Famous anglers only catch those fish because...

[Tigger]

Yes, I was thinking more about well known successful anglers rather than the 'TV star' type.

 

Tigger, in case I'm not explaining it very well, here's a concrete example. The lake I used to fish for tench is a local gravel pit. I fished it quite hard for 3 seasons and never caught anything over about 7.8. The lake has a good reputation for producing several doubles a year, mostly to carpers. Martin Bowler fished this pit on CTI and caught, on film, a tench of 9lb+ on the lift method and pin. That wasn't the only one he had either!

 

 

So did you ever try fishing the margins with a float, if not then you should have ?

 

Maybe he should be invited to the wingham fish in to see if he blows you off and catches plenty big bream ?

Of course he must be given one of the less (crap) productive pegs.

Edited January 12, 2011 by Tigger

[Rusty]

On Catching the Impossible, I recognised 3 places where I have fished on and off with mixed success. Open to anyone for the price of a cheap club book. But I never caught anything like Martin Bowler did from them, even though I knew fish of that size were there.

 

I'm not sure that CTI is a good benchmark for comparison between famous and normal anglers. The whole objective was to catch exceptionally large fish and some of the preparation that went into the filming is quite enlightening. The book often refers to swim reservation, pre-baiting by others and knowledgeable river keepers pointing them in the right direction, rarely did they fish a spot which hadn't been prepared and the monster perch swim was baited for a number of days in advance of filming. That doesn't suggest that Bowler only caught because of location and preparation (he's obviously a very good angler) but to me it does suggest that a normal angler might achieve similar results if they had the benefit of the location and the support.

[watatoad]

Interesting...but no comments from me on this thread...might upset too many...hehehe

[Anderoo]

Tigger, yep, I tried everything. Not sure what your point is about Wingham but I'm sure most people could catch more bream than me there.

 

Rusty, it's true what you say about swim preparation, but assuming we want it badly enough, we're all capable of that.

[Tigger]

Tigger, yep, I tried everything. Not sure what your point is about Wingham but I'm sure most people could catch more bream than me there.

 

 

My point is Andrew it would be interesting to see if he managed to work any miracles and catch loads of specimine fish in the same circumstances as averyone else....personally I doubt it.

[Anderoo]

It would be very interesting! As I said before, he certainly managed it on the 3 venues that I also fished. He had no special advantages there.

[tony tinca]

Most of the critisism aimed at well known/famous anglers is really just aimed at "TV" anglers. We have discussed many times why things are done when making tv programmes etc etc.

 

The real rub though is that many anglers are jealous of "sucsessfull" anglers.They spout a hundred and one reasons as to why the guy is so sucsessfull. But never look at the reasons why they are not................... easier to knock than put in the effort to emulate and effort is what is needed.

 

Several have mentioned this on here all ready.And strangely enough they are sucsessfull anglers in there own right as well! Maybe the knockers genuinely dont realise what is needed? so think it must be down to things that us "normal" guys cant do/get?

 

I was pretty much spoilt as a youngster growing up in a match fishing family ( dad and grandad) and enjoyed the company of top flight matchmen of their day in the 70s and 80s and back then the only thing fishing wise on tv was big international events like the woodbine challenge and hooked international , my grandad fished in woodbine challenge in 1973 with my dads freind terry harrison.

 

The thing that strikes me nowdays is that alot of matchmen are very one dimentional and only know maybe a couple of angling disciplines , where as matchmen back in the 70s and 80s could apply there skill to any venue , rivers , canals , streams , drains , lakes , reserviors , ponds , locks , gravel pits , and had real watercraft . my dad used to take me on rivers and on lovely lakes with steve gardener, terry harrison , geof valance etc and i witnessed some amasing catches with them as well as learning some stuff ( wish id listened more thou )

 

I suppose what im getting at is matchmen used to be the best fishermen and you could count on them catching a fish from anywhere. Now i think those days are long gone and matchfishing has seen its best days (i hope not thou). so its given good anglers a chance to make some great programmes that teach us about watercraft and how to enjoy our great sport . im a real admirer of john wilson and the effort he has put in to help make fishing so popular , in particular his admiration of the surrounding wildlife and nature in general , he is inspirational and deserves to catch the fish he does because of the effort he puts in . matt hayes is another great example and more recently martin bowler who is an amazing talent because he was taught by his uncle john

If these famous anglers didnt go to the effort of catching these specimen fish for the camera then alot of anglers or newcomers to the sport wouldnt have anything to aspire to.

 

I agree bugdie its jeolousy that makes many anglers try and belittle what succesfull anglers achieve , its those of us that take leaves out of succesfull anglers books that get successful themselves

Edited January 12, 2011 by tony tinca

[Tigger]

It would be very interesting! As I said before, he certainly managed it on the 3 venues that I also fished. He had no special advantages there.

 

 

Well looking at the way he fished in CTI on one of your waters he did nothing special at all, it was just a simple float set up so it really does show that luck does have a huge part to play. Lets face it he could have fished like that for a long time and caught lots of smaller fish but he was just lucky that one or two of the larger fish where in his swim and took his bait. IMO that doesn't make him any better an angler than any other angler who knows the in's and out's of angling.

[Anderoo]

Agreed, nothing special at all. But everything right. He was obviously doing something different to me, or I'd have caught the big tench there too. Who knows how long he spent at the lake before fishing, working out where to fish and why? Also how and why he baited up as he did, possibly prebaited too (I don't know). All stuff I could have done, and thousands more like me! So in cases like this, I'm happy to conclude that famous anglers catch bigger and better fish than the average joes not because they're priveleged, but because they're just better.

[chesters1]

or fred bloggs doesn't get his pre baited swim nicked like normal people