CATCHING THE IMPOSSIBLE

 

at 5lb4ozs a simply awesome perch from the Great Ouse - almost impossible

There is nothing that is ‘impossible’ of course, not when it comes to freshwater fishing … and Martin Bowler and friends proved this when we made our series of nine films for Ch 4.

a tench fishers double delight

an estate lake tench for Bernard as described in our book

Everything is a long time ago when you’re my age and when we started filming this series with Bernard Cribbins on July 22^nd 2004, little did we know that like 'A Passion for Angling’, our series would still be going strong more than fourteen years later.

Our name ‘Catching the Impossible’ was part catchy title and part a challenge to see if we could catch huge fish to order, preferably with under-water images to match … but the idea of a three-pound river roach was our most wildly optimistic target.

the incomparable Terry Lampard with our 3lb5oz River Stour roach

The fact that our close friend Terry Lampard actually achieved that impossible task on film is testament to his skill and determination, for it equalled his PB and at the time was probably the only three-pound roach in the River Stour. It was an amazing day and will always remind us of our sadly departed friend.

yet another 7+ chub for Terry and our cameras

Martin Bowler probably matches Terry in his angling skills and perseverance as well as proving to be the best possible company in our long quest for the targets. He started well, landing our fifteen-pound barbel on the upper Ouse within a few hours of our cameras rolling.

our first days filming beside the Gt.Ouse - what a golden start ... but it wasn't always as easy!

The fact that it would surely be impossible to catch such a fish from Adams Mill or Kickles Farm now is a sad reflection on the demise of many small river barbel. Likewise the marvellous big perch fishing that Martin enjoyed in the Bedfordshire Ouse before and during the making of the films. He’d caught more than twenty perch over four pounds but we never imagined that this monster of 5lb 4ozs would slide into the landing net as we looked on in disbelief. The Angling Times suggested at the time that it was the biggest river perch ever caught in the UK.

this is a mere three pluser withYates hoping for a four

44lbs 4ozs of classic common carp, stalked in the margins with a float

another catch from our book with film clip details

We’d set our hearts on a forty plus carp and felt lucky that we caught a beautiful common that matched Dick Walker’s famous Redmire record. We caught it stalking in the margins too.

The size of carp has increased so much since then that I guess we would have set our ‘impossible’ target at fifty pounds but one fish that would always be a challenge is a thirty-pound pike, not from a trout reservoir but an ancient estate lake.

job done and at 32lb 6ozs an 'impossible' pike that graced our series

When we finally landed that monster we knew that our four years of filming was complete … and in spite of all the difficult challenges of big fish and poor weather we hardly had a cross word and remain the best of friends.

happy days with Chris Yates plus roach and perch

It was a remarkable and unrepeatable adventure and one that lives on to this day in the three DVD’s that Martin is selling in his on-line shop. There are three one-hour films on each DVD and all are narrated by the incomparable Bernard Cribbins.

Bernard's 22lb plus of hard fighting pike

He appears in many scenes and never let us down when we needed him to catch. We’d have included him in every scene as he and Martin got on like a house on fire but sadly, Bernard was busy filming Dr.Who at the time, [I think he got his priorities wrong!] along with TV and theatre work, so wasn’t available.

the boxed set of great fishing and wildlife which ... so we're told, won't dissapoint!

If you want to share our triumphs and disappointments, the three DVD’s are available individually … and when we have made some more copies of disc 2 [it sold out] we will sell the series as a boxed set with a slip case.

https://martinbowler.co.uk/shop/dvds/

friend, relation and jammy bar-steward John Wilson with Oulton Broad's biggest pike

DVD’s        = £14 each + p&p

DVD’s X 3 = £42 for the set + p&p

Martin also has copies of ‘A Passion for Angling' for sale.

A PASSION FOR CATCHING - STILL GOING STRONG

 

                 

the iconic series first shown on BBC2 in 1993 to audiences of over six million

‘A Passion for Angling’ and ‘Catching the Impossible’ are still capturing big audiences, for they describe the magic of being by the waterside with a rod and line like no others.

'Catching the Impossible's' Martin Bowler with 44lb4oz common caught on a float

I’m bound to say that because I filmed and produced them, along with funding their production but because so many folk write complimentary letters constantly assuring us that they are the best fishing films that have ever been made, who are we to argue!

