Jack Hilton (me being nosey!)

[Spindle]

Jack Hilton is one of those anglers I know very little about, and as a nosey git who likes to know a bit of angling and angler history, I'm interested in finding out a bit about Jack (though if it's all tooooo secret then I'll understand).

 

From what I've read Jack suddenly quit angling to take up being a Jehovah's Witness. Fair enough, but I get the impression he was having some "issues" around this time that contributed to this. Did he lose the plot? Anybody prepared to tell? You can e-mail me direct if you like, and if you don't want it all over the net then you have my word it won't go further! It's just that I hate reading the before, the after, but never the in-between...

 

I believe it may be already written down in an interview published in one of Tim Paisley's books, so maybe it's public-domain knowledge.

 

Nosey Git ain't I?

[Steve Burke]

I can't tell you much myself, but you're right about Tim Paisley interviewing Jack Hilton. The book was Carp Season and the fascinating interview is 30 pages long!

 

P.S. The link on my signature to Classic Fishing Books isn't working and I can't get it put right until after the holiday. Please use this alternative link: http://www.classicfishingbooks.co.uk/

[Spindle]

Thanks Steve. Knew I'd read about it somewhere. I'll add it to my "books to buy" list!

[NigelT]

To be honest Glen there isn't a great deal of info in Carp Season about the exact reasons JH gave up fishing. He does say that alot of things were going wrong in his life and the more he tried to put things right the worse it got. I think he was always into religion but started to 'study' the bible a bit more and eventually found the answers he was looking for.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Nigel.

[Spindle]

That's about as much as I know Nigel. I think Bob Buteux talks about it a bit in his Fishing With the Famous, but simply says "he had a lot of problems".

Must have been pretty serious for him to give up angling when he was at the top of the league...

[Spindle]

That's about as much as I know Nigel. I think Bob Buteux talks about it a bit in his Fishing With the Famous, but simply says "he had a lot of problems".

Must have been pretty serious for him to give up angling when he was at the top of the league...

[NigelT]

Jack Hilton I think (from memory) makes the point that it wasn't the problems that meant he gave up fishing it was that he found something better. Stange I know but I think that is how he saw it.

[Alan Pearce]

If my memory serves me well itwas during the 1970's that Jack stopped fishing. Sometime during this period the J.W's believed the world would come to an end so Jack sold off his worldlt possesions and waited for this event to happen. Of course this didn't happen and Jack was left somewhat confused by this. Locally he became known as Jack the Junk, not quite sure why. I meet him a couple of times whilst fishing the river Waveney near Mendham, he seemed to like to walk the river but showed little interest in fishing. However on one occaision he stopped down beside me and chatted for a short while about big chub (of which he had caught a few). Following his advice I moved up stream 20 yards and within minutes caught my very first Waveney 5 pounder. Thereafter I caught several fives from the river. Some years later, not long after Jacks death, I met his son at a Carp Society do and enjoyed a brief chat with him about his dad, would have loved to have been able to continue this further and don't know what he is doing now. Jack Hilton and his writing, played a great part in my early fishing days as did Quinlan, Keel and Walker, all gone but not forgotten.

 

Alan.

[Spindle]

You know who killed him don't you. Guttfield Jr, that's who... went and visited him, didn't he. Kiss of death for anybody called Jack. Killed Hargreaves too.

See this old thread for proof:

 

anglersnet.co.uk/cgi-bin/ubb/ul...ic;f=1;t=005155

 

Thanks Alan, that's interesting stuff. Shame about Jack. Bill, Bob and the others all seemed to hold him in great esteem.

 

 

Does anybody know why the world didn't end?