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| friend and collegue during the filming of 'Catching the Impossible' Martin Bowler snapped this great pic of me on the Wye |
One of the greatest joys in
life is to venture into the countryside with a rod and line and follow an
adventure that lasts a lifetime. I consider myself lucky that when I was very
young I was shown how inspiring it can be by my grandfather … and even luckier
that it has remained such an enjoyable passion ever since.
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| where it all started for me and many of my lifelong friends - Bernard's iconic creation that inspired thousands of anglers |
I was equally fortunate that
I grew up in an era when my angling hero was Mr.Crabtree, so my essential
reading each week was that of Dick Walker, Fred J Taylor and of course, Peter
Stone. Like all of us I guess, I was inspired by Bernard Venables and his
imaginary fishing stories … and still am … and as a result tried to emulate the
stars of the day in my fishing adventures.
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| Bernard's wonderfully evocative paintings in 'Mr. Crabtree Goes Fishing' ensured I became a fisherman for life |
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| suitably inspired by Bernard, I visited Hickling Broad when still a boy and caught dozens of big rudd over two pounds |
It is said that we can’t
escape growing older by the day but never have to be ‘old’. It’s an attitude to
life principle that I try to uphold but however determined, it’s only a matter
time before we all fall off our perches. Sadly, many of my childhood heroes
have done just that so I thought it might be interesting to recount the
privileges I’ve been lucky enough to experience when filming some of these
great anglers.
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| what a fabulous buiding in which to sing for my supper - an incomparable home for ten formative years |
I grew up in a musical family
and was lucky to win a choral scholarship to Ely Cathedral. This gave me virtually
free schooling but more importantly, gave me access to the inspiring ‘land of
skies’, the Fens. Ten years living in all that space meant I soon became
passionate about wildlife and with the Great Ouse flowing not far from the
school, fishing became almost as important.
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| the Fens - the 'land of skies' that inspired me to become a passionate wildlife film-maker, conservationist and fisherman |
In-between reluctant
acceptance that education was part of the reason for being there, myself and
friends would escape into this watery world, pre-baiting swims to create
Jacuzzis of bubbling bream. Roach became a favourite quarry … and still are …
and during this time, Fred J started to write about dead-baiting for pike, so
that had to be tried too. Lobbing a herring as far as we could into the iconic
depths of Roswell Pits produced pike to 18lbs but we also pre-baited swims with
fish scraps from school. We hadn’t ever read anything about this technique but
it seemed like a good idea at the time [1957] and it was. On one memorable day
I got taken apart by an absolute monster and even to this day, the loss of that
huge pike still haunts me.
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| an eighteen pounder from my school days in the Fens at Ely |
Fishing apart, I was destined
to become a professional French horn player but at the crucial moment when a
decision had to be made, the BBC started to show wildlife on television,
including Peter Scott and the “Look” series, along with the “World About Us’.
One of the programmes showed the legendary Eric Ashby stalking deer, badgers
and foxes in the New Forest. He became my hero and from that moment my die was
cast – I would try to become a wildlife film-maker.
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| my boyhood hero and legendary wildlife film-making pioneer Eric Ashby with one of his foxes rescued from the hunt |
A degree in film-making was
going to be necessary if I stood any chance of joining the BBC Film Unit, so
luckily I won a place on a three year course at the Guildford College of
Art. Making films was what I
wanted to learn and what better subject is there than fishing!
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| the star of the show - the legendary pike I named 'Old Tom' that featured in my very first fishing film |
My first film was to be a
story about the catching of a legendary pike on Hickling Broad. I had found an
old beaten up stuffed pike abandoned in the college which weighed 26lbs. so
having re-painted it and built a case, it was mounted above the bar of a local
pub, the fictional story being that this scourge of the broad had finally been
caught on Christmas eve. by the famous local angler, Dennis Pye. All I had to
do was convince Dennis that a college kid was worth going out fishing for and
then try to catch a 26lb pike to order!
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| Heigham Sounds - I can see the exact spot even now |
On the appointed February day
we ventured out onto Heigham Sounds and explored all Dennis’s favourite
hot-spots - but they were all cold as ice. We too were frozen by an evil
easterly and nothing seemed to be moving apart from the 1lb live roach on the
end of Dennis’s famous dumb-bell rig. With a greased line he was able to
skilfully steer the roach over the spot where he thought the pike would be
lying in wait - but nothing stirred.
I should add that Dennis had
given me the task of catching his live-baits before the filming could start,
with nothing much under a pound acceptable! Luckily I had learned how to catch my
favourite fish quite well and trotting a caster behind a stick float down the
centre of the Thurne for two days produced a net-full of bait. I cringe to
think of those roach as bait now … and also wish I knew of somewhere today that I could catch
one pound roach to order!