Bob James, Hugh Miles and Chris Yates with two of Bob's memorable catch of ten two pounders

We started filming ‘Passion’ on June 16^th 1989 so it is remarkable that the adventures of Chris Yates and Bob James are still appealing to anglers … and non-anglers after all this time. Both series took more than four years to complete, not just because we wanted to capture the very essence of what it means to be by river or lake but because I had to do my ‘day job’ in order to be able to afford the luxury of being so particular about filming everything in the most perfect light.

you can't beat sunrise on a misty summers day

filming mountain lions in the Patagonian Andes

For those new to our Websites and Blog, my day job is making wildlife films for a living and this enables me to fund fishing films. I could only do so as and when I had time in between expeditions to far off lands chasing exciting critters, so that is why the six hour long film series we made for BBC 2 ‘A Passion for Angling’ took over four years to complete. ‘Catching the Impossible’ with Martin Bowler and it’s nine one hour films for Ch4 took almost as long, partly because we were trying to catch ‘impossible’ sized fish. Martin did just that of course and most anglers now reckon that some of our targets would indeed be impossible.

I've been doing it for a long time but not often enough in the African sunshine

So far as my day job is concerned, I won’t ever admit to having ‘retired’ but my body is so wrecked from staggering around in the mountains in pursuit of elusive big cats that I no longer have the joints to do so. Both hips have already been replaced and my shoulders are in line for becoming part of this moronic man, or should that read …

During our filming we certainly took infinite care to represent angling in a way that we felt did justice to the magic of the sport. In fact, Bob and Chris used to accuse me of being a perfectionist, Martin Bowler of ‘Impossible’ too but in Martin’s case that would be calling the kettle black. He was so professional in his approach to the challenges of catching giant fish that he almost put David Attenborough to shame, even if that would be impossible. Whatever we think, I hope that a couple of stories will help you to understand the trouble that we took to make both series as inspiring as possible.

the opening scene of 'A Passion for Angling' - Chris on the famous dam wall at Redmire

We felt that the ‘Passion’ films had to include the famous record carp water, Redmire. In fact, my initial  plan was to only make one film but our time at that magical pool was so idyllic and so successful that I convinced Bob and Chris that we ought to make a series of six films. After a further four years of hard graft, they were both wishing that they hadn’t agreed!

Chris and his catches at the legendary Redmire were famous because they culminated in his record 51lb6oz carp, a fish that followed the even more famous capture of Richard Walker’s 44lb monster. 

Richard Walker with his historic 44lb record carp

the scarecrow assembled in the Redmire shallows

So with so many happy memories of his time there, Chris was keen to return, not so that he could catch yet more big carp but so that he could finally try out his eccentric idea of a fishing scarecrow!

Chris had harboured this crazy idea for years but had been ‘dissuaded’ by the various syndicates to try it. I was much more liberal and jumped at the idea. The plan was to place a manikin in the shallows in the area where he had caught his record fish. It would be dressed in Chris’s coat and hat and be holding a rod. Once installed, we baited the spot for several days and the carp became habituated to this silent, stationary ‘angler’ and ended up feeding within a couple of feet … a lesson there for our modern day impatient and noisy angling.

waiting for the carp to arrive

At what we considered to be the most opportune moment, Chris replaced the manikin and stood stock still, [probably because he was stuck in the knee-deep mud]. He didn’t have to wait long before several carp approached him for a feed and I’ll always remember the magic moment when what appeared to be the manikin actually moved. It was Chris swinging his bait gently into the path of a feeding carp and he promptly missed the bite!

Unperturbed, the carp were quick to return and Chris didn’t miss the next time, battling a spirited common towards Bob who was waiting in the nearby reeds with a landing net. Chris was understandably pleased to prove that his madcap scheme would work and that we had another magical sequence in the can. In fact it was one of many, for Bob and Chris each caught two twenty pound plus carp, all using different methods, including Bob’s hooked from a tree and having to join the beautiful leather carp called Raspberry by jumping out of the branches into the water and deep mud.

the jump, illustrated by Rodger McPhail

We also filmed a gudgeon match ‘to the death’, the pair reluctantly punting out into the hallowed waters through the mist as the sun was rising. Chris doesn’t do early mornings so it was a struggle, even if we did capture the most evocative summer sequence in the whole series.

I still love that sequence, even after twenty five years, for those misty images accompanied by Jennie Muskett’s perfect music and Bernard’s dulcet tones of narration capture the very essence of the magic of angling.

If you wish to purchase the DVD of the six film series of 50min films, then please visit www.passionforangling.info

You can also purchase Chris Yates' film on escapist carp fishing 'Caught in Time'. It's a perfect hours viewing with the maestro doing what he does best. 

If you buy the 'Passion' DVD you can have a free 'Catching the Impossible' book - just the £4 postage to pay. 

