A TRIBUTE TO BOB: Before the start of the 2017 lave netting season at Black Rock our association would like to pay tribute to lave nets man Bob Leonard our chairman, teacher and friend, who has retired.

Bob started lave netting at Black Rock just after the Second World War with his father Grantley, his cousin Doug and later his brother Peter. 
These were halcyon days before large scale industrial fishing and extreme pressure on rivers. There were plenty of salmon on the estuary to be caught. 

Time went by and other fishermen came and went but with a deep love of the fishing and the estuary Bob remained. 
Fast forward to the late 1990s and the fishery was really dying with only two or three men actually fishing on a very limited scale, the average age had risen to around seventy.

Salmon fishing licences at Black Rock were known as “dead man’s shoes” and when licences were offered to Martin and Richard Morgan they were both shocked but grabbed them with both hands.

These two young men had a history of lave netting, their great grandfather had actually fished with Bob when he was a young man.

To say the next few years was a steep learning curve is very true but Bob was there to pass on his knowledge and experience to the two novices.

The fishery, as had others before, started to come under pressure from the environment agency with restrictions and possible closure around the year 2000 and Bob was always at the forefront of any protest and the fight to preserve the fishery and our way of life.

The fishery at this time started to attract huge media coverage and Bob was always there to tell a story or two when required, a quick wit and turn of phrase makes him very popular.

Bob fished well into his seventy’s really until his knees gave out and he had them replaced!

By then more young men had become involved in the fishery much to the joy of Bob, he loves to try to embarrass them over their fishing efforts. 

Although retired he is and always will be a big part of the group and is still involved in everything we do.

It must be said also, without him there would not have been a Black Rock lave net heritage fishery.

For more information go to blackrocklavenets.co.uk