Neville Fickling, Dec 2021
In the late 1960s and early 70s there were a lot of very keen anglers at the school. We were easy to spot – we each had a white Kingfisher Guild badge that we wore with pride in the lapels of our blazers. Chief among them was Neville Fickling. Nev was the driving force behind the K.E.S. Angling Society, which he set up in 1968. He had already appeared on the pages of the Lynn News & Advertiser and Angling Times with photographs of big pike, each of which would have been the fish of a lifetime for many adult anglers.
As a sixth former, in 1970 Neville broke the British record for zander – and a few months later managed to break his own record, from the Relief Channel at Stow Bridge. Then, in 1985, came his greatest achievement of all – breaking the British pike record, which had stood at 40 lb since 1967, with a 41 lb 6 oz beauty from the River Thurne on the Norfolk Broads.
Incredibly, Neville has now achieved the impossible dream and landed another 40 lb-plus pike – the 40 lb 12 oz monster he is posing with on this picture. Neville takes up the story: ‘Two years ago a good friend of mine told me about a 33lb pike caught from a Midlands lake. Over the next two years I fished it a bit, but couldn’t really figure it out. Then one day just before Christmas (19.12.21) I was at a loose end on a Sunday. I rarely fish on a Sunday, but it was a mild day after a cold spell so two deadbaits were cast out.’
Neville got a take almost immediately and suspected that a small jack pike has grabbed the bait: ‘My float was heading away from me to the right. I wound down and the fish came towards me. It didn’t feel very big and it was soon in front of me and six-foot down in the clear water. What I could see was rather big! It wasn’t until I tried to lift it out of the water that I realised it had to be the big one. A weight of 40lb 12oz was recorded and I packed up and went home.’
Well done Nev!
Dave Phillips
Editor’s Note: Members might also like to look up the piece about Neville’s angling prowess in the 1969-70 copy of The Lennensian (pages 14-15.)