Sue sending out the 'Passion' DVD's and 'Catching' books

Our website includes  instructions on what to do to get Sue up and running with your order. She sends them out almost every day but please don’t leave ordering until a few days before Christmas as she will be busy cooking up a storm for the festivities and I hope to be out fishing.

 

‘Catching the Impossible’ is a different kettle of fish, intentionally of course as I felt it ridiculous to try to emulate or even repeat the success of ‘Passion’.

This is a series that follows the adventures of Martin Bowler as he attempts to catch some of the biggest fish in Britain, the targets for the many species being of a size that might attract the impossible tag. Of course, nothing is ‘impossible’ and I hoped that Martin would prove this to be true! He is accompanied by narrator and ace angler Bernard Cribbins … when Bernard had the time to spare from his hectic schedule, especially when filming Dr.Who  … and as they say, “didn’t they do well’!

Bernard with his beautiful 22lb snapper - it grew on to be over thirty pounds and was named Bernard!

Martin caught so many big fish that it’s difficult to believe but I was there with the camera to record the truth and we all know the camera never lies don’t we! Among our targets was a forty pound carp on the float, a fifteen pound barbel, a seven pound chub, a one pound dace, a ten pound tench, a thirty pound pike and a perch of over four pounds.

Martin with his awesome 32lb 6oz monster from an estate lake

I mention the perch last as Martin had already caught twenty-three perch of that size and we thought it would be easy to achieve. Wrong! The challenge nearly broke our resolve but in the end we didn’t just hit the target, Martin actually caught a perch of five pounds four ounces. The Angling Times informed us that it was the biggest perch ever caught from a river, [not any more], but at the time we were blown away by it’s size – and we still are!

what a fish! Martin with his 5lb 4oz Gt.Ouse perch

A three-pound roach was also on the list and at the time was far from impossible. After all, even I had caught four of that size so Martin raised the stakes and decided that the challenge should be a three-pound roach … but from a river. Now this was impossible, for after the squadrons of killer cormorants had invaded our rivers, even two-pound roach are very rare.

We reckoned we would need help to even come close to the target so called up friends Terry Lampard and Tim Norman for back-up. We tried lots of places on both the Hampshire Avon and Dorset Stour and caught some good roach but nothing even close to the target.

Then on a day of overcast skies, little wind and slightly coloured rivers, Terry and Tim tried the Stour while Martin and I tried the Avon. I was in one of my favourite swims and caught a 2/5 roach almost immediately, along with several others, then Martin called from downstream and said he had started to catch too. The roach were evidently ‘on’ and this was confirmed when Tim called to say they had already caught a two pounder and suggested we should get over to the Stour pronto as Terry was feeling lucky!

We arrived in the nick of time as Tim had just hooked a good roach that was lost to a pike. He had to re-tackle so it was Terry’s turn to trot the hot swim. I filmed a few tempting trots with bread flake when the float buried and a large roach rolled on the end of Terry’s line. It was a good fish which became bigger by the minute and when Tim finally netted it we all realised it was huge. At three pound five ounces it equalled the biggest roach that Terry had ever caught and in truth it was probably the only three pound roach still alive in the Stour.

Terry with his 'lucky' 3lb 5oz Dorset Stour roach

There was much celebration all round and expletives from Tim about how lucky Terry was. If my memory serves me right, the words included jam and bar steward. What a fish and what an angler.

dear 'Lamps' sure was an ace angler - here with one of his many seven pound plus chub

Sadly, as many followers of our sport will know, we lost Terry after a short illness a while back, just as he was completing his second book, ‘Last Casts’. His lifelong friend Tim Norman has supervised the completion of the book which describes some more of his exploits in search of a great variety of fish and if it’s anything like as good as his first book, ‘First Casts’ it will be a splendid read. This was one of the best angling books I’ve ever read, so if you want to share Terry’s adventures you can order the book from the following website :

http://www.terrylampardbook.co.uk/

If you want to share Martin and Bernard’s adventures with my camera in their faces when filming ‘Catching the Impossible’ then please visit: http://www.martinbowler.co.uk/shop  

our big and colourful book of the series with it's three set DVD's

The series comprises nine one hour films in sets of three on three DVD’s so you don’t have to buy them all at once! They are full of great fishing and some folk even prefer the series to ‘Passion’ but we’ll leave you to be the judge of that. There’s a splendid book describing our adventures too, full of pictures [400+] along with film clips and beautiful illustrations by the celebrated artist Rodger McPhail so you don’t even have to read it.