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| Dennis motoring through the reeds in search of more monsters, just as we had in 1963 |
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| the fish filled waters of Horsey Mere |
Having failed in Heigham
Sounds, Dennis wasn’t for giving up and we searched Hickling Broad without a
single run before making the long motor up to the famous Horsey Mere, soon to
be the sight of the record pike capture, though not for us. We didn’t get a
sniff despite Dennis’s tireless efforts and un-rivalled knowledge of the water.
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| Dennis's largest pike - a 34/2 from Horsey Mere in 1965 |
Undeterred, he went back to
the very spot we started and swam the live-bait over THE spot once again.
Nothing. By now we were feeling like blocks of ice and I tried to convince
Dennis that we should give up and try again another day but he wasn’t having
any of it.
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| a 27lb pike for Dennis from the same spot ... maybe the same fish? |
Steering a fresh bait over
the spot once again it suddenly disappeared. There was hardly a ripple, the
float and roach simply gone, the line peeling off his big wooden centre-pin.
I’d like to say that the strike and fight were spectacular but I think the pike
must have been almost as cold as us because it came in like a lamb. However, it
was big … and carefully weighed in front of my camera, went exactly 26lbs. Our fish was returned safely in spite of the horrendous gaff. All these historic Broads pics are from Stephen Harper's wonderful and evocative book 'The Pike of Broadland'. Thank you Stephen - what a great trip you've given me down memory lane.
There are those that try to
pour cold water on Dennis’s achievements and suggest he didn’t catch all the
fish he claimed or that he exagerrated his success ... but he sure could fish and his ability and knowledge were
impressive - and what a lovely,
generous man, helping out a young student with his little college project. He
delivered on cue and fans of John Wilson and Martin Bowler will be aware of how
difficult that can be.
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| yet another thirty for Dennis - 33lbs from Hickling Broad |
We hadn’t finished the
filming either because the pike hadn’t fought at all. So a few days later, when
we’d thawed out, we dramatised the event with great swirls created by the oars,
bent rods and spinning reels, along with a few doubles that Dennis caught to build
the drama. It was a good way to teach me editing, or ‘knitting’ as my wife Sue
calls it!
I so wish I had a copy of the
film but sadly the college binned it a few years back, though on reflection,
the music I chose to dramatise the fight was so over the top that I cringe just
to think about it. No wonder that many of my most successful wildlife films
have no music at all. Lesson learned.
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| Bardsey Island off the Lleyn Peninsula - a place of pilgrimage for many birders |
My next film was about
lobster fishing on Bardsey Island off the Welsh coast, made with my childhood
friend, Robin Pratt. Filmed during the college holidays, I was so determined to
develop my skills that I ‘borrowed’ the film stock out of the college cabinet
so that I could complete the project. Upon returning, the head of the film
course, an industry professional called Stan Cubberley congratulated me on my
commitment instead of bollocking me for steeling college property. He just
nodded and said I’d make it in the profession because I was so determined. I
was lucky to have him as a mentor for he was an excellent teacher.
Unbeknown to me during this
filming, I was building a reputation as a competent film- maker and this came
to the notice of Barry Welham of K.P.Morritt. [I still have one of his Intrepid
reels].
He wanted to make a series of
films that would help sell his fishing tackle and with a producer whose name I
don’t remember … I don’t remember much any more [well, it was more than fifty
years ago] … came up with the idea of famous anglers catching many of the most
popular species and showing the tackle required to do so successfully.
It was to be called “Tackle
and Tactics” and I was to be employed as the cameraman. I guess I got paid but
as I’m not the least bit motivated by money it didn’t matter as I was going to
go fishing with some of my boyhood heroes.
First up was Dennis Pye who
was once again going to catch pike from the Broads for me. We went into the
middle of Duck Broad one sunny autumn day and he promptly caught a couple of
pike weighing 18lbs and 19lbs. They fought hard this time so no need for the
‘jiggery-pokery’.
David Carl-Forbes trotted
maggots on the delightful river Eden and caught some cracking dace but filming
with National Champion Alan Wrangles was trickier. He was intending to catch
tench from a classic Crabtree pool but they proved elusive, so we had to put
our heads together to complete the sequence. Little red worms below a small
float close to the lilies did the trick, as they so often do, producing three
feisty little males. I guess we filmed carp, roach and chub but the detail has
faded away.
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| filming Peter Stone fishing for barbel on the Kennet |
Last but not least was Peter
Stone. What a delightful man … and what a privilege to
spend time on the river-
bank with him. He was going to catch bream from the Thames and barbel from the
Kennet and of course he didn’t fail, landing several good bream of four to five
pounds from a Thames weirpool near Oxford on ledgered lobworms.
