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| 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.
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| '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!
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| Bob James, Hugh Miles and Chris Yates with two of Bob's memorable catch of ten two pounders |
We started filming ‘Passion’
on June 16th 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.
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| you can't beat sunrise on a misty summers day |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Richard Walker with his historic 44lb record carp |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.infoYou 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.
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| 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’!
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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 :
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
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| 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.
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| when our garden is coated in winter magic I'm certainly not going fishing, even if the countryside does look beautiful |
