Vale Fred J. Taylor MBE

[Wordbender]

I was privileged to spend time in Fred's company, listening to his adventures and putting the world right over a glass, or sometimes several, of red wine. He was a product of an era that saw innovation, dedication and the pioneer spirit, without the avarice and desire for commercial gain that too often blights our wonderful pastime today. Fred enjoyed the complete experience of whatever he did, not just its aim or result.

I don't have many heroes, but I've certainly lost one with the passing of Fred J. Taylor MBE. Rest in peace my friend, and thank you so much for the time you gave me and the wonderful memories it will always contain.

 

Terry Doe

[DavyR]

There were (and still are) only three anglers that to me, were worth reading everything by them that I could lay my hands on - Dick Walker, Peter Stone and Fred J Taylor. So sorry to hear that another of my childhood heroes has gone.

[chevin]

I apologise for cross posting this note but being as it concerns the Fred Taylor thread, I am sure that all of you will forgive me.

 

All of us have experienced coincidences from time to time, some amusing, some surprising and others that can be eerie. Yesterday I experienced one that could possibly classed as the latter.

 

As Valerie and I were listing the things she needs to do when she arrives in the UK on Saturday, we heard a thunderous noise of approaching aircraft engines. On odd occasions we have F-18s fly over the house and they are noisy but whatever was approaching was deafening. I ran to the back door just in time to see four large military helicopters fly very low right over the top of my house. As they passed and as I watched them, I was stunned to see that they were flying in ‘missing man’ formation with the gap being on the western side of the formation.

 

Obviously it was just a coincidence but I couldn’t help feeling that the old guy had talked someone into putting a show on for him and for us.

[Wordbender]

Obviously it was just a coincidence but I couldn’t help feeling that the old guy had talked someone into putting a show on for him and for us.

 

Sounds about right, Ian! If anyone could swing it, Fred J could.

 

God bless him.

[lyn]

I have been lucky enough to have met Fred a few times, he is one of anglings greats and his wisdom will be missed by many.

 

My thoughts and condolances go to his family & friends.

 

lyn

[poledark]

Fred was a part of my early fishing years..dead baiting, lift method..............never be forgotten.

 

RIP Fred

 

Den

[Leon Roskilly]

Keith Elliot writing in The Independent today:

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general...als-825868.html

[Andrew Boyd]

Just re-read some of your comments guys.

 

Makes you realise 'you don't know you'll miss something, or someone,until they have gone'

 

I can just see him knocking up a spit roast somwhere in the clouds

[Chris Plumb]

Obituary in today's Times...

 

 

C.

 

 

 

Fred J. Taylor

Countryman and angler whose books were a fount of rural wisdom

 

Stories about Fred J. Taylor, the countryman, angler and writer, abound. Perhaps the most famous, told in circles far beyond his friends, concerns a fishing trip with the great Richard Walker, the sometime carp record holder, in the 1960s.

 

The two had been sitting on the banks of a lake, on a dire winter’s day, since first light. It was bone-achingly cold and a strong wind blew up. Rain riveted down, then turned to sleet. For hour after hour, shivering and wet, they huddled over their rods. Eventually, white-faced and watery-eyed and with just the tip of his frozen nose peeking through his scarf, Taylor broke a long silence. “Gawd, Dick”, he said, “I’ll be glad when I’ve had enough of this.”

 

A second story about “Fred J”, as he was universally known, emerged from one of his numerous visits to America, where he loved to camp in the wild with friends, living off the land. On this trip, Taylor and a pal found themselves fishing an exotic water with a rather grand American. One of the pair caught a trout, whereupon the American produced a bottle. “Here”, he said, “pour a few drops into the river to thank the fish for the sport they’ve given you — then take a swig yourselves.”

 

Taylor looked at the man as though he were mad, reached for the bottle, took a long pull, bent down and breathed heavily over the fish lying in the grass. “There”, he announced, “that’s all of my bourbon you boys are going to get.”

 

Frederick James Taylor was born in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, in 1919. Although clever and articulate, he showed little interest in school work and lived a free-spirited life as a boy — fishing, ferreting and shooting anything that came his way with catapult and air gun. Most things that were killed went into the pot, squirrels and rooks not excepted. This early experience of game as food developed into a passion for Taylor. He became a skilled cook and in later years his hog and deer roasts for friends and charitable causes became legendary — as were the potent wines he made to wash them down.

 

Taylor served in North Africa during the war, a period during which he began a pen-friendship with his wife-to-be Carrie. Their marriage was to last 61 years, until Carrie’s death three years ago.

 

Back in civilian life, Taylor continued to extend what was by now an extraordinary knowledge of wildlife and the countryside and allied it to a natural ability as a writer. He could write engagingly and rapidly, seemingly with little revision, often producing two and three quite different articles in a morning.

 

His first fishing piece appeared in Angling Times in 1954. He went on to write for many newspapers and magazines, among them The Daily Telegraph, the London Evening Standard, Shooting Times and Saga magazine. He produced numerous books, among them Angling in Earnest (his first and regarded by many as his most important), Tench, A Guide to Ferreting, One for the Pot and Reflections of a Countryman.

 

His broad Bedfordshire accent, ready wit, forthright views and deep knowledge born of personal experience, made him a favourite with regional radio and television producers.

 

For many years, Taylor worked as a salesman for Efgeeco, the fishing tackle manufacturer owned and run by John Goddard, the famous fly-fisherman and author. From the 1950s he found himself amid the most articulate and creative group of coarse fishermen ever to come together in one place at one time. Close friends and in some cases business colleagues included Richard Walker, Fred Buller, the pike expert and angling historian; Peter Stone, Peter Thomas, Leslie Moncrieff and Hugh Falkus, the film-maker and game-fishing writer.

 

This group, led by Walker but with significant contributions by Taylor as by all the others, brought science, logic and technical expertise to a sport that had slumbered for centuries — and changed the fishing attitudes of millions. In 1977 Taylor, Walker, Buller and Falkus jointly published Successful Angling. Taylor himself is credited with refining some aspects of float fishing technique and with popularising the pursuit of pike with dead fish instead of live baits. He also pursued pike with artificial flies, with some success.

 

He and Carrie emigrated to Australia in 1979 to be with their daughter and family. He found that his writing skills and specialist knowledge, so much in demand back home, were not wanted there. The couple returned to Bedfordshire and set up home in Cheddington, where Taylor picked up the severed threads of his career and blossomed once more.

 

He was appointed MBE for services to angling in February.

 

Fred. J. Taylor, MBE, angler and writer, was born on February 9, 1919. He died on May 7, 2008, aged 89