Born 18 July 1956, in Berkshire, Terry is a Romany Gypsy, who spent his formative years hunting most things that ran, crawled, swam or flew, in and around the gravel pits, fields and streams of Horton and Wraysbury.

Although it’s not something he’ll be teaching his own three boys, Terry once snared an 18 lb. pike, using a leather bootlace tied to a hazel stick. That same ‘rig’, with the bootlace upgraded to copper wire, also accounted for hundreds of eels and pike, plus a six pound Chub from one of Horton’s feeder streams. The Chub was weighed by a ‘proper’ Horton angler, who made the then 12 year-old Terry return the fish, rather than take it home to eat. In his own words, Terry was ‘a feral child’ who preferred to live through his school holidays by what he caught, trapped or shot, mostly cooking his captures outdoors on wood fires, aided and abetted by various cousins and friends. Terry describes his childhood as ‘wild and idyllic’, and it gave him the appreciation of the outdoor life he thrives upon.

After a spectacularly unremarkable secondary school education - ‘Terry really could achieve a high standard but he is clearly restricted by a classroom environment.’ - he left school the week before he was due to take his exams, to work at Windsor Safari Park. Several jobs followed, including a 12-year stint at an airline, which gave Terry the opportunity to travel the world, and more importantly - to compete in overseas shooting tournaments and go fishing in Canada on a regular basis.

Terry began writing for various magazines in 1987, and these days a publishing company employs him full-time as a technical editor. A former U.S. National, European and British shooting champion, Terry rediscovered fishing about two years ago, and having retired from the competition shooting circuit, he now lists angling as his ‘main retreat.’ Carp and pike are Terry’s species of choice, although he’ll ‘have a go at anything that gets me next to a lake, stream or river.’

Terry Doe makes no claim to expert angler status. He catches some decent fish - mainly thanks to his ability to hunt-out their locations - but he’s an absolute master at enjoying what he does. He says, "For me, fishing’s about being out there, among the life of a lake, rather than just going after what’s in it. If I can teach my boys that there’s more to see in a stream than there will ever be on a television screen - then I’ll be happy."

* Terry was Born 18th July, 1956 in Upton Hospital, Berkshire.

* He spent the first eight years of his life living in a caravan in Horton, surrounded by ‘prime hunting and fishing country.’

* In 1964, the construction of the Queen Mother reservoir forces a move, just down the road in Horton village - right next-door to the now famous carp lakes.

* Aged nine, Terry fell into Horton pit and would certainly have drowned, but was rescued by two older boys who happened to be passing.

* Lined-up for grammar school, Terry discovers that he will be the only Gypsy in his new school and deliberately makes a mess of his Eleven-Plus examination. His junior school Headmaster orders a re-sit but Terry refuses to co-operate.

* Terry becomes an ‘A’ stream pupil at Churchmead Co. Secondary in Datchet, Berkshire. He is the only Gypsy in the A stream, so his cunning plan to be with his own kind fails miserably.

* He leaves school one week before he is due to sit his final exams - to work at Windsor Safari Park.

* Other jobs include tug driver, leather re-furbisher, aquaculturalist (tropical fish-keeper!) and airline cargo agent, or ‘freight-ape’ as he insists on labelling it.

* Terry now writes factual and comedy material for several publications, including a regular piece for Dogs Today magazine where Morris, his bull terrier, is known as ‘A Guide Dog For The Thick.’

* His personal best carp is ‘only’ 24lb., but it was the fish’s first ever capture. Terry has a lot of double and upper double pike to his credit, but admits that his best of 17.7 lbs. came to a hastily retrieved boilie - so it can’t really count!

* Terry’s eldest son, Kristopher, is 13 and already has a 3lb. 6oz perch, a 19lb. carp and a 16lb. 8oz pike with which to tease youngest brother and fishing partner Stephen.

* Terry and wife Kimberly have three sons and live in Addlestone in Surrey.