Welcome to Milton Keynes Specialist Group
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DISCLAIMER, Cop out, dodge, call
it what you will but please read before entering the MKSG website
"Right then - you have been foolish enough to select the MKSG site to view - apart from quite probably being a monumental waste of your time you really ought to know that the site contains a certain amount of what Dick Walker described as "Unparliamentary Language" (no need to lie, 1964), that some might find offensive". It's not deliberate really, you just have to understand that we in the MKSG tend to enjoy what is commonly called "a bit of banter" between ourselves and as most of this site is written in much the same way as we speak to each other the results may not be to all tastes, especially the young. I guess this is the outcome of being together over 20 years and that while we take our fishing seriously, we really don't take ourselves seriously and in all honesty we can't think of a reason why it should be any other way. So, please enter our site, we hope you enjoy the content and that if you pick up one tip from the site it's this - "Don't eat yellow snow!!
Some History
Founded
in 1986 the Milton Keynes Specialist Anglers Group now consists of 12
members.
The
beginning - 1986
A
long time ago in a galaxy far away (Yorkshire) a small hairy creature emerged
from his coal hole, picked up a pot of vinegar and headed south from the
safety of planet Rotherham to merge into the local inhabitants that populate
the new city of Milton Keynes. His name was Phillip Oxley and what follows
are extracts taken in the main from his fertile mind as he is the only guy
who can remember back that far!
So -
1984, Phil was a very keen piker and along with a couple of friends from the
PAC it occurred to them that the creation of a Milton Keynes region wouldn't
go a miss - so they set it up and due to their hard work, made it a success.
About
18 months later Phil recognised that several other PAC members also fished
for big fish of other species and it appeared that the burgeoning town of
Milton Keynes could possibly take a second organisation in the mould of a
traditional specimen group. Phil discussed this with his friend of many
years, Mick Newman, a local Carp angler, with a view to him fronting up this
group. So at a PAC slide show, funnily enough given by Kevin Maddocks on
Carping, the formation of the group was announced. This was an ideal
opportunity to launch the idea as many local anglers were present along with
the PAC guys. A very good response was received, resulting in a date and
venue being set for the first meeting - 9th January 1986 at The Crown, Stony
Stratford.
At
this meeting a good turn out was achieved - many just to see what it was all
about (any excuse for a pint) but about 40 decided that this group was for
them, signed up and so the MILTON KEYNES SPECIALIST GROUP came into
existence. A bold move for at the time most of the traditional groups in the
country had folded.
Illness
interrupted things very quickly as Mick's heart problems forced him to resign
as chairman and Phil took on the role (passing on the PAC role to Roger
Stratton). Under Phil the group flourished with anglers fishing together,
regular meetings being held and 'Newsline', the groups own magazine, was an
idea that came through.
So
what got sorted out in that first year?
As
previously mentioned the news sheet idea got up and running - at first
members just brought their notes containing accounts of their months fishing
to the meetings and read them out. The first fully stapled edition of these
notes didn't appear until December '87. This proved a great way to
communicate and learn from each other - it was very basic in its production,
photocopies of handwritten notes but it served the group well and eventually
became the excellent 'Freeline' that we create each month.
Another
reason for the early success of the group was the decision to assign
important roles within the group and as such we had:
Chairman
- Phil Oxley
Treasurer - Dick Brigden Secretary - Steve White
Very
quickly through Group member Bob Baldock a major coup was achieved - The MKSG
gained the rights to form the night fishing syndicate on Black Horse Lake;
part of Len Gurds infant Linear fisheries concern and at that time a
relatively unknown quantity in terms of its angling potential.
So
that was it - the group was formed, underway and had at that time our own
water.
Getting
into detail below please find below the names of all those who signed up as
members on that first evening:
Blimey, that’s 33 years we have been going so perhaps it’s overdue to add review to the web on what we got up to in 2019 so – just what did the MKSG do last year? The group exists to improve the fishing lot of those within it, to bring info in and share it amongst our membership so we all improve our catches etc and with the ongoing huge deterioration in the fishing in the local River Great Ouse and its tributaries then this becomes even more important as travel for fishing sadly becomes the norm for many of us. With this in mind the 10 group members ended up fishing 8 different rivers this year, from Dorset in the south to Scotland in the north, Herefordshire in the west to Norfolk in the East and many in between and on these adventures our targets were Rudd, Perch, Barbel, Grayling, and chub. We caught in all of them, some very good fish too, but no monsters unfortunately (they were there), but on the plus side group member Kim Wharton did two PB’s in the process and we learned a lot, had a lot of fun and most importantly found and confirmed some great new venues to go at in 2020! Stillwater’s wise, in addition to the lakes around Milton Keynes we also fished waters in Sussex, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Essex, Wiltshire, Cambridgeshire, Rutland, Northants, Linc’s and Scotland catching some magnificent fish on the way and discovering lots of great venues to work on in 2020. Methods wise, 2019 found us fly fishing, float fishing, Ledgering, Drop-shotting, lure fishing, walking the worm, ned fishing, live baiting, dead-baiting, free-lining, floater fishing, bolt rigging and feeder fishing and more for species as diverse as Arctic char through to Zander from both boat and bank! In addition to all this fishing, we held 12 monthly meetings, each one a good laugh, produced 12 monthly magazines totalling over 400 A4 pages, had our Christmas dinner (we love a Thai!) and held our AGM, another good evening out. The highlight of our year was held in Nov – our annual talk and Slide show that this year found Neville Fickling delighting the 80 odd guests with tales of pike from the past and from the wilderness and Nev was kind enough to present our 3 trophies : 1 – Fish of the year! Despite very strong competition this year it was presented to Haydn Whitehouse for a hard earnt non-trout water 30lb 4 oz Pike. 2 – Angler of the year! Again, Voting showed it a close thing but angler of the year for 2019 was Des Butcher for a multitude of great catches over the year including a new PB UK cat of 65LB. 3 – Foreign fish of the year! Big Carp, nice Trout, and lots of cats were entered but the award went to Haydn Whitehouse for his 170lb Italian River Catfish – an awesome beast! |
Tuesday 29 March 2016
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