March 15th. The Close Season has arrived, in more ways than one for me…
Former Fishing Magic editor Cliff Hatton “has made his last cast”. This is how his brother Barry told me of Cliff’s demise late this morning. Cliff had been unwell since Christmas and was taken into hospital two weeks ago. Despite excellent care from the NHS, he developed pneumonia on top of the multiple health issues already diagnosed and it was the final straw that pushed him over the edge.
I first met Cliff when he was still in short trousers and I only just in long ones. We were fishing on the local pond and we argued, as kids do. We were still arguing nearly sixty years later! It’s what we did. We also fished together a lot – caught some monster fish in each other’s company… and became close friends. I taught him a lot. Or as he would have it, he taught me a lot..! 🙂
As well as editing FM for several years, Cliff was an exceptional cartoonist and angling writer. He wrote and contributed to several angling books and to many periodic angling publications including the prestigious Waterlog magazine. His excellent political cartoons were for a while a regular feature in Private Eye magazine.
Often cantankerous and sometimes pedantic, he was a master at debate, infuriating and delighting in turn with a swift acerbic wit and a vast general knowledge. A crap snooker player, he was my perfect opponent – we were well matched. Online fishing forums were his happy hunting ground; he was outrageous, controversial, charming, sometimes rude – but always erudite. A clever man, with skills rather wasted as a keyboard warrior I thought but always good fun to spend time with on the riverbank.
A decade ago I moved from the London suburbs to the Wye valley. Cliff took this as a personal challenge and followed me a month later, determined to one day catch a 30lb Wye pike. Not being in a rush, we started on the barbel and chub then were waylaid by the sight of silver tourists leaping our rodtops. We were both innocents at Wye game fishing though determined to catch a rare Wye salmon in the ‘proper’ way, on a fly. We had to learn many new skills before getting our first fish. Cliff took to it like a duck to water and fell in love with the river.
He got his salmon okay but the 30lb pike eluded him, though he came close a few times. A 30lber is probably a bloody politically correct fish as he might say…
I’m going to miss him. And Cliff – I’ll see you on the bank later.
Geoff
