First time i saw Dave fishing was on the Calder at Brighouse and he won the Calder championship from the gravel pits section with about 8 pounds of Roach think it was in 1974. A very worthy winner of the World championship 7 years later and one of Yorkshires finest anglers.
It would have been in the late 70's & Rotherham used to run 180 peg opens on the Trent at Dunham Bridge. They were very popular and sell outs every time. I drew one of the fancied Roach pegs just upstream of the bridge. At the time i was about 17 yrs old. The next peg downstream was Dave Thomas, who had drawn a very good peg, think it would have been peg 60 or maybe 61. I fancied myself a bit as a stick float angler so was at the start of the match, determined to put up a good show against the more illustrious angler one peg down. For every Roach i caught, he caught two, great big beautiful 10 oz Roach. After 2 hrs i threw in the towel and went and sat behind Dave for the rest of the match. Probably because i was only a young lad, he allowed me to witness a masterclass in stick float fishing which i will never forget. Lovely bloke, lovely day that will stay with me the rest of my life. Oh forgot to add, he won the match with 18lb of cracking float caught Roach. To this day, every once in a while, when the Trent carries a tinge of colour, to enable the stick float to compete with the pole or feeder(those methods were in their infancy at the time), i will trouble the judge in a match. Mostly courtesy of that day i was lucky enough to sit behind and learn from one of the best river running line anglers of all time.
Hade the pleasure of meeting Dave earlier this year when he was fishing my local river Avon at Warwick. Fantastic to meet one's heroes and such a nice man. Despite a low clear river and a howling down stream wind he still copped a few.
i remember that, i was bang into it at the time.... angling mail or times wernt it..... even being a s. london lad i was well pleased for him..... didnt it kinda go pole crazy after this era..? anyway great days..
What a catch Tom. Great float angler and such a nice man too. I remember him winning it. The bugger doesn't look any older than he did then, except for a bit less hair LoL. My mate still has a Dave Thomas 12ft stick float rod made by Craddock's. He damaged the tip, so I converted it into a quiver tip rod for him donkeys years ago. It worked out quite well. He still uses it now "tight sod". Great vid Tom.
Lovely story. What a nice bloke. If the river was in better condition, he probably wouldn't have won it which would have been a crime given his record on the water.