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| 'Stoney' caught several barbel for me of course |
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| me when a young man with clockwork Bolex and Richard Walker inspired hat |
I think he rolled the same
bait between the rafts of ranunculous to snare three small barbel from a
stretch of the Kennet shared by the other greats of the day, Dick Walker, Fred
Taylor, Pete Thomas and no less than the young Peter Drennan. The pictures come
from the day with Peter on the Kennet and I wonder how the films turned out so
well when I was having to use a clockwork Bolex for the filming. I did have a tripod
but was already developing the ‘hand-held style’ that served me so well when
filming ‘A Passion for Angling’ and ‘Catching the Impossible’.
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| Dick Walker with a big haul shared with friend Peter Stone |
Word got around that I’d done
OK when filming fishing and when I decided to make my own series of fishing films
it was obvious that they had to be made with no less than Richard Walker. I
wrote to him and much to my delight received a positive reply. Yes, he was
interested and would I join him on Grafham with Pete Thomas to discuss the
content.
We motored out into the waves
and chatted away while the two of them had a ‘friendly’ casting contest,
throwing fly lines prodigious distances using double-hauling techniques while I looked on in admiration. Dick
was going through his 'trouting' phase but was enthusiastic about making a series
of films with me on all the ‘proper’ fish. We agreed on six half hour stories
and to this day I regret never having made them. Wouldn’t they have been a
wonderful archive of specimen angling in its formative years.
The films with Dick didn’t
get made because I had managed to win a place in the BBC’s Film Unit in London
and was consumed by the corporation for nine years, working on a their whole
range of programmes, including a Beethoven trilogy, Alice in Wonderland, Dr.
Who and Porridge. My ambition remained and I finally left to try to become a
wildlife film-maker. I’d spent too long at the BBC and sadly, Dick passed away
before I could pursue my dream fishing series with him.
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| Peter Drennan's classic tench lake in Oxfordshire, location for the first scene in 'Catching the Impossible' |
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| Peter and Frances, Roy, Martin and Johny Ev. Ain't it good spending time on the bank with friends |
The story doesn’t end quite
there, for I’m privileged to say that Peter Stone and Peter Drennan became good
friends and I shared several days with them on Peter’s iconic tench lake in
Oxfordshire. Now Stoney has passed away we always give him a symbolic hug as we
pass the massive Wellingtonia on the banks of the lake. He was the most
delightful man in both word and deed.
I remember a special days
barbel fishing on the upper Kennet with Stoney and Bernard Venables,
accompanied by Chris Yates. We’d been invited there by Keith Elliott and though
the swims looked delectable, I don’t remember actually fishing, preferring to
sit with Bernard and Stoney for a good chat. I still regret not taking a film
camera to record this unique day.
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| Bernard with a classic perch from the Avon |
What does stick in the mind
is the unsurprising fact that Peter was the only one to encourage a barbel to
bite, even if he missed it and even more memorable was Bernard’s powers of
concentration. He had found a particularly promising run tight under the near
bank so lowered his bait in carefully, then knelt on the bank for fully two
hours waiting for the line to tighten over his fingers. I think that most of us
would have required A&E after kneeling on a damp bank for two hours … and
Bernard was in his late eighties at the time. What a man and an inspiration to
us all.
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| Chris and Bob admiring Bernard's Crabtree book |
He was a star in ‘A Passion
for Angling’ of course, catching perch to order, even a two pounder when under
pressure to deliver. He always had a special place for the perch and often described it as the 'totem' fish ... and boy, didn't he capture the essence of their character in the pages of Crabtree.
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| Bernard's illustrations are some of the finest fish pictures ever painted |
We took Bernard to Chew Valley Lake to do so, for Bob
James and I had caught loads of big perch while doing a recce the previous week
when if memory serves me right, I caught four perch over three pounds in as
many casts.
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| two of several three pounders from Chew |
We led Bernard to the same
pontoon and I remember the horror when filming him walking out onto the
wobbling platform and him nearly falling over into the water. Drowning Bernard
Venables wouldn’t look good on your CV would it!
Sadly, the shoal of perch had
moved on so we blanked, though Bernard finally did the business in a local lake
by teasing a two plus stripy into taking a carefully wiggled lobworm. A star
indeed.
No celebration of our
greatest anglers would be complete without mentioning the delightful Bob
Church. Legend is an overused
compliment but with Bob it fits, not only for the endless variety of success
he’s had over the years but also for his sheer enthusiasm. When filming him for
‘Catching the Impossible’ he was tireless in his attempts to deliver for the
cameras and though he isn’t as young as he used to be, he made me tired just
watching him. When effort meets reward, he’s an example to us all.
