 salmon that day and all went on his menu.

Like I said in previous post, working this part of the Exe has been in my family for generations, we grew up 1 mile up river and spent all our time on it, some of the reading on this thread has brought back great memories, you sometimes forget the very simple things that looking back is now lost on todays youngsters... brilliant thread lads 

 

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10 hours ago, Greyman said:

 

Brilliant that mate...

How many traditions must have been lost now? its sad to think we maybe the last generation to remember these types of traditions and more so still participate.. I've tried to show the kids as much as possible growing up, but none has the real bug for hunting and fishing I did as a youngster, it's pretty much all I thought about lol..

Fin will go fishing a fair bit to be fair, right into his spinning for bass at the minute, had a half decent one last week in Cornwall. 

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1 hour ago, NEWKID said:

Brilliant that mate...

How many traditions must have been lost now? its sad to think we maybe the last generation to remember these types of traditions and more so still participate.. I've tried to show the kids as much as possible growing up, but none has the real bug for hunting and fishing I did as a youngster, it's pretty much all I thought about lol..

Fin will go fishing a fair bit to be fair, right into his spinning for bass at the minute, had a half decent one last week in Cornwall. 

It’s a huge pity the youngsters just don’t seem to have the interest anymore. Maybe it’s just they have more things to do now than when we were younger to entertain themselves. When I think back to being around 13 or 14 being out with a pal in his fathers boat trying to put out ray nets how more of us weren’t killed is amazing one slip or a leg caught in that net and you were gone straight over. Off the top of my head we fished for bass, mullet, mackerel, and ray in the summer months and come the winter it would be salmon, sea trout, flukes and even done abit at spurdogs. All done out of a 17 or 19ft open punt and in the early days the engine was nearly always a one way ticket and it was rowing back. There’s a great video on YouTube newkid about one of the last lads with the salmon licence in Ireland I’ll find it for you it’s a great watch and it’s nearly identical style of fishing to how we done it. 

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