The enthusiastic historian and naturalist Michael Clegg travels the Yorkshire region meeting colourful characters, looking at interesting places and uncovering some off-beat jobs and trades. In this episode of Clegg’s People, Michael Clegg goes fishing at Milton Ponds in Hoyland near Barnsley. He also meets retired miner, Jim Grain who breeds Japanese Koi Carp in the back garden of his council house. The film opens with a title sequence, showing artists pictures of wildlife drawings and...

The enthusiastic historian and naturalist Michael Clegg travels the Yorkshire region meeting colourful characters, looking at interesting places and uncovering some off-beat jobs and trades. In this episode of Clegg’s People, Michael Clegg goes fishing at Milton Ponds in Hoyland near Barnsley. He also meets retired miner, Jim Grain who breeds Japanese Koi Carp in the back garden of his council house. The film opens with a title sequence, showing artists pictures of wildlife drawings and people who work and find recreation in the countryside, finishing with a drawn colour portrait of Michael Clegg. Title: Clegg’s People A lone angler sits on a grassy bank at Milton ponds in Hoyland near Barnsley. Michael Clegg is one of the anglers who trying his luck at the ponds, and he explains how popular freshwater angling is in this part of Yorkshire. The ponds were the result of work at an iron works which used to occupy the site. Views follow of two young boys fishing with nets in the shallows. More views follow of other anglers on the grassy bank, the water bailiff Tommy Jordison walks by asking if Michael has a ticket to fish. Michael replies that he hasn’t and hands over the modest 40 pence fishing fee, and chats to Tommy about the ponds. The attraction for many anglers is the carp that inhabit the ponds, but other species include roach, chub, tench, bream and eels. General views follow of others enjoying the environment and the fishing. A moorhen walks over some lily pads looking for food. A relative of Tommy offers to put some insect grubs on Michael’s fishing hook to see if he has better luck in catching a fish. The man with the free bait is Paul Grain and he talks to Michael at length about bait and shows him what he uses, including a comb from a wasp’s nest which contains grubs of the type he gave to Michael. One of the anglers nearby catches a bream and another catches a perch; some of the children have caught toads in their nets. Michael abandons his angling and walks over to a fellow angler nearby for a chat. He also talks to another angler Neil Sykes who produces his own secret recipe mixes for bait, with which he’s had some success when carp fishing. Another angler nets a roach, Michael’s commentary reflects his frustration of having had no success. Michaels friend Jim Grain, who he spoke to earlier and also has an empty net, invites Michael to look at some other fish. In Jim’s garden are ponds stocked with healthy looking goldfish, a member of the carp family. The large back garden has been given over to a number of ponds which are home to a variety of fish. The first pond is full of water lilies and small fish which have just hatched. Michael asks Jim about feeding which involve natural insects in the pond and food supplements. In the next pond are the variegated koi carp, Jim and Michael talk about the development of the species and its popularity in Japan. They are also very tame and swim towards Jim’s hand as he stirs the pond water. Jim says he’s had some of the carp for 25 years. Jim talks about the names, often Japanese, given to the different colour combinations of the carp. Jim also explains to Michael how another pond covered in clear plastic encourages plants and insects to grow which flow into the other ponds where the fish live and feed. Jim’s wife Doreen appears with some bread for the fish. She places her hand in the water holding a bit of bread. The koi carp slowly approach and take some scraps. Michael asks about predators whether they have visits from other animals that want to eat the fish. Doreen tells of the heron which landed near a pond but didn’t attempt to take a fish. Jim has seen kingfishers near the ponds, but because the birds looked spectacular he admits that he let them take some young fish. Jim invites Michael to the next spawning of the koi carp, where plastic netting replaces the pond plants where the fish would normally lay eggs. Males chase female fish as the spawning takes place where thousands of eggs are released by females and takes many hours. Jim takes some of the nets out of the pond and puts them into storage when he is satisfied the net is full. The film shows the small white eggs distributed in the plastic netting. Jim takes the netting placed in a bowl of water to the nursery shed, where the eggs will hatch into ‘fry’. Jim lifts the net out of the bowl and places it into a large tank of water alongside another net. Michael’s commentary continues outlining his return visit two weeks later when the eggs have hatched and the small fry swim freely. Michael and Jim study the new arrivals, Michael observes that the young fish display no coloured markings, Jim explains they start life as an overall gold colour., they start to become more individual after about six weeks. Jim takes Michael to another tank where the fish are a bit older. Michael points at one tank where the fish are now becoming more colourful, Jim explains these are ten weeks old. He also says that the colours can change at any time during their life, which can be over 25 years. At the end of the programme Michael asks Jim how much time he has to devote to the fish, Jim reckons it’s most of his time. Credits: Graphics Richard Wisdom Editor John Hay Sound Chris Greaves Sound Dubbing John Burgess Producer/Director/Camera Charles Flynn Executive Producer David Lowen © Yorkshire Television Ltd 1990 End credit: Yorkshire Television production