​

The club was originally formed on 16th October 1967 as a 'splinter' group from the Queens Head A C.

It was a few members of this club that had started running a tote with ambitions to obtain their own private fishing. However, the Queens Head were affiliated to the BAA who 'blacklisted' member clubs who bid against them for fishing rights. It was with this in mind, plus the fact that only a few of the members were selling tote tickets, that the breakaway club was formed, meeting at the Endwood pub in Handsworth and being named Endwood AC.

The first rule that was agreed upon was 'that all members must take part in fundraising activities'

At that time there were many small fishing clubs, mostly back street pubs, clubs and factories that had their own fishing sections which were focused as much on the social side as the fishing. Specialist angling and serious match groups were in their infancy.

I think there were about 12 of us that started meeting at the Endwood but when we approached the manager to ask if we could run the tote from there he refused saying that he already had a tote being run for the football club.

Thus is was that in early 1968 we moved HQ to the Phoenix, a back street Ansells public house in Smethwick. This is where the clubs name of Phoenix angling club came from.

In November of that year Phoenix AC started a tote with the intention of buying or renting water for members to fish and to run matches, as at that time match fishing was all the rage.

 Following the move the club steadily grew thanks in no small way to the help given by the landlady who managed the pub. We always had a coach to take us to the contests and we met at the Phoenix. Emma would open the pub at 6-30am and serve us (and the coach driver) a few pints before we set off. Likewise on our return she would lay on a buffet and the pub would stay open until the last penny was spent. At closing time (10-30pm in those days) she would put the towel over the clock and lock us in. I can remember times when guys would fall asleep in the bar and wake up on Monday morning to stagger off to work!

 

Thanks to the tote we soon had enough funds to start looking for water to rent. Our first acquisition was in 1969 on the River Vyrnwy followed by two miles on the Lugg at Moreton in 1970 with the adjoining stretch taken on 4 years later. In those days the Lugg was a far better river than now and we had both venues for about 20 years till 1998 in fact.

In 1981 we took a lease on Captains Pool and stocked it with about 12 carp in 1983. Following a fish kill it was restocked in 1986 with 36 commons and 8 mirrors. Most of the stocked fish were about 4 inches long with a few around the pound mark. By 1990 a few members were catching fish over 20lb.

In 1984 we took the coarse fishing rights during the salmon close season on the Wye at Ballingham.

1988 saw the acquisition of Oaker pool and this was fished by members till 1999 when the club relinquished the lease.

During 1998 we took over the fishing at the Lenchford when the club that had held it for many years prior to that failed to raise the rent.

 

In the early days the club had a much more 'social side'. We had annual prize presentations, skittle nights, breakfast runs (with strippers of course) booze cruises on the canal and fishing weekends away to different venues such as the Hampshire Avon and the Upper Severn. During the close season I organised sea fishing trips to Swansea, Aberystwyth and Tenby.

The Phoenix used to have quite a few members who were keen on match fishing and we entered teams in the local winter league and the Birmingham Parks knockout competition. For several years we ran a sponsored 150 peg Open Match at Huxleys water at Evesham in the hope of raising club funds. (What a bloody nightmare that was)

 

The tote died a death when the national lottery started and the clubs income was maintained by taking in more members from a growing waiting list of mainly carp anglers.

We have very few, if any, match anglers in the club today as most of them prefer to fish the commercials with guaranteed 50lbs off every peg. Likewise we don't have many carp only specialists as the number of waters that are stocked with bigger fish that those in Captains has grown.

I think that the way forward for this club in future will be to focus on providing a safe and secure environment with easy access for guys that just enjoy fishing whatever the species.