Fifty Years A Fisherman

The Autobiography of John Wilson

With Christmas on its way this is more of a short reminder than a review.

If wives and girlfriends are intelligent and devious enough (devious enough I’m sure) they will visit the review pages of Anglers’ Net to get ideas for our Christmas presents. (Sorry for the sexism fisherladies). If not, you might have to point them in this direction to get what you want!

However, if you unwrap your Christmas present to discover John Wilson’s autobiography you shouldn’t be disappointed as his book makes an interesting read.

If you’re after an instructional fishing manual or you’re not a John Wilson fan then this book isn’t for you. But if your fishing literature collection is already packed with books then this will make a most welcome addition.

The book follows John through his life and highlights all the successes and failures in both his fishing and private life. Mind you, most of the time it’s difficult to unravel the two as fishing has obviously played a major part in his life through his exploits on the bank, writing, filming and owning a tackle shop. I’m not going to spoil any of the stories, so you’ll just have to buy the book. However, I can tell you John has travelled around the world in pursuit of both fish and females, and he seems to have captured both with varying degrees of success!

He does go into great detail on the construction of his pride and joy, his own syndicate lake, the state of angling and politics, plus his other interests such as making his own wine, flowers and fauna etc. This can become a little tedious if all you’re interested in is the fishing, but all in all it doesn’t detract from the book and does go to show the true John Wilson. In fact, the construction of the lake probably brings about more jealously than tedium; it looks just how I want mine! Surprisingly, there isn’t as much detail about the filming of Go Fishing etc as I expected.

The variety and weight of fish caught and the methods used by John for coarse, sea and game fish show the true extent of this great man’s ability and knowledge of the sport. The end of the book includes all the species caught by John, where from and their weights. This is a truly awe-inspiring list and has led me to try emulating John; I’ve now started to compile my own list, which I might add is considerably shorter!

Once again, if you’re after an instruction manual forget it, but if you want a damn good read on Christmas day point the wife in the direction of this review.

Tight lines,

Martin Salisbury.

Click here to check the best price for this book on Amazon.

18^th October 2000

John Wilson Books For Sale