However you choose to spend your time, Sue and I hope that you have a happy and enjoyable Christmas and if out fishing, please catch one for me.

when our garden is coated in winter magic I'm certainly not going fishing, even if the countryside does look beautiful

HAPPY DAYS TO CELEBRATE - 2015

a magical end to a perfect day in paradise

There is so much to celebrate when you’re an angler these days, even if the gloom and doom merchants try to convince us otherwise. It’s always a treat to be out there in the wilds with the wildlife and it’s a shame that more don’t appreciate the benefits of getting sunburnt - or cold and wet! 

What next? A tench or bream, perch or rudd, barn owl or avocet? I've loved the Fens since childhood

Mystery is the essence of life and angling provides it in spades ... and over time you realise that without it life [and angling] becomes mundane, so new challenges have to be discovered. When wildlife filming was my whole life I'd constantly be searching for new adventures in ever more remote places and with increasingly rare and even 'impossible' animals. Mountain lions and snow leopards were some of the more memorable challenges and I'll always be grateful for the rewards they gave me.

the Andes Mountains on a wild day - home to elusive pumas

'my' Penny the puma - she trusted me to be by her side and I trusted her not to eat me © Laurie Campell

a tencher's dawn - simply idyllic

a birthday tench - only 4/12 but along with three others it was mission accomplished

How can you not appreciate the privilege of sharing a misty dawn with a red-eyed tench, a glorious summers day with a golden rudd or a warm and drizzly autumn morning with a big, bronze barbel.

wildlife doesn't get any more beautiful than a big rudd

... except maybe a chalk stream barbel

Then fishing apart, there’s the increasing enthusiasm for creating crucian waters, the long awaited protection for bass and the increasing support and funding for the Angling Trust.

happy days are here again ... silver roach for Martin and I and a perch for Mr.Yates

happy crucian catching friends

I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy some wonderful days by the water with friends and we’ve caught some special fish along the way, so it’s been a particularly good year, especially as those fishy moments are all the better for being shared. Camaraderie beats competition every time and below are the results of just a few of our special days out exploring the mysteries of our watery world.

my computer guru, friend and ace guitar maker Chris Wild with a beautiful PB common of 22lbs

Gerry with a 14lb Hampshire Avon barbel

Mark with a Cotswold Water Park male tench of 6/12

Steve's awesome mullet of 7/12 that circled the boat three times when battling for freedom. We slipped it back carefully of course

Mark again with a PB Avon chub of 6/9

Another cause for celebration is the continued success of ‘A Passion for Angling’ and as it’s nearing Christmas present time, I’m not afraid to publicise it here. Sales of the DVD’s don't earn us much money but at least it enables Bob, Chris and I to buy a bit of bait. We have just updated our website : http://www.passionforangling.info/  so will repeat it here :

   A PASSION FOR ANGLING
           Newsletter - 2015                                            

                                                       

This is the poster we made when first releasing the DVD’s of ‘A Passion for Angling’ and ‘Caught in Time’ and despite the many intervening years, both films are still going strong and available from our website. Ain't it great when a plan comes together ... a big surprise too!

‘Passion’ was first shown on BBC 2 in September 1993 and it’s remarkable that it’s appeal lives on so strongly. Most TV programmes are dead in the water within a year or two but in spite of the BBC investing heavily in a new angling series recently called ‘Earth’s Wildest Waters - The Big Fish’, it seems inescapable that any films on angling get compared to the attractions so widely shared by our Passion enthusiasts. 

Our star anglers, Bob James and Chris Yates are understandably honoured that so many folk think PFA is the best angling programme ever made. Having filmed, written and produced the series, I feel chuffed that this belief among so many lives on.

Many of you will be less aware of the charms of our film ‘Caught in Time’ but it’s a classic story of Chris Yates’s desire to catch a big carp from a beautiful southern lake. 

It’s much admired and many folk keep on writing to us asking when parts two and three are going to be available. Sadly for them, Chris and I have decided to go fishing instead of making more films for the series … but one day maybe?!

More recently ... but still about ten years ago, Martin Bowler and I created the Ch4 series "Catching the Impossible" and DVD's of the nine one hour series are available via our website : http://www.catchingtheimpossible.info/index.html

our star presenter and friend Bernard Cribbins caught more than a few big fish and narrated both 'Catching' and 'Passion' for we all know he's the best in the business

you'll be in A&E if you drop it on your foot

There's also a big book telling the story of the making of the series, 300 odd pages, more than 400 pics, illustrations by leading wildlife artist Rodger McPhail and film clips from the films, so it's a big enough book to anchor your Christmas trees. We're giving away free copies when you buy the PFA DVD, with only £4 postage to pay. It hurts to give such a lovely book away but not as much as if they were burnt! We were too ambitious and printed too many copies - stupid boys.







