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that, of this other kind of fish which they didn't recognise, but which sounded to me like it could be a
schelly.
So despite what was going on, I tagged along on a few trips, and indeed the fish in question did turn out
to be a schelly. It was only an occasion catch, say a couple each season. But I had at least located a
vantage point, so I had to keep on tagging along, though I stress I always fished with worm.
Yeah, sure you did I can sense people saying. Well yes, I did. I felt I had to, because even at that time I
had aspirations of going to university, and concerns about jeopardising career paths that might follow
as a result, all of which was ultimately vindicated one Sunday morning. The day in fact that I finally
caught my first schelly.
The dog must have been dozing on that occasion. And while the buckets of ground bait and maggots
were concealed under one of the boats, when the fishery bailiffs eventually made it down to us
‘unannounced’ and spotted a few maggots crawling about on the stones, they had us all reel to check
our hook baits.
My worm bait thankfully put me in the clear. But the other two were cordially invited to spend a day at
Carlisle magistrates court to put their hands in their pockets, hence my not naming and shaming them
earlier.
It's often said that as one door closes, another opens. The lads in question stopped going to Ullswater
after that. I in the meantime had teamed up with another angling colleague, John Roach, and we started
exploring fishing the opposite side of the lake along the road from Pooley Bridge to Glenridding.
In the process of doing this we came across a group of coarse anglers from St. Helens on Merseyside,
who chartered a coach every Sunday throughout the coarse fishing close season. This would drop them
off at the same pegs along the road side week in and week out to fish a trout match using worm baits.
Consequently, we saw the same faces on most of our visits.
John and I tagged on at the end of their line, at which point we
regularly got into conversation with a chap called Wally
Wainwright. These lads all fished worm on a leger pennel rig
at long range, primarily looking for brown trout, but
occasionally picking up an odd schelly in the process, which
they knew we were interested in.
One particular morning, Wally shouted us over, and there in
his landing net was the biggest schelly I'd ever seen. So big in
fact that we decided to weigh it, which you could do back then,
and found that it well beat the existing British record.
As a species, schelly were not protected at that time, so I took
the fish away and arranged to look after the record claim for
him. I'm not sure if he thought he'd ever hear anything about
it again. But he did, and not only from the British Record Fish
Committee. Also from the World Records Hall of Fame.
Ian Williams, first ever Schelly
That record stood at one pound ten ounces for quite a few
years, eventually being deposed by the current incumbent at
two pounds one ounce nine drams from Haweswater. A fish
displayed in the British record list for historical record
purposes only, as the species is now barred from further
claims due to its protective status under the Wildlife and
Countryside Act.
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