Pete Welsh

On the 16th of July 1971, Pete was born in Preston after a frantic 30 minute drive in a Simca which had rust holes in the floor. Pete’s Mum was wet through due to the water being thrown up off the road during a typical, mid-summer Lancashire downpour.

A mere five years later to the day, Pete’s Uncle Joe and Auntie Rosaleen gave him his first fishing rod and reel, both of which are still cherished items. Armed with the lovely white and blue solid glass fibre rod, the obligatory ‘perch bobber’, some hooks to nylon and a tub of carcinogenic bronze maggots (which had to be sucked prior to use), Pete spent many an hour sat by a local lodge waiting for a bite.

Amazingly almost two years of dedicated ‘fishing’ passed before Pete caught his first fish, a small rudd, courtesy of a miserable neighbour with whom Pete’s dad had pleaded, ‘Just help him catch one bloody fish!’ Another fifteen followed in the same session, there was no turning back.

A few years of improving technique catching mainly rudd, perch, lovely crucians and heart-stopping tench (none of which ever weighed more than two pounds), Pete entered his first match aged but 9: The Chorley Guardian Junior, on the Leeds-Liverpool canal. Not surprisingly, Pete didn’t win. He did, however, make a good show, and the previous two years spent tempting lots of small to medium fish from stagnant pools had prepared him well for the rigours of the Northern match circuit.

Aged 11, Pete’s family moved house (under 1 mile!) which proved to be a major turning point. New neighbour, Don Bond, was a serious match angler who fished in matches with all the legends from Benny Ashurst to Kevin Ashurst and anybody else named Ashurst. These were the early days of the Roach pole! Bloodworm was still an exotic bait! Nobody had ever heard of a boilie!

Under Don’s careful guidance, Pete quickly became a maverick pole angler, a rarity amongst juniors in those days, and regularly finished in the prizes, amassing a great deal of tackle and vouchers in the process. Pete was truly the titan of the tiddler, the regent of the roach, the guru of the gudgeon, the sultan of the skimmer and the baron of the bitterling! With the Aitken sponsored Northern Anglers juniors, Pete won first place team honours at the ‘86 and ‘87 NJAA nationals among others. Sponsorship saw Pete showered in free hooks and shot, not to mention Bayer Perlon, dozens of spools of which still lay rotting in a corner of Pete’s parent’s garage.

At the age of 16 Pete became a man in the eyes of the match angling world and soon became a small turd soiling the towpath upon which Bob Nudd and Tom Pickering would tread. On deciding not to change his name to Ashurst by deed poll Pete became disillusioned, he turned to Heavy Metal, girls, motorbikes and bottles of Merrydown at the Rec’. Much more fun than sitting by the flooded Ouse in the dismal Yorkshire rain and catching one ruffe.

Ten years later and Pete is married, lives in Leicestershire, has three degrees in French, Spanish and Politics, is due to submit his PhD in July ‘99, plays lead guitar in a thrash band called Tenebrae, rides a Yamaha FZ 750 at legal speeds and...has started fishing again!