Sue and I have had a most enjoyable year with one or two holidays in between many days spent tending our large wildlife garden. It’s a lot of work but we love it and the digging certainly keeps us fit. Our major task this winter is to clear our main pond of reeds and the dreaded invasive water hyacinth. We can't do it in the summer due to mallard ducks nesting on the island, so it's a cold job 'pond-dipping' the roots out with bare arms after overnight frost. Still, we are making progress slowly and the achievements often seem to beat blanking on barbel ... but not always. We'll be at it all winter mind, so I hope it doesn't get in the way of my roach fishing too much.

our beautiful wisterias look down on a fish pond that is now a dragonfly pond thanks to our playful otters

there's little in nature that beats an English country garden

making a start on clearing our main pond - it's a big job but the dragonflies will love it

pulling the reeds and water hyacinth out by their roots is cold work in winter

making progress but still some way to go - three months I should think

As a result of this major pond clearing, along with woodland management, my fishing adventures have been all too infrequent but when I have had time to go forth with rods I’ve been lucky enough to snare some cracking fish including perch up to 3/11, several specimen roach and rudd of over two pounds, an 8/2 tench and a 13/11 barbel. Then there was the magic of mulleteering in this little green boat, an endless quest to find the answer to catching them and failing most of the time ... but when you do hook one the fight is so extreme that you can't wait to get back out there for some more mental and physical torture. I love it!

a 'proper' perch of 3/11 that grew on to be caught by friend Mike Townsend at exactly 4lbs. - perfect. 

yet another sparkling roach of 2lbs

a spring treat of a tench at 8/2

what a monster - well it is for me because it's a PB of 13/11

a scale prefect roach that's grown on from the Avon Roach Project releases

While trying to avoid work, [Sue has been teaching me to say no!] I have remained keen to help out some of the angling and wildlife charities, particularly our friends Trevor Harrop and Budgie Price in their quest to reinstate self-sustaining populations of roach into the once iconic Hampshire Avon. 

the stews for growing on the fingerling roach to three years old and release in the Avon + pond diggers in background

the project's recently completed pool for breeding yet more and bigger Avon roach

Having released many thousands over the last five years, anglers are once again beginning to catch these silver beauties … so congratulations and thanks to Trev and Budgie for their imagination and years of hard graft.

Trev releasing three year olds in the Hampshire Avon at Fordingbridge

Trev in playful mode as he recovers from the stressful battle that this 4/12 mullet gave him

I use my blog to promote admirable activities like this, along with the work of the Angling Trust, the Dorset Wildlife Trust and the Salmon and Trout Conservation charity, all of which I’m a staunch supporter of and if you’re keen to offer help to our beleaguered rivers I strongly recommend you join at least one of them.

I see from last years PFA Newsletter that my blog has grown from 67,000 views to 108,000+ so is proving ever more popular, even in countries as far flung as Alaska, Russia, Argentina, even Mauritius. I’m constantly amazed by how far away these foreign readers live and wonder why they are interested. It certainly can’t be to help them learn English!

Writing and illustrating the blog is time consuming and keeps me from my other hobbies such as music and gardening but it does fulfil my need to be creative. It also partially replaces the loss of my travels round the world making wildlife films.

one of our snow leopards at 17,000 ft in Ladakh, deep in the Himalayas

I miss my colleagues and all the great locals I used to work with in far-flung places but at least sharing fishing and wildlife stories with my readers is rewarding.

Sue doing her bit to ensure Bob, Chris and I can afford to buy some fish bait

With Christmas approaching fast, please ensure your orders arrive in time for Sue to post them. Also, if you want any for birthdays etc. please indicate that to Sue in the order so that if necessary she can post them first class. She sends the DVD’s + books out virtually every day but please give her a chance to meet your deadlines.

Post and package charges are always changing, especially when sending abroad, so please check the details on the order form.

 a really cracking read with splendid photography as well

If you don’t want to send a cheque or postal order, you can buy PFA from Martin Bowler’s on-line shop and use PayPal. He has lots of other first class items too, including his two film series and books. His recent book, ‘Totally Immersed’ is a great read as well as wonderfully illustrated.

Visit www.martinbowler.co.uk for those Christmas presents.

happy days on a winter sunshine holiday

Sue and I hope you enjoy the festivities and you all have a thoroughly happy and healthy 2016 … and if you’re into fishing, may your float sink more often and your rod become seriously bent.