By Wraggy | No Comments
Last updated: Sunday, March 2, 2008

To introduce myself, my name is Mark Wragg (better known as Wraggy to my friends) I’m very nearly 44 years old but spend a lot of my time trying to convince people that I’m in my early thirties, including my own kids!

God loves a tryer though! I’m a born and bred Sheffielder, and an avid Sheffield United fan, though the less said about that the better at the moment! I’ve been fishing since the age of five when my cousin and uncle took me to Damflask reservoir, north of Sheffield and I caught my first fish, not surprisingly a perch.

My dad took over my tutelage, and aged 11 I fished my first match on the River Witham at Dogdyke, an inter-school event which I somehow managed to win with a meagre 1lb 2oz, helped in no small part by the lad two pegs away losing a wrestling match on the bank with an eel that looked like a conger at the time, and must have been in excess of two pounds.
That day started me on the road to match fishing, and thinking about it was the foundation of what has come to be my sort of catchphrase, ‘you’re better to be luck than good’. Remember that one cos I can assure you it will crop up quite often in my ramblings, rantings and ravings!

On the subject of being fortunate, eight years ago my parents had a large
lottery win, enabling all the family to either retire or drastically cut down on working, and the first thing my dad suggested was to give the fishing a real good go, which I jumped at.

Take it from me though, it’s great when you’re winning, but a few less than favourable draws, combined with the bad weather we always suffer in this country and the dream ‘job’ can soon become as much of a drag as any nine to five standard, and I wasn’t enjoying it any more.
Then six years ago I married the love of my life Mandy, and the enforced sabbatical organising the wedding, then the honeymoon got me thinking about a change of direction.

I’d always fished natural venues, initially the Trent & Witham, but joining teams and a downturn in sport on the rivers saw me spending more and more time fishing canals, which I really enjoyed, but I still had a lot of time on my hands midweek, and as pleasure fishing had never been my thing, and midweek practising often gave you the wrong impression about a venue, I needed a change.

I spent a good few weeks travelling round watching the better anglers on the commercial carp lakes that were springing up all over the place, and decided to give them a go. A full new set of gear was purchased (not much call for 0.06 bottoms and Leeda Prism hooks on the carp lakes!) and away I went. I had a very successful first year on the commercials even though I didn’t really know why (remember-better to be lucky than good!) and I was totally hooked!

I know to the purists among us the commercial scene is very manufactured and artificial, but I firmly believe it has kept angling in general afloat these past few years, which is no bad thing, and when you adjust to them you will find they have their own individual quirks that need to be mastered if you are going to experience any degree of success.

It’s certainly given me a new lease of life in the game, and fired my enthusiasm back to the levels I used to experience in my late teens and early twenties, which helps me in my quest to convince everyone that I’m younger than I actually am! I’ve also made an army of friends and acquaintances on the local commercial scene, some right characters among them anall, and I’m looking forward to introducing them all in my blogs, which I hope you enjoy.