Stewart is a born and bred Yorkshire man now living the ‘Ex pat life’ in Cornwall! Born in Morley, in the old West Riding of Yorkshire. He is an ardent Leeds United fan but unfortunately has not seen them in the flesh for quite a few years. He is also a lifelong cricket fan and apart from fishing spends hours watching England on the box, usually hoping for that elusive win. He has very fond memories of watching the game in the company of the ‘Barmy Army’ in the Caribbean.
He has been married to the long suffering Vivien for 30 years and has four children, three sons and one daughter Daniel, Alex, Bradley and Francesca. Out of the boys only Alex is a keen angler. Francesca has been fishing a couple of times but she has loads of time as she is only 4!
Stewarts love of fishing started at the tender age of 5 when he was taken to the river Aire in Bingley by friends of the family he remembers catching minnows before a monster perch of about 4oz took the worm hook bait, and it was that fish that was responsible for the passion that is still there nearly half a century later. His grounding in fishing was on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the rivers Aire and Wharfe. Stewart’s first match that he can remember was at Doe Park Reservoir when he was about 13 years of age he remembers weighing something like 3lb of small roach. ‘I wanted to tip the fish back but Geoff Scollick the local tackle dealer insisted that I weighed the fish’. At the presentation he was called up and given a prize for top junior angler, it was this that started his love of match fishing, thanks Geoff!
At the age of 15 Stewart left his beloved Yorkshire and home to live in Kingston in Surrey. One of his earliest memories was fishing on the river Thames and catching loads of fish that he had never seen before. It was great sport, later he was told that they were a nuisance fish called bleak!
Formative years on the ‘Southern circuit’ in the company of angling greats Steve Gardner, Ken Collings and Steve Sanders to name a few were a fantastic grounding for him on the rivers and canals of the home counties. It wasn’t long before the lure of John Raisons Willow Park in Hampshire took his attention away from the rivers. A few years later John Raison opened Gold Valley and the professional commercial fishery was born. ‘Commercial’ fishing in those early days was fantastic as you needed both silvers and carp to compete in the matches. Numerous’ lessons ‘were learnt from the then very young Will Raison which was to stand him in good stead in the future.
He now fishes regulalry on the Cornish match circuit, as well as working in conjunction with Angling Concepts in developing the Spro and Cralusso brands in the UK.
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Tom