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| the inspiring Bob Church with one of his smaller pike. He caught a lot of very big ones |
I’ve been privileged to film
many other notable anglers, not least Chris Yates who was described by Bob
James as “a legend in his lunchtime”.
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| Mr Yates with a splendid 24lb common from Redmire |
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| the late great Terry Lampard with his biggest ever roach, all 3lbs 5ozs of it, caught while filming 'Catching the Impossible' |
Terry Lampard and Tim Norman
were memorable not just for the great big fish they caught but for the banter …
and Des Taylor was as good company as you could ever wish to meet.
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| Des Taylor and Martin Bowler with a fiesty catfish from 'Catching the Impossible' |
There are many stories I
could tell about filming ‘A Passion for Angling’ and ‘Catching the Impossible’
and some of them are true. One in particular springs to mind, a remarkable turn
of events while filming the winter episode of Passion on the River Kennet.
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| Bob James doing what he does best, trotting for roach on the Kennet |
As we are both roach nuts,
Bob bet me a vintage bottle of port that I couldn’t catch a two pound roach
from the river on a float before he caught a three pounder on a ledger.
[This sounds simple but has rarely ever been achieved on the upper Kennet].
Anyway, being a foolish boy I rose to the challenge and at dawn the next
morning was trotting a favourite glide with stick float and caster. It wasn’t
long before I didn’t have just one two pound roach in the net but two. When Bob
and Chris walked down to start filming I asked Bob what vintage port he was
going to buy me. His expletives are unrepeatable but good as his word, he went
to buy me the promised port at lunchtime.
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| the 'Passion for Angling' crew and a brace of two pound roach during filming |
We wanted to film a large
roach being caught for the programme, so at dusk Bob was ledgering bread flake
just above the weed-rack with my camera focussed on his isotope quiver tip. It
eventually pulled down decisively and after a tense battle in the half-light
with what was obviously a big fish, a giant roach appeared in the torch light
wielded by Chris and eventually sank begrudgingly into the landing net.
What a wonderful fish it was,
a real giant of the species and though weighing a fraction under three pounds,
Bob obviously deserved a vintage bottle of port as well. Rising early the next
day to film the frosty dawn was a painful struggle, even if we hadn’t quite
empted both bottles with our curry and papadoms.
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| our star turn, ace angler, story teller and friend Bernard Cribbins |
We were very fortunate that
one of the true stars of stage and screen agreed to voice the ‘Passion for
Angling’ narration, so the legendary Bernard Cribbins joined our team. The
whole world knows what a great story-teller he is but few know just how good he
is with a rod and line. His regular fishing pal was John Goddard and he used to
give that legendary fly fisherman a run for his money in trout fishing contests
when he wasn’t laughing.
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| Bernard doing the business during filming for 'Catching the Impossible'. The pike grew on to be over thirty pounds |
He was busy filming a major
part in Dr.Who when we were trying to film ‘Catching the Impossble’ so weren’t
able to include him in every scene as we’d have liked to. He and co-star Martin
Bowler got on like a house on fire, no surprise as they were two faultless
professionals who worked so well together and though Bernard had little time to
fish, he never failed to deliver the goods when in front of the camera.
On one notable day, memorable
because for once Martin was unable to deliver a tench for the cameras, Bernard
spotted a bubbler, flicked a lobworm into its path and landed a spirited four
pounder. Sequence completed before the sun burnt the mist off the lilies – nice
one. We still manage to go out and wet a line together when Bernard’s work
allows and this scribble serves as a reminder that another trip is long
overdue. We are so lucky to count him as a friend and it highlights the truth that the friends you fish with are far more important
than the fish you catch.
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| a happy snap from our book of the series with Bernard delivering the tench to order |
Time slips by at an alarming
rate and I wish I had done more to record the legends of angling before they
fell off their perches. Thankfully friends Keith and Sandy Armishaw are doing
their best to record the great and the good of angling before our heroes have
to dangle a maggot in that heavenly swim in the sky.
The invaluable heritage that
they have already collected is most impressive - hundreds of letters, articles,
films and photographs, along with recordings of some of the greats who have
already moved swims. Conversations between the likes of Fred Buller and Fred
J.Taylor, both MBE’s for services to angling, along with Barrie Rickards and
Des Taylor [he’s still very much alive and kicking!] have been made into CD’s
and then books created to celebrate their lives. There are other intriguing
conversations too, John Goddard with Brian Clarke for instance, along with the
irrepressible stars, Bob Church and Dave Stueart. So we should always be grateful that Sandy and Keith are
creating such a valuable record for us all to enjoy. Please visit www.anglingheritage.org for a
fascinating look into our past … but beware. I used up hours of my day
engrossed in what I saw and read and even then I had only dimpled the surface.
You’ll love it!
