This month Tom Humphreys heads up north to sample the angling opportunities in his hometown
HULL or Kingston Upon Hull as nobody calls it, has held a fair few accolades down the years.
Prior to being named as the UK’s City of Culture in 2017, Hull was voted the worst place to live in 2008 in a Channel 4 poll and, until 1998, had the world’s longest suspension bridge. It’s also my hometown, so whenever I visit, seeing family obviously takes the front seat, along with attempting to catch a Hull City game of course. However, on my most recent visit I also wanted to see what the fishing was like.
With 24 hours at my disposal, split over two days, and distinctly autumnal weather to accompany me, as ever the tackle shop was my first destination.
Hull Angling Centre is perhaps one of the most unique-looking large independent traders in the country. Situated in a great location in East Hull, the shop sits within a former massive pub called The Crown. They’ve left the old sign on the place, which is a lovely nod back to the building’s former calling. While the shop is primarily carp-focussed, there is everything you need here for a sea, predator or coarse angling mission, and with my maggot tub filled and tackle restocked I made use of their knowledgeable staff. What was on the menu? Park lakes and tidal rivers.
Pickering Park
After meeting up with local specialist angler Jordan and his son Romeo, we decided to visit Pickering Park in the west of the city for a few hours’ tenching. When you picture open-access, urban park lakes you could be forgiven for not immediately thinking of tench. The species seems intolerant of some of the pressures usually faced by ponds in such places, like litter, poor water quality and low amounts of natural food. Pickering Park, though, seems to suffer no such issues.
We opted to fish fairly centrally on the lake, which has character in abundance and an impressive amount of features to target. There’s a plethora of islands, weedbeds, snags and everything else you could ever hope for as an angler.
It was a joy to meet one of the people caring for this precious environment in the form of Chris, who was out collecting day-ticket cash and keeping everything tidy. It’s clear that the council, and the teams looking after the parks in the city, are doing a fantastic job, and so it was now just down to us to check out what fish the lake contained.
With Romeo float fishing, myself and Jor
