Angling Heroes

[Woodzzz]

Who are your angling heroes?

 

Top of my list would be Chris Yates.

Talented angler and an extremely talented writer. He entertains me more than any other fisherman and probably has more ingenius ideas than anyone, along with the gall to actually try them...I mean...Kevin at Redmire!

 

Not only is he a great carp angler he can catch everything else as well. And using the old centrepins, dick walkers rod and reel...its just so individual.

 

He stands out a mile from any other angler just through personality and for that he is my angling hero.

 

What about the rest of you guys?

[chesters1]

arthur trellis

[catcherofcarps]

tommy onslow. fishes walthamstow and could catch fish from a puddle. also has a longterm girlfriend unlike a lot of the top names and is a genuinely nice guy who will help you out if he can (from personal experience)

[peter mccue]

Got to be Richard Walker for me,

 

Immensely talented, with an enginneers mind that made him a huge influence in every branch of the sport he indulged in.

 

He was by far the main mover for the fishing revolution of the 50s onwards, & was the catalyst for a lot of other influential anglers of the time.

 

Peter,

[Steve Burke]

I definitely agree with Peter. Without Dick Walker the specimen movement probably wouldn't have started, and this forum dealing with just carp probably wouldn't even exist!

 

Coming more up to date the most influential carp fishing writers for me have been Chris Yates for his superb prose, whilst I've learnt most from Jim Gibbinson and Rod Hutchinson, both of whom are excellent at getting their ideas across in words.

 

Another hero outside the mainstream carp scene is Tony Miles. Again I've learnt a lot from him and he's very much an original thinker. In fact it's the original thinkers who always impress me most - and get me thinking too.

 

Many of today's writers are pretty hot on the technical side. However it seems to me that the most successful anglers are those who get their location right. Those who I've mentioned above are all very good examples.

 

I'd add that there are a lot of very good anglers out there who do relatively little writing but are very successful indeed (and vice versa I might add!).

 

We're also lucky to have some forum members who are excellent anglers. Of those who I know personally, Alan Pearce and Leon Roskilly are perfect examples. Alan is one of the finest all-round specimen hunters I know, and someone whom I have a lot of respect for. Leon's also an excellent all-rounder, and what's more his writing is a model of clarity.

 

[ 11. December 2002, 06:43 PM: Message edited by: Steve Burke ]

[bushwacker]

Hiya every-one,

I have got to agree with Peter& Steve here, it has to be Richard walker. An angler that thought hard, and solved a lot of problems in the angling field.

 

A very talented engineer to boot. He if I am not mistaken "invented" the eletric bite alarm.

I saw a desigh for a very simple one many years ago using a set of telephone exchange contacts and a small buzzer, in a mag and made two. I believe that this was of his design.

 

I also used to delight in reading his articles in the angling press.

 

Am I showing my age now?.

[Dunk Fairley]

Walker is No1 really I suppose. But it's hard to say categorically.A few seem to come and go out of the limelight. In my mind, the main thing about Dick Walker, was that he detailed his angling success in his writings. But we seem to forget that he wasn't alone in his angling exploits. A lot of his success was as a result of shared experiences and research with the likes of Maurice Ingham and others.

 

Dick was an engineer, so he was able to apply his engineer's inventiveness to his angling and therefore improve his catch rate. I seem to remember that Honey Paste was just one of a number of baits in use at Redmire, when he caught Clarissa. He wasn't the only one using it and he cast it out to a known fish holding area. So, his catching of the fish, was a bit down to chance.

 

As I said, what really made DW stand out, was his writings. But were they any better than BB, Jim Gibbinson or Chris Yates? All are great writers in different ways.

 

Now, how about the likes of Gerry Savage (co-inventor of HNV baits), Les Bamford and Del Romang (who took bite alarm technology to a new level), Terry Eustace or Clive Diedritch (Rod blank design). All of these and many others have done much to make angling what it is today.

 

It'd take me far too long to detail all my angling heroes, but I've many.

[chesters1]

in the sixties ,i converted my herons to use "bleep tones" ( a friends dad was a post office telephone engineer) was i the first to use modern technology (they had only been intoduced that week) :cool:

[shooter]

It's gotta be John Wilson for me.

 

I suupose it's because he was on the telly alot but also because he is a maestro of all angling disciplines.

 

Glory Glory John Wilson,

Glory Glory John Wilson,

Glory Glory John Wilson,

And the maggots go marching on, on, on.

[peter mccue]

Dunk, interesting post, but I'd like to pick up on a few points you made.

 

Dick Walker was actually using balanced crust, which was crust(obviously)balanced with breadpaste to sink at a very slow rate. In effect, he was using a critically balanced bait, Rob Maylin eat your heart out .

 

Here's a thought, if someone was to break the Carp record today by the same percentage margin Dick Walker did over 50yrs ago, it would have to be an 'pukka' fish weighing in at the low eighties.

 

The only element of chance to be fair, was that Dick Walkers bait was only a few feet away from Pete Thomas's.

 

Interesting thoughts on the writers, but to be honest there is no contest in terms of influence through writings. BB & Chris Yates are light years ahead of D.W. when it comes to the atmospheric & descriptive style, but when it came to instructional writings covering the wide spectrum of species & influential opinions concerning fledgling angling politics, I'm sure you'd agree that his prodigious output over such a long period, must give him the title of the most influential writer of our time.

 

Excuse me if I've made a mistake here Dunk, but do you mean Bob Morris rather than Gerry Savage?

 

Not wishing to downgrade the major contributions of Les Bamford & Del Romang in the alarm industry, or Terry Eustace in the world of rod design, but lets not forget D.W. invented the bite alarm & was at the heart of modern rod design right at the beginning.

 

I suppose its pretty obvious now I'm a Richard Walker fan