A PASSION FOR ANGLING - MONSTER MYTHS

                

There are several sequences in each story that I particularly enjoy but if I have to choose a favourite of our six films, ‘Monster Myths’ would be it, not just because the monster carp lived in such a beautiful lake but because it makes such a good story … and what's more, it’s true!

I’m told by Joe of ‘CARPology’ that this is the yarn that intrigued viewers most and on reflection, I realise it could actually have been made up! So it makes it even more extraordinary that without Donald Leney’s stocking records, the mythological carp 'longer than a 20lb salmon and wider than a Labrador’s back' could have been a figment of forester Harry’s imagination.

However, this mythical monster did exist and we actually saw it once, peering out from under a thick weedbed. There is even a brief shot of it in the film and ex. record holder Chris Yates was in no doubt that it was a true monster.

Hidden in a secluded and very private estate meant it lived a charmed life, for the landowner was a keen conservationist,  strictly protecting all his wildlife and as a result had no less than five pairs of breeding barn owls, one of which would float over our camp on most evenings, nearly taking Chris's hat off. 

I was very surprised but delighted that my reputation as a professional wildlife film-making nut meant he gave us permission to film there.

On one memorable day, I was chatting to him in the spot where Harry sometimes saw the monster carp when a hobby flashed past us really close, chasing a dragonfly. 

His Lordship was very excited because it was the first hobby he had ever seen and we enjoyed many wildlife encounters in this wooded wonderland his ancestors had created. We all enjoyed the nesting dabchicks, the ever alert herons and numerous ducks. It was a wildlife heaven.

The lake was long and narrow, about four to five acres of shallow, crystal clear water and being fed by chalk stream springs, was very rich. The springs ensured it was always cold and Chris thinks it very unlikely that the carp ever spawned successfully, so those few we saw were almost certainly from the original Leney stocking in 1935, meaning our monster was at least 57years old.

I’d built my scaffold tower on the lake edge to give us an osprey’s eye view of the monster and despite the lake being shallow, it was also solid with weed and though I spent many days up there with the film camera, we never did see it again.

Chris spent days quietly stalking likely spots, Bob trying the more modern way of baiting with boilies and waiting night and day, but to no avail. He also tried stalking and favoured a spot that was a bit less clogged with weed. 

By baiting regularly he attracted several of the few carp in the lake, maybe eight in all and this lovely painting by our countries premier wildlife artist Rodger McPhail shows how the moorhens watched the passing commons too. His illustrations for our book are beautiful but to this day I cry because the BBC and publisher decided to save money by reproducing them in black and white. In colour they are stunning, so thank you Rodger.

When Bob finally had a chance I was filming from the scaffold above him and the result was conclusive, as you'll see in the film. His reaction "I think it's time for tea"

I often saw what we believed was the second biggest fish that we understandably called Arnie, a magnificent common which we guessed might make as much as forty pounds, and though I often got it feeding enthusiastically on floaters, it was never hungry when the lads were there with their rods, which wasn’t often enough!

However, after four years of catching big fish and many weeks of filming, Chris and Bob were understandably running out of motivation and in spite of the remarkable success of its’ five showings on BBC 2 and the pleading of the BBC to make another series of ‘Passion’, the troops would have mutinied if I’d agreed to more episodes. 

They had given great lumps of their lives working on our creation and did so with impressive conviction and imagination, so it was time to thank them for their efforts and put the idea to bed. 

And we thank you all for your enthusiasm over these past twenty eight years and for watching them yet again during these last few weeks. Our sincere thanks go to Peter Drennan for kindly hosting the films on his website. Hopefully they proved enjoyable and helped you through these difficult times. Maybe they even made you smile.

Please support the Angling Trust in the hope that their impressive initiative to get us fishing again will be successful. Stay safe, be patient and keep smiling and our best wishes to you all from us three blanketears -
 Bob, Hugh and Chris. 

If you’d like to view the series at your leisure and in less challenging times,  then please visit our website and my wife Sue will pop a copy of the DVD of the complete series of six films in the post. http://www.passionforangling.info/order.html

A PASSION FOR ANGLING - AUTUMN GLORY

A fishing series showing at a peak viewing time on BBC2 has to appeal to the widest possible audience. It also has to appeal to what we hoped would be our main audience - anglers, so catching sizeable fish was the challenge for our star anglers, Bob James and Chris Yates and this had to include a two pound roach.

I have loved roach fishing since childhood, catching a good 'un from the Great Ouse at Ely when at school and suitably intoxicated by roach, have gone on to catch hundreds of two pounders from around the country.

this one only went 1lb15ozs - so many do don't they!

More than a few of these two pounders have come from still waters and as my good friend and river keeper at the famous Britford Fishery on the lovely Hampshire Avon Stuart Wilson says 'they only count half and I have to agree'!

A river two and especially a three pounder are the true monsters of the freshwater world ... this roach weighed only 1lb11ozs, just in case you were wondering. I couldn't catch him a two for this happy snap - must try harder!

Like many of my generation, I had been inspired as a child by Bernard Venables and his creation, 'Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing', so we were very keen to include Bernard in our film. 

Autumn perch fishing seemed the perfect subject. 

How could anyone forget Bernard's wonderful painting of a shoal of perch attacking minnows. 

Filming with Bernard was one of the highlights of my fishing life - catching big roach has been another.

I've been lucky enough to catch eight three pounders - so far! - to a best of 3lb11ozs and one of these was from the Hampshire Avon, so our quest for a two pounder in our autumn programme was right up my street. It felt like I’d spent half of my life trotting its' crystal waters and this was to be our location for this episode of our six part series.

