Steve Burke was born in 1952 and has been fishing for almost as long as he can remember. He’s best known for his catches of specimen perch and his popularisation of the species.

Steve’s one of the very few to have caught 4lb perch from both river and stillwater venues. His best is 4lbs. 8ozs, which is roughly equivalent to a 50lb U.K. carp. However, he’s very much an all-rounder and is equally at home going after pike, tench, roach, trout or mullet.

For many years whilst the country was hit by perch disease, Steve specialised in chub and had a long stint as editor of the Chub Study Group’s magazine, Chevin. He also edited The Perchfisher’s magazine for several years and served as Chairman, although he left the club in 1999. Steve also co-edited The Book of the Perch and has contributed chapters to books on chub, lure fishing (including a chapter of the Rapala book) and also Matt Hayes’ book, not to mention innumerable magazine articles on many different species, and he’s also appeared on T.V. and radio.

Steve used to make his living as a financial and business consultant and, whilst it was satisfying saving jobs, he wanted to do something more creative. In 1993 he got hold of a 160-acre nature reserve in Kent, of which half is water and started a long-term project to grow monster specimens in beautiful and peaceful surroundings. This has got off to a flying start with some extremely high growth rates. If I speak to him very nicely, Steve might give me another invitation to fish at Wingham (hint, hint)!

Steve was a workaholic and early retirement wasn’t for him. In fact one of his favourite quips used to be "If there’s an 'a' in the day of the week, then it’s a work day!" His fisheries didn’t fill up all of his time as Steve also ran a successful mail order rod building business. In fact, this was so successful that in 1997 he expanded it into Caliber Tackle, which dealt exclusively with the tackle trade and achieved a reputation second to none for its high performance gear. This included the famous Orbiter and Fledger rods, not to mention the trace material, Wonder Wire.

Unfortunately, all this hard work took its toll and Steve became seriously ill in the summer of 1999. This was due to the return of a muscle weakening condition, which means that he sometimes has trouble picking up a cup of tea let alone a fishing rod! The illness led to the temporary closure of Caliber Tackle, but a few months later the company was reformed under different ownership.

Steve is currently helping design some rods for Advanced Tackle, a new firm trading exclusively on the internet. However, his health has recently taken a further tumble, and Steve has now retired apart from running his fisheries.

Steve also played a part in setting up Anglers' Net and for a long time was our Features and Reviews Editor. This involved chasing up material and helping with the editing of articles. Steve will continue to help Elton with these tasks on an informal basis as his health permits. Knowing Steve, we won’t have heard the last of him!

P.S. We haven't heard the last of Steve!  He's long collected fishing books and has now set up an online magazine with articles and reviews plus a huge number of books for sale/wanted.  It's called Classic Fishing Books and is certainly well worth visiting - www.classicfishingbooks.co.uk