Luckily Bob, Chris and I lived close to its’ banks and were members of the Longford Fishery below Salisbury, so we knew where and how to catch big roach, or so we thought, but after a week all we had to show for our efforts were too small.

As all roach anglers know, roach have a habit of rolling on the surface at dawn and dusk and in spite of a week of failure I was still on the bridge at Longford Castle before dawn, looking for signs on this hallowed stretch of water.

Just as the light increased slightly I thought I saw a slight furl in the main flow upstream and suspected a big roach so without waiting for a second invite, I grabbed a rod and cast into the spot with a large lump of breadflake. The line had hardly settled before it tapped, then pulled tight and several solid thumps told me we had at last found the big roach shoal. That fish weighed 2lb6ozs and on the next cast I landed one of a bit over 2lbs10ozs, then two more two's.

I had slipped these fish back while starting to think about not calling Bob and Chris and carrying on compiling my greatest ever catch of big roach but duty prevailed, the lads were summoned and Bob went on to make a historic catch of ten two pounders, the best an ounce short of the even more magical three pounds.

It was a perfect overcast day and the roach simply wouldn’t stop biting, even when Chris and I punted out over the shoal to get shots of Bob casting towards us. Chris held the boat in position in the shallow swim by sticking an oar in the gravel and when I asked Bob to cast closer to the camera he couldn’t because he had hooked yet another big roach from right under the boat.

It was just one of those days when dreams come true and even when we had finished filming, I couldn’t get back in my swim as Chris grabbed a rod and promptly caught his biggest roach for twenty five years. At two pounds five ounces we were all very happy, so we retired to the pub for a pint to celebrate a days fishing for the history books.

We had to catch a big Avon barbel too of course and Chris lost a monster on our first evening of trying. Upstream of his swim was the hot spot under an oak tree and it seemed only fair that this should be competed for, so instead of a coin toss, arm wrestling or tiddlywinks, Chris and Bob chose a conker fight as illustrated by Rodger McPhail. And what a privilege it was for us when he agreed to add his wonderful works of art to our book.

Bob won the contest and did splendidly by also winning his
fight with a superb barbel of 11lb13oz. caught from this book cover spot ... I know that isn't big by today's standards but it was twenty years ago.

We had invited our ace artist Rodger McPhail down to put the finishing touches to our Passion book, promising him a fish for his troubles and he caught a feisty little mirror to end our  celebration with some fun.

If you enjoy the programmes on YouTube you might like to purchase the boxed set of six films from us at: http://www.passionforangling.info/order.html

Sadly we have run out of copies of our film following Chris's carp fishing adventures "Caught in Time".

A PASSION FOR ANGLING - IN SEARCH OF SALMON

       

Having enjoyed such remarkable success with our fishing at Redmire, I managed to convince Chris and Bob to join me in making not one but a series of six films and it was then a question of selling this mad idea to the BBC so that we had some funding to finance the project.

Much to my surprise I was successful in raising half the budget, the rest I’d fund myself, but then came the task of creating a varied menu of subjects to film. This surely had to include trout and salmon and as Bob and Chris are all rounders, it wasn’t long before we hit the road for the beauty and wildlife of Scotland. The River Spey was our privileged location, thanks to a generous laird, a friend from my osprey filming days.

Bob's dogs Wraps and Chester were to be our ghillies as they are very adept at landing trout without removing a single scale but salmon are beyond them.

They were beyond us too, though catching a salmon is always difficult. Luckily ‘I knew a man who can’ and with the generous help of friends David and Kim and another laird, we had a day on a prime beat of the Tweed at Floors Castle. 

Kim is a lovely lady and when I was with her in Africa researching an IMAX lion film, all the tourists were looking at Kim rather than the lions, no doubt wondering how a rough old bloke like me had such a beautiful lady in the camera car! She can fish too, for before I’d even finished putting the camera on the tripod, Kim had caught a ten pounder.

What a great start I thought, job done, but then followed an amazing catch when Kim hooked a cracker of approaching twenty pounds. The fight was long, giving me time to wade out and be at the heart of the action with Kim, Chris and Peter the ghillie.

Bob was with David, who in three days caught ten salmon while Kim caught fifteen - they say it’s the female pheromoenes that make ladies such deadly salmon anglers!

Over the years I had done a lot of filming in Scotland so was able to put Bob and Chris among lots of wildlife, including those magical red squirrels and ospreys.

We were camped in a lovely birch wood overlooking the mountains, the birches providing the perfect pitch for games of 'round the corner' frisby - suitably challenging. 

It was a wonderful adventure in the summer sun but we hadn’t finished yet and returned in the autumn to try for sea trout and salmon on a tributary of the Spey.

Heavy rain overnight was just what we needed and with the rise in water came the fish, lots of them and within a day we had caught twenty five or more silver tourists. What’s more we saw a goshawk, a golden eagle and a white tailed eagle. 

a magnificent sea eagle photographed by friend Mike Read

The evocative illustration of the salmon at the start of this blog was painted by friend Rodger McPhail, one of the finest wildlife artists in the world.


His illustrations for our 'Passion for Angling' book were wonderful and also in full colour but it is a regret to this day that the cheap-scape BBC publications decided to save money and only reproduce them in black and white.
Little did they know that the book would be in the 'best seller' lists for several weeks.

I just love Scotland and hope that you too enjoy this adventure to the far north and if you enjoy the films as much as we did making them, then you can always buy the complete set of films on DVD : http://www.passionforangling.info  

